tech

MacRuby

MacRuby is a version of Ruby 1.9, ported to run directly on top of Mac OS X core technologies such as the Objective-C common runtime and garbage collector, and the CoreFoundation framework. While still a work in progress, it is the goal of MacRuby to enable the creation of full-fledged Mac OS X applications which do not sacrifice performance in order to enjoy the benefits of using Ruby.

MacRuby is a free software project by Apple Inc. Sources are available under the Ruby license.

[It’s the last line I find so interesting. Also, that there are so many of these sorts of efforts taking place. IronRuby, now MacRuby, Rubinius, MagLev, etc. Great stuff for the Ruby world.]

WordPress To Disable Remote Access

WordPress To Disable Remote Access: If this sounds like a pipe dream, it’s worth pointing out that one very popular web service is already employing this strategy, and it works brilliantly. Flickr, Yahoo’s incredibly popular photo sharing site, is built on the very same APIs it makes available to clients. This results in some truly incredible Flickr-enabled applications and web services. And you don’t see any sign of Flickr disabling access to their API, because there’s too much at stake.

If your web service only provides one, first-class API through which all access flows, then you’ve only got one point to secure, you’re likely to have feature parity across interfaces, and the risk of marginalizing one interface is dramatically decreased. [Well put Daniel!]

Nuclear Elephant: iPhone Wipe

Nuclear Elephant: iPhone Wipe: Since my posts regarding the iPhone restore mode being insufficient for wiping data (and Apple’s own refurbishing process also being insufficient), many have emailed me asking for instructions on how to properly wipe personal data off of the iPhone. I’ve been very quiet about how to properly lift data in a forensic manner, as my goal is to avoid seeing a bunch of evidence erasers pop up in the wild (I’ve already been approached by Symantec about this). What I will share, however, is the way in which I wipe my own devices before I resell them, which I believe the consumer has a right to do. Mind you, I make no guarantees about this and accept no responsibility for you hosing your iPhone. This is what works for me. [Anyone try this?]

Title Case for Ruby

Title Case for Ruby:

There’s been a great response to my request to convert Title Case, Gruber’s nifty perl-based title-casing tool into Ruby so the rest of the world (just kidding, Perl people!) can make use of it.

Here are the initial responders:

Source: The Hivelogic Narrative

Taking Things Apart

Taking Things Apart:

John August, asked by a working screenwriter how he can keep improving throughout his career:

My advice for you is to dedicate one day a week to disassembling good movies. Take existing films (and one-hour dramas) and break them down to cards. Think of yourself as an ordinary mechanic given the task of reverse-engineering a spaceship. Figure out what the pieces do, and why they were put together in that way.

I think this true for any craft.

[It’s a great way to hone one’s touch and grow new skills. I especially like doing it as a group exercise to learn what others see in something that I don’t.]
Source: Daring Fireball

merb-slices

merb-slices are “Little slices of MVC cake”. These are self contained merb apps with models, controlers, views and assets that you can distribute as rubygems. You can mount a merb-slice at a specific point in your router definition and you can override any part of the slice up in your main app. So in a way these are similar to what Rails-Engines promise, except merb-slices are built into the framework and will not break when merb itself is updated.

Check out the tutorial/screencast for a peek at how merb-slices work.

[Nice. Merb continues to impress.]
Source: Brainspl.at

Dissecting today’s Internet traffic spikes

Dissecting today’s Internet traffic spikes: This, in many ways, is like a tornado. Our ability to predict them sucks. Our responses are crude and they are quite damaging. However, predicting these Internet traffic events isn’t even possible — there are no building weather patterns or early warning signs. Instead we are forced to focus on different techniques for stability and safety. The idea of a DoS, a DDoS or the sometimes similar signature of a sudden popularity spike doesn’t increase my heart rate anymore — it’s just another day on the job. However, I thought I’d share the four guidelines that I believe are key to my sanity in these situations [Good article… from someone who knows. I worked with Theo & Co. back in ’00-’01. They do this stuff all day every day.]
Source: The Scriptures of Jesus