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no such file to load -- zlib

7 months ago | Manohar Amrutkar: majestic rails

If you have installed rvm and then ruby and now facing below issue while installing rails-
manohar@manohar-Inspiron-1525:~$ gem install rails

ERROR:  Loading command: install (LoadError)
no such file to load -- zlib
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (NameError)
uninitialized constant Gem::Commands::InstallCommand

Below steps should fix your problem as it worked for me.

$ rvm pkg install zlib
$ rvm remove 1.9.2
$ rvm install 1.9.2 --with-zlib-dir=$rvm_path/usr


HEROKU:

If you need to use you might face below problem after installing heroku gem and running heroku commands:

no such file to load -- net/https.
Try running apt-get install libopenssl-ruby (LoadError)
Below steps will work:
 
$ rvm remove 1.9.2 
$ rvm pkg install openssl

$ rvm install 1.9.2 -C --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr
And to resolve both zlib and libopenssl problem use below steps:

$ rvm remove 1.9.2 
$ rvm pkg install zlib
$ rvm pkg install openssl
$ rvm install 1.9.2 -C --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr  --with-zlib-dir=$rvm_path/usr

The insurgency of quality

7 months ago | James Torio: Designing the experience

What comes to your mind when you think of quality? For many of us it is our craft. We think of quality in terms of the code we write or our ability to follow a process such as Agile; the more story points we … Continue reading →

Use your feezer more than your fridge?

7 months ago | Suman Thareja: Spice it up!..

If you freezer has more food than your ‘fridge’ you want to read this article. I tend to always have home cooked goodies (usually from mom) in the freezer and this article really helped in figuring how to keep it tasting just as good as when it was freshly made. First of all – “No [...]

"The part of life we really live is small."

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

“The part of life we really live is small.”

- Seneca

Alluring nature and Indian village farms

7 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

The rain is in full swing here and my friends of Shivashourya trekkers, Mumbai recently had a Panhalgad to Pavankhind - Vishalgad 2011 Padabhraman activity trek. They also visited waterfall in Marleshwar on their return journey. The trek was as usual fantastic. Unfortunately I was not able to join them due to some reasons. However, they sent the photographs to me. The photos reminded me of my last year visit (Paalakhi mohim) to the same place. I am sharing some beautiful nature snaps that my friends shared with me.







I remember one very good quote from John Muir about the nature - "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves !"

And then there was Closure

7 months ago | Rocky Jaiswal: Still learning ... Thoughts of an Agile developer

A while back when I introduced Ruby to a few fellow Java developers they were intrigued by Closures / Lambdas. For most Java developers its difficult to understand what the hullabaloo around Closures and Functional programming is. What more, one …

Read more »

Rahul Dravid - a legend in Test Cricket

7 months ago | Prasoon Sharma: Enterprise Software Does not Have to Suck

Rahul Dravid is a fantastic cricketer, and a role model for younger generation - focused, hardworking and humble.

Dravid recently became the 2nd highest scorer in Test Cricket (Sachin Tendulkar is the leading scorer). His contribution to Indian cricket is enormous and his nickname, "The Wall", is a testimony to his concentration, skill and will that has given India tremendous success in Test cricket. 

Dravid isn't worshiped in India like Tendulkar. He has played his cricket under Tendulkar's shadow. This isn't because his skill, will or contribution to Indian success is second to anyone. Its just that he lives in the same era as another great cricketer - Tendulkar.

Indian test cricket will never be the same when Dravid retires.





Bringing it together - Philosophy, Learning, Agile and Lean

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

I have often been told by my friends and colleagues that my creative, intellectual and recreational pursuits seem too random and diverse to make any sense.  Some have even suggested that I get tested for ADHD.  I feel fortunate to have friends feel free to speak their minds and are genuinely interested in my growth and well-being.

Recently, I reached a point where my apparent random and diverse pursuits seemed to converge into a set of principles that I feel are the essence of what it takes to excel at anything in the face of the unknown and the uncertain.  Many of these realizations come more from my follies than wisdom.  Nothing I say here is new…but the realization of these principles has moved me enough to share them with you.

There is nothing more certain and unchanging,

than uncertainty and change.

— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

This is more evident now more than ever before.  If you can master the leadership and management of change and uncertainty, you have very high chances of succeeding.  So how does one prepare oneself for uncertainty such that our reaction is not to resist or survive but to thrive in the face of it.

I must thank Dan Hoffman, CEO of M5 Networks for introducing me to The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin.  Having read the book and mentally walking through Josh’s quest to master learning, I am beginning to draw parallels in the disciplines of Learning, Agile methodology and Lean Startups.  I want to thank my tutor Barbara Salloway at the School of Practical Philosophy for teaching me this:

Whoever and whatever is in front of you, is your teacher.

And finally, my friend and colleague Yan, for being an eager listener and for engaging in discussions and debates that provoked these insights.

In the next three posts, I will draw parallels between the four disciplines of Philosophy, Learning, Agile and Lean and how each one of them is essentially a quest for mastering the unknown.  Each post will begin with one of the three principles that Josh outlines in The Art of Learning and then discuss its application to the other three disciplines.  I hope this exercise is as as enjoyable and meaningful for you as it is for me.

Contributing to ScaffoldHub.org

7 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

Few months back, my colleague Pat Shaughnessy launched ScaffoldHub.org. It is a collection of Rails scaffold generators contributed by members of the Rails community.

The basic idea behind this website is to take rails standard scaffolding one step farther; it’s a gallery of different variations on the simple CRUD app that the standard Rails scaffold generator produces. Each of these is called a "scaffold."

Each scaffold might use a certain JQuery plugin (e.g. autocomplete or date picker) or Rails gem (e.g. Paperclip or Will Paginate). This is a great way to get a jump start on learning how to use that particular plugin or gem with Rails. In seconds you see something working in your app, and then you can take a look at the generated scaffolding code in detail to see how it works and adapt it to your needs.

Thanks Pat for building this site ! Pat has also written a nice blog about how to contribute a scaffold @contributing-a-new-scaffold-to-scaffoldhub

I contributed 3 scaffolds to Scaffoldhub.org. Initially, it took me some time to contribute my first scaffold to this site, however for rest of my scaffolds, it was really quick as I already knew the steps.

Here are my 3 scaffolds that you may want to try :-
(1) ClearableTextField - Standard Rails scaffolding with JQuery Clearable Text Field plugin. It shows up a cross icon to clear value when user inputs something in a form field and the icon disappears when you clear the field.

(2) WheelColorPicker - JQuery Wheel Color Picker scaffold adds color picker functionality to HTML form inputs in the round color wheel fashion. The Wheel Color Picker dialog appears as user focuses the input.

(3) Cleditor - The cleditor scaffold is based on CLEditor jQuery plugin which provides a lightweight, full featured, cross browser HTML editor that can be easily added into any web site.

Where do good ideas come from?

7 months ago | Lalatendu Das: Interpretations of Technorealism

"Chance favors the connected minds" - Steven Johnson

Binge day dinner courtesy chef Charles

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy



Binge day dinner courtesy chef Charles

And this goes on my Binge Day Backlog

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy



And this goes on my Binge Day Backlog

Shanghai ‘Shalim bao’ dumplings at Shanghai cafe in...

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy







Shanghai ‘Shalim bao’ dumplings at Shanghai cafe in Chinatown filled by mascarpone rice pudding with roasted cherries and peaches.. even found my binge day mantra…

Queenie's Treasury

7 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Hello, readers! As you've no doubt heard (or felt), it's really freaking hot across most of the US today. I'm spending as much of my time today as possible inside where it's air conditioned, which provides the perfect opportunity to draft a Treasury post. Enjoy, no matter what the weather where you are!

First up, some fabulous posters. A few weeks ago, I was shopping for a Mountain Goats concert poster for my brother's birthday gift. I found what I was looking for and more at Poster Cabaret, an Austin-based poster shop that carries a wide variety of stock. I'm especially fond of these posters by Valhalla Studios. I'm seriously pondering a Camera Obscura poster purchase. That lemony color suits their summery music perfectly.

Next up, a fabulous Sneak Peek from Design*Sponge, this time of an apartment belonging to two of You+ME*'s event planning clients. Their wedding (which was featured in the most recent issue of Rue) was gorgeous, so it's no surprise that their apartment is, too. I love their built-ins, their dining area, and this perfect art wall. Just lovely.

