Only now do I really get this image from DHH's blog. I am really beginning to despise SOAP for some reason, but I guess I will "get it" as I learn more about it -- as it seems to be the only way to do business with the big players out there. For a glimpse of some of my hell, check out this Ruby + SOAP4R + WSDL Hell article.

Upon downloaded the Cutting-Edge version (1.5.4 r1311) of TextMate yesterday, I was happy to find a halloween surprise. How cool can one program be - thanks Allan! Especially to some of your latest work on extending the dialog features for bundle developers.

I made a revised version of a rake task that I have used quite often, for unloading existing DB tables into fixture data and thought I would share. This rake task is the in correct name space and adds a "rake db:fixtures:unload" command to your rails project when you put this in "lib/tasks/foo.rake". It can take an optional TABLES variable or if none is present the whole array of DB tables are converted. I find this rake task helpful when dealing with LARGE databases.

So the WebSvr mini here at my home-based NOC (named ActionMoniker.com) is now running LightTPD as the web server. The benefits are that I can now run my PHP-based Drupal blog in FastCGI mode while also allowing virtual hosting under the same server/IP for my RAILS projects. The end result has turned out quite well and I am actually loving the speed improvements and the simple configuration for LightTPD, which has a more natural feeling for me when it comes to configuring a web server.

Well this is far beyond cool but highly functional, a Quake like terminal implementation of Terminal.app that is a HotKey away from within any application. A friend turned me on to this after it showed up on the Monday morning Apple links post from arstechnica.com. Although I have never thought of this idea, it seems to have been a popular request for quite some time and after a public request, the author of QuickSilver stepped up to the challenge and coded this little goodie using the application enhancer method called SIMBL which was created by Mike Solomon, the creator of the PithHelmet plugin for Safari.

I have not been a black Mac owner since I got rid of my Lombard (aka the Bronze Keyboard) way back in 2001. Before that, I was the proud owner of a 3400c which was also black and one of the first PowerPC laptops offered from Apple. That PowerBook cost me close to $4,000 if memory serves and I swear some of the debt is still hanging around today! So after being with Apple for so long I have very glad that good Mac hardware has gotten cheaper over the past 4 years and to see the return of a the darker colored books. Its about time too and the price is just right.