Jasmine: A JavaScript Testing Framework

I have been experimenting more with JavaScript frameworks lately. Being fond of the Test Driven Development methodology, I came across Jasmine. Here is how the site defines it: Jasmine is a behavior-driven development framework for testing JavaScript code. It does not depend on any other JavaScript frameworks. It does not require a DOM. And it has a clean, obvious syntax so that you can easily write tests.

If you have not already, download Jasmine from http://pivotal.github.io/jasmine/

After you decompress the downloaded file you see this directory structure.

As you can see, the SpecRunner.html file is your user interface that is simply run from a web browser. The spec folder will hold, as you guessed, your specification code—what you want your implementation to do. The src folder will contain the code you are testing.

The JavaScript includes in the SpecRunner.html file need to be set as such:

What I wanted to do was to test how to sort a JavaScript array based on a date element in the array. So let’s start with the spec file. I named my spec DateSortSpec.js and placed it in the spec directory. Here is the DateSortSpec.js:

Next, the source code file,DateSort.js, goes in the scr directory:

OK, with basic structure in place let's do a sanity check and make sure we get a failing test result:

Now let’s get the “should show Health for a Friend title with ascending sort” spec to pass. First, create a function that will sort ascending by date. What I did was to utilize the JavaScript array.sort method passing in a compare function.

Now reload the browser and the spec passes.

Next we will add the spec to sort descending.

Reload the browser and we see the spec fail as we have not implemented any code for the spec.

So, the next step is clear. Implement enough code to pass the spec. Here I again use the JavaScript array.sort method passing in a function for a descending comparator.

Refresh the browser again and bang!

As you can see using Jasmine is pretty straight forward. Setup is a matter of expanding the compressed file. Moreover, if one has a web browser and text editor you a ready to code the specs and source code.

Configuring SciTE for JavaScript on Ubuntu 12.04

At work I use the SciTE editor quite a bit. With that stated, at work we use Microsoft Windows XP, soon to move to Windows 7, as the standard operating system. In any event, during a break I created a JavaScript test file to determine the best way to sort via a JavaScript Date.

All well and good at this point. Then I brought the JavaScript file home where my entire house has nothing but Ubuntu as the choice of operating systems for both desktops as well as laptops and netbooks. I quickly realized that I did not have my SciTE editor configured to execute JavaScript files on my Ubuntu desktop. Doing some quick poking around I found that I could use my installation of Node.js for the JavaScript engine. So, here is what I did.

First, I opened the /usr/local/scite/cpp.properties file. I then noted that at line 436 it was looking for the GTK cross platform tookit in the for of: if PLAT_GTK

I added the following config setting below that line:

command.go.*.js=node $(FileNameExt)

I then closed the /usr/local/scite/cpp.properties, open the SciTE editor, opened the JavaScript file, hit the F5 key to run the file and I was good.

What daily apps and devices do you use to help you daily?

For me, my day consists of a daily run, a time of scripture reading and prayer, eating breakfast, getting out the door and to work, and then the normal work day events, and then head back home.

For various steps in the events of the day, I use my Garmin watch, iPod Shuffle, fitbit, desktop computer, and smartphone. With these devices I use apps for the weather, spiritual and physical health, basic communications, and traffic for my daily commute. Here are the day’s events with the devices and the apps that are used.

Wake up:

• Digital clock for the alarm and my smartphone in bedside mode for the time.

Morning Run:

• Garmin watch to track time and pace
• fitbit pedometer to track number of steps
• Desktop computer, with Ubuntu 12.04 as the operating system, looking at weather.com and runkeeper.com to map and store the day’s run stats
• Ipod Shuffle with iTunes to download and organize the theology based podcasts and music that I listen too

Reading of scripture and prayer time

• Desktop computer, smartphone, or Kindle Fire looking my personal prayer app built with Ruby on Rails and housed on heroku.com

Morning communications

• Desktop computer, smartphone, or Kindle Fire using gmail, Google calendar, facebook, and twitter

Breakfast

• Record nutrition intake with fitbit.com that has already uploaded the calories burned from the earlier run.

Morning commute to work

• Desktop computer, smartphone, or Kindle Fire using ohgo.com to see the current status of the traffic on I75 and I471 North bound. From there I determine which is the best route.

Work

• Desktop PC for software development
• Smartphone for personal communications
• Fitbit in which I note time to time the number of steps taken during the day

Lunch

• Record nutrition intake with fitbit.com.

Evening commute to work

• Desktop computer or smartphone using ohgo.com to see the current status of the traffic on I75 and I471 South bound. From there I determine which is the best route.

Evening

• Desktop computer, smartphone, or Kindle Fire using weather.com to note the evening and next morning’s forecast.
• Fitbit from which the day’s step count is uploaded and the amount of calories burned is compared to the day’s nutrition intake.
• Desktop computer, smartphone, or Kindle Fire using gmail, Google calendar, facebook, and twitter
• Roku streaming player, a cloud based video streaming device that interfaces with content providers such as Netflix and/or Amazon Prime, to watch great TV series and movies such as Dr. Who, Star Trek, The Goonies, Shaun the Sheep, etc.

Of course this list does not include other devices and personal tools such as the automobile or other home based appliances that rely on silicon-based technology to function. The pattern that I see is that my day is better organized and runs smoother as the result of the use of these devices/apps. Moreover, I am better informed off my health as well as keeping better track of appointments and obligations.

Poetry via Python

I was attending a weekend event and heard of a website that had some lofty poetry. Having the book of that poetry, I wanted the content for my own personal use.

I had played with Python before to scrape data from the web and thought I would give it a go again. Here is what I used to get the desired content and create HTML files that I could use on my own website:

Create PostgreSQL Sequence for Ruby on Rails Apps on Heroku

I was attempting to add a record via my rails app on Heroku and got the following:

ERROR: null value in column "id" violates not-null constraint

Since as the date of this writing Heroku uses PostgreSQL, here are the steps I took.

