Not like the spitting up green pea soup exorcism but
Exercism.io, one of many great resources for
learning programming languages by solving actual problems. Similar to
Ruby Koans, you are given a programming problem
to solve and a set of unit tests. Your challenge is to make all the
tests pass by writing code (ala
TDD). As you
write your code and run your tests you may be given hints leading
towards a solution or you may have to just figure it out on your own.
Once all your tests are passing, you publish your code to the Exercism
site where others can review and you can see other people's solutions
for the same problems. I've learned more by reviewing other people's
code than all the books and blog posts I've read.
Finally a way to flush the DNS cache on Mac OS 10.5 "dscacheutil
-flushcache". PC users have always had a way to do this with "ipconfig
/flushdns" but Mac users usually had to restart. In Mac OS 10.4 there
was "lookupd -flushcache" but that never quite worked 100% of the
time. Here's a bit of the MAN page and a link to the complete page via
developer.apple.com.
dscacheutil -- gather information, statistics and initiate queries to
the Directory Service cache.
| Test Early » Hudson - Tips and
Tricks
| Hudson is an open source CI server that is by far the easiest one to
configure. Second to ease of use is Hudson’s impressive plug-in
framework, which makes it easy to add features. For instance, Hudson
has a plug-in for tracking FindBugs issues, PMD issues, and CheckStyle
issues over time as well as code coverage. It also trends test results
from JUnit, as well as build results and corresponding execution
times. In spite of all these cool features, we had to find ways to get
around some common issues we faced at work using Hudson.
| Google Web Toolkit - Google Code
| Google Web Toolkit (GWT) makes it easier to write high-performance
AJAX applications. You write your front end in the Java programming
language and GWT compiles your source into highly optimized
JavaScript. Writing web apps today is a tedious and error-prone
process. You spend 90% of your time working around browser quirks, and
JavaScript's lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing
AJAX components difficult and fragile. It doesn't have to be that
way.
| Lessons Learned: Mac mini dual monitors using
DualHead2Go
| When we first set up the office here in NYC, we made an early decision
to go with Apple products for development. Now don't get me wrong, I
love Apple, indeed I am a recent inductee into the Apple Fan Club.
However, I have noticed a few... insufficiencies with the platform,
many of which have little to do with the company itself. For example,
the lack of a good time management system (apologies to iBiz).
| Professor Messer - Using Nmap to Find Rogue
Devices
| Nmap is one of the best port scanners in the world, but did you know
that Nmap can tell you the exact application name and version number
hiding behind each port? More importantly, Nmap can tell you about the
applications that you DONT want to see Nmaps version detection
capabilities can provide you with an easy method of identifying rogue
devices.
| Beginners Guide: Programming Cocoa for OS X |
MacApper
| A few months back a friend asked me if I wanted to help work on a
small application for OS X. He figured because I had a long history of
Windows based programming I would have no trouble making the
transition to writing apps for Mac. Well he was wrong for obvious
reasons and I also found (unlike coding Windows apps) that the journey
to bring my skills up to par for Mac, was a greatly rewarding, yet
somewhat convoluted experience.
| Linux / UNIX: Python programming tutorial for system
administrators
| Generally I use Perl and Shell script for automation or to make system
administration easier for me. Python is an interpreted, interactive,
object-oriented programming language that combines remarkable power
with very clear syntax. Python runs on Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X,
OS/2, Amiga, Palm Handhelds, and Nokia mobile phones.