I find the Australian food and photography blog What Katie Ate endlessly inspiring. Her cooking is the kind I like - unpretentious yet unabashedly delicious and exorbitant, and her photos are stunning. It fills a bit of the hole left behind by Gourmet's absence. Just a little.

Hello binge day…… Two eggs with bacon, black beans and spinach..

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy



Hello binge day…… Two eggs with bacon, black beans and spinach..

Melting.

7 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Sorry, kids, but it's too damn hot to do anything other than say: it's too damn hot. Go drink some rosé, sit in front of a fan, and wait for it to pass. I'll be back when it's not too damn hot.

Creating your own boundaries

7 months ago | James Torio: Designing the experience

It is much easier to follow direction than to blaze a new path. To join another project and do what we perceive as what is expected from our role.  To limit ourselves, our growth, our opportunities by creating our own boundaries. Or even … Continue reading →

What’s Your Start-up’s/Team's “Bus Count”? 7 Myths of Entrepreneurship and Programming

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

What’s Your Start-up’s/Team's “Bus Count”? 7 Myths of Entrepreneurship and Programming

"We don’t beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well."

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

““We don’t beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well.””

-  -Randy Pausch (1960-2008)  The Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon

The company we keep

7 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

There is the story of a Spartan King who met two of his subjects, a youth and the youth’s lover, accidentally in a crowd. Embarrassed, the subjects tried to hide their blushing cheeks, but he noticed and replied, “Son, you ought to keep the company of the sort of people who won’t cause you to change color when observed.”

Where Google Makes Its Money: The 20 Most Expensive Keywords in Google AdWords

7 months ago | Shakti Choudhary: Smiling Assassin

© 2011 WordStream, Inc.

Lobstah!

7 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

On Saturday night, my sister in law threw my brother his annual birthday clambake (we follow Ina's recipe), and it was a raging success. As a former vegetarian, Miriam enlists me to slaughter the lobsters, which I do with something less than a steely reserve (squealing and exclamations of, "He's still a-twitching" are to be expected), but an acceptable level of aplomb. (I hope.)

Dessert, traditionally, is one of my chocolate cakes - this year, the group expanded from 6 to 16, and so I made two cakes. I'm pleased to say that only half of one cake remained at the end of the evening, including the container of extra frosting I brought along for touch-ups.

Miriam outdid herself decor-wise this year, harnessing her inner Martha Stewart with red-and-white checkered tablecloths, lobster-stamped place card, and the ever-festive lobster bibs.

Success indeed, I think!

can 't find executable rake for rake-0.8.7 (Gem::Exception)

7 months ago | Doel Sengupta: Doel

I faced the weird error coming up suddenly for my rails 3 app using ruby 1.9.2 using pik
the rake.gemspec file under the ruby gems folder getting some issues.

remove the rake.gemspec file
do a fresh bundle install for your application.
need not have to specify the rake version in your gemfile, as ruby 1.9.2 takes care of it.

How Bundler Groups relate to the Rails Environment

7 months ago | Alex Rothenberg: Common Sense Software

Recently I’ve seen more and more Gemfiles that organize gems into groups and it got me wondering how bundler knows which groups to load. For the most part two things happen

  1. At install time - Bundler includes a capistrano task that installs all gems except those only in the development or test groups on your server
  2. At execution time - Rails tells bundler to load the default gems and those specific to your environment (development, staging or production)

How Bundler installs gems into your bundle

To tell bundler to use bundler on the server all you need to do is add the one line below to your Capfile

require 'bundler/capistrano'

This creates a capistrano task bundle:install that ultimately runs something like the command below on your server

bundle install --gemfile /srv/my_app/releases/20110715204318/Gemfile --path /srv/my_app/shared/bundle
               --deployment --quiet --without development test

Okay so it ran a bundle install but what really happened? Let’s take that command one piece at a time.

  • --gemfile /srv/my_app/releases/20110715204318/Gemfile tells it to use our Gemfile, that makes sense.

  • --path /srv/my_app/shared/bundle tells it where to put the bundle. Let’s see what that means.