My Postgres server version is PostgreSQL 9.1.7 on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.6.3-1ubuntu5) 4.6.3, 64-bit. I also am using an Ubuntu Linux desktop running Rails 3.2.11.

Now to the steps I took to solve the problem.

In your rails app db/migrate folder create the following class and name it 201301081552_create_table_name_sequence.rb. Substitute the time signature in the name with your date and time and “table_name” with the name of the table you to which you are adding the sequence:

Then in your rails app db/migrate folder create the following class and name it 201301081552_add_sequence_to_table_name.rb. Again, substitute the time signature in the name with your date and time and “table_name” with your name:

Next, commit and push them to your github repository. After that push them to Heroku. If you have the Heroku toolbelt installed you can issue the following:

sudo heroku run rake db:migrate

This should run the database migration that will create the sequence as well as add it to the id column.

My First Adventure with the Raspberry Pi

My adventure with the Raspberry Pi begins by finding and purchasing it from Newark Element14.

Looking at the system you can see that it is a credit card, sized unit.

I purchased a pre-loaded 4 GB SD card but I also had a spare 4 GB SD card so I downloaded the distro from adafruit and used it.

I then hooked up a USB keyboard and an HDMI cable to my TV and booted the Raspi up.

After doing that I wanted to start messing with the General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pin set on the Raspi so I purchased the Raspi Cobbler from adafruit.

Upon investigation, I realized that I needed to solder the pins on the cobbler before using it. Moreover, I realized that I needed a breadboard as well. Adafruit's site had a tutorial that provided the steps in what to solder and where. That was a great help so I printed that tutorial. Based on the tutorial I also purchased a solder gun, solder and breadboard from Amazon and was then ready to get busy.

After soldering the pins and connecting the data ribbon I knew that I needed to find tutorials on what to hook up to what pins, etc. and then purchase those items. What I wanted to do was to conduct the easiest experiment that I could as a first step. I thought, why not get an LED to light up. Perhaps I would find a tutorial on adafruit that was get me there. And yes, the Raspberry Pi E-mail Notifier Using LEDs tutorial was the answer.
Gleaning from the instructions of the tutorial I knew that I needed to setup Remote SSH and install python on the pi. After doing that I read further and noted that I would need to purchase two resistors from 100 ohm up to 1000 ohm as well as a green LED and red LED as well as breadboard wiring. I found that I could get the wires off Amazon for a cheaper price and so made that purchase. The resistors and LEDs I purchased at the local Radio Shack for a good price.
Below is the result thus far.

Now that I had what I need to physically test the next step of the tutorial was to create a python script to interact with the GPIO pins. I was not wanting to take the additional steps of using an IMAP feed parser as detailed in the tutorial I created enough to be able to light the LEDs in a flashing fashion. Here is the code:

I ran the script and here is the output to the screen from the pi:

However, I did not see the LEDs lighting up. Then I realized that I did not have the ground wires connected to the breadboard ground rail. After making the correction I had flashing lights.

Now, what is the next step?

There is No Defect.

I am in agile training for my employer. Someone from software testing asked how we deal with defects in our implementation of agile. One of our development managers made the statement that thinking about the agile process in similar ways to our past waterfall methodology no longer applies. He said, "Do not think of defects, there is no defect, only a working system that needs a change."

This reminded me of the first Matrix movie where Neo, when within the Matrix, was at the home of the Oracle watching a boy bend a spoon telekinetically:
Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

My Review of Running Lean, 2nd Edition

Originally submitted at O'Reilly

Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works

Running Lean, 2nd Edition

Running Lean, 2nd Edition Review

By m2web from Erlanger, KY on 6/24/2012

4out of 5

Pros: Easy to understand, Concise, Accurate, Helpful examples
Best Uses: Novice, Expert, Intermediate
Describe Yourself: Developer

This book is a practical work that enables you to take immediate steps to a lean start-up . In a nutshell the subtitle states the content of the book: "Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works."

One of the more helpful aspects of the book is its emphasis on learning the market fit of your proposed product by working face-to-face with potential and actual customers. Moreover, you are given examples of how to test your hypotheses, determine product pricing, define your Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and learn and improve from each step in the start-up process.

Finally, the book provides links to several helps such as the Lean Canvas which is "the faster, more effective way to communicate your business model with internal and external stakeholders" at leancanvas.com.

(legalese that is required)

Updating VirtualBox on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot 64 bit

I went to update my install of VirtualBox on Ubuntu on my Acer Aspire Netbook. When I went to update via selecting the DEB file the Ubuntu Software Center app was not responsive to my selection to install the new VirtualBox build. A little digging and I found the next steps. From a terminal:
sudo apt-get remove --purge virtualbox-4.1
Note that the version will depend what you have installed. Then when I selected the VirtualBox.deb file the Ubuntu Software Center acted as expected by installing the upgrade. Mind you, I know that I could have issued a:
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.1
but I wanted the latest that I just downloaded from Oracle.

Amount of Serendipity = Luck Surface Area

I am currently working through the book Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works by Ash Mauryaby. In the book is a reference to a blog post entitled Increasing Your Luck Surface Area. Here are a few quotes from that blog post:
The amount of serendipity that will occur in your life, your Luck Surface Area, is directly proportional to the degree to which you do something you're passionate about combined with the total number of people to whom this is effectively communicated.
To satisfy my mathematically oriented brain I've gone one step further and formalized the concept into the equation L = D * T, where L is luck, D is doing and T is telling. This demonstrates clearly that the more you do and the more people you tell about it, the larger your Luck Surface Area will become. And while I like equations, it's the graphical representation that really brings the concept home.


In other words, the larger the target, the better the opportunities of being hit by serendipity!

