Timing out a unix command

It’s a while since I wrote a techy article here. Let’s change that. Last week I was asked how to handle running a shell command from Ruby, with the added requirement that if the command took longer than a certain time it should time out. Running commands from ruby is easy, and you should watch [...]

Sucking tweets into a local database

A friend asked me yesterday if I could snap together a script to build a local database of tweets using the twitter search API. This is what I came up with. The script takes one argument – the term to search on – and creates a sqlite3 database in the current directory containing all the [...]

Play IF in Campfire

Ruby is an excellent language for writing small scripts to glue stuff together. Here’s a script I knocked together that lets you play a zcode text adventure (interactive fiction) with your friends in Campfire. You’ll need a room, account, etc. in Campfire; you’ll need to compile this version of dumb-frotz; and you’ll need a zcode [...]

Ruby on Rails popularity

Even seasoned IT professionals occasionally give blank stares when I tell them that we program in ruby, using ruby on rails. What with a recent endorsement from Martin Fowler and this graph – spotted on Jason Huggins’ blog – it seems that ruby and rails are truly gaining the popularity they deserve.

Mock objects and life expectancy

For my sins, I’m a smoker and caffeine-addict. On a previous project, before I discovered the mock-objects religion, it took so long to run unit tests before a code check-in that I had time to nip downstairs, get a coffee, have a quick cigarette and be back upstairs before the green bar was halfway done. [...]