    It looks like it created all the rubygems directories for to isolate the gems for this project (very similarly to rvm gemsets)

    $ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/
    ruby
    $ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/ruby/
    1.8
    $ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/ruby/1.8/
    bin  cache  doc  gems  specifications

  • --quiet hmm what else can I say

  • --without development test Aha so here’s where it tells bundler to skip the development and test groups. so allall gems outside a group or in a group other than development or test are installed.

How does Bundler remember these settings when it loads Rails and tries to load the bundle? It saves them away in a .bundle directory cat .bundle/config shows us

---
BUNDLE_FROZEN: "1"
BUNDLE_DISABLE_SHARED_GEMS: "1"
BUNDLE_WITHOUT: development:test
BUNDLE_PATH: /srv/my_app/shared/bundle

Now we understand how Bundler and Capistrano work together during a deployment to setup the bundle and install gems on the server. Let’s take a look at what happens when our app starts up.

How Rails and Bundler load your gems according to the Rails Environment

In your config/application.rb, right near the top, you have a line like this.

# If you have a Gemfile, require the gems listed there, including any gems
# you've limited to :test, :development, or :production.
Bundler.require(:default, Rails.env) if defined?(Bundler)

Rails tells bundler to require all the gems in the :default group and also the current Rails.env group. It uses the .bundle/config file to know where the gems are installed and find them. So that’s how the gems appropriate for your environment get automatically loaded when Rails starts.

What if you create a gem group that doesn’t correspond to any Rails env?

This is the problem that started me down this investigation. I came across a Gemfile with a group called cruise like this

group :cruise do
  gem 'metric_fu'
end

It was working meaning our cruise server ran metric_fu but why?

  1. We weren’t using capistrano to run bundle install and instead just checked whether we were on our cruise server and ran the command bundle install in our Rakefile. Aside: We are looking into Jenkins as a continuous integration server that supports bundler This explains why the metric_fu was installed into our bundle (there was no --without so all gems are installed)

  2. When our Rails app starts it would not load metric_fu becuase Rails.env will never be cruise when the application.rb line Bundler.require(:default, Rails.env) runs. We had worked around that by doing the require ourselves.

   require 'metric_fu'

While this does work in that our cruise build works it has the downside of installing metric_fu (and all the gems it depends on) on our production server! That’s because the bundler/capistrano task installs all gems not marked development or test and since metric_fu is marked cruise it gets installed. Now Rails will not load it so its not that bad but its still not good. We can take a quick look on our server to verify

$ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/ruby/1.8/specifications/metric_fu-2.0.1.gemspec
shared/bundle/ruby/1.8/specifications/metric_fu-2.0.1.gemspec
$ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/ruby/1.8/gems/metric_fu-2.0.1
HISTORY  lib  MIT-LICENSE  Rakefile  README  spec  tasks  TODO

Fortunately this is really simple to fix, we just need to change our Gemfile and move metric_fu into the test group

group :test do
  gem 'metric_fu'
end

My advice it do not create any gem groups that do not correspond to your Rails environments as that seems to be what the bundler-capistrano and bundler-rails integrations expect.

How Bundler Groups relate to the Rails Environment

7 months ago | Alex Rothenberg: Common Sense Software

Recently I’ve seen more and more Gemfiles that organize gems into groups and it got me wondering how bundler knows which groups to load. For the most part two things happen

  1. At install time - Bundler includes a capistrano task that installs all gems except those only in the development or test groups on your server
  2. At execution time - Rails tells bundler to load the default gems and those specific to your environment (development, staging or production)

How Bundler installs gems into your bundle

To tell bundler to use bundler on the server all you need to do is add the one line below to your Capfile

require 'bundler/capistrano'

This creates a capistrano task bundle:install that ultimately runs something like the command below on your server

bundle install --gemfile /srv/my_app/releases/20110715204318/Gemfile --path /srv/my_app/shared/bundle
               --deployment --quiet --without development test

Okay so it ran a bundle install but what really happened? Let’s take that command one piece at a time.

  • --gemfile /srv/my_app/releases/20110715204318/Gemfile tells it to use our Gemfile, that makes sense.

  • --path /srv/my_app/shared/bundle tells it where to put the bundle. Let’s see what that means.