Vim and help with the answer 42

Watching a presentation on Vim by Bill Odom and he mentioned a fun item in the help feature for Douglas Adams fans. In Vim issue the following

:h 42

Here is what you see:

What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?  *42*

Douglas Adams, the only person who knew what this question really was about is

now dead, unfortunately.  So now you might wonder what the meaning of death

is...

Turning Consumption into Production

During my morning run I was listening to This Developer's Life Podcast by Scott Hanselman is a production that deals with general areas of a typical software developer's existence. This latest show discusses the need to be a continual learner.

One of the points made in the podcast was the concept of turning the consumer of software, consider the person playing hours of video games, into a producer of software. Imagine the amount of time and brain power applied to just video gaming by the consumers of those games!

One aspect to turn consumers into producers may be the use game mechanics in the actual creation of programs. The addicting factor of video games is largely the desire to "get to the next level."

Maybe simply making the solving of problems via the writing of code the reward. "How can I 'get to the next level' in my understanding of this framework?" or "How many defects can I fix today?" or "What is the most elegant solution for meeting that business need?" Perhaps creating personal challenges out of the problems by asking, "How much can I accomplish today on this bug or issue?"

Just thinking....

 

Operation not allowed for reason code "7" on table "YourTableHere" in DB2

Note to self: When you make a change to a DB2 table and you see the following database error in the logs:
Operation not allowed for reason code "7" on table "YourTableHere"

It is time to issue a reorg on the table via this:
CALL sysproc.admin_cmd('REORG TABLE YourTableHere');

Review of JavaScript Web Applications by Alex MacCaw

Title: JavaScript Web Applications

Author: Alex MacCaw

ISBN:144930351X

ISBN-13978-1449303518

Pros: Extensive, Well-written, Several examples

Audience: Advanced and/or Intermediate Developers

Introduction

I started this book thinking that it would provide a basic overview of the use of JavaScript within web application development. Boy was I wrong! This text is really a manual on creating a full featured JavaScript web based app. Given that the author is the creator of Spine.js, he is qualified to create an extensive JavaScript Manual.

As a Java and .Net developer, this text is more that I require concerning the use of JavaScript. However, I am sure that as time goes on and JavaScript is more embedded in various frameworks via the likes of JQuery, etc. this book will become more practical for me. 

Review

Instead of giving a chapter by chapter review, here is the summary of the overall content of the book (as if such is easy to do for this comprehensive work). This book is not for those just starting JavaScript development. However, if you have experience in another language, this resource will serve you well as you move into further JavaScript programming. 

The initial part of the book deals with the concept of the MVC framework, models, events and event handling, controllers, application state, views, and templating. The examples are mostly in JQuery which is also my framework of choice for JavaScript development. MacCaw also covers Node.js, Socket.IO, and WebSockets. Moreover, he also provides an examples on testing, debugging your apps, as well as a look at the Backbone and Spine.js (which he created) libraries. Finally, the text provides further information on JQuery, CSS extensions, and CSS3 in the appendixes.

Conclusion

When you are ready to take take the deep dive into developing a JavaScript based we application, this is your manual.

Personal Informatics: The Weather

This past year I have been tracking various personal data key indicators. One has been the number of miles ran per calendar month. Having used Runkeeper to do this an interesting observation has emerged. 

It has been no secret how mild the winter has been here in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. However, this February 2012 is about the same as February 2011 concerning being able to run outdoors. The temperatures seem to be higher in February 2012 but the conditions that allow one to run outside, no ice or snow, were no different this year than in 2011  Look at the monthly numbers from Runkeeper for this 2011-2012 winter season:

Compare this to the 2010-2011 winter season:

Running outside November 2010 through January 2011 was not safe due to ice and snow. While there is a vast difference between the months of November through January for both winters, the month of February was not different for either winter season. Interesting....

Autotest on Ubuntu 11.10 running Rails 3.2

I’m reading and working through Ruby on Rails Tutorial from Michael Hartl. The book rightly promotes a "test first" approach. In this Hartl mentions autotest. As the text mentions, "configuring it can be a bit tricky."

Here are the steps I used to get autotest working on my Ubuntu 11.10 OS running Rails 3.2.0.rc2:

$ gem install autotest

$ gem install autotest-rails-pure

$ sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin

$ gem install autotest-notification

Next, I added the ~/.autotest file:

Then, I simply ran autotest from my rails app directory:

$ rails-apps/myapp autotest

This is nice in that I do not have to manually run the rspec tests as autotest runs each time I change a test file or the tested implementation code. 

Ghost in the Machine - secondary, tertiary, etc.side effects

Was listening the the This Week in Tech podcast and caught a comment by Kara Swisher. The statement dealt with the Wall Street Journal article Google's iPhone Tracking: Web Giant, Others Bypassed Apple Browser Settings for Guarding Privacy where she felt that the Google was not honest in their claim that the code applied to bypass Safari Web Browser settings was not to steal user information. Here is where someone who has not been involved in the development of software systems of any size fails to realize that when you have several coders working on a system, some pieces of code have side affects that have not nor could not be anticipated, period.

Yes Google has some brilliant software engineers. However, even the best minds cannot foresee all or most secondary and tertiary effects of a piece of code. To simply say that they knew all ramifications of the code is not to consider the complexity of their systems.

I am not saying that Google is always ethical. I have submitted previous posts that clearly state that I understand the danger of user data potentially being misused. I am not so naive to think that they are not interested in making money. But I am not sure that this case, that stemmed from code added that was designed to make different web browsers consistent which is a better experience for the user, is the result of malevolence to steal user information. It is certainly possible for it to be used in that way but again, this really could be a case of an unintended side effect or what is commonly termed, the ghost in the machine.

Use and Calibrate the Compass

Seth Godin makes a good point in his blog when he states:

The map keeps getting redrawn, because it's cheaper than ever to go offroad, to develop and innovate and remake what we thought was going to be next. Technology keeps changing the routes we take to get our projects from here to there. It doesn't pay to memorize the route, because it's going to change soon. The compass, on the other hand, is more important then ever. If you don't know which direction you're going, how will you know when you're off course?

