Archive for March, 2007

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Jocurile bloggerilor! – mema

Saturday, March 31st, 2007


Articolul lui Patric despre ce jocuri a jucat la viata lui imi deschide pofta de a crea o mema. Adica deh, tot suntem noi o comunitate semi-inchisa; am putea sa ne si cunoastem mai bine, pe faza asta.

Iata mema propusa de mine:

Faceti lista a cel putin 5 (maxim 10) jocuri pe calculator/internet/consola pe care le-ati jucat cel mai mult sau cel mai cu drag

Mema care se da mai departe la 3 bloggeri. Si cei care nu au blog sunt invitati sa raspunda, in comentarii.

Si nu ziceti ca nu ati jucat nici un joc vreodata, ca nu va cred. Traim in 2007, nu in 1995 :D

Iata lista mea:
1. Mortal Kombat (2,3)
2. Tekken 3
3. Carmaggedon
4. Heroes 2
5. Dx Ball
6. Utopia
7. War Inc
8. Transport Tycoon
9. Minesweeper :D

10. – nu imi amintesc – dar poate o sa vina…

O dau mai departe lui Costin, Catalin, Andressa

PS. Si lui Ariel i-am dat-o, dar numai daca o da mai departe :P

[tags]jocuri, calculator, mema, mortal kombat, tekken[/tags]

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Posted in Web, fun | 8 Comments »

Povestea ta…

Friday, March 30th, 2007

Imi place ce povesteste Radu aici :

poveste nu am. Am fost un singuratic in fata unui computer. Nici macar mama nu stie povestea :) Povestea e a mea dar nu implica pe nimeni si prin urmare nu exista.

E interesant si (imi) da de gandit: ai oare o poveste? Ai schimba povestea pe bani? Sau invers?
Sau, cum zicea Jim:

Did you have a good world when you died?

Enough to base a movie on?

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Posted in links | Comments Off

Curatenia de primavara…

Friday, March 30th, 2007

Si cand te gandesti ca totul a inceput de la faptul ca mai vreau un blog..
De parca nu mi-ar fi deajuns cele n-spe bloguri pe care le am deja.
Dar, deh, imi doream un loc unde sa pot povesti ce hackuri de wordpress am mai tras, ce scripturi in Ruby am mai facut sau ce aventuri am mai avut in lumea Mac OSX-ului. Nu zic nu, mai povesteam din cand in cand asemenea nazbatii si pe blogu-mi cel clasic; dar prea ajunsese lumea sa ma injure ca scriu numai lucrusoare tehnice, si ca de-aia nu ma citeste. Asa ca mi-am zis sa mai fac un blog.

Be careful what you wish for…

Ce s-a intamplat? Pai.. sa vedem..
Alaltaieri am facut un nou blog; dar unde sa-l pun? Pai am zis sa-l instalez tot pe alexbrie.net; ca doar deh, asta sunt eu, asa ma stie lumea. Dar daca tot l-am facut, am inceput sa visez la cum ar fi daca as aduce “vechiul” blog pe Wordpress de asemenea.

Cum ziceam, be careful what you wish for: am pierdut ultimele 2 zile cu hackuri Wordpress de mi-au iesit pe nas; scripturi de import, export, impex srl si cate si mai cate.

Acum zic ca rasuflu cat de cat usurat: greul a fost facut: saitul e cat de cat pe picioare; am acum doua bloguri sub aceeasi palarie, cu aspecte lejer diferite, etc..: primul, este cel vechi si drag voua: http://alexbrie.net/c/myblog/; celalalt este un blog de programator – nerecomandat celor cu inima slaba… http://alexbrie.net/c/dev/

Nici acum nu sunt pe deplin multumit: trebuie refacute atatea lucruri…


Dar astept comentariile, sugestiile, injuraturile si plangerile voastre. Nu ezitati, acum e momentul!

Dar acum ma duc la munca; de 2 zile nu mi-am mai facut datoria de angajat…

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Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

How to import Textpattern into Wordpress

Friday, March 30th, 2007

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: This article was published more than 2 (TWO) years ago. It has helped, apparently, quite a lot of people migrate to Wordpress. However, there are high chances it has become highly outdated or even harmful. Before trying the steps and script I described here, you should try to use the migration script included in Wordpress. Chances are it got updated in the last 2 years and is now better than this (old) script.

I’ve talked a bit about this before : in my years of blogging I switched from a Blogspot account to Livejournal and finally, in 2004, to a self-hosted stand-alone blog. The main criteria for my CMS-blogging engine back then was simple: does it have RSS? can I have several Sections; is it nice-looking? Textpattern had it all at the time and I went for it. But, after a while, Wordpress 1.5 came along and I started getting angry that it had all this power: plugins, community, easy-to-hack framework.

