Posts

Posted on

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-30

  • Hhh: “@madeupstats: Xprts hv wrnd by currnt trnds vwls cld bcm xtnct by 2050.” #
  • Bromsgrove 3rd hockey vs khansa(?) (Warwick). We lost 3-1 🙁 we were winning 1-0 at half time 🙂 #
  • RT: @GeekStats: ~20% of Facebook users state their relationship status. 40% = "single"; 3% = "it's complicated" http://bit.ly/gnuFiH #
  • It seems my turbo trainer doesn't wake toddlers up. This is good. #ExercisingInSecret #
  • “@StormySan: Apparently the phrase 'Like a red rag to a bull' isn't appropriate to describe anger during PMS.” <- good thing Lyne in today #
  • Beware Bromsgrove; I am slowly claiming back mayorship of the town centre. Competition will be squashed….. #4sq #
  • My random PHP serialization performance note – http://bit.ly/hug5bY – igbinary vs serialize vs json_encode (result: igbinary is best). #
  • Batman and superman are patrolling Bromsgrove today. Have no fear citizens. #
  • Now, onwards to meet @zookx … Interesting that they're in a previous office of ours. Still – No excuse for failing to find them. #
  • My minions accepted their payrise without fuss. Perhaps I'll try a negative rise next time and see if they notice. #evil #employer #
  • I'm always slightly surprised when I come across a non supported / non LTS ubuntu release being used in production. #
  • This morning has been mostly Linux sysadmin (virtual host setup, backup jobs, updating stuff). Sometimes the boss let's me code. #pray #
  • Yes, in the end it's beautiful, so beautiful…. You are a puppet. I am a puppet. We are all puppets. #guessTheSong #
  • .@bhamsouthpolice – “Don’t forget that our 24 hour tweet-a-thon starts tomorrow morning at 7.00am. ….” #
  • Customer: can you backup server, here's the root u/p. Me: err I have a few questions first …. #Linux #support #sysadmin #
  • “@StormySan: Ahhh, the first Monkeys call of 2011. Good start to the day :)” LOL-telephony #phonespam #
  • I'm such a gentleman, lending women money so they can get home from a night out. #StretchingTheFactsALittle #
  • “@madeupstats: Let's hope the Daily Mail doesn't get hold of this: almost half of Britain's schools perform below average.” Rotfl. #
  • “@StormySan: !in_array($bitch, $99problems) #technologysongs
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-23

  • Slave labour / someone likes cleaning. http://twitpic.com/3spmzo #
  • I <3 chocolate rice crispy cake. #
  • Turbo trainer found. Now what about the bike ? (volare elite esto mag something.) #
  • Bromsgrove 3rds vs West Brom – lost 2-0. I played the second half. Meh. #
  • Must learn to not leave home without my hockey stick when going to play hockey…. #
  • It appears my body is unwilling to give up it's blood easily. #
  • Blood donation o'clock. #
  • "I will feel better having you there; that is what a relationship is; we average our misery" #house #
  • We can get FTTC 'Internet' – 39/9 mbps down/up (~3x faster, ~2x price than now) but with BTInternet – think i'll stick with BeThere for now #
  • Browsing a Samba share from OSX seems exceptionally painful, especially if OpenOffice is involved. Grr… #
  • I've had enough of Dublin Core, OpenGraph and EGMS meta tags for this morning. Next ticket please. #
  • Ah. The yellow pages is finally letter
    box size. Took "them" long enough to figure that one out ! #
  • Who stole my minions and replaced them with muppets that listen to rap music all the time? #AliensAreHere #
  • I was a bit surprised to see piles of 'snow' still in Tesco's car park earlier (Redditch). #
Posted on

Javascript Linting…

Suffice to say, my minions write a quantity of Javascript. And testing it isn’t all that easy. While rummaging the internet, I came across @NeilCrosby‘s FrontEndTestSuite which aims to automate e.g. w3c validator checks and so on – there will be more on that later I suspect once I get it working.