    It looks like it created all the rubygems directories for to isolate the gems for this project (very similarly to rvm gemsets)

    $ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/
    ruby
    $ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/ruby/
    1.8
    $ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/ruby/1.8/
    bin  cache  doc  gems  specifications

  • --quiet hmm what else can I say

  • --without development test Aha so here’s where it tells bundler to skip the development and test groups. so allall gems outside a group or in a group other than development or test are installed.

How does Bundler remember these settings when it loads Rails and tries to load the bundle? It saves them away in a .bundle directory cat .bundle/config shows us

---
BUNDLE_FROZEN: "1"
BUNDLE_DISABLE_SHARED_GEMS: "1"
BUNDLE_WITHOUT: development:test
BUNDLE_PATH: /srv/my_app/shared/bundle

Now we understand how Bundler and Capistrano work together during a deployment to setup the bundle and install gems on the server. Let’s take a look at what happens when our app starts up.

How Rails and Bundler load your gems according to the Rails Environment

In your config/application.rb, right near the top, you have a line like this.

# If you have a Gemfile, require the gems listed there, including any gems
# you've limited to :test, :development, or :production.
Bundler.require(:default, Rails.env) if defined?(Bundler)

Rails tells bundler to require all the gems in the :default group and also the current Rails.env group. It uses the .bundle/config file to know where the gems are installed and find them. So that’s how the gems appropriate for your environment get automatically loaded when Rails starts.

What if you create a gem group that doesn’t correspond to any Rails env?

This is the problem that started me down this investigation. I came across a Gemfile with a group called cruise like this

group :cruise do
  gem 'metric_fu'
end

It was working meaning our cruise server ran metric_fu but why?

  1. We weren’t using capistrano to run bundle install and instead just checked whether we were on our cruise server and ran the command bundle install in our Rakefile. Aside: We are looking into Jenkins as a continuous integration server that supports bundler This explains why the metric_fu was installed into our bundle (there was no --without so all gems are installed)

  2. When our Rails app starts it would not load metric_fu becuase Rails.env will never be cruise when the application.rb line Bundler.require(:default, Rails.env) runs. We had worked around that by doing the require ourselves.

   require 'metric_fu'

While this does work in that our cruise build works it has the downside of installing metric_fu (and all the gems it depends on) on our production server! That’s because the bundler/capistrano task installs all gems not marked development or test and since metric_fu is marked cruise it gets installed. Now Rails will not load it so its not that bad but its still not good. We can take a quick look on our server to verify

$ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/ruby/1.8/specifications/metric_fu-2.0.1.gemspec
shared/bundle/ruby/1.8/specifications/metric_fu-2.0.1.gemspec
$ ls /srv/my_app/shared/bundle/ruby/1.8/gems/metric_fu-2.0.1
HISTORY  lib  MIT-LICENSE  Rakefile  README  spec  tasks  TODO

Fortunately this is really simple to fix, we just need to change our Gemfile and move metric_fu into the test group

group :test do
  gem 'metric_fu'
end

My advice it do not create any gem groups that do not correspond to your Rails environments as that seems to be what the bundler-capistrano and bundler-rails integrations expect.

Inspiration strikes.

7 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

I love peanut butter sundaes. (The shot above is vanilla custard and peanut butter sauce from Shake Shack last weekend. Yum.)

I mean, hot fudge sundaes are wonderful, of course, but peanut butter has my heart. And I know that some people simply swoon over butterscotch. All of this (plus the gloriously sunny, hot weather we're having in NYC right now) has me thinking about hosting a sundae party. Some fabulous local ice cream (perhaps with a few homemade flavors, too), homemade sauces, loads of toppings (including booze), and piles of candy-colored bowls.

Seems like the easiest summer party ever, right? Now I just have to find the time - by which I mean a time when people are actually free and in town, never an easy feat during a New York summer.

What kinds of gatherings do you have planned for the rest of the summer? Make me jealous with your backyard barbecues and shipboard cocktail soirees, why doncha?

Do you Git it ?

7 months ago | Aishwarya Singhal: Aishwarya Singhal

Another new experience – Git. I looked at it because it looks like github is a cool thing these days, and well I have to admit that it does look a bit cool I thought I would play with Git and see for what its worth. Having worked with various version control systems – VSS [...]

This is now a peach appreciation blog.

7 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

I don't think there's anything more to say, do you?