The map may be easier but as Godin says it will be constantly changing. Therefore, let's get good at using a compass.

To find our direction, I must turn the compass dial until the North mark and the "Orienting Arrow" are lined up with the North end of the needle. Then, whichever direction is on the opposite side of the compass, that is the direction you are heading. Now, orient yourself to the direction you want to go with the compass dial until the North mark and the "Orienting Arrow" are lined up and you are good to go. For example, the picture below shows you pointing west.

Now, you can take any road that will allow you to go west and not be stopped if the road your on is closed. Just navigate to another road going west by the use of the compass.

Of course, the compass in Godin's article was a metaphor. Yet, this concrete example shows us that we need to get better at calibrating our compasses or our sense of the proper direction. We need to determine the best direction via "the compass" and stop memorizing maps to get where we are going professionally, personally, etc.as the maps will be changing faster as we move forward in our journey.

I need to remember this next time Google Maps leads me into a corn field instead of where I wanted to go!

...fatal error: parser/kwlist.h: No such file or directory compilation terminated on Ubuntu

Yesterday I was compiling and installing the latest source code for pgAdmin3, a popular Open Source administration and development platform for the PostgreSQL database, on my netbook with the Ubuntu 11.10 operating system and ran across the following error:

...fatal error: parser/kwlist.h: No such file or directory compilation terminated. 

Earlier this month I had built and installed pgAdmin3 on two other systems and ran into the same problem. Because I had hunted this header file down and stored it on my Dropbox account, I had it handy and dropped it into the source code and went on my merry way with the build. 

Therefore, for those who run across this issue I have linked the file here.

Simply drop the file into the /theSourceCodeDir/pgadmin/include/parser directory and reissue the make command. 

Enjoy  :-)

Build an adaptive culture that will invest in process only when it is needed

I just watched a great video with Eric Ries, entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School and author of the book The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.

Within the video he examines the technique of the "5 whys." In short, those involved in a lean startup will for each problem they must tackle (1) ask "why" at least 5 times digging further into a  problem with each "why" questions. (2) Next they are to find the human problem behind every seemingly technical issue. And finally, (3) make a proportional investment in each of the 5 "why answer" layers. This will build an adaptive culture that will invest in process only when it is needed and not expend valuable resources.

For example, let us suppose you are part of startup X and one of the startup's main partners asked a software developer, "Why didn't we get that last feature into the release to show to the investors?" That was why number 1. The software developer answers, "Because I did not have enough time." The partner then asked, "Why didn't you have enough time?" Again, why number 2. "Because I can only add features to the application on week-day nights." "Why only on weekday nights?" Why number 3. I think you are getting this by now. "Because I have a full-time developer job that I work during the week and I want to spend time with my family on the weekend." "Why did we not consider your time limitation when prioritizing features and do the more important features first?" "Not sure, I was told to add the features in this order." "Why who was it that told you those features?" "The project manager."

We see the human factor here is both the developer resource limitation as well as with the program manager on how the priorities of the software program's features were determined.

Proportional investments into the first three layers could be addressed by adding development resources. The last two layers could be remedied by the full team collaborating on what the startup's software should feature. Simple and elegant. 

Weblining - what you'll miss

In the previous post I discussed how the use of the results of the analysis of individuals' aggregated data and what Lori Andrews termed "weblining." 

Andrews sees the limitation of chance encounters as well when considering the results of a demographic segment's data analysis in targeted advertisement. "When young people in poor neighborhoods are bombarded with advertisements for trade schools, will they be more likely than others their age to forgo college? And when women are shown articles about celebrities rather than stock market trends, will they be less likely to develop financial savvy?" 

In other words, media content tailored to the individual's preferences may lead to a lack of exposure to new products as well as ideas and view points. This area of negative impact from this use of data aggregation analysis is what I and others before me call the loss of serendipity. Dictionary.com defines serendipity as "an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident."

Lenny Rachitsky, in his TED Talk entitled Losing Serendipity shares that we may be denying ourselves our next favorite thing by limiting our exposure by what we like on Facebook or the narrow news feeds we select and hear.

Could it be that with targeted advertising and by following only those viewpoints and ideas with which we already agree and are comfortable with that we are losing out on what we may discover and/or may be beneficial for us? Could it be possible that a new type of food we will love could be missed if we always went to the same restaurant? What about that next song you will not hear because your current music tastes reflected in your Facebook posts limits what music advertisements Facebook provides to you? 

Does this mean that we should not utilize data to target advertising? Of course not. Data analysis and the discoveries it provides offers too much potential to ignore. The question in my view is, how can we use technology to increase an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident? 

Weblining--what you 'search' can be used against you?

Anyone who has watched a law enforcement television show has heard the apprehending official state the Miranda warning to the person being arrested. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law...."

According to Wikipedia, "the 'Miranda rights' was enshrined in U.S. law following the 1966 Miranda v. Arizona Supreme Court decision, which found that the Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment rights of Ernesto Arturo Miranda had been violated during his arrest and trial for domestic violence." Within this decision the court did not provide the exact wording of the warning but did set guidelines that law enforcement must follow:
"...The person in custody must, prior to interrogation, be clearly informed that he or she has the right to remain silent, and that anything the person says will be used against that person in court...."

In her recent New York Times article Lori Andrews provides a similar warning. She defines "weblining" as using the results from analyzing aggregate data to discriminate against individuals or groups of people. The term is based on the use of "redlining." Andrews explains:
"In the 1970s, a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University named John McKnight popularized the term “redlining” to describe the failure of banks, insurers and other institutions to offer their services to inner city neighborhoods. The term came from the practice of bank officials who drew a red line on a map to indicate where they wouldn’t invest. But use of the term expanded to cover a wide array of racially discriminatory practices, such as not offering home loans to African-Americans, even those who were wealthy or middle class."