Anyway, the first part I wanted to do is to run a Javascript linter on things…. as I haven’t really come across these before.

I’ve found two approaches :

Install JavascriptLint

see http://www.javascriptlint.com/download.htm –

Build instructions for the lazy – uncompress/extract the files from the archive, then :

  1. cd jsl-0.3.0/src
  2. make -f Makefile.ref
  3. cp Linux_All_DBG.OBJ/jsl /usr/local/bin

Usage looks a bit like :

jsl -process $file

As per the ‘help’ documentation, it returns different exit codes depending how things went (e.g. 0 – everything good; 1 – warnings etc).

Aside from the annoying compile step, this seemed the easiest to setup, and friendliest to use from the command line.

Mozilla’s Rhino & JSLint.js

This is the approach expected by Neil’s TestSuite above (more soon, perhaps).

Download the Mozilla Rhino thing – for me this is a simple ‘apt-get install rhino‘ YMMV.

  1. export CLASSPATH=/usr/share/java/js.jar
  2. java org.mozilla.javascript.tools.shell.Main /path/to/some/javascript.js

Again, this will give some sort of return error code if it can’t parse it – but it’s not yet running through jslint… which is what we really want.

Firstly, download JSLint.js via https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSLint/blob/master/fulljslint.js (click on the ‘raw’ button)…

  1. (Requires CLASSPATH thing from above)
  2. java org.mozilla.javascript.tools.shell.Main
  3. load(‘fulljslint.js’);
  4. to_test = readFile(‘/path/to/javascript/file/to/test.js’);
  5. result = JSLINT(to_test, null);

If ‘result’ is ‘false’ then you can inspect the errors via JSLINT.errors.

Next up, getting frontend-test-suite running, or something based upon it….

Posted on

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-16

  • Playing for the other team…. #hockey #
  • Nails filed. Breakfast eaten. Hello Sunday…. #
  • Only 3 doors left to open on @rowangoodwin's advent calendar. #festiveSpirit 🙂 #
  • Bromsgrove 3rds 1:7 hampton Arden. #hockey 🙁 #
  • Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. #
  • Neighbours – STFU. Kthxbai. #
  • Not sure why Bromsgrove council feel the need to build a new leisure centre – the current one is fine and only just been refurbished #
  • I can't help but think the Bromsgrove standard is a little optimistic with it's 'cinema in Bromsgove' headline. #
  • I'll soon be deaf unless these burglar alarms STFU. #Bromsgrove #electric #fail #
  • I should pull my finger out and run, before hockey training. Need to meet some zombies while armed with hockey stick -> awesome evening 🙂 #
  • The parenting manual probably says:
    "Rule 57: Do not feed toddlers mince pies after 7pm.". Oh well. @RowanGoodwin had two… #
  • Off to the sidemoor SHED meeting. Community allotment(s) and err something. #
  • RT @GeneHunt The girlfriend's mother was taken ill. I acted swiftly and rushed off to find a pen and paper to write for an ambulance. #
  • Interesting presentation by @akrabat concerning the changes coming in with ZF2… nice to see many new faces at #phpwm meeting this evening. #
  • I'm at fat fighters. #
  • Ditched Microsoft's crash prone OSX remote desktop client; replaced with CoRD; thanks @cordapp #
  • I nominate @GeneHunt for a Shorty Award in #humor because he makes me smile, and glad I'm a man 🙂 #
  • RT @GeneHunt My ex used to get upset if I used her toothbrush. If anyone knows a better way to get dog crap off my boots, I'm all ears. #
  • RT @GeneHunt I love defenceless animals, especially in a good gravy. #
  • Sleepless in Bromsgrove #NewMovieNames #
Posted on

Upgrading Cassandra 0.6 to 0.7 …

For one project we use Cassandra as a distributed backend message store (for an email archive, which by it’s nature is always going to grow in size); we choose to use Cassandra as it offered the ability to replicate data over a number of servers – giving us scalability and redundancy. Also, for the project in question, we only ever retrieve an email based on it’s message-id – which happens to be unique (hopefully) and forms a good key 🙂

Anyway, we’ve been using Cassandra 0.6.x for some time, through the Debian packages the project makes available. All was well, until this afternoon when I saw an upgrade to 0.7 was available… now, I knew 0.7 was a long awaited upgrade (as it would allow us to create new keyspaces etc on the fly; apparently…)… and I thought

“No doubt they [the package maintainers] will have either a big warning message, or some automatic migration from 0.6 to 0.7”

I was wrong.