Cool stuff: SAP HANA and Microsoft Xbox Kinect

7 months ago | Bhargav Gandhi: AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Capturing MDX statement in SAP BW for a BusinessObjects WebI/universe query

7 months ago | Bhargav Gandhi: AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

There are often times where you need to retrieve MDX query being generated while executing BusinessObjects Web Intelligence reports or universe queries. One of the scenarios where MDX can help is in analyzing the performance bottlenecks.

Following are the steps to capture MDX query in SAP BW. I am assuming that single-sign-on is in place and BusinessObjects enterprise IDs are mapped to the BW IDs.

1) Activate trace in BW for the user who is running the report in BusinessObjects environment. Go to transaction code RSTT and activate the trace.

2) Run the report/query in BusinessObjects (or perform the action which needs to be analyzed from performance standpoint.

3) Once done, deactivate the trace in RSTT.

4) Go to Trace Collection and open the corresponding trace record.


5) The next screen contains detailed information about the trace. It includes attributes(author, environment, etc.), recorded program objects, sequence information, etc.

6) Go to recorded program objects tab and locate the 'BAPI_MDDATASET_SELECT_DATA' program module. Open the same by double clicking it.

7) It opens up an ABAP Debugger session. Set a breakpoint at CL_RSR_MDX_COMMAND~START











 

8) Once breakpoint is set, continue debugging till you reach the breakpoint. Keep a watch on the N_T_MDX table.


9) Open the N_T_MDX table and you can see the generated MDX statements.



Reframe the problem to avoid fools gold

7 months ago | James Torio: Designing the experience

When a new project starts, there is excitement around finding the answer to the eternal question of what problem are we trying to solve? Once we identify the problem, we switch gears and strategize the solution. Only to find months later the project did … Continue reading →

Best ever.

7 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Best scrambled eggs of my life. Creamy, but not runny, and topped with duck sausage and chervil. BEST. EVER. Eaten this weekend at James in Prospect Heights, along with several cups of coffee, a few of Miya's fries, and a tangy green salad.

Yum.

Berries & beans.

7 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

On Saturday, I visited my little local Greenmarket outpost, where I grabbed a lovely mixed bouquet and...not much else. Yes, I bought a pint of lackluster tomatoes and snagged some decent Kirbies, but mostly I was disappointed in the selection of veggies. The only thing I bought that went beyond average? Green beans! I mixed them into a beet and green bean salad with dill, one of my summer favorites.

I didn't need any berries, but they were awful pretty. Blueberries...

...and tart, tangy goosberries!

So, instead of being a neighborhood loyalist, I'm heading back to Union Square this Saturday. I need peaches, you guys. And tomatoes and ur-cucumbers and corn and...you get the idea.

We'll need this later.

8 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

There are two things you can count on in a New York summer: it'll be damn hot, and there will be summer squash. Truckloads of it. At first, you'll be thrilled. Eventually, your creativity will be tested, and, inevitably, you'll just get sick of the stuff and start lusting after fall vegetables.

Luckily, I'm still in the first phase of that cycle. Summer squash and zucchini are out in full effect, and I'm psyched.

A couple of weeks ago, Louisa told me about a salad she'd made from a Patricia Wells recipe: zucchini with avocado, lemon thyme and pistachios. So when I found myself with a plethora of ripe avocados and a couple of teeny summer squash in the fridge, I decided to put a spin on the idea.

I ribbonned the squash using a vegetable peeler and marinated it in Wells' recommended combination of lemon juice and good olive oil (and salt, of course). After I'd let it bathe for an hour or so, I topped the ribbons with avocado slices, sea salt and a generous sprinkling of regular old thyme.

It was so good, you guys. In addition to being incredibly pretty (which, along with how easy it is, makes it a perfect dinner party starter), it was so tasty. The squash ribbons retained a slight crunch and were delightfully bright and sweet. The avocado was, of course, creamy and rich, and the thyme's woodsy perfume goes so well with squash. It's almost always my go-to when it comes to zucchini.

And now you have another way to use up the mountains of squash heading your way. Brace yourselves.

