techniQal support

My wife and I just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary recently. The whole “5 years” thing hit me, and caused me to reflect. If I look at any other 5 year snippet of my life, it doesn’t even start to compare. The last 5 years have been the best, and as good times usually go, they flew by.

To celebrate, Mary and I enjoyed a wedding gift from a friend. It took some will power to wait five years, but it was worth it.

Thanks for the cool gift Jennifer.

And to all future wedding attendees, you should try this out for a gift:

Bottle of Champagne (for 1 year anniv.)

Bottle of Wine(for 5 year anniv.)

Bottle of Port(for 10 year anniv.)

It is a risky bet in a country with a 50% divorce rate, but at the very least your newly divorced friend may invite you over to drink it with them. Or have them accelerate the schedule (1 month, 6months, 1 year) ?? Either way, it’s a cool idea.

Thanks for an awesome 5+ years Mary…

Tara recently wrote about how she was tagged by someone else in a blog post, which is apparently the equivalent of poking someone with a stick via the internet. Normally I don’t fall in for the “chain letter / poking / link love/ tagging” behavior. This time though, Tara used the correct method to goad a response out of me… She dared me. And I am no chicken. So below, you will see my 4×4 response. Sit back, relax, and enjoy learning a little bit more about me. Don’t worry, I won’t tag anyone else, as I don’t want to condone Tara’s behavior, but Leslie, Derek, and Walter should step up.

4 Things I Love:

• My 3 month old son Lucas: He wakes up with a smile every day, and reminds me to do the same.



• My wife: She keeps me grounded and constantly reminds me of what is most important in life.
• My dogs: They were our first “kids” and we will always love them, even though they don’t get quite as much attention as they used to.



• My Job: As cheesy as it sounds, I enjoy my job, and the people I work with. We have some of the most talented and funny people I have ever met working here at Lijit. Every day is fun(nearly).

4 Video Games I Love:

• Katamari (all of them): The funky music, and addictive game play make up one of the most original series of games ever made. Replay value is HIGH.
• Grand Theft Auto (all of them): The sandbox style changed the way everyone views video games, and continues to push other publishers to innovate.
• Halo (all of them): Single player - meh, kinda fun. Multiplayer - f*cking awesome.
• Bejeweled: Oh crack of the internet, how many productive work hours have you stolen from me. From the little web game that stole my heart and wasted many, many hours of my time at work, to the mobile version on my old Treo 650 that I used to play when I would go outside for cigarette breaks. Don’t worry, I got rid of the cigarette habit and the Treo.
• Honorable mention: Rockband is awesome.

4 Programming Languages I Couldn’t Live Without:

• Python: I learned more and got more done with this flexible language than with any other language.
• PHP: If it weren’t for php, I wouldn’t be able to show this post to you. This is also the language that re-opened my eyes, and got me into web programming, and consequently pushed me towards python, and saved me from perl. Watch out for perl zealots attacking. Just by bashing perl ,I am pretty sure I can triple the readership of this post. Ooh, and Java, it sucks too.
• Javascript: Yeah, I know, not a “real” programming language in the classic sense. But the things it allows you do in modern browsers is nothing short of spectacular. A lot of us wouldn’t have jobs if it weren’t for javascript.
• Basic: If not for this language, and the fact that my dad taught some of it to me on our Timex Sinclair, I may not be working with computers at all.

4 Online Tools I Like:
Twitter: You satisfy both my voyeuristic and egotistical urges. Does anyone really care what I am doing…
gMail: All other online mail truly sucks in comparison. Plus your pop3 and your imap is sweet.
del.icio.us: The most practical of all online tools. It started out before Web 2.0 was cool and will be around long after it’s gone.
Lijit: I cannot in good conscience omit the source of my livelihood and the reason my baby has shoes. Plus our search is pretty damn good too.