For example, "Your application for credit could be declined not on the basis of your own finances or credit history, but on the basis of aggregate data — what other people whose likes and dislikes are similar to yours have done." "What?!?" you might ask, how can that be? Andrews goes not to explain that "If guitar players or divorcing couples are more likely to renege on their credit-card bills, then the fact that you’ve looked at guitar ads or sent an e-mail to a divorce lawyer might cause a data aggregator to classify you as less credit-worthy. When an Atlanta man returned from his honeymoon, he found that his credit limit had been lowered to $3,800 from $10,800. The switch was not based on anything he had done but on aggregate data. A letter from the company told him, 'Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express.'"

Wow! While I do think that the analysis of data can and does provide the consumer with more useful, directed advertisements, this is not a proper use of individuals' aggregated data. So, here is your warning, what you search can and may be used against you. Now you know.

When creating Postgresql users....

Being new to the Postgresql database server this is a note to self, in the future when creating postgresql users, remember the options precede the user name. For example, to create a user with an encrypted password issue the following from the command prompt:
$ sudo su postgres

$ createuser -e -P theUserNameHere

The first line logs you in as the postgres superuser. The next line is where the user is created. The -e option is so the password is encrypted and the -P option is so the password is requested before the user creation is complete. There, now I have it for future reference. 

...more tangible, more linear and more contextual

In her NY Times piece, The Dilemma of Being a Cyborg, Carina Chocano defines a dilemma of depending on memory extension devices such as smart phones: "It’s that we’re collectively engaged in a mass conversion of what we used to call, variously, records, accounts, entries, archives, registers, collections, keepsakes, catalogs, testimonies and memories into, simply, data. 'Data' has become the default word used to describe the constantly generated, centrally stored evidence of our existence. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the word “data” comes from the Latin for 'to give,' and refers to something that is given or relinquished. It also feels significant that data rests at the very bottom of the so-called knowledge hierarchy — below information, knowledge and wisdom."

Her tone is one of regret. She expertly details that as we move our digitally captured memories and experiences to silicon extensions of ourselves, we lose what biological memory is good at providing--an emotional context that was a tangible part of our space/time existence. "Data is weightless and characterless and takes up very little space. The more of it we save, the more we lose the ability to differentiate it, to assign significance and meaning."

At the end of the article she discusses the small revival of the use of physical media such as vinyl records or cassette tapes. "It strikes me that the current fetishization of analog technology has less to do with nostalgia than it does with an urge to slow down the transfer of data from the internal to the external, from the individual to the collective, and to make it all less instant, less ephemeral, less interchangeable, and more tangible, more linear and more contextual."

Given that we are all cyborgs now, what can we do to recover the richness of ourselves that is more tangible, more linear and more contextual? It is not as if we will abandon those devices any time soon. Could it be that we can find a way to use them in a more tangible, linear, and contextual fashion? Is this where the Facebook timeline can help a person as they look at their own and other friend's profiles? Perhaps looking at the timeline with a significant other as they remissness over those actual events?

While I agree with Chocano that reducing our contextually created memories to bits and bytes is not the same as "remembering," can we use binary data to create meaningful memories? I hope so.

Highly Specific Rituals

I was perusing the Harvard Business Review blog site and came across the Why Don't We Act in Our Own Best Interest? post by Tony Schwartz. This should sound familiar to us in that we often hear the phrase that we are our own worst enemies.

Schwartz's answer to the question that he poses is "The most basic answer is that we don't make a connection between our current behavior and its future consequences."

Schwartz's remedy? "It's to rely more on our pre-frontal cortex, which allows humans alone to imagine the future consequences of our actions. Too often, instead, we use our pre-frontal cortex after the fact, to rationalize and minimize our short-term and ultimately self-defeating behaviors." While I agree, the problem here is literally easier said than done. So, what things can we do that reminds us to use our pre-frontal cortex and not the amygdala?

"Our own work at The Energy Project focuses on helping individuals and organizations institute highly specific rituals — behaviors and practices that eventually become automatic and serve sustainable well-being and effectiveness. We can learn to be far more conscious and intentional in our behavior, and less self-centered and short-term in our perspective. Doing so requires deliberate practice."

Again, I agree whole heartily. But isn't the trick here to not give in to the lizard brain and procrastinate on those "highly specific rituals?"

The Wake of the Intangible

Last year I completed the book How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business by Douglas Hubbard and the concepts garnered from the book are still incubating. As the subtitle indicates, the challenge businesses face is in using the "intangibles" within measurement and decision making. 

Dictionary.com defines intangible as something that is "Unable to be touched or grasped; not having physical presence." Okay, how if it does not have any physical presence, how can we measure its attributes and then gain any value from them?

In short Hubbard proposes that even intangibles provide observable effects. In my view it is as if an unseen boat just passed you quietly on the water. Because of the fog you did not see the boat and due to its distance you could not hear it, but you could still feel the waves in its wake. The question then becomes, how can I use the waves to inform me about what just passed me through the water? While not the same as having the ability to visually track the passing boat and calculate the time and distance and its dimensions, the waves do nonetheless provide some data that one could use. The challenge is, how can we get value from the waves?

Within the book Hubbard details his Applied Information Economics (AIE) to assist in this challenge. See the diagram below:

 

See the Everything Is Measurable table below for more.

Product of Negative Integers...Easy as -1, -2, -3

I have been reading One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics by David Berlinski. While the topic is basic mathematics, the book's content is not elementary my dear Watson.
In a side discussion of negative numbers he presents a proof of a rule that has baffled students since the discussion of positive and negative integers began--namely if when you multiply two positive numbers the product is positive and when you multiply a positive number to a negative number you get a negative outcome, how is it that when two negative numbers are multiplied together the result is a positive number? Berlinski eloquently details the proof on over two pages with this conclusion:

[xy + x(–y)] + (–x)(–y) = xy.

