Robert Gremillion’s Blog

Here are two Random things I learned this week.

The first one is Perl related.

I was trying to use the qq function when I got an error.

The problem was I had the / character inside of my string. Since / is only a delimeter, I changed it to , instead. My code look similar to this:

qq, This is a string with $replacements etc…,

The second one is CSS related.

I was trying to style a DIV but the CSS was not working. It turns out that I had named my class: 360div and Firefox didn’t like it. It worked in IE6. So, I changed the name to div360 and it worked.

I was getting this error tonight when trying to get PHP and MySQL to work on OSX.

Warning: mysql_pconnect() [function.mysql-pconnect]: Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2)

To fix this problem, I had to add the following line to my PHP code.

ini_set(’mysql.default_socket’, ‘/tmp/mysql.sock’);

Now I have a new set of errors to contend with…

I tend to run into every conceivable error when working on a project.

This afternoon I got this error when trying to commit my Rails app to subversion.

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Could not use external editor to fetch log message; consider setting the $SVN_EDITOR environment variable or using the –message (-m) or –file (-F) options
svn: None of the environment variables SVN_EDITOR, VISUAL or EDITOR is set, and no ‘editor-cmd’ run-time configuration option was found

I found out that my SVN editor environment variables were not set, so I used the -m option to tell it which editor to use and it worked. Here’s the command that worked for me…

svn commit -m vi

Here’s a photo of my softball shirt from a couple of years ago. Is it nerdy enough?

I’m starting to do more with CSS at my new job.

I ran into an issue where I had a table inside of a DIV. In Firefox everything looked as expected. But in IE6 there was a 2 pixel margin right above the table. It took me a while to figure this out. But I had a hidden input field within the table tags, but outside of tags, so IE was floating it to the the top and giving it some space. Once I moved the hidden input field inside of some tags everything was right with the world again.

I took my kids to the new Lego Store store in Baybrook Mall in Clear Lake.

They just got this Jango Fett display today.

I still can’t believe I let them spend $16 each on a bucket full of plastic, total cost of production, 50 cents.

Here are 16 ways to learn Rails. I came up with this list two years ago before I had a blog. My goal is to flush out each of these items with links over the next few weeks.

1. Read “The Books”

• Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Edition
• The Rails Way
• Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers’ Guide, Second Edition

2. Join a Club - Another way to learn Rails is to be around other people who are doing it already. There are many many Ruby and Rails clubs across the globe. If you happen live in Houston, you can join the Houston Ruby Group, which meets once a month. To find a Rails group in your area, try searching on RubyBrigade.org. Or you could start your own…

3. Convert Something
4. Participate in Forums
5. Use IRC
6. Watch “The Videos”
7. Research and Blog About It
8. Take a Class
9. Participate in a Contest - One way to learn fast is to take part in a competition. The Rails Rumble is coming up on September 20th, 2008. Hook up with some other Rails programmers and see what you can create with a 48 hour time window.
10. Work on an Open Source Project
11. Find a Tutorial and Built It
12. Listen to “The Podcasts”
13. Study the Rails Source Code
14. Goto a BarCamp
15. Subscribe to “The RSS Feeds”
16. Dissassemble an Open Source Project

This week I received these images of one of the coolest tailgate trailers. This would make any LSU fan proud.

This afternoon we had a catfish fry for my birthday. My family surprised me with an LSU Birthday Cookie. It was ALMOST too cool to eat. ALMOST.