January 2010
11 posts
An Open Letter to Frank D. Wagner
An open letter to Frank D. Wagner, Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States:
Dear Mr. Wagner:
In reading through the slip opinion of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, I noticed a grammatical error. Associate Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, quotes McConnell, supra, as follows:
Section 311 disclaimers provide information to the
electorate,...
“Under the majority’s view, I suppose it may be a First Amendment problem that...”
– John Paul Stevens, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
“But your children aren’t really yours. They have lives of their own. So...”
– Wil Shipley, as quoted in The Washington Post
“If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless, in the end the problem...”
– Zen proverb
OSX + Multiple Network Locations + Proxies
At work I’m behind a proxy. At home I’m not. OSX provides a nice way to handle that problem: multiple network locations. You can create a location (“work”) with some proxy settings and one (“home”) without, then simply switch between them as you commute back and forth.
Those proxy settings work great for Safari, iChat, and iTunes. They work reasonably well for...
A Fast Random Lookup in SQL with Conditions.
If you want a random element from a table from ActiveRecord, you might be tempted to do this:
def MyModel.random
find :first, :order => 'RAND()'
end
That has two unfortunate problems: it’s unbearably slow for large tables, and it doesn’t work on all databases. To fix those problems, you might try the technique from hgimenez’s fast_random:
def MyModel.random
if (c =...
Getting Rails 3 (pre) up on OSX
I sat down to work on the most recent Bugmash. First I followed Yehuda Katz’s instructions on getting started with Rails 3. Those instructions worked great for running an app on Rails 3, but they’re not quite sufficient for working on Rails itself. Here are some pointers for that, as well as a few unresolved issues:
Install the latest MySQL using the DMG version. By default, it...
Lessons in Toilet Paper Engineering
First, a wonderful brochure created by Chris Rugen, author of an equally informative blog post.
Second, two different Squidoo pages.
Third, a new poll (read: marketing campaign) by Cottonelle.
The evidence is clear, folks. Friends don’t let friends hang toilet paper under.
Wine Review: 2006 Calatrava Sauvignon Blanc
Rating
★✩✩✩✩
Winery
Calatrava
Vintage
2006
Country
Colchagua Valley, Chile
Color
White
Name
Sauvignon Blanc
Grape
Sauvignon blanc
Price Paid
$4.00
Good for
foisting off on others at college house parties
Bad for
a bread and cheese plate
Smells a bit of acetone and citrus rind. The most redeeming thing I can say about this wine is that I can drink a full glass of it without...
Wine Review: 2007 Carmim Terras d'el Rei
Rating
★★✩✩✩
Winery
Carmim
Vintage
2007
Country
Portugal
Color
Red
Name
Terras d’el Rei
Grape
Trincadeira, Castelão, Moreto, Aragonês
Price Paid
$4.00
Good for
not sure. Cheetos?
Bad for
first dates
Sometimes you find a rare gem in the discount bin. This isn’t one of those times. It’s … wine. It’s definitely not horrible wine.