You can easily adopt Python to manage UNIX and Linux systems while
incorporating concepts of good program design. Python is an
easy-to-learn, open source scripting language that lets system
administrators do their job more quickly. It can also make tasks more
fun:
| Google Web Toolkit - Build AJAX apps in the Java
language
| Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java software development
framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and
Gmail easy for developers who don't speak browser quirks as a second
language. Writing dynamic web applications today is a tedious and
error-prone process; you spend 90% of your time working around subtle
incompatibilities between web browsers and platforms, and
JavaScript's lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing
AJAX components difficult and fragile.
| Learning and Mastering the Linux VI / VIM
editor
| VIM is my preferred text editor for configuring system and writing
code at a shell prompt. However many new Linux user finds it difficult
to cope with vim. This tutorial provides a good introduction:
The VI editor is a screen-based editor used by many Unix users. The VI
editor has powerful features to aid programmers, but many beginning
users avoid using VI because the different features overwhelm them. This
tutorial is written to help beginning users get accustomed to using the
VI editor, but also contains sections relevant to regular users of VI as
well. Examples are provided, and the best way to learn is to try these
examples, and think of your own examples as well… There’s no better
way than to experience things yourself.
| Daring Fireball: BBColors
1.0
| One feature still lacking in BBEdit which I’ve wanted for years is a
way to easily save and switch between different text coloring schemes.
BBEdit’s text colors have been configurable ever since syntax coloring
appeared in BBEdit 4.0 in 1996, but there’s no means to save or change
them en masse. Nor is there any way to share color schemes with other
users.
So, I’ve put together a little command-line tool called BBColors; it
lets you save, load, and share text color preference schemes for BBEdit
and TextWrangler.
Java Studio Creator is an easy-to-use visual tool for developing Web
applications with Java. Designed for the corporate developer who needs
to be productive and doesnt have the time to learn the details of Java
technologies, the product combines the Java integrated development
environment IDE with a rapid visual designer, a smart code editor,
synchronized editing, and easy deployment resulting in rapid iterative
development of Web applications and Portlets.
This guide was written to allow a reader to quickly understand 'How to
build a cost effective Development Environment for Windows Server
200X'. A Development Environment at the most basic level refers to a
source control tool and bug tracking software. The following covers
application requirements, setup, basic configuration and use guides for
each. Given that requirements for each application were already on a
server, using the following guide as a framework will allow an
environment to be built from scratch in one to two working days.
One of the biggest advantages of Mac OS X's UNIX heritage is the huge
range of open source scripting languages available. Scripting languages
are often the ideal tool if you want to manipulate text, manage jobs, or
link together disparate components without resorting to a compiled
language like C or Objective-C. Scripting languages are a great tool for
system administrators, application developers, and pretty much any user
who needs to perform complex or repetitive tasks, because they were
invented to solve these types of problems more quickly than can be done
with general-purpose languages.
Reports indicate that someone has let loose a "Trojan horse" or worm
for Mac OS X users. The program is hidden within a package that
purportedly contains screenshots of Apple's as-yet unannounced next
major revision to Mac OS X. Whether it's a Trojan horse or worm seems
to vary depending on the source of the information. The code has also
elicited a response from Apple, and a warning to its customers.
Someone on IRC pointed me to this CSS generator, and the number of
options and output are impressive. The ability to have verbose comments
in the CSS is a nice way to learn what browser hacks are being
implemented (and gives you an easy way to pull them out if you like). I
can take no credit for this tool, so props to the appropriate party...
read
more | digg story \<http://digg.com/design/Handy_CSS_layout_generator_for_web_developers\>__
Google SMS (Short Message Service) enables
you to easily get answers to specialized queries from your mobile phone
or device. Send your query as a text message and get phone book
listings, dictionary definitions, product prices and more. Just text. No
links. No web pages. Just the answers you're looking to find.
Hopefully!
Here's how:
Enter your query as a text message. See some sample queries.
Send the message to the US shortcode 46645 (GOOGL on most phones).
Receive a text message (or messages) with your results, usually
within a minute. Results may be labeled as "1of3", "2of3", etc.
To get Google SMS help info sent directly to your phone, send the
word 'help' as a text message to 46645.
| Affected Software
| Mac OS X 10.3 (all versions through at least 26-Nov-2003)
| Mac OS X Server 10.3 (all versions through at least 26-Nov-2003)
| Mac OS X 10.2 (all versions through at least 26-Nov-2003)
| Mac OS X Server 10.2 (all versions through at least 26-Nov-2003)
| Probably earlier versions of Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server
| Possibly developer seeded copies of future versions of Mac OS X