Author Archives: Todd Huss

Running Ruby on Rails with Apache 2 and mod_fcgid

My hosted Linux server runs Debian Sarge 3.1 with Apache 2. As most Ruby users have heard Apache 2 is rumored to be problematic with FastCGI. This evening I’ve been working on putting up a new Ruby on Rails site … Continue reading

Posted in Ruby, Systems Administration | Comments Off on Running Ruby on Rails with Apache 2 and mod_fcgid

Use env to ensure a script will work in cron

I’ve often written scripts only to discover once added to crontab that it relies on an environment setting such as having the java command in the PATH or having CVSROOT set. To avoid this I now run scripts I’m developing … Continue reading

Posted in Systems Administration | 1 Comment

Avoid hard-coding the path to the interpreter in your scripts

In general when trying to write portable scripts don’t start them with #!/bin/bash , instead start them with #!/usr/bin/env bash . The only caveat is that you DO NOT want to do this for critical security scripts because it opens … Continue reading

Posted in Ruby, Systems Administration | 4 Comments

Creating database test fixtures and the rails export fixtures plugin

Being able to quickly and easily create test fixtures for your database is important yet it’s not always easy. There are basically 3 approaches I’ve seen used: 1. Use a MySQL or PostgreSQL dump that gets imported before the tests … Continue reading

Posted in Database, Java, MySQL, Ruby, Software Engineering | 3 Comments

Unix and Windows Sysadmin in downtown San Francisco

My buddy Mike at UrbanaSoft is looking for an experienced full-time Unix and Windows sysadmin in downtown San Francisco. Pay is between $80-$100k depending on experience plus benefits and all that good stuff. If you’re qualified and interested or know … Continue reading

Posted in Systems Administration | Comments Off on Unix and Windows Sysadmin in downtown San Francisco

Moving MySQL tables live with zero downtime

The biggest challege to moving large amounts of data into production with (almost) zero downtime with MySQL is that the old table will be dropped and the new table locked while you’re loading the data. If you try that while … Continue reading

Posted in Database, MySQL, Systems Administration | 2 Comments

Using log4j to monitor web application errors

When monitoring a production website (especially with a dozen or so application servers) you don’t want to rely on combining the logs and reviewing them manually for exceptions, you want the servers to notify you when there’s a problem. There … Continue reading

Posted in Java, Software Engineering, Systems Administration | 3 Comments

Hibernate with the MacBook Pro

Thanks to Dion for pointing out how to get your MacBook to hibernate! When I wrote about switching to the MacBook Pro one of my complaints was that upon shutting the lid the laptop doesn’t hibernate, it sleeps, and they … Continue reading

Posted in Desktop, OSX | 9 Comments

Orbitz struggling with basic math

Update 4/20/06: I received the initial message from Orbitz that they had found my target fare of $294 which according to them is less than my target price of $250. Then this morning I received a message that they are … Continue reading

Posted in Humor, Life, Travel | 5 Comments

Why nobody is web testing in Java

Go into any IDE and create a default Web project and you’ll often get JUnit, but I have yet to see one include some form of web testing support (e.g. Cactus, Cargo, and HttpUnit) and that’s just lame!

Posted in Java, Ruby, Software Engineering, Web | 3 Comments