http://life.neophi.com/danielr/ en Copyright 2013 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:59:38 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.3svn-20070408163858 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Tonight I gave a talk at the Node.js in the wild meetup about Debugging Node.js Applications. The slides are available at: http://life.neophi.com/danielr/files/DebuggingNodejsApplications.pdf The sample code used is available at: https://github.com/NeoPhi/debugging A video of the talk was made and is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNSy1roM82k Thank you to all that came and the discussion we had. http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/04/debugging_nodejs_applications.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/04/debugging_nodejs_applications.html Programming Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:59:38 -0500 While recently trying to signup for a new banking service that allowed me to tie authentication to my mobile phone, whenever I had the service send an SMS authorization code to my phone I never got it. I had a friend send me an SMS and that arrived fine. I then remembered for a long time I'd not been getting Zipcar SMS messages about extending my reservation. Even though my Zipcar account said I had two-way messaging activated when I disabled and tried to reenable the service I ran into the same problem. Turns out there are two different types of SMS. Regular phone to phone SMS messages and another type known as short codes. A quick call to T-Mobile's awesome support and I found out, unbeknownst to me, a content block had gotten put on my account for SMS short codes. Once removed everything started working again. Yay! http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/03/sms_issue.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/03/sms_issue.html Kitchen Sink Sat, 23 Mar 2013 09:47:06 -0500 With the Superbowl two weeks away and this past weekend a resounding success for RumbleTV Playoffs, I was able to take a little breather today and finishing sorting, culling, and posting my pictures from my recent Antarctic trip. Enjoy. http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/01/antarctic_pictures.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/01/antarctic_pictures.html Visual Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:02:58 -0500 For a long time now I've been posting the books that I've read with my reviews on this site. My original intent with posting books on this blog was to capture the notes I took while reading. Turns out I've very rarely or ever gone back to those notes. I suspect it is a case that the act of writing down the note provides more meaning than the note itself. For a long time now I've been a member of Goodreads and track my books and reviews there since they give me neat statistics and recommendations. Instead of cross posting you can just follow my Goodreads feed or friend me on Goodreads. http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/01/books_1.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/01/books_1.html Books Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:18:05 -0500 I recently noticed I was getting low on space on one of my EBS volumes I mount on my EC2 server. After doing some research (aka Googling) it seemed like a simple procedure: umount, snapshot, create volume, resize, and mount. I even found a concise page that detailed resizing an EBS volume with sample commands. However when I got to the resize step I ran into an error along the lines of "The filesystem is already XXX blocks long. Nothing to do!". Turns out I didn't mount the complete EBS volume as a drive but instead partitioned it. The snapshot and create volume steps had increased the size of the EBS volume but not my partition. Without a graphical interface the prevailing recommendation to use gparted didn't help. Thankfully I stumbled upon another blog posting about resizing partitions using fdisk without losing data. While that post dealt with another virtual server service the same basic principles applied. After carefully deleting and recreating the partition on my EBS volume keeping the starting sector and file type the same resize2fs finally worked and I was off to the races. In retrospect the partition table hacking makes sense that it would work but isn't something I would have thought to try. http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/01/aws_ec2_ebs_partition_resize.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/01/aws_ec2_ebs_partition_resize.html Helpful Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:43:49 -0500 I've put together an annotated JSHint configuration file. This is mostly just a text formatted cut and paste of the documentation on the website (DRY shudder) in a format suitable for use with node-jshint. I find it handy to have it all in one place when setting up new node projects. You can grab the config from: https://github.com/NeoPhi/jshint-config/ http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/01/annotated_jshint_configuration.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2013/01/annotated_jshint_configuration.html Programming Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:32:02 -0500 Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt My rating: 5 of 5 stars A wide ranging introduction to how we think and learn with many practical actionable next steps to get better at thinking and learning. The book gently takes you through how the brain works to practices for learning better, maintaing focus, and approaching tasks deliberately to gain the most out of them. With copious references to other material and clear next actions for each topic there is always something you can be working on. Besides a few references to outdated technology this is a fantastic read. View all my reviews http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/12/pragmatic_thinking_and_learnin.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/12/pragmatic_thinking_and_learnin.html Books Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:08:30 -0500 Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences by John Allen Paulos My rating: 4 of 5 stars While many of the examples in the book feel dated the overall message that being uninformed about math is as bad as being illiterate still rings true. The book provides an easy introduction to probability and statistics which he uses illustrate common issues with coincidences, polls, and pseudoscience. Other sections that covered dealing with large numbers and logic I didn't find as compelling. Overall the book is an easy and frequently amusing read that helps reiterate why math matters and how to not be fooled by it. View all my reviews http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/11/innumeracy.