Bottom line, I’ve been dreaming for 2 years already to migrate my Textpattern blog into a Wordpress one, one that I could easily hack, extend and theme. Finally, the day before yesterday (March 31 2007) I pulled myself together and started doing it.

Have you ever wanted this? If so, then tough luck: the instructions over here suck; so does the info from this wp thread.

So, without much ado, here are my instructions on migrating Textpattern 4.0.4 to Wordpress 2.1:

(more…)

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Posted in Textpattern, Tutorials, Wordpress | 49 Comments »

Ruby on Rails – 1-2-3 to performance analysis

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

My cool colleagues from Trex Global gave me an unusual assignment this week: profile the current implementation of our first two apps, DeferEm and DepreciateEm.

Among the requests, the usual ones:

Request response duration
Execution profile of flow (path taken, time in methods)
SQL Queries made
Analyze and Identify performance bottlenecks - in-memory, sql query exec

(more…)

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Posted in Rails, Tutorials | 5 Comments »

Tot despre twitter

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Twitter e din ce in ce mai fun, atunci cand ai amici care il folosesc. Chiar si daca nu ii cunosti prea bine, tot un fel de amici iti devin – cum altfel ii poti numi pe cei care impartasesc cu tine ce au mancat ieri la pranz, cat de tare ii doare umarul sau la ce ora s-au culcat. Stiti voi, un fel de blog extrem de personal. Not bad, ca doar nu o sa scriu pe blogul asta despre asemenea lucruri, nu?

Ce mai e misto la Twitter e ca poti primi notificari prin sms despre ce au mai facut amicii tai. Grozav daca nimeni nu iti da sms-uri de obicei – pari si tu o persoana ocupata, poti oricand sa pretinzi ca era un sms de la o gagica. Mai putin grozav cand ai perechea langa tine, care intreaba pe o voce din ce in ce mai glaciala? Si SMS-ul asta tot de la Twitter era? Sigur??

Ce nu e chiar misto la Twitter e ca primesti notificari pe SMS; stiu, auto-contradictia e intentionata. Schimbi o interactiune pull (citesc chestii cand am chef EU) cu una push (vreau/nu vreau, sms-ul ala tot m-a deranjat dintr-o conversatie/somn/whatever) – asa cum am patit eu la 1 jumate azinoapte – cand am aflat ca Florin a vazut un film misto.

Asa ca am dezactivat notificarea SMS la Twitter.

Abstractie de asta facand, acest site e chiar cool – unde altundeva mai poti vorbi atat de personal cu oameni pe care nu i-ai cunoscut niciodata? :-)

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Posted in Just blogging, Web | 12 Comments »

Rails on a Mac – 1-2-3 noobie guide

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Warning! This is not a full-blown tutorial, rather a quick step-by-step intro on what you have to do to run Rails on your Mac, if you are a noobie who just heard of Rails and wants to have it running on his computer ASAP:

  • Step 1 – Get Rails – Rumours say that in the upcoming OS X version – Leopard, Rails will be included by default. If you are on a previous version, though – such as Tiger, then no need to despair – somebody thought about people in a hurry and made out a beautiful app. It’s called Locomotive and includes ruby, rails and many useful gems(tiny ruby libraries with extra functionalities).
  • Step 2 – Get MYSQL for the database backend. If you want to install it as a standalone app, then be my guest. It’s a bit complicated and I’ll be talking about this in a future article. Until then, though, there’s a very nice app out there that has it all: it’s called MAMP (as in Mac, Apache, Mysql, Php) and it’s free. It comes with PhpMyAdmin as well to help manage your databases from the browser.
  • Step 3 – Get Started: You should install and start MAMP, and write down the connection settings it shows (server name, port, socket). Then you go to PhpMyAdmin and create a new database; write down the name, user and password. Start Locomotive and select “Create New…” (Command+N). You select the folder where the app will be created, give a name to the app, OK, and you are set – the system creates the rails application folders where you wanted. All it’s left to do is complete the database config file (RAILS_APPLICATION/config/database.yml) with the connection settings you found out from MAMP – remember to input the server name, database name, user name and the socket value (socket:/path/to/your/mysql.sock) .

development:
adapter: mysql
database: myapp_development
username: root
password: root
socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock
host: localhost

Here you are now! Your Rails application is ready to be developed on your Mac. Go get a good Ruby on Rails tutorial and start rolling!

