JOEZACK.COM » off topic

Go Read: How to Steal Like An Artist

me — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 02:07:10 +0000

Just read an excellent blog post: How to Steal Like An Artist. I really liked the writing style and the message so I took a look around the site.

Great stuff!

I particularly liked the fun and cynicism of this one:

Overheard on the Titanic by Austin Kleon

There are more blog posts and artwork at the authors site: http://www.austinkleon.com/.

Thanks phntm42!

Engagement Photos

me — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:57:12 +0000

Engagement Photos

Our friend Jesse Allen took some stunning engagement photos for us to use on our wedding site and our save-the-dates. The pictures came out wonderful, thanks again Jesse!

2010 New Years Resolutions

me — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:45:06 +0000

I didn't make much headway with my formal resolutions last year.

I went to a few user group meetings at the beginning, but I trailed off rather quickly.
I didn't contribute ANYTHING to open-source.
I didn't complete any money making projects.
And aside from playing around with a few GreaseMonkey scripts I didn't write any plugins.

However, I did manage to do a few other things in 2009:

I'm finally comfortable with ActionScript.
I made slow but steady progress with Project Euler, and Ruby.
I did a whole heck of a lot of traveling, including Boston, Charleston, Louisiana, Elysburg, Lake Winfield Scott, and New York City.

And I saved the best for last...

Sara!

2009 was the year that I met and engaged the love of my life, Sara!

In short, 2009: Best year ever!

Now, on to this year's resolutions!

Blog More!

Blog More!
I've always done a lot of programming outside of work, but I've found that blogging incentivizes me to actually (somewhat and sometimes) finish what I start. I'm much more likely to finish something when I plan on, or start to blog about it and I feel that the extra little nudge can make a big difference.

Unfortunately, I have half a dozen unfinished Flex projects to NOT show for my lack of blogging this year, but I hope to get back on track in 2010.

C#!

C#!
In addition to my 9-5 ColdFusion and JavaScript programming, the last couple years I've spent most of my free time in Ruby and ActionScript. This year I wanted to get more into general, gui type programming. It's been a long time since I wrote a windows application, and my time spent with the Flex compiler has got me feeling nostalgic for a more structured language and programming environment.

I've spent a little bit of time over the holidays on a few C# projects, and I'm loving it and I'm looking forward to really diving into C# this year!

Attend User Group Meetings!

Attend User Group Meetings!
I say this every year, but there are a few active user groups in Orlando that I really like, that I should be attending more frequently and consistently.

Here's a list, for link-love's sake:

I figure I should be able to, no excuse, make at least one a month. AT LEAST!

Work Out!

Work Out!
This is another resolution that I make every year. I didn't lose any weight in 2009, in fact I gained 5lbs. However I'm lifting a lot more weight now, and I feel healthier so I guess I'm doing something right. I plan on continuing this through 2010.

So that's it for tonight folks, I'm off to bed.

Happy New Year!

Booya! I’m engaged!

me — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:23:29 +0000

I've been blog slacking. It's been a crazy couple months: weddings, funerals, star-crossed vacations, you name it. Through it all, my girl Sara has been amazing, and I'm proud to announce our engagement!

I love you Sara!

Google Chrome WordPress Theme

me — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:36:46 +0000

I just realized that I never gave a shout out for my WordPress theme. Not cool.

It's Google Chrome by ericulous. I've been using it for a couple months now, and everything looks and works great. Much like it's namesake.

Kudos.

IT Conversations and Other Podcasts

me — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:50:24 +0000

I've been listening to the IT Conversations Network for a few weeks now, and I couldn't be happier with it. In short, it provides an aggregated rss feed of free tech podcasts, so if you love podcasts as much as I do, you should give it a shot.

In addition to the always great Stack Overflow Podcast, there were three I found particularly interesting this week.

While I'm on the subject here's a few of my other favorites. In order of how much I love them:

All free, all great. Go!

Envy My Terminal

me — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:08:31 +0000

That is all.

Open Letter to Audio Books Makers

me — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:48:11 +0000

Dear Audio Book Makers.

Your products, in my humble opinion are too expensive. Five yes, ten maybe, thirty NO.

Also, while I have your attention: More IT, please. I understand a lot of the techy books I'm interested in may have code examples or diagrams that don't translate, but if the price is right I'll deal. Perhaps you could shoot me a pdf with my purchase?

Finally, I wanted to let you know that I'm okay with text to speech. I don't know if that would save you, and ultimately me, any money but It's not so bad these days. I might have abandoned you completely for your cousin the eBook Makers, had the Kindle not been smote. Although, a cursory search reveals that I might have some of the same issues with them. Maybe I'll write them a letter too.

For now, I'll stick to my podcasts. I'll check back with you later.

Finding and Fixing Broken Images with Ruby

me — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:45:59 +0000

A family members was having a problem with some mixed up image names on a static html site. I could have fixed it manually in a few shakes, but that's no fun. Instead I used hpricot to scrape, open-uri to test for broken-ness, Find to search and some good old fashion regex to correct.

This was my first time messing around with hpricot and I found it to be powerful and easy to use, two thumbs up. I foresee some scraping and spidering posts in the near future.

On to the code:

My final script was a bit hairy so I broke out the bit I used to find the broken images.

If you run the script it'll print the offending paths to screen:

ruby image_scanner.rb http://site.com/busted.html

Or you can call the get_broken_images method to get an array back:

require 'image_scanner'
scanner = Image_Scanner.new
broken_images = scanner.get_broken_images "http://site.com/busted.html"

In case you're interested, I've also uploaded the full code that I used to search for and correct the images although it's implementation specific, riddled with lazy and is poorly tested. Read the disclaimer!

Just run it and be amazed!

ruby image_scanner.rb http://site.com/busted.html /media_folder /busted.html /fixed.html

Download only the broken image scanner
Download the full script

3 Month Anniversay Re-Blogging Evaluation!

me — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:56:12 +0000

When I first fired up this blog I thought I'd be posting a lot about the kind of problems and solutions I bang my head against daily at work. But instead it's evolved into me posting a lot of the little scripts that I play around with while I'm watching tv or doing laundry or whatever else.

Sometimes I worry that what I'm posting might give one the impression that I'm a bit of a programming simpleton. In order to offset this I've thought about posting about some more advanced topics, but my heart just isn't in it. For whatever reason I've really been enjoying playing with and posting my little programs...so that's what I'm going to do!