Summer Squash with Avocado and Thyme
Adapted from Patricia Wells

2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. olive oil
Sea salt
2 small summer squash or zucchini
1 avocado
Leaves from 2 generous sprigs thyme

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Using a vegetable peeler or a mandoline, slice the squash lengthwise into ribbons. Arrange them in one or two layers on a platter, then pour the lemon dressing over them. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes to an hour.

When the squash is ready, divide the ribbons in half and arrange on two plates. Peel, pit and thinly slice the avocado, then arrange it on top of the squash. Top with a smattering of sea salt and the thyme, and serve immediately.

Serves two.

Queenie's Treasury

8 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Happy weekend, everyone! I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited for two sunny days of non-working time. Today I'm planning a bit of cleaning, some laundry, a Greenmarket trip and some serious summertime "cooking" (Read: arranging of fruit and vegetables for eating.). Tomorrow it's brunch with Miya and possibly some reading time in the park. And maybe some ice cream. Okay, definitely some ice cream.

In the meantime, let's check out this week's Treasury!

Anyone who's spent any time with me in the last year knows how obsessed I am with stripes. As a matter of fact, I'm wearing stripes right now. And so I absolutely love these stripey canvas totes from Rib & Hull, especially the red one. So sporty, so summery, and so freaking adorable.

Next, a brilliant storage idea from Wit & Whistle, via The Style Files. All you do is paint the lid of your Mason jars with chalkboard paint, and, voila, you can label and re-label them to your heart's delight. I'm going to fetch a sample as soon as possible. No more confusing the espresso beans with the coffee beans for me! (Like I'd ever have something as singularly healthy as acai berry in my kitchen.)

Last but not least, I am currently lusting after this Austrian home. The modern renovation of the antique space is just jaw-dropping. I'm especially fond of the bathroom (I love textiles in a bathroom.) and the kitchen, with its graphic contrast of black and white.

A bit of Bristol.

8 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Bristol, Rhode Island is a town full of ancient clapboard houses (lovingly preserved), grass beaches (with oh-so-rocky shorelines) and lots and lots of boats.

My aunt and uncle bought this historic house last year, and it is absolutely adorable. The rooms are small (the better to heat in a New England winter), and the house rambles around in that way peculiar to homes built before 1900. Even better, it's a block from the water and comes complete with sea breeze and harbor views.

I woke up early every morning and ventured out to the front porch to enjoy the cool temperatures, strong coffee and doorstep-delivered newspaper.

My Aunt Cathi's hydrangeas thrive on the bright sun and cool fog.

On three of my four mornings, I took a walk around town, looping back around to the house by way of High Street, where I spotted my very favorite house of all.

I spotted this oxidized copper gate on Walley Street. It sported elephants and swans, but these dudes were my favorites.

The Lobster Pot is a happening place, you know?

For putting boats in the water.

The church book sale. They had a complete set of V.C. Andrews. No comment.

Fireworks!


This float struck me as very David Lynch. It came toward the beginning of the three-hour Fourth of July parade; I eventually decamped to the beach. The perfect balance, in my opinion.

List of Values(LoVs) caching in BO XI 3.1 SP3

8 months ago | Bhargav Gandhi: AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Recently, I came across a weird behavior while working with BusinessObjects Web Intelligence. I have divisional hierarchy in the prompts for all the WebI reports. Now, inspite of having SSO as authentication mode for the universe connection, the LoVs were getting cached!! As a result, the users were able to see the divisional hierarchy nodes which they don't have access to.

It was a security nightmare. Alright, it was not that bad. Though users were able see and select the nodes, they were getting authorization error message. The users had to use 'Refresh values' option in the prompt window to get the correct LoVs. While technically good, it was not a very pleasant user experience.

This is a bug in BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP3. By design, when SSO is defined as universe connection mode, the LoVs should not be cached. This was discovered only recently because it turned out that entire BO community had BI_ALL. I will not dwell much onto that but not sure why everyone had this super privilege. When we started removing BI_ALL, the issue surfaced.

We raised OSS with SAP. They acknowledged it as a bug and suggested to apply FP 3.2/FP 3.6 or even upgrade to SP4. They released a note 1519503 on this.

Here is the interesting part. We had a call on 06/22/2011 with BO support team on this and they acknowledged the issue as a product bug. Immediately after the call, SAP released the note :).

Consider.