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Posted in Rails, Tutorials | Comments Off

Wordpress plugins you MUST have

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

My tiny blogger experience (I’ve installed, configured and maintained more than 7 wordpress blogs, about 5 Blogspot ones and one Textpattern) made installing the must-have Wordpress plugins for this new blog a breeze. This comes mostly from having made myself a list of the MUST-have plugins. Vital for some, nice-to-have for most, they can make the difference between a popular blog and an anonymous one.
There are many great Wordpress plugins out there, but this is the list of the ones I installed right now. Surely you must have extra suggestions, which are welcome in your comments.

  • Akismet comes by default with Wordpress but still has to be enabled. It is THE TOOL for comment spam protection (remember that this was one of the reasons I dislike Textpattern?
  • All in One SEO Pack – should optimize the page for extra search-engine love. I’m taking a shot in the dark with this one, since it’s the 1st time I use it. Still, looks promising – no need for setup, just activate it and you’re set.
  • Google Sitemaps This generator will create a Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. – also for greater Google search love
  • Permalink Redirect This plugin ensures that pages and entries are always accessed via the permalink. Otherwise, a 301 redirect will be issued. – same Google search love. Also, it’s great if you want to redirect all your rss readers to a Feedburner blog – it’s automatic and hassle free.
  • wp-cache Very fast cache module. It’s composed of several modules, this plugin can configure and manage the whole system. Once enabled, go to “Options” and select “WP-Cache”. – I never seem to get this straight. Gives me a bit of headaches to make it happen; but once it’s on, the Digg effect (the joy and nightmare of any blogger) becomes a pleasant breeze; shortly, this plugin makes your wordpress site resist to hundreds of simultaneous visitors, even on shared webhosts (such as Dreamhost).
  • WP-PostViews Enables you to display how many times a post had been viewed. It will not count registered member views, but that can be changed easily. – a nifty toy that’s great for discovering and making public your most popular articles.
  • WP-UserOnline Enable you to display how many users are online on your Wordpress blog with detailed statistics of where they are and who there are(Members/Guests/Search Bots). – want to see how many people are watching your site right now? Then this is the way to go!
  • Ultimate Tag Warrior – the most popular tagging plugin, makes tags (lightweight categories) for Technorati friendliness. Also pretty SEO friendly, so it’s always good to have around.

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Posted in Tips and Tricks, Wordpress | 20 Comments »

Here we start

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Back in 2003, when I switched from my LiveJournal blog to my own domain, I’ve asked around about the best CMS for blogging. People recommended me Textpattern, and after playing with it for a while I decided to go for it. After all, Textpattern is very stylish, gives you the feeling of actually writing stuff.

But time passed by, and the Textpattern developers missed the window of opportunity: they didn’t implement trackbacks (for fear they were too spammy), nor a better anti-spam comment system(believing the “preview before you save” feature was great enough that no spammer would ever catch on). In a nutshell, they got lazy and very quickly got behind the CMS scene.

I’ve been using Textpattern for my Romanian language blog for a long time and wanted to switch to Wordpress for half of this time.� It’s not a great idea, since my blog there is quite popular so people would get lots of broken links.

To make a long story short, I’ll probably move to Wordpress that blog as well, as soon as I implement a good switching mechanism. At that remote date, I’ll be merging the two blogs into one. Until then, this English blog devoted to my development tips and tricks, tutorials and how-to’s will go in parallel with the other one.

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Posted in Textpattern, Wordpress | 2 Comments »

Ask the readers – ce sa fac cu not3s.net?

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Am in lista de situri aflate in posesia-mi cateva pe care nu le-am mai folosit/accesat/actualizat de un car de ani, in ciuda promisiunilor repetate.

Not3s este unul dintre ele – PR3 (sau 4, nu e prea clar), putine intrari pe google si un cms simpatic in spate, facut de mine in Ruby on Rails acum un an jumate.
Nu imi mai place domeniul, asa ca probabil nu o sa ii reactualizez hostingul. Daca te intereseaza, facem licitatie – cel care da mai mult(mai mult de o bere, cel putin) il va putea prelua primul.

PS: mai sunt si alte domenii/situri interesante pe lista celor cu car enu stiu ce sa fac si le tin deocamdata la naftalina – digeratinc.com(PR3), geokeo.com(PR3), 36seek.com (ceva mai nou si nelinkat). Poate discutam si de ele candva. Deocamdata insa este vorba de not3s.net

Posted in Just blogging, Projects | 8 Comments »

Ziua Barbatului

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Geniala campanie virala. Bergenbier – Hai la vot!
Ziua Barbatului

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Posted in Just blogging | 1 Comment »

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