Pablotron: News

Don't Truncate Your RSS Feed

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:50:33 EDT

Truncate articles in RSS feeds are incredibly anno...

Joggle 0.1.1 Released

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:01:48 EDT

Joggle version 0.1.1 is out. Joggle is a Jabber instant messenger to Twitter relay; instant messages are sent as tweets, and tweets are sent as instant messages.

This release fixes a small bug with the --daemon option when the controlling terminal is closed, and removes the advertising clause from the license.

Joggle is available via RubyGems (gem install joggle) or you can download it directly from the URLs below.

ZipStream-PHP 0.2.2 Released

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:25:41 EDT

I just released version 0.2.2 of ZipStream-PHP. ZipStream-PHP is a library that allows you to generate and stream zip files on the fly without writing an intermediate temporary file to the disk. It works with existing files and dynamically generated content, and has been used to dynamically generate zip files hundreds of megabytes in size.

This release of ZipStream-PHP updates the license to remove the advertising clause and fixes a few errors in the documentation. There are no code changes; if you're happy with 0.2.1 there is no immediate reason to upgrade.

Wirble 0.1.3 Released

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:06:23 EDT

I just released version 0.1.3 of Wirble. Wirble is a set of enhancements for Irb (the interactive Ruby shell), including tab-completion, history, and, most notably, colorized results.

This release adds Ruby 1.9 support and removes a couple of warnings. I've also added better support for non-RubyGems installations (via setup.rb) and removed the advertising clause from the license.

You can install Wirble via RubyGems or download it directly from one of the URLs below. Enjoy...

Time to Upgrade...

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Sat, 30 May 2009 06:24:50 EDT

I just spent 30 minutes sifting through the code for this site to fix logins. They've been broken for months, and I'm using a new laptop without my old session cookie.

30 minutes to post a damn two paragraph article. Maybe redoing the site will be my weekend project.

Reddit Content Filter 0.5

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Tue, 5 May 2009 04:30:55 EDT

I've just released Reddit Content Filter version 0.5. Reddit Content Filter is a Greasemonkey scripts that allows you to filter unwanted articles on Reddit by author, domain, or title.

This release has been updated to work with the new Reddit layout. I've also improved the interface; there is now a row of buttons across the top-right corner of the screen that allow you to reconfigure filters and toggle the visibility of hidden articles without reloading the page.

User Scripts seems to have hosed my existing account, so for now you can install the script from the link below:

Update: I've cross-posted this release note over on Reddit. Feel free to comment over there.

Update 2: Now available on User Scripts too.

Talk to Your Kids About YAML or Their Friends Will

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:38:00 EDT

This article nicely illustrates my beef with YAML; namely, the YAML grammar is far too complicated. Complexity in data serialization and exchange formats should be avoided, because it virtually guarantees subtle interoperability problems.

If you need to exchange structured data in a language-agnostic format, do me a favor and use JSON instead.

Joggle 0.1.0 Released: Jabber to Twitter Relay

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:05:38 EDT

I just released Joggle version 0.1.0. Joggle is a Jabber to Twitter relay; tweets show up as instant messages, and instant messages are posted as tweets.

Setting up Joggle is easy; all you need is Ruby, five minutes, and a spare Jabber account:

# install joggle, create joggle directory
sudo gem install joggle
mkdir ~/.joggle

# create joggle config file 
# (replace joggle@example.com and abc123 with your spare jabber 
# account and password, respectively)
echo -e "jabber.user joggle@example.com\njabber.pass abc123" > ~/.joggle/joggle.cfg

# run joggle in the background
joggle --daemon --config ~/.joggle/joggle.cfg

Next, add the specified Jabber account (joggle@example.com, in the example above) to the buddy list in your Jabber client.

Finally, register your twitter username and password with Joggle by sending an instant message like this: .register TWITTER_USER TWITTER_PASS (replace TWITTER_USER and TWITTER_PASS with your Twitter username and password).

You can also share your Joggle installation with your friends; have them add the Jabber account to their buddy list and send a .register command.

See the README file for detailed installation instructions and a full list of configuration options.

Files:

Update: Comments for this site are still broken, but I've cross-posted this release announcement on Reddit, so feel free to post a comment over there.

ZipStream-PHP 0.2.1 Released

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 22:43:02 EDT

Version 0.2.1 of ZipStream-PHP is out. There is one change:

Generate correct "version needed to extract" header. This fixes extraction problems with WinZip 9.0.

Here are the relevant links:

I Have a Twitter Account

rss@pablotron.org (Paul Duncan) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:27:29 EST

Despite my better judgement I now have a Twitter account. You can follow my wacky hijinks at http://twitter.com/pablotron.

I've also written a basic Jabber/Twitter relay called Joggle. I'm hoping to release it later this week. If you'd like to try Joggle now, you can grab it from the mercurial repository (you'll need Ruby, a spare Jabber account, and a few minutes to glance over the README file).