Blog Archive » May 2008

Zend Framework core developers continue to dismay

May 31, 2008

So while learning Zend Framework, I realized I would need two different doctype statements in my two different view layouts, since I would be using a frameset in my admin, but then regular XHTML everywhere else. I found out pretty quickly I was unable to setup the proper logic directly in the view layout. I also noticed the buggy Zend Framework doctype() helper was allowing n...

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Zend Framework - more stupid idiocy to deal with

May 29, 2008

It seems you're not allowed to use Zend Framework's doctype() helper in a layout file like the docs clearly show. When I tried to use it in my application's layout, my form helper calls would render non-standard HTML. In particular the closing forward slash for my input fields was missing. When I asked the Zend Framework guys about it I was informed the doctype() must ...

Zend Docs.. much suckage

May 28, 2008

Don't count on the Zend Framework documentation to ever be very accurate. Within 24 hours I've uncovered two case sensitivity issues: http://www.nabble.com/layout-content-not-rendering-to17504992.ht ml and: http://www.nabble.com/helper-%27DocType%27-not-found-to17516508. html If they can't get the simple stuff right, why on earth should anyone have any trust ...

VirtualBox "no workie" after kernel upgrade

May 27, 2008

Ubuntu released a new kernel version recently without also releasing a matching VirtualBox kernel module. Like me, you probably got an error message like: VBox status code: -1908 (VERR_VM_DRIVER_NOT_INSTALLED). A pain, but easy enough to work around, here's how: Clean out the exiting "Ubuntu" version of VirtualBox: dpkg -r virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-16...

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Get the next MySQL auto_increment id using ActiveRecord

May 22, 2008

I see this come up on the Rails list from time to time, so I figured I'd document it here as a blog entry. To get the next auto_increment id from a MySQL table using ActiveRecord: @next = ActiveRecord :: Base . connection . execute ( " SELECT auto_increment FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_name='foo' " ). fetch_hash ['...

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Zend Framework, Model Validation?

May 8, 2008

Today while reading what little traffic arrives to the Zend Framework list, some poor user posted this: How would you go about displaying a custom error message when a sub form fails validation? i.e. I've overloaded the subform's isValid() method to add some custom validation thats reliant on a combination of all the fields in the subform, if this fails I'd like to pass a...

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Linux Today pages are now 100% Ads

May 7, 2008

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/linux_unix/Linux_Today_pages_are_now_100_Ads'; Just when I thought Linux Today couldn't get any worse , it did: There now appears to be zero content living among all the ads. It quite hilarious. At this point I've unsubscribed from their RSS feed and will be getting my Linux news elsewhere. Thanks for nothing.

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gem install rails

Updated: May 7, 2008October 17, 2005

The discussion about RubyGems being part of the standard distro is alive and well. The gem server seems slow. A workaround: wget -c http://gems.rubyforge.org/gems/rails-0.13.1. gem http://gems.rubyforge.org/gems/rake-0.6.2.gem http://gems.rubyforge.org/gems/activesupport-1.1.1. gem http://gems.rubyforge.org/gems/activerecord-1.11. 1.gem http://gems.rubyforge.org/ge...

RailsDB 0.2

Updated: May 7, 2008January 20, 2008

I've just released a new version of RailsDB. I've made improvements to table management, error handling, and database connections. Check it out .

Oracle's Silly Sequence Cache

Updated: May 7, 2008April 9, 2008

The more I use Oracle the more I appreciate the lightweight nature of MySQL and even PostgreSQL for that matter. Right tool for the right job I guess :) My latest Oracle issue seemed fairly odd at first. The issue was that I needed sequential numbers from my sequence, but Oracle was giving them to me in what seemed to be blocks of 20 at a time. Instead of 1.. 2.. 3.. 4, it...

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Zend Framework, "Web 2.0 Framework" My Ass!

Updated: May 7, 2008April 27, 2008

Motivation digg_url = 'http://digg.com/programming/Web_2_0_Framework_My_Ass'; I am writing this to inform web developers of my experience with Zend Framework so they can choose wisely when shopping for a MVC "framework" to use with their next "big project". I feel Zend Framework is a lost cause and a complete waste of time to learn and to use. I hope to help other ...

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Zend Framework, What Database Abstraction Layer?

May 7, 2008

Today while reading what little traffic arrives to the Zend Framework list, some poor user posted this : I’ve just gotten access to a clients NetworkSolutions hosting account and tried uploading an application to it only to find out that despite having php 5.2.4 it doesn’t have pdo_mysql or mysqli extension installed. Is there any hope of changing the adapter to some...

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip, Sucks

May 5, 2008

Digg.com informed me NIN had decided to give away, as in "gratis", their latest album, "The Slip". W00h00, right? Wrong. Down in the comments section on Digg, someone noted how it's very likely Lars Ulrich is going to be pissed about the album being free of charge. But after listening to the album twice today, I assure you this, much like all NIN albums, is complete crap. ...

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Linux Today pages are 99% Ads

May 1, 2008

Has anyone noticed lately how the LinuxToday.com pages are simply covered with ads? It's practically unbearable: Maybe 1% of this screen shot (the part I drew a red circle around) is part of the actual news article I went there to read. The rest of the page, the ads, is useless crap. For a site that doesn't even write most of it's own content, it's insulting. ...

Ode to Oracle RDBMS

May 1, 2008

Oh Oracle, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: -1, -2, -3..

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron First Impressions

Updated: May 1, 2008April 28, 2008

The Good: Network Driver My e1000 onboard network hardware was autodetected, unlike any previous Ubuntu releases. Up to now I had been using a 3com 3c59x card I borrowed from a sysadmin down the hall. Now I can give it back. Yes, I'm aware I could have compiled a new kernel. Honestly I think my days of building kernels are pretty much over. I'm more int...