That is all. I don’t know how to finish this blog post. So I will leave you with one my favorite quotes that will only confuse you more as I am a vegetarian.
Mark Twain - Sacred cows make the best hamburger .

I recently added a new use for my awesome Colorado Ski Report rss feed.
I am parsing the data, trimming it down, and posting it on twitter . You can receive ski and weather info via twitter every day, just by following http://twitter.com/snowing .
Be aware, that you will be getting ~17 updates a day around 6 am MT.
If that doesn’t scare you off, follow this twitter user for your daily dose of ski conditions and weather.
Each tweet features the resort name, snow in the last 24 hrs, mid-mountain depth, current weather, and the forecast for the next day.

Feel free to email with suggestions for how to make this better at techniblog at gmail dot com .

Todo:
Setup web interface to allow you to subscribe to “my” ski resorts,and just get DM’s for those results.

As I noted in my last post, I recently took the hard and dirty path of trying to upgrade php and mysql on my web server.
This was driven by my need to have PHP 5.13 and support for SimpleXMLElement->addChild() .
Unfortunately, support ended on the standard repo’s for FC4 some time ago. This meant that I would have to download and recompile if I wanted to have an upgrade path for php. I don’t have that kind of energy.
Luckily I was able to use some google-fu, and find a solution.
This site Les RPM de Remi, albeit in french, provides an awesome repo, and compatibility updates for RHEL 4 and 5, FC 3,4,5,6 and more.
This means I had a nice easy path to upgrading php and mysql.
See the details below to see how easy it was to update mysql 4 to mysql 5, and php 5.04 to php 5.25 .

To utilize for FC 4, follow these instructions:

1 . Install the remi rpm .
wget http://remi.collet.free.fr/rpms/remi-release-4.rpm

rpm -Uvh remi-release-4.rpm

2. Install the remi yum repository.
cd /etc/yum.repos.d
wget http://remi.collet.free.fr/rpms/remi-fedora.repo

3. Update - Update - Update
This should find all dependencies and include them.
I suggest doing mysql first, as php update may fail if you don’t.

yum --enablerepo=remi update mysql
yum --enablerepo=remi update php


So far everything worked flawlessly for me.
But YMMV. Backup your databases.
Be prepared to re-install your OS, or be smart enough to undo what you are doing.
Use caution, and enjoy.

I recently spent a fair amount of time at home as a result of the birth of my son Lucas.
Between naps and feedings and diaper changes, I had a bit of free time available. I used this time trying to find a suitable method of sharing baby photos online.
Flickr was an option, but there is no way my parents or relatives would have been into signing up, and the embedding options weren’t great.
I thought about just hosting on my web site, but iPhoto created some pretty crappy html when you exported for the web. And I couldn’t very easily add new stuff without re-exporting, and then re-uploading to the web server.
I didn’t have the energy or focus to “write my own”, so I searched the Interweb for an answer.
I think I found a reasonable solution. I implemented a cool Flex/php solution called Fotoviewer from FOTOCRIB . It provides a nice little flash photo browsing interface that automatically shows thumbnails in a list view, a carousel browsing view, and very nice and flexible slide show option. Demo HERE
If you know of any better options, or have found something that you like, let me know.

Adding photos is as easy as creating a directory and naming it the way you want the “album” to be named. Photo captions then depend on the file name of the photo. iPhoto makes this easy if you are used to changing image titles and make it a habit. You can simply export the images from iPhoto, and tell it to export using the title as the file name.

The downside to this solution is that it appears to load all the images in the browser at once. If the album is large, and the images haven’t been cached in your browser , or are not “web safe” sizes, it can take a while for all of them to load.

A word of warning. You need php 5.1.3 or better to use this. Fotoviewer stores meta-data in xml files,and implements SimpleXml methods that aren’t available if you are on an older version of php. Specifically SimpleXMLElement->addChild(). This caused me a a whole host of problems that lead me on a fun path to upgrade my webserver.

