Aaron Brongersma abrongersma

Pagination 101

Article by Faruk Ateş, [originally on KuraFire.net][original] which is currently down

One of the most commonly overlooked and under-refined elements of a website is its pagination controls. In many cases, these are treated as an afterthought. I rarely come across a website that has decent pagination, and it always makes me wonder why so few manage to get it right. After all, I'd say that pagination is pretty easy to get right. Alas, that doesn't seem the case, so after encouragement from Chris Messina on Flickr I decided to write my Pagination 101, hopefully it'll give you some clues as to what makes good pagination.

Before going into analyzing good and bad pagination, I want to explain just what I consider to be pagination: Pagination is any kind of control system that lets the user browse through pages of search results, archives, or any other kind of continued content. Search results are the o

This will either be the first of a series of posts on "how I became a Ruby convert" or "why Ruby is the worst language on the planet."

I've spent the last two years of my life working with Python and its popular web frameworks (Django, webapp2, and Flask). Python was the first language I ever learned, so I'm admittedly a bit biased toward the "Pythonic" way of doing things. Python favors readability of code, but it also favors exactitude. I can push bits around in memory with the same ease as a GET request. The entire community feels like it's made up of scientists who want to support that - so libraries follow the Pythonic way of doing things. Boolean tests are written the same way in each library as they are in the core Python language.

So you can imagine my frustration when I start working with Ruby on Rails... and specifically, RSpec.

Let's take a look at a webapp2 test:

import unittest

Business Models

Advertising

Models	Examples
Display ads	Yahoo!
Search ads	Google

OS X Screencast to animated GIF

This gist shows how to create a GIF screencast using only free OS X tools: QuickTime, ffmpeg, and gifsicle.

Instructions

To capture the video (filesize: 19MB), using the free "QuickTime Player" application:

Backend Development

node.js
- Installation paths: use one of these techniques to install node and npm without having to sudo.
- Node.js HOWTO: Install Node+NPM as user (not root) under Unix OSes
- Felix's Node.js Guide
- Creating a REST API using Node.js, Express, and MongoDB
- Node Cellar Sample Application with Backbone.js, Twitter Bootstrap, Node.js, Express, and MongoDB
- JavaScript Event Loop
Node.js for PHP programmers

Build your own private, encrypted, open-source Dropbox-esque sync folder

Prerequisites:

One or more clients running a UNIX-like OS. Examples are given for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, although all software components are available for other platforms as well (e.g. OS X). YMMV
A cheap Ubuntu 12.04 VPS with storage. I recommend Backupsy, they offer 250GB storage for $5/month. Ask Google for coupon codes.

Software components used:

Unison for file synchronization
EncFS for folder encryption

	class PostsController < ActionController::Base
	def create
	Post.create(post_params)
	end

	def update
	Post.find(params[:id]).update_attributes!(post_params)
	end

	private

	Latency Comparison Numbers (~2012)
	----------------------------------
	L1 cache reference 0.5 ns
	Branch mispredict 5 ns
	L2 cache reference 7 ns 14x L1 cache
	Mutex lock/unlock 25 ns
	Main memory reference 100 ns 20x L2 cache, 200x L1 cache
	Compress 1K bytes with Zippy 3,000 ns 3 us
	Send 1K bytes over 1 Gbps network 10,000 ns 10 us
	Read 4K randomly from SSD* 150,000 ns 150 us ~1GB/sec SSD

	####################################
	# BASIC REQUIREMENTS
	# http://graphite.wikidot.com/installation
	# http://geek.michaelgrace.org/2011/09/how-to-install-graphite-on-ubuntu/
	# Last tested & updated 16. June 2013
	####################################

	# This is apparantly needed for python when running manage.py
	# described here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11593556/django-createsuperuser-not-working
	export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

	/* Flatten das boostrap */
	.well, .navbar-inner, .popover, .btn, .tooltip, input, select, textarea, pre, .progress, .modal, .add-on, .alert, .table-bordered, .nav>.active>a, .dropdown-menu, .tooltip-inner, .badge, .label, .img-polaroid {
	-moz-box-shadow: none !important;
	-webkit-box-shadow: none !important;
	box-shadow: none !important;
	-webkit-border-radius: 0px !important;
	-moz-border-radius: 0px !important;
	border-radius: 0px !important;
	border-collapse: collapse !important;
	background-image: none !important;