[xy + x(–y)] + (–x)(–y) = –x–y.
Therefore, xy = –x–y.

Berlinski, David (2011-05-10). One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics (p. 153-154). Pantheon. Kindle Edition.

I thought it would be good to do this in Ruby for fun. And sure enough, the proof stands true.

Vagueness: the path to the adjacent possible?

In his Wired article entitled In Praise of Vagueness, Jonah Lehrer writes, "According to an experiment led by Catherine Clement at Eastern Kentucky University, one way to consistently increase our problem-solving ability is to rely on vague verbs when describing the problem. That’s because domain-specific verbs–actions which we only perform in particular contexts – inhibit analogical reasoning, making us less likely to discover useful comparisons. However, when the same problem is recast with more generic verbs – when we describe someone as 'moving' instead of 'sprinting,' for instance – people are suddenly more likely to uncover unexpected parallels. In some instances, Clement found that the simple act of rewriting the problem led to impressive improvements in the performance of her subjects."

Apparently, vagueness allows one to move to the adjacent possible more easily. Therefore, when stuck back away from specificity and get general.

Why we study history

On my run today, 1-9-12, I was listening to the This Developer's Life podcast that spoke of the value of looking at older programming languages and technologies and what can be gained from looking back at the refined algorithms of older programming languages and the efficiencies of other older technologies. One thing that stood out to me within the discussion is the long life of the Fortran language. Fortran developer David Sokol stated that Fortran is largely supported by academic institutions and research. While software companies come and go, one thing that stays is the need to teach, study, and learn. This reminds me of the concept of "the root produces the fruit." In other words, information does not emerge from nothing. With continued use, refactorings, and adaption older languages can provide the context for gaining old ideas for new platforms and technologies.

"Compliant sergeants rarely become great generals."

In Seth Godin's recent blog post Confusing obedience with self-control he spoke of the value of obedience. He also stated that, “obedience transforms into self-control. That at some point, people start obeying themselves and become leaders.”

 

In other words, to be a leader, you must think for yourself and be obedient to what you know is correct. Your creativity and ideas should be your guide as you understand and comply with others such as your employer and civil authorities for the common good.

In short, we must not confuse self-control with mindless adherence.

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It is OK to not know it all.

Recently, when I upgraded from my first generation Motorola Droid to the new Droid 3, I called by the local Verizon store and asked if the chargers, cradle, and car mount that I have with my current Droid would work with the Droid 3. I was told that all the hardware that I have with my droid would work with the droid 3. Well...not so. Both the cradle and the car mount will not work. As the buyer we always need to do our homework and understand the stipulations, etc. with the purchase. However, if as the vendor or service provider, you do not know for certain an answer to a question, please do not respond as though you do.

I understand that the phone store personnel are good people. Nor do I think anyone is trying to deceive or bait and switch. With that said I do think that being clear and complete with the customer goes a long way. In other words, if you do not know then state that as far as you understand this or that is true but you really need to meet face-to-face to discuss all the details or research the question further and then you can make a determination. It is OK to not know it all.

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Random Rebooting of the Droid 3-Synced WIFI Settings?

Since I updated to the new Droid 3, I am finding that the phone randomly reboots every now and then. While I love the response time of the phone and the crisp view screen, the phone deciding to restart on its own is not OK. After a quick search I found a series of messages that show the issue may be tied to how WIFI networks are restored from Google during the syncing of your previous WIFI settings.

Here is a blurb from Google:
Further testing & confirmation from other testers on forums correlates this crash strongly to the restoration of wifi settings during provision of the phone & sync to google.  Users who have factory-reset the phone and disabled google syncing have solved the problem, and users who have deleted all restored wifi networks have seen similar benefits.  The twitter account in the 'my accounts' manager was indeed a red herring and does not seem to be related to the bug, as removing it has not re-introduced the problem. Workaround:  Delete ALL wifi networks after provisioning phone, and recreate them using the Droid3 UI.

This was found at: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=18460. I really do not want to go back to factory settings so I am hoping a simple removal of the WIFI network settings and manually rebooting the phone will cure the random reboots. Thus far, since doing the above steps no more reboots.

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Review of Programming HTML5 Applications: Building Powerful Cross-Platform Environments in JavaScript by Zachary Kessin

With the emergence of the popularity of HTML5 many books are quickly hitting the shelves. Here is an offering that provides both a high-level overview along with example code.

The first chapter, The Web as a Platform for Applications provides an historical backdrop for the HTML5 standard by reviewing the founding of the web, JavaScript’s history, the emergence of DHTML and AJAX, and laying of the ground work for the present environment.

The second chapter, The Power of JavaScript, reviews some nice aspects of the language such as functional programming,  closure, being able to expand objects, and functions with prototypes.

Chapter three, as the chapter title implies covers the JQuery, “a JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development.”

The next chapter details ExtJS. While ExtJS is another JavaScript library, this library provides more than a DOM manipulation and event handling. ExtJS has several objects that provide the developer with several tools to create rich internet applications. The chapter contains good content but still needs another “proof-reading pass” as there are several typos and even a “TODO” or two.Chapter 5 details using QUnit and Selenium to test JavaScript. This chapter provides good code examples using these two test frame works. Chapter 6 shows the developer how to use the browser’s localStorage and sessionStorage objects as well as consider browser-based databases.

The next chapter, Take it Offline,  deals with using HTML5’s new manifest file from which a user can load multiple files. Chapter 8, Splitting Up Work Through Web Workers, takes the reader through use of web workers to do, as the chapter title suggests, a division of tasks.

The reader is then brought to the topic of Web Sockets where bidirectional data can be established over TCP. Finally the chapter Internet, 2017 takes the user through the consideration of new and future technologies, of which HTML5 is a part.