Upon restart of Cassandra (and chown -R cassandra:cassandra /var/lib/cassandra) 0.7, everything appeared fine – except it had no idea where our Keyspace was – but did give an error message like :

“DatabaseDescriptor.java (line 439) Found table data in data directories. Consider using JMX to call org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageService.loadSchemaFromYaml().” in /var/log/cassandra/system.log

Rummaging through the online docs showed that we’d need fire up a “jconsole” thing to fix it. Unfortunately it running on a remote server, so this wasn’t so easy. The easiest solution seemed to be to download Cassandra locally, copy the remote server’s storage-conf.xml file locally and then run the included ‘bin/config-convertor’ –

bin/config-converter conf/storage-conf.xml conf/cassandra.yaml

This YAML file could then be copied to the remote server (/etc/cassandra/cassandra.yaml); then restart the Cassandra service, and you’re ready to connect via jconsole and perform the ‘migration’ to your pre-existing schema…

ssh -L 8080:localhost:8080 user@remote.server

<<start jconsole, and point at localhost:8080; no authentication required>>

And click :

MBeans -> org.apache.cassandra.db -> StorageService -> Operations -> loadSchemaFromYaml

Once this was done, we found that running ‘show keyspaces‘ from within the ‘cassandra-cli’ client showed what we needed (our well named ‘Keyspace1’).

Then we just needed to upgrade our pycassa version so the client connected properly, and everything started to work….

Posted on

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-09

  • "behave yourself would you, no homework! Watch sone porn!" #supernatural #
  • RT @GeneHunt Gene's 4th law of physics: The more streamlined a woman is, the greater resistance she offers. #
  • RT @GeneHunt There's only one sort of 'man bag' a man should carry and that's the one God gave him. #
  • RT @dick_turpin ipad for the elderly http://ping.fm/h3f2t #
  • Twitter OSX client seems ok; once you realise apple+N is for a new tweet. #appstore #twitter #
  • Snow. Go away. Don't even think about falling. I want to play hockey tomorrow. That is all. #
  • RT @joshprice Top tip: Pay for your homeopathic medicine with a glass of water that's had a $100 note dipped into it #
  • Too many tweets.
    Not enough time.
    'Ctrl-a – mark as read' type behaviour by me. #
  • Dripping tap 1 : 0 David. #Grr #
  • No, I know all I am and we are not to blame. …. Prepare yourself for the subjugation. #zto #
  • RT @wonkothesane http://imgur.com/fDAQd – language barrier <- nice 🙂 #
  • Do all taps take the same sized washer? #dripdripdrip #
  • Thunderbird 2 in action !!
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12110386 #
  • My minions seem to be boasting about how much caffeine they need to drink to get through the day. Clearly they've had too much time off… #
  • Today it seems @rowangoodwin is sleeping in. Why couldn't he do this before when we didn't have to get up? #
  • Rowan is very cute and cuddly lying asleep on my shoulder. #snoreSnore #
Posted on

