Monthly Archives: April 2008

CoolMax CN 350 NAS

4/28/2008 – 7:45 pm

I recently picked up the CoolMax CN-350 NAS for only $20 after a $30 mail-in rebate and a $10 Google Checkout signup bonus. So far I have been pleased with the device. It comes with the following noteworthy features.
* Fast Ethernet (100Mbps)
* USB2
* CIFS/SMB or FTP access (network)
* Attached [...]

By jasonb | Posted in Product Reviews | Comments (1)

Okay, I am done with RadioShack forever

4/25/2008 – 1:44 pm

I wander into my local RadioShack for a simple RCA to S-Video adapter (or SVHS). After looking around, I ask the lady and she finds one for me. It looks unimpressive enough. I ponder a cable to plugin to it, since the original one being replaced was male to female and this [...]

By jasonb | Posted in Rants | Comments (1)

gnump3d and downsampling mp3s

4/24/2008 – 1:12 pm

Recently I discovered gnump3d. It supports downsampling, which is a feature I especially need. However, the example reencoding command for handling MP3s doesn’t seem to work. Instead, I am using a different variant.

downsample_medium_mp3 = \
/usr/bin/sox -t mp3 $FILENAME -t wav - | /usr/bin/toolame -b 128 - -

The original uses [...]

By jasonb | Posted in Quick Guides | Comments (0)

TigerDirect CompUSA spam

4/21/2008 – 6:28 pm

What a perfect marriage. I never liked CrapUSA. It seems TigerDirect has bought them out, and now I am getting weekly spam about the CrapUSA store re-openings. I honestly don’t care. I unsubscribed — supposedly — after receiving the second email about them, but today I have yet another. Supposedly [...]

By jasonb | Posted in Rants | Comments (4)

Rails STI resouce routes routing

4/12/2008 – 12:23 am

After hours of Googling and an ill timed browser reload while typing this the first time, I finally happened upon RoR ticket 10454 which details the problem I am having with inferred routes and STI models. I modified it to supposedly support any level of model nesting. Seems to work now. I [...]

By jasonb | Posted in Rails | Comments (3)

DokuWiki and HOWTO migration

4/5/2008 – 10:49 pm

Since I deployed DokuWiki last fall, I’ve found it to be an excellent tool for managing documentation. It enhances the quality of the final documentation product whilest not getting in the way of writing it. I rather enjoy it.
I am now migrating some of my existing HOWTO documents over to the wiki. [...]

By jasonb | Posted in Quick Guides | Comments (0)

has_many :through and with_scope protected

4/1/2008 – 12:35 pm

If you were following the excellent has_many :through blog, you may find you can’t use with_scope in the methods defined on your association. Instead, just send :with_scope along.

has_many :active_campaigns, :through => :campaign_distributions do
def

By jasonb | Posted in Rails | Comments (0)