HardCircle.net » Computers

Ruport Book

ian — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:40:15 +0000

The official Ruport book is now for sale on the Lulu website. If you’re looking to learn how to do ad-hoc reports in Ruby and add reports to your Rails application, this is a great reference and learning tool. (Disclaimer: I was a volunteer proofreader for the book.)

Still on the fence about buying it? There is a free HTML version available on the book’s website for you to preview and read, and 25% of the revenue from book sales will go to Engineering Without Borders. The book is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike license.

Dave Thomas on Rails 1.9

ian — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:49:53 +0000

Dave Thomas, writer of the infamous PickAxe, posted a nice summary of what’s new in Ruby 1.9, and more importantly, who it’s right for. Ruby programmers may also want to check out this thread on comp.lang.ruby.

Tumblr HardCircle

ian — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:11:32 +0000

Hey everyone, playing around with Tumblr right now. It’s sort of like a cut-down blog. We’ll see how it goes.

How to change newspaper websites

ian — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:28:21 +0000

Todd Zeigler has posted his opinions on what newspapers need to do to freshen up their websites. A bit of discussion and cross-posting ensued, including one by Adrian Holovaty and a follow-up by Todd.

Free WiFi in Yonge-Dundas Square

ian — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:37:31 +0000

I’ve written a brief update on the free WiFi scene in Toronto over at Torontoist. Also, I’m writing for Torontoist! (Profile to be updated shortly)

Is LaszloMail the future of Email?

ian — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:55:14 +0000

Sarah Allen reflects on some recent developments in Email that have become a must for her. I’ve recently purchased a MacBook, and I’ve found the integration between Mail, Address Book and Adium has been very useful. We’ve looked into email before.

The Future of Email

ian — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 15:30:26 +0000

Slashdot picked up a blog post by Gabor Cselle about some recent developments of email software. What new ideas would you like to see in your email?

Microsoft to Buy Songs For You

ian — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 01:43:10 +0000

Fulfilling promises made earlier this year, and in spite of some previously failed attempts (yes, that article is from 2004), Microsoft is going to introduce a new “iPod killer” before Christmas this year. (Another story)

Microsoft is being helped out by media companies (Music, Television, etc.). Because Apple dominates the digital music player and music download markets, they are able to strong arm the content providers and set the prices. Music labels and other media providers would like to see a more balanced market to be able to gain more control over their pricing.

For those of you who don’t know, iTunes and Microsoft-backed stores sell their songs with digital restrictions. These restrictions on the files prevent them from being copied a certain number of times, or can even cause the songs to “expire”, and stop working when the music store owner chooses. This also prevents music downloaded from iTunes from playing on Microsoft “Plays for Sure” players, and music from most other stores working on iPods. So any music you have downloaded from the iTunes music store will probably never work on Microsoft’s new player.

Rather than forcing you to re-buy your iTunes music at their store, Microsoft is planning to automatically buy it for you from their store, and pay for it, as well.

Would you be willing to switch to a new music player, if they re-bought all of your music for you? Will Microsoft be able to avoid previous traps and create a compelling product? I’m not betting on it, but if they throw as much money at it as they did for the XBox, there might be something that at least will have some presence.

Free WiFi in Dundas Square

ian — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:32:33 +0000

Gabe Sawhney has mentioned that there will soon be free Wi-Fi access in Dundas Square, Toronto. The volunteers at Wireless Toronto have also brought us Toronto’s largest outdoor hotspot at Dufferin Grove park. Find out where else you can get free access, and how to use the service.

Black is the new $140 bill

ian — Wed, 17 May 2006 17:27:31 +0000

So the new MacBook is out. Starting at $1,249 (all prices Canadian), and with a Intel core duo, full-size keyboard, Bluetooth, wireless, 13″ widescreen and iSight camera all standard, lots of people are going to buy these.

But what’s with the black one? It’s only on the high-end model ($1,649), but according to their comparasion chart, all you get extra is a larger hard drive. You can even configure the white one with the exact same features for $1,509.

I don’t know what’s more sad: that Apple is charging $140 to get a different colour, or the fact that lots of people will probably end up getting it anyways.