This is what YouTube was made for!
Mon
Aug
25
Using Capistrano do deploy Django web apps 2 cmts
These last few weeks I’ve been working on an outside project that is written in Django (thanks to the involvement of one of the two coders behind Polihood). When it came time to deploy this app to our dev server, we started looking at the Capistrano deployment tool. Unfortunately the documentation for Capistrano is lacking, but the tool itself is darn slick, so I gave it a go.
Capistrano was built as a deployment manager for Ruby on Rails applications, but it has been expanded with additional functionality, and seems to be slowly moving towards being a general-purpose tool. I’ve seen other tutorials written about using Capistrano to deploy web apps that aren’t Rails, but generally they consist of sticking a bunch of shell commands into a Capfile and letting it run, which doesn’t really seem to be the “Capistrano way.”
What I’ve done is use Capistrano’s built in Rails deploy functionality and have been writing overrides as I find that I need them. Right now the script only does a basic deploy or rollback, but eventually I’ll probably extend it to do other things as well.
Remarkably, very little needs to change in the standard deploy library to work with Django. Here is my Capfile as it currently stands.
Sun
Aug
24
Simple joys 0 cmts
One of my favorite things about my cat Oscar, who is quite the talker, is his tendency to break into a big yawn right in the middle of a meow, and then continue it when the yawn is finished. “Me—ahh—oww!” Then he stares at me, daring me to laugh. Or perhaps comprehend.
Fri
Aug
22
Paying up 2 cmts
I was thinking today about how much benefit I get from the New York Times, my favorite newspaper. I just got another one of those NPR renewal letters in the mail, and I figured I might as well give to the Times while I’m at it. Then I remembered that the New York Times Co. is a for-profit corporation, and they don’t do membership drives. The only way to give ‘em money seems to be to subscribe, but I have no interest in the dead tree version of their product.
The Curious World of the Last Stop 0 cmts
Beyond the station gates, a priest dreams of a vineyard. A car bursts into flame. An ancient sign in a boarded-up window opposite the platform reads “Wrestling Weight.” A stuffed bear mans a betting window in a struggling OTB parlor. The dead lie in rows uncounted, and the living mourn and wait and work and love and strum guitars on the front stoop, annoying the neighbors.
There are 24 stops on the New York City subway system past which you can ride no farther. For those who get off somewhere else — almost everyone — the end is just a sign on the train.
The Curious World of the Last Stop in the New York Times
The best part of this article is the last line.
Thu
Aug
21
For and Against 6 cmts
Reasons I like working at home:
- Lots of natural light
- I can play music out loud instead of wearing headphones
- The cat keeps me company
- Really nice chair
- I can go to work in my pajamas
- I can make fun lunches in the kitchen
- If I go for a run or bike ride at lunch time, I can just hop in the shower afterwards
Reasons I like working in the office:
- The people are nice
I could fulfill all my requisite face-to-face interactions and meetings in one day per week in the office, but in my new position I suspect the number and length of meetings with continue to rise. Which is probably just another argument for staying home…
Charles Van Doren writes about his part in the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. Somehow it seems far less dramatic than the movie, and he never mentions chocolate cake.
Wed
Aug
20
Anyone who has graduated from a residential college in the last 20 years should be able to corroborate this. So why do legislators and interest groups refuse to acknowledge it?
Tue
Aug
19
Obama’s D&D Crowd 0 cmts
It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.
John McCain's web site. The amount of official vitriol spewing from the McCain camp would be comical if it wasn't so disturbing.
Mon
Aug
18
High Flight 0 cmts
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air….
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Dave reveals his secret Jedi powers as he propels Amy across the dance floor 2 cmts
View my 43 photos from the Stromes-Schneider Wedding (and bachelor party) on Flickr or as a slideshow.
Sun
Aug
17
Wedding 1 cmts
At present I am in White Plains, New York about to go to a wedding in New Rochelle. Right about now I need to go put on some of the quasi-fancy clothes that I only wear about twice a year. A couple of days ago I went to my closet to check that my suit was in good shape and didn’t need a dry cleaning. I discovered instead that the pants of said suit were full of little holes from moths or beetles or worms or time-traveling miniature raccoons. Oops.
I also don’t have any nice shoes in decent shape, so I decided to go Doctor Who style and wear sneakers. Friends intervened and told me that sneakers Simply Will Not Do, so the lovely Meghan is accompanying me to the mall in an hour for a last-minute shoe shopping excursion.
Right here I would insert some pictures, if I hadn’t forgotten my camera’s USB cable. Ooh look, pretty imaginary pictures! There is Dave on a roller coaster at Six Flags! There is everyone eating strange chocolately decadence at Max Brenner! Here is Amy surrounded by cute little children!
Okay, guess I’d better get dressed.
Sat
Aug
16
Evening 0 cmts
We are mysterious creatures, aren’t we? And at the end so much of it turns out not to matter.
Evening. And a counterpoint (jump to the conclusion).
Wed
Aug
13
So this is what has become of the American dream? It makes me ashamed to even live in such a country as ours. What sort of a people would inflict this kind of suffering? It is as horrific as the dystopian society of the film Brazil, with its layers of incompetence and neglect and hostility towards our fellow man. (via pf)
Mon
Aug
11
In 1997, author Neal Stephenson in Time discussed how the use of emerging cryptography technologies by terrorists could scare citizens into tolerating a much stronger Big Brother. It is interesting to ponder why these technologies never took off like many techies imagined they would. Not surprising, though, is that terrorism (and Big Brother) has thrived regardless.
Fri
Aug
08
Whither Twitter? 0 cmts
“Walked to work today for the first time in months. Had forgotten how nice it is to listen to podcasts in solitude.”
That 116 character statement doesn’t really deserve a blog entry of its own. But ever since I got the hang of Twitter, I’ve been posting things like that all the time. Not just posting, but responding to other people’s little snippets, and even having whole conversations. Twitter is a broadcast messaging tool that limits posts to 140 characters. Some people call it a “microblog.” It is different than blogging in that it is easy to update via IM or SMS from your phone, and messages that other people post can be broadcast back out by those same media.
It took me a while to figure out how to use Twitter, to understand what sort of conversations it is good for, but now the constantly popping up messages throughout the day generally serve to amuse, occasionally enlighten, and frequently keep me informed about random minutia in other people’s lives — minutia that I could just as well do without, but its sort of fun to see what people are up to.
Twitter is also assisting my quest to write more cogently: with only 140 characters at your disposal, it is important to be brief. Twitter isn’t for everyone, and I sympathize with many who don’t see the point of it. But I’m having fun with it. For now.
Wed
Aug
06
Moral conundrums 0 cmts
We have labored long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors.
Alan Moore, Watchmen
Tue
Aug
05
Triplog: Barcelona 5 cmts
On the second leg of our European tour, Jess and I left the UK and set out for Barcelona, in the Catalonia region of Spain. Nearly all of the 7 million people in Catalonia speak Catalan as their primary language, as well as Spanish. In Barcelona, the majority of people speak and understand some English, which was very helpful to us, since our Spanish was minimal and our Catalan non-existent. Most restaurants offered English menus. None of them offered tap water.
Continue reading ‘Triplog: Barcelona’
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