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-02

  • When my mother complains I'm really quiet on the phone what she really means is that her phone handset volume is turned down very low. #
  • "They were saying on radio 4 that there's a new iPhone germ" said my mother. #
  • RT @carolinegoodwin so it seems my nephew doesn't want a bath & possesses lungs capable of informing all of this situation. Dad 1:0 toddler #
  • Wetherspoons. You need more staff. Especially on a busy evening. #
  • Last run, shower and shave of the year complete. #randomcrap #
  • A modern curse: "May all your presents be delivered by City Link" <- @aypok !! #
  • Bad asda has no LCD tvs left. I predict a day driving now. Grr. #
  • Tron. In 2D. Because I'm a Luddite. #
  • STBXW is dressed like her MIL. #
  • RT @KevlinHenney RT @sf105 Why Companies Should Insist that Employees Take Naps http://is.gd/jIWFK <- interesting. #
  • RT @webmonkeyash Gingerbread house complete and ready to eat! http://flic.kr/p/95H45J <- Nom Nom looks good and yummy. #
  • Bromsgrove dog owners – snow does not remove your responsibility to clean up after your dog. Dog shit is not a grit substitute. #
  • Pudding #1 lost due to baby meddling. #
  • RT @gadgetlab How zip ties can help you bike through a blizzard http://bit.ly/fbLcXs <- too late now ! 🙂 #
  • My iPod Shuffle is dead; any recommendations for equivalent players? Needs to be small, decent battery life; iTunes sync would be nice 🙂 #
  • The rain sounds very nice and relaxing. Hopefully we'll be snow and ice free soon 🙂 #
  • http://sickipedia.org/ – plenty of jokes there…. #
  • Laundered money (with a distinctive tracking colour) http://twitpic.com/3k5tdo #WalletsDoNotNeedWashing #
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-12-26

  • RT @metofficeWMids EARLY Warning of Heavy Snow for West Midlands valid from 0001 Tue 28 Dec to 2359 Tue 28 Dec http://bit.ly/f2JWlL meh meh #
  • Only another 364 day to go …. #
  • The icicles are falling off the house. I guess this is a good sign (thaw) #
  • Wondering if we should record the "x factor" wannabes next door…. #HowlingDogsAreBetter #
  • It sounds like there are a pack of dogs howling next door. (karaoke present obviously arrived). #
  • Merry Christmas everyone. #
  • Due to austerity (reindeer fleet) cuts, Christmas will be spread over two days next year to give Santa time to visit all good children. #
  • http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/incident.png <- Sudo failures go to Santa! #
  • Wondering why amazon have sent a "it's shipped" email after the present has actually arrived. #
  • Local snow 'sculpture' http://twitpic.com/3ivij1 #
  • Drunk reindeer ? http://twitpic.com/3ioxus #
  • Hello winter wonderland place (telford). Now. Where have you hidden Santa? #
  • Car De-snowed. Now minion pickup and gleeclub #
  • Wondering what would make anyone set an Apache DocumentRoot to /home/something … #messy #
  • RT @metofficeWMids FLASH Warning of Heavy Snow for West Midlands valid from 0200 Wed 22 Dec to 1400 Wed 22 Dec http://bit.ly/eNdwx0 #
  • RT @birminghampost Met Office warns of up to 25cm more snow to fall in West Midlands http://tinyurl.com/27txv9p <- hrmph. Had enough now. #
  • RT @birminghampost Cadbury to downsize Dairy Milk bars http://twurl.nl/wsz4wl <- good news for dieters! #
  • .@StormySan we demand proof you've made it. Photo of wedding with today's paper? #stormyWILLgettothewedding #whatWillGoWrongToday ? 🙂 in reply to StormySan #
  • Tellybellys, Tellybellys…. Stinky winkie, Dip shit, lard arse, poo….. I really out to not sing this variant in front of @RowanGoodwin #
  • Anyone using zabbix have any suggestions to help stop the server being an I/O hog? #
  • RT @OfficialSanta ☆★ ONLY 100 HOURS TIL CHRISTMAS ★☆ HoHoHo ☆★ #
  • RT @instruct Holy Shit!! anyone else seen what is at no 66 in the charts?!!! http://bit.ly/foWyh3 #
  • 2 weeks ago, the slightest chance of frost saw the roads covered in grit/salt. Now they're snowed over, the council seem not bothered. WTF? #
Posted on