Overall, not sure this is the best method, but it currently allows me to avoid too much work with the photos themselves, and uploading an image is all it takes to add it to an album.

munch a bunch?

Originally uploaded by Tarable1

Tara, my coworker at Lijit, took this hilarious picture at her house this morning. Just had to share the humor.

I had to add my own interpretation.

Although this is not quite ready for prime time (some caching and config left to do), I figured I should get it out in the open.
Ski season is rapidly approaching, and if we get some snow, this could be invaluable.

I have updated my original mashup with some new features and functionality.
As before, clicking on a region will allow you to zoom into a region.

Once you click on one of the little images you get a nice info window with the ski resort’s current ski conditions as well as the current local weather.

You will also notice another tab hanging out there. Where available, I have tried to include live webcam images along with the snow and weather data. For most resorts, clicking on the webcam tab will display a recent webcam image from the resort. Arapahoe Basin had a particularly lovely image this afternoon.

Enjoy the new beta 2.1, 1.0, 0.001 version of this mashup HERE .
Also, remember that you can get live snow conditions on the map-free mobile version as well.
Mobile Ski and Snow Report

As a soon to be parent, child based paraphernalia starts to permeate your being. On the web, at the store, in the magazine, you start to notice items and ads you would normally ignore. One cool instance of this, is the work of my ultra talented and creative sister. She hand makes children’s clothing that is both fashionable and funky. One of her items was also recently featured in children’s online fashion magazine small magazine

So if you have young children, check out and buy her stuff at http://www.soil.etsy.com .
You can also see one of her cool hats featured in the magazine HERE .

I just think her stuff is cool and worth sharing.

I finally got the lijit wijit hosted on wordpress.org.

What this means:
Adds a new distribution channel where hosted, or self hosted wordpress users can find the Lijit Wijit.
Sorry wordpress.com users—we’re not quite there yet.
If any updates or changes happen to the wordpress widget, I will update them on the official wordpress lijit wijit page, and on our new home at wordpress.org.

So head on over to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-lijit-wijit/.
If you have used the plugin already, and you like it, create a wordpress.org account and rate the widget.

If you happen to be out on the internets looking for the best Lijit wordpress plugin, go there, download it, and rate it. Add a feedback comment while you’re at it.

Here is my entry to the blogday 2007 excitement.
This is kind of hard for me because I tend to read tons of popular blogs, and rarely add a new one into the mix.
But I have toiled and thought long and hard, and this is all I came up with:

• Your Vegan Mom:
  This is a great blog by a Vegan mother named Trina from LA. I found her via our popular blog feature on lijit.com.
  Her blog is a treasure trove of vegan recipes. I am not vegan(I am vegetarian), but the recipes she has on her blog are beautiful and flavorful.
  She is able to appeal to veggies, and carnivores alike with her creative recipes.
• Post Secret:
  Oldie but goodie. The great thing about this blog is the guilty pleasure of reading other peoples thoughts. Voyeurism can be fun.
  I always meant to get the book—never did.
• Subtle Exchanges by Fabian Stelzer:
  Forwarded to me by co-worker/CTO of Lijit, Stan . Fabian talks tech/attention , and was involved with both Lijit and it’s predecessor, Outfoxed.
• Bug Blogger:
  This is the blog for the in BETA Bug Labs.
  I recently started following these guys—they are doing some ground breaking stuff with hardware.
  Stick around for my next blog post—it will talk about them!
• Lijit Explore Feature -For this one, I ran through the new Explore feature available on my Lijit Wijit, and randomly clicked on a blog that looked interesting.
  And the winner is:
  Davor’s Technology Blog:
  Davor writes about technology, macs, software, all kinds of stuff. Right up my alley really.
  To tell the truth, I should have used our new feature to find all of my new blogs. I think that is what I will use it for from now on.

So ends my foray into International Blog Day. Be sure to visit BlogDay.org, and remember if you get involved to tag your post by adding http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2007.