April 2011
1 post
Preventing delete of has_many children in Rails 3
If you’ve tried to use rails 3 validate on a destroy, you might notice that error messages which were set in the before_destroy don’t get passed back to the user.
It seems like many people out there have posted code that tries to tell you that you can set the record.errors in the model. Well, let me tell you that it doesn’t work for various reasons.
Here’s an example of...
March 2011
1 post
Space filling curves as interconnection topology
I haven’t been able to find much information on how space filling curves, like
Hilbert curves, are used in network interconnection topology in supercomputers.
So, this post is my attempt at putting the information in one place. We’ll
start off with an introduction to gray encoding and how it relates to Hilbert
curves.
So, gray codes are the concept of the day here. Gray codes are...
January 2011
1 post
A simple gluUnProject Port for Javascript WebGL...
I just created a new github project with a standalone version of my Javascript gluUnProject port. Everything that’s not owned by SGI is under a public domain license. There are no dependencies on Google Closure or Lanyard.
http://github.com/fintler/webgl-unproject
If you’re interested in an example, you can see it in action at http://github.com/fintler/lanyard in the...
December 2010
1 post
Star Trek Red Shirt Gingerbread Man Cookie Cutter
FoxTrot recently posted a comic that features a redshirt as a gingerbread cookie. I figure, what the heck — I’m going make some real ones.
The first step is making the cookie cutter. I took a trip to the local big box hardware store and ended up grabbing some aluminium roofing trim that I could easily slice up with a pair of old scissors. It cost $2 for 10 feet of it (I only ended up...
November 2010
1 post
Introducing a Completely Javascript 3D Map -...
GIS on the web is going to hit a new level of awesome soon. I’ve been working on an entirely-written-in-Javascript 3D map for a bit now. It’s based on Closure Tools and NASA’s Worldwind and uses WebGL for hardware acceleration.
A few minutes ago, I just managed to get the tiled blue marble layer working. Here’s a screenshot of the results:
Or, if you have a WebGL...
September 2010
1 post
WebGL Ignite Presentation
Here’s a copy of the presentation I’m doing for Ignite NM tonight. Enjoy.
April 2010
2 posts
Java bug in Safari
Back in April of 2008, when I was still at Temple, I took a non-CS major class on security. In addition to creating a nifty little utility to bring an xnu kernel to its knees, I also did some work with fuzz testing web browsers. I ended up coming across a nice little bug in the width attribute of an applet tag. In the interest of full disclosure, I think it’s time to finally put this in...
Checking out multiple projects in one subversion...
If you’ve ever had to deal with a subversion repository with multiple projects that all have separate “trunk”, “branches”, and “tags”, you may find this script quite useful.
To use it, you can specify multiple project names and the tag or branch that you want to check out for each of them. If no flags are specified, it’ll default to checking out...
September 2009
66 posts
Apparently the student loan reform bill passed the house this week.
resistance is futile (if < 1 ohm)
My little project finally has a matrix abstraction… http://bit.ly/4qVYJv
Nice, I think I might use this for trailreporter.com RT @gisuser consider Drupal Nice Map http://su.pr/2YVYLy (via @jimmyrocks)
Statistically, software engineers are the worst drivers. And here I was, thinking no one could drive but me :) http://bit.ly/7Csxz
RT @kevinferrero @colinmlenton hey … do you guys have an insane amount of issues with the network in the basement Annenberg lab?
RT @phillybikeclub An electric bike that travels 30 miles at 32 kph for $0.10usd (about 1500mpg)… http://pimobility.com/
If you break a unit test, removing the unit test is not “fixing” it. Bleh.
Gotta take advantage of Restaurant Week — http://tr.im/zpXD. (via @hectcastro)
2009 mono remixes of the Beatles sound way better than stereo ones.
WebGL works great in Firefox.
RT @freepress Wow, FCC launches www.openinternet.gov. Big move.
Ugh, that “google” puzzle on TechCrunch just leads to some other company who lied. Nothing to do with @googlejobs.
8MLDQ6TUI6TFMLRHAANRA6Q8EFLDMQ86II2O32S5J13JXOJ
Nice, the @FCC is on twitter.
Just ran two miles down kelly drive yesterday after roughly a year and a half of bike riding to get over my plantar fasciitis.
I just finished a javascript-based vec4, point, line, angle, and cylinder with webgl based rendering. <insert evil scientist laugh here>
Just wrote some javascript to generate a frustum from the projection matrix. Anyone wanna place bets on if this thing is gonna work? :D
crazy javascript… http://bit.ly/QADIq …it’s time for bed :)
Hamiltonian quaternions are really useful for abstract linear interpolation between two angles.
Why do I think it’s fun to convert java code into javascript? I’m weird. :D
Best description of lambda calculus EVAH!!!! http://worrydream.com/AlligatorEggs/
It’s time to build another custom webkit to test my map.
I think this is the first time I’ve ever ported fortran to javascript. Hopefully it’s the last as well.
“Your Year-to-Date Rate of Return” …. 36.2%
You know it’s going to be a crazy day when “H”.equals(“H”) returns false and causes an annoying bug. Bleh! :)
Kimchi is really good for you. One serving is 80% of daily vitamin C and carotene. Also has vitamin A, thiamine, riboflavin, calcium, iron.
I think I just figured out why my workstation has been slow all day… I was running Oracle in the background…. whoops.
There’s a few people in the office who refuse to realize that hand washing and sanitizers do nothing to stop the spread of N1N1. Bleh.
Drinking organic peruvian coffee and manipulating satellite images with crazy maths makes for an excellent friday afternoon at work…
Nosebleeds at the Phils game… http://yfrog.com/0w92ksj
A new xkcd book, volume 0…. http://bit.ly/lTkLi
Apparently switching from closures to prototypes is roughly a 500% speedup in js.
An awesome little summary of math behind 3d apps… http://bit.ly/KPE9P
Do me a favor and help spread the word that we are looking for speakers for Ignite Philly 4: http://www.ignitephilly.org (via @hectcastro)
Heading down to @refreshphilly now.
I think I may have finally taken the git pill. No more svn for my personal projects. Local branches ftw.
The first implementation of WebGL is released and it’s already being adopted by the geospatial crowd. No more applets. Woo!
I just found a case of Weyerbacher Pumpkin ale at the distributer. Woo!
RT @iconjohn Twister taking shape off I-95 in Philly? http://yfrog.com/09aqbj
Why I’m not an organ donor: because penndot makes me wait two hours to sign up.
I wonder if we could somehow make a non-satellite, land-based GPS using the same thing carrier pigeons do.