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-12-19

  • M5 around Bromsgrove looks fine. A38 passable (Tarmac visible, slush etc) Stourbridge road – still White and poor. #
  • Looks like @StormySan has a creeper following him. #
  • Tractor stuck and snowed in! http://twitpic.com/3h2q36 #
  • We now have a Spa shop on Broad St, Bromsgrove. Opening hours 0700-2300. #
  • RT @adventbot There are 7 days to go until Christmas! #
  • Somewhat glad we're not heading off to Presteigne today. #
  • #uksnow ld8 8/10 – 6+ inches of snow apparently. #
  • #uksnow b61 4/10 http://twitpic.com/3h0u3m (stupid camera seems to not see snow flakes) #
  • #uksnow 3/10 b61 – falling lightly. about 1cm on ground. #
  • RT @glynmoody TSA misses enormous, loaded handgun in carry-on bag http://bit.ly/g5YOfx "failure rate approaches 70 percent at some airports" #
  • More please? #frequentlyaskedquestions #
  • Oh noes! someone's broken Facebook! Panic! Panic! #
  • Now for the coughing fit after getting in from a run. Still, no one honked me – and I wore shorts. Swan Lane (fairfield, b61) pretty slippy. #
  • Bromsgrove's 'Breakfast Club Meeting' sent an invite @ 01:36am for 08:00am meeting. Odd I didn't make it… #fail #business #networking #
  • I've just signed a petition to end to the #WikiLeaks crackdown. Sign up @Avaaz http://avaaz.org/wkl and please RT! #
  • Let's try for a nappy free night @RowanGoodwin #DangerWillRobinson #
  • RT @asda downloadable colouring-in pages for kids http://bit.ly/igeOfl #
  • RT @johngirvin Some people are like Slinky springs. Generally useless, but they make you smile when you push them down a flight of stairs. #
  • RT @rowangoodwin Good boy Daddy!!!! #
  • WebScale Database technology – http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6995033/ – #MySQL #MongoDB #lolz #
  • Xmas shopping for customers seems full of pain. Wine? Red or White? Where from? How much? … it just seems too much effort. #apathy #
  • I'm not following you and I'm not some weirdo off the Internet…. But can I watch ? #textyougetfromastalker #
  • My minions appear to have been studying the codebase to a newly open-sourced PHP project… *ahem* #
Posted on

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-12-12

  • RT @brucel So *that's* what Facebook is for http://strikegently.tumblr.com/post/2172591844 #
  • Open fire, draught hobgoblin, no modern music. Nice pub. #Loughborough #thewhitehart #
  • Wondering what all the people are queuing for – off Holloway Circus (Birmingham). #
  • Bromsgrove roundtable's sleigh looks great. (On the high street now. ) #
  • Exim #security #fail http://lwn.net/Articles/419495/ #
  • It only took three attempts and a bank anti fraud phone call to buy my mother her MacBook. Odd the Apple store doesn't do verifiedByVisa? #
  • Railgun developed by U.S. Navy can hit targets 100 miles away – http://bit.ly/f7DYhG <- Bow to your US Naval overlords. #
  • Stupid twitter; do you now know I'm not in Walsall and haven't been there for years? #
  • Interesting that my LloydsTSB business banking card reader is compatible with my Nationwide account…. silly banks. #
  • Quick! Shoot the giant monster toddler while it's not looking!! http://twitpic.com/3e4tj8 #
  • The minions are impressed (?) with me introducing them to http://www.stairporn.org/ (Safe For Work and young eyes) #
  • I'll just put my left over dinner in the fridge, to keep warm… #
  • Curtains frozen onto the window, and the heating was on all night. Brrr. It does look lovely outside, just a shame it's so cold. #
  • Hard at work this morning. http://twitpic.com/3dfgtn #
  • RT @StormySan "Don't worry about it, just spread your seed!". … uh…. yeah… nice advice Lyne… #wtf #tmi #
  • Good morning Jack Frost. You were busy last night. #
  • Apply the brake when walking away from your push chair – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8311289.stm Australia Train Baby #