In summary, while this book does provide a good overview of the above topics, it may not provide the detail that some developers desire. Also, at least in its early release stage, as of July 2011, the text shows many signs of a draft in progress with missing punctuation and various TODO’s sprinkled in some of the chapters. However, it does provide a quick and basic overview of the concepts and parts of HTML5 and JavaScript that are necessary to move forward.

Review of An Introduction to Machine Learning with Web Data by Hilary Mason

An Introduction to Machine Learning with Web Data by Hilary Mason; O'Reilly Media.

The video itself is presented in five sections: (1) Introduction, (2) Classifying Web Documents - The Theory, (3) Classifying Web Documents - The Code, (4) Clustering , Recommendations, and Probability, and (5) Conclusion. In short, the video Hilary uses web based data to show the audience how to work with data to solve problems you may have by using basic machine learning techniques. The video is particularly directed at programmers who do not have statistical training.  

The viewer will sit with a group of a few other students and feel the imtimate setting of a small classroom. For myself, a video where you can re-watch segments, stop the video to reference a suggested resource, or pause to experiment with a variant of the code is both helpful and handy. For example, in the introduction, Hilary references a link (http://bit.ly/9RYQEF) that explans the concept of "data science." At that point, I paused the video and browsed to the link and found it quiet informative. By the second section, Classifying Web Documents - The Theory, the audience is gently taken into statistical techniques such as naive bayes and shown a step-by-step approach in how the math is applied. In the  Classifying Web Documents - The Code, the participant utilizes python code and the New York Time API to classify words from the New York Times web site. Within the Clustering, Recommendations, and Probability video the viewer is taken through code that demonstrates how to take data with which little is known and learn from the clustering results. Finally, the conclusion section deals briefly with the concepts of probability and then reviews the entire sessions content. 

While being able to navigate around in python is beneficial and by following along with the running of the code one can learn and retain more information, the participant can just view the video content as both the code and concepts are displayed and explained. What is nice is Hilary provides the code used in the video from her Git repository at https://github.com/hmason/ml_class. If the viewer wants to participate she will need to make sure that they have the proper python modules installed. 

In conclusion, the software developer that has little more than the required stats college class would do well to purchase this video. Seeing the actual application of code to the basic statistical algorithms is extremely informative and applicable in various problem domains.

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Playing my Daily Healthmonth Turn and to Posting to 750words via my Droid

For over the past three months I have been using a few sites that help me to reach my personal goals within a "gamified" process.
 
The first site, healthmonth, is according to its creator Buster Benson, "an online adaptation of a game some friends used to play every year right after New Years."
 
The second, 750words also created by Benson, is a site that encourages the daily writing of...you guessed it, 750 words. The site provides an online, private space to compose an essay, journal, or just write what is on your mind. As you type, the site saves your work, tracks and displays your word count, and lets you know when you've passed the coveted 750 word mark. The fun aspect is in the fact that 750words keeps a score card of points for the days you enteract with the site. 750words also keeps track of the consecutive number of days (or streaks that) you submit completed posts. You can also see how others are doing point and streak-wise to fuel your competitive nature.
 
My wife and I were away from home for a few days and I was not certain if we would have reliable wifi access to play my daily healthmonth turns and to post to 750words to keep my 100 day plus streak alive. So, I wanted to find away to use my Droid to utilize the sites. 

 

I was able to play my turn on the healthmonth site easily with the Droid via the native web browser. However, posting to 750words was a little more tricky. While I could type a 750 word submission with the droid keyboard, I found it more feasible to create the post on my desktop, laptop, or netbook and import them into the Droid via a text app I use, AK Notepad. Then, once in AK Notepad I could copy and paste the text into the 750words site via the web browser. Note that any text editor should work in a similar manner in your Smart Phone. Specifically, here are the steps I took:
 

First you have to import your 750word posting into the AK Notepad. To import text (.txt) files into the Andriod AK Notepad app you will need to do the following:

1) Have a folder that is created during an export. You will need to use this folder as AK Notepad will not see folders created manually. If it is not there, create a directory to use by selecting and holding down a note from the list of notes, then select the "Export to text file" menu option.

2) With the droid connected to a computer via a USB cable place the files that you desire to import into AK Notepad in the directory in step 1 above.

3) Disconnect the USB cable and opened the app on the phone.

4) Select "Menu" and then "Settings"

5) Under Import/Export section select "Import notes" and then browse to the folder in step 1 above. NOTE: each file in the selected folder will be imported.

6) Select and hold the folder and then from the popup menu select "Use this folder." This should import all the files in the folder.

Next, open the note that you want to post on the 750words site and select and hold down the text until the popup menu is displayed and select the "Copy all" option. Now that the text is copied to memory, open the web browser, browse to the 750words site, and paste the text into the site page. The site will auto-save the entry.

 

Now, if I plan to be away from reliabe internet access I can still play my daily healthmonth turn and to post to 750words to keep my streak alive.

 

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Not Being the Expert

It is interesting to note as you move throughout your day, we are fearful to appear as not being the expert. Why? Perhaps there is an expectation that you are to be the person who is considered the expert in this or that? Maybe you have a self-image that you are the go-to-person on this subject or that topic?
 
Regardless, why is it OK to not be the expert? Isn't there value in just being the person that is trying to learn as much as he/she can and enjoying the journey? What is more important, being seen as the person that is the expert or being known as the individual that is open to learning, realizes that there is always more to understand, and is known to be gracious to others who lack their level of knowledge? I think the latter.

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Where's that taboo when I need it? To Social Media I go....

Historically, communities with their various cultural taboos, acted as societal controls and helped its citizens curb harmful behaviors. Granted, while come taboos were used as instruments of oppression, others did and do help one restrain oneself unto positive outcomes.

