Wisdom

Logging the domain with Apache wildcard virtual hosts

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:13:41 -0400

If you have an Apache virtual host set up to respond to a number of different domains, the two typical access log configurations (common and combined) do not include domain information. So you can see what resource is being accessed, but not for which domain. This becomes significant if you are serving different content based on the domain, as we do with Blueprint.

We use the NCSA combined log format. Adding the domain information to this format is as simple as plucking it from the request headers: "{Host:}i". To retain compatibility with the standard ‘combined’ format, we replace the superfluous “user” item in the format with the domain, like this:

CustomLog access_log "%h %l \"%{Host}i\" %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-agent}i\""

Prototype.js Function#wrap

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:15:00 -0500

Prototype.js Function#wrap:

A little gem I only found just now in the prototype.js library.

htop - an advanced command-line process monitor

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:13:44 -0500

htop - an advanced command-line process monitor

"" Show spaces at the end of lines hi RedundantSpaces ctermbg=DarkGrey guibg=#222222 match..."

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:12:54 -0500

“

" Show spaces at the end of lines
hi RedundantSpaces ctermbg=DarkGrey guibg=#222222
match RedundantSpaces /\s\+$/

”

- Pop it in your .vimrc.

"dpkg-reconfigure tzdata"

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:22:14 -0400

“dpkg-reconfigure tzdata”

- Change the timezone in Ubuntu.

New in Rails 2.1.0

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:12:29 -0400

New in Rails 2.1.0

New in Ruby 1.8.7

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:10:32 -0400

New in Ruby 1.8.7

Mr and Mrs Systems, we’re sorry to inform you that your...

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:23:00 -0400

Mr and Mrs Systems, we’re sorry to inform you that your child, Adobe, has received yet another F. This ongoing string of fails is a concern to us, and in light of recent anti-social behaviour, we’re left with no alternative but to threaten expulsion.

Alarming events in the life of your Rails project #1: you’ve just written a Rake task labelled...

Tue, 20 May 2008 06:02:59 -0400

Alarming events in the life of your Rails project #1: you’ve just written a Rake task labelled :armageddon. True story. Actually, some theologians posit that the event in question has already occurred, when (unrelatedly) I dropped down to SQL this morning and executed DELETE FROM users WHERE god IS NULL.

Oy, some of my old code found its way into Warehouse a while...

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:11:35 -0400

Oy, some of my old code found its way into Warehouse a while back. Cheers for the shout, ActiveReload.

MacVim vs YAML

Wed, 14 May 2008 02:17:00 -0400

Recent builds of MacVim (23 to 26, at least) contain a broken YAML syntax file. You need to replace it with this one: yaml.vim.

It goes in $VIMRUNTIME/syntax, which normally resolves to /Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/Resources/vim/runtime/syntax — but you can run :echo $VIMRUNTIME in MacVim to be sure.

Protecting the auto-migrating schema

Mon, 12 May 2008 20:38:00 -0400

If you’re using Err’s Auto Migrations, you’ll want to eradicate a default Rails task that clobbers your carefully-crafted schema file. Add this to your Rakefile:

Rake.application.instance_variable_get(:@tasks).delete(
  'db:schema:dump'
)
namespace(:db) {
  namespace(:schema) {
    task(:dump) { puts 'Schema dump disabled' }
  }
}

Processing.js

Sat, 10 May 2008 01:26:23 -0400

Processing.js

Labnotes » Git forking for fun and profit

Thu, 01 May 2008 04:18:10 -0400

Labnotes » Git forking for fun and profit

Using Visor

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:21:54 -0400

Using Visor:

Nice and neat for the part-time Terminal user (ie, me).

"It is good to know the truth, but it is better to speak of palm trees."

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:08:40 -0400

“It is good to know the truth, but it is better to speak of palm trees.”

- Arab Proverb

Tempfiles and very large multipart forms

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:14:00 -0400

Ignore the fact that problems with very large forms suggest a user interface refactoring is on the cards. When a form is multipart, the Ruby CGI module creates a Tempfile for many or all of the fields, which on some systems causes the process to die horribly emitting Last Words like:

Errno::EMFILE: Too many open files

This is a workaround that verges on a hack. Adding it to config/environment.rb in a Rails app at least allows one to proceed.

Process.setrlimit(Process::RLIMIT_NOFILE, 1024)

Brought to you by the Dept of Tuesday Morning Frustrations.

"The player itself is as stripped back as we could make it. We though carefully about what buttons we..."

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:06:40 -0400

“The player itself is as stripped back as we could make it. We though carefully about what buttons we needed - why have a stop button, if you have play and pause? Why have FF or REW if you can drag the play head anyway. We added duration a while later, as it seemed useful, and the double-size icon is discreet, but works. And that’s it.”

- cityofsound: Monocle: design notes

".searchbar-engine-image { margin-left: -11px !important; margin-right: 2px !important; ..."

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:05:00 -0400

“

.searchbar-engine-image {
  margin-left: -11px !important;
  margin-right: 2px !important;
  display: -moz-box !important;
  background-color: #fff !important;
}

”

- How to use a Firefox3 GrApple theme and still see search engine icons (if you happen to be a Cmd-K, Cmd-Down type)

Let my People Have Root

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:00:14 -0400

Let my People Have Root:

I am at times wary of Joyent, but on this subject I agree with them. We’re looking forward to trying out some Google Apps here at the Labs, but our inclination to create one is born of merely mild curiousity, which we probably won’t indulge. Certainly nothing serious, for the reasons given in the link.