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/11/innumeracy.html Books Sat, 24 Nov 2012 10:06:18 -0500 In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson My rating: 2 of 5 stars Compared to other books I've read by Larson I found this one to be lacking a story that drew me in. I think it was a combination of the events leading up the war having been covered better in other books and movies and the fact that there was nothing engaging about the way the Dodd's were portrayed that captured my attention. It felt more like a synopsis of their journals instead of an intriguing story that was enhanced by the participants own words. The frequent foretelling I particularly disliked as it removed any element of surprise about future events. Overall, I'd give this book a pass. View all my reviews http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/11/in_the_garden_of_beasts.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/11/in_the_garden_of_beasts.html Books Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:45:47 -0500 Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves by George M. Church My rating: 2 of 5 stars I found this book suffered from self-aggrandizing and minutiae which combined to make it a chore to read and understand. It felt that because the authors were involved with much of the material being discussed they focused on a level of detail uninteresting to that of a layperson. It resulted in uneven tone and scope between chapters. I did gain some understanding of synthetic biology and how research around it is progressing but overall I'd give book a pass. View all my reviews http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/11/regenesis.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/11/regenesis.html Books Sun, 04 Nov 2012 20:15:30 -0500 Inspired by discussion at the Code & Cocktails meetup last month I released the alpha version of Cardecademy last night. http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/cardecademy_alpha_release.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/cardecademy_alpha_release.html Intellectual Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:57:57 -0500 Bonk by Mary Roach My rating: 4 of 5 stars A humorous survey of the history of scientists exploring sex. From the physical to the psychological and at times the peculiar the author does a great job of covering a topic that has caused many scientists to be shunned for trying to better understand. I often found the injected humor to fall flat and not enhance the text while the frequent footnotes where a great addition. I appreciated that the author covered some of the blatantly bad ideas that certain scientists promoted and how for the greater good science prevailed even if some battles are still being fought. View all my reviews http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/bonk.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/bonk.html Books Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:49:11 -0500 Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray My rating: 2 of 5 stars This book is clearly sexist, cheesy, repetitive, and not scientific. At the same time the underlying message of mindful communication, behavior, and reflection is worth thinking about. If you can ignore the sexism and instead focus on how speech and behavior are interpreted by someone of a different mindset, the book offers many examples based on the author's observations. He makes clear in the introduction he is stereotyping with the statement "I make many generalizations about men and women in this book", but I don't think that should excuse the content. In retrospect I should have read a different book but given how much this book is part of popular culture I found myself reading it anyway. If nothing else it made me be more aware of thinking about differences in how people communicate and behave even if the underlying context was outdated. View all my reviews http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/men_are_from_mars_women_are_fr.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/men_are_from_mars_women_are_fr.html Books Mon, 15 Oct 2012 22:27:32 -0500 The Antarctic: A Very Short Introduction by Klaus Dodds My rating: 4 of 5 stars For the uninitiated this books provides a thorough history of the geopolitical history of the Antarctic. In order to set the stage for the Antarctic Treaty System and its later doctrines the history of exploration and fauna exploitation are covered but are not the primary focus. Learning about the language behind the treaties and emphasis on scientific endeavors are interesting in light of the ongoing unresolved claims on Antarctica should countries wish to start exploiting it. While I would have liked a broader introduction as the first book I've read dealing with Antarctica it was an eye opener. View all my reviews http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/the_antarctic_a_very_short_int.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/the_antarctic_a_very_short_int.html Books Sun, 14 Oct 2012 19:34:54 -0500 Despite repeated attempts to get new customer rates, when on my last bill RCN raised the bundle package another $10 a month I'd had enough. Compared to a year ago RCN was charging me $50 more per month for the same service. Over that past year my consumption habits have changed. While I will miss HBO and wish they would fix their outdated distribution model every other show I'm interested in has a near simultaneous non cable option. Additionally, for a long time now, despite having an unlimited plan, I still had a land line. Granted RCN upgraded those to be digital awhile ago which meant that when cable went out, so did the phone. Needless to say, paying for a conventional phone no longer made sense. The short of it is then the only service I'm paying RCN for now is Internet. Now if only Verzion FIOS was available I'd switch to that. http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/cutting_the_cable_and_cord.html http://life.neophi.com/danielr/2012/10/cutting_the_cable_and_cord.html Kitchen Sink Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:17:37 -0500