In the New York Times article by Stephanie Rosenbloom, I Resolve. World, Don’t Fail Me Now, Rosenbloom deal with New Year's resolutions:

Certainly, you don’t need cyberspace to share your resolutions. But the potential humiliation of failure is more potent online. Social networking sites also enable you to formalize and, in many cases, regularly track your goals, which makes it harder to blow them off. Some sites reward you with a badge on your Facebook page or a congratulatory message. Nearly every site makes it easy to tell friends about your ambitions as well as to help find strangers who share your goals. The latter is useful if you don’t want to discuss your resolutions with friends and family.

A site that I started using recently, 750words, has assisted me in journaling daily. The site, create by Buster Benson offers stats and analysis of one's writing. This feature is what drew me to use the site as I am on a year long personal data collection and analysis venture to test the value of personal data analytics. In addition to the 750word site, starting in March I will be using another site created by Benson, HealthMonth.com. There, one can set up rules to help change behavior in either a public or private manner. This site, along with others on the web, act as both a daily motivator and reminder of the goals.

In summary, the visible nature of these sites assist with self-imposed, virtual taboos that help motivate me.

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The Future of Business Intelligence--Everyone a Data Analyst?

I follow a local LinkedIn group, Cincinnati Regional Business Intelligence Networking Group, where the question “Where do you think the future of Business Intelligence is headed?” was posted. My response was:

Personally, in addition to the normal predictive data analysis, I see a real strength is to have everyone that deals with data, the administrative assistant to the CEO, understanding how to properly interpret the data that they deal with. Therefore, everyone in the organization has the ability to provide insight into better decision making at their level.

  

Another member of the group then asked in response, “Mark, what data tools do you see being developed or expanded upon to reach this goal? I believe that total company comprehension of corporate data could also be the way of the future.”

  

This caused me to further reflect and consider how enterprise wide data analysis, by most if not all employees, might look. I replied:

Foremost, standard data understanding needs to be basic training for employees. For example, training them how to: disassemble complex problems in order to better evaluate and solve the issues, develop hypothesis and experiment with the data to find unknown causal relationships, use of current common tools such as spread sheet apps (for example, using the Solver function for data optimization) and free tools such as R, understanding how to use data visualization, understanding and using Bayesian rules, etc.

    

Along with the standard extract, transform and load (ETL) and reporting tools, apps that can assist in the above would be very valuable. Given that the above are really processes that can be applied to various situations, tools that shorten the steps is what I would consider. To be honest, I am not sure that the tools would be as valuable as training employees to understand and do basic data analysis with the data they work with.

  

The consideration of the importance of understanding data and how to interpret it came from an interesting and informative talk by Danah Boyd at Gov 2.0 entitled "Transparency Is Not Enough." The talk is available at http://goo.gl/GraT

  

Per Boyd, "The #1 goal of transparency is to empower people, to give them an opportunity to be informed as citizens, to allow them to be a check to power. But when those in power release data in a way that allows them to maintain power, we've got a huge problem....We must also help people develop the skills to interpret data.....Information is most useful to people when they have the skills to interpret it....Because of this, making information available alone is not the great democratizer. It must be coupled with enabling people to have the skills to interpret it."

  

Applying this premise to the Business Intelligence arena, having access to terabytes of data in and of itself does not result in helping the organization make better decisions. “It must be coupled with enabling people to have the skills to interpret it.”

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Lending Kindle eBooks Now Enabled

You can now lend Kindle eBooks. It is still controlled by Digital Rights Management set by the publisher, etc. but it is a next step!

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HTML5 Canvas Tag Basic Example II - Gradients and Images

Per my previous post, working with the canvas tag in HTML5, here is some more code with gradients and an image.
  
Thanks again to Mark Pilgrim and his wonderful Dive into HTML5 site.
  
Enjoy: 
  

Loving Posterous' use of Github Gist to post code

Loving Posterous' use of Github Gist to post code in your Posterous blog. Just paste a Github Gist URL on its own line and Posterous pulls in the contents automatically, even for your RSS feed and autopost sites. 

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HTML5 Canvas Tag Basic Example

It has been a while since I posted any example code. Was messing with the canvas tag in HTML5 and thought I would post it up.
  

Thanks to Mark Pilgrim and his wonderful Dive into HTML5 site, I was working through the canvas tag page and put this together (only got as far as the gradient section though). Enjoy:

"How good software makes us stupid"-You're still smart, what does that say about your software?

In his post to BBC News Technology, Dave Lee writes about "How good software makes us stupid." Like it or not, the research outcomes consistently show that the tools we use to learn also shape our ability to learn. The premise of the article is that good software makes things easier and us more stupid.
 
In retrospect, I know, hang around, and work around a lot of smart people. Therefore, their software must not be that good! Gaaa! I develop software! Must get better at making people dumber...or I a mean make things easier for them!

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RSS - The Really Unknown Syndication

At work, on the corporate intranet site, there is a daily survey question. Today's question was, "Do you use an RSS feed to capture news or similar info from websites?" The possible responses were:
Yes – I like that it sends me news I request. 
Yes – I’m just learning how this works.
No – I’ve never used it. 
No – I don’t know what that is.
 
With most survey components, you do not see the tabulated results until after you answer the question. Before I answered I thought that the response rate would be about 60% answering either "Yes – I like that it sends me news I request" or "Yes – I’m just learning how this works." Wow, was I off. Here are the actual results as of the time of this post:
The "Yes – I like that it sends me news I request" had 719 out of 13,856 or  5% of total.
The "Yes – I’m just learning how this works" received 300 responses out of 13,856 for a 2% affirmative rate.
The "No – I’ve never used it" got a 2,766 out of 13,856 or 20% of the total.
Finally, the "No – I don’t know what that is" answer received a whopping 10,071 out of 13,856 for a 73% response rate.
 
Again, wow! 93% of the respondents are not using RSS even though it has been broadly available since 2005. Given that the RSS acronym means Really Simple Syndication there are a good many of my fellow employees that have yet to discover the convenience and pleasure of using RSS to gather and consume their news and information.

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