8 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

When my Aunt Cathi is around, one always eats well, and this weekend in Bristol was no exception. There were local yogurt with berries and her own homemade granola, homemade buttermilk waffles with fruit and whipped cream, steak with roasted asparagus...you name it.

And, on the Fourth of July, there were lobsters.

If you're a die-hard vegetarian, I highly recommend you skip the rest of this post.

I killed those lobsters, you guys. I killed them dead. Typically, I steam lobsters, along with clams, mussels and potatoes, in a couple bottles of wine. If you're going to do that, the best and most humane thing to do is to kill the lobsters with a knife between the eyes before you put them in the pot.

But if you're going to boil them, as we did ours this weekend, then you can just drop them in the boiling water. I've also heard tell that the best way to do boiled lobster is to start them in a cold pot and heat the water up around them, but I haven't seen any evidence that it's more humane.

It's interesting, you know, that the killing and eating of lobsters is so fraught for so many. After all, animals with far more complex brains die for our (non-vegetarian) meals every day. And I kill mussels and clams myself on a regular basis. Why should a lobster be different?

Well, it moves, doesn't it? It's a decent size, and it has distinguishable limbs, and it's altogether alive. But while I don't relish the idea of slaughtering my own meat on a regular basis, I can't help but think that being willing to take care of business where a lobster is concerned is an omnivore's duty. After all, if I plan to eat it, I should probably be forced to look it in the eye at some point.

If you feel like pondering the issue further, I highly recommend Consider the Lobster by the late David Foster Wallace. It's pretty excellent. (And a pretty good argument for why Gourmet was unique among food magazines.)

If you don't, here's a recipe for lobster.

Aunt Cathi's Lobster Boil

Giant stock pot half-filled with water
5 lobsters, about 1 1/2 pounds each
1 lemon
1/2 stick salted butter*

Set the stock pot on the stove, cover, and bring to a boil. Gently place the lobster in the boiling water and replace the cover. Cook for 11 minutes, or until the lobsters are bright red and the antennae pull off easily.

Meanwhile, slice the lemon into five wedges and melt the butter over low heat.

When the lobsters are done cooking, remove from the water with tongs, allowing each to drain a bit over the pot before placing on a plate or platter.

Serve the lobsters one to a person, with ample napkins, lobster crackers and tiny forks to go alongside. Portion the butter out into five ramekins and place a lemon wedge alongside. Go to town.

Serves five.

*This is pretty much the only time I'll tell you to use salted butter.

Cool down.

8 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Reader, we recently discussed my love of Micheladas. I'm here today to sing the praises of another beer-based cocktail, the Shandy. In the UK, they make these with carbonated lemonade. This weekend, though, inspired by a bottle of IPA standing next to a jug of fresh lemonade, I decided to go low-fi.

The IPA was a bit bitter, which I figured would make a nice foil to the sweetened lemonade. I filled two glasses halfway with the lemonade, then popped open the beer and topped the glasses off. The technique is similar to what you'd do to make a Bellini or Mimosa - and just as easy.

The result? A refreshing, awfully pretty drink perfectly suited to afternoon drinking, especially for those of us who aren't terribly good day drinkers. (I tend to dive headfirst into a nap by 5 PM if booze enters my system before 4.) Not that you shouldn't have it with dinner. Or after dinner. Or whenever you like.

It's summer; live a little!

Software G Forces: The effects of acceleration

8 months ago | Lalatendu Das: Interpretations of Technorealism

Kent Beck delivered this talk at USENIX 2011

Abstract:
- Effective software engineering is a relative term. As deployment cycles shrink, what constitutes effective software engineering changes radically. Developers must reflect on and choose the right set of software engineering practices based on their release cycle

Independence Day.

8 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Not the movie, the holiday! (Though I do love that movie, in all its brash, ridiculous American-ness. Plus, aliens!)

I'm spending the Fourth in Bristol, Rhode Island, the self-proclaimed most patriotic town in America. My cousins and I are sitting on the front porch at this very moment, listening to the Boss sing Born In The USA and waiting for Bristol's celebrated (and four-hour) parade to kick off.

I've taken a few walks around town during my stay, and have snapped photos of some of my favorite decorations. Bristol is nothing if not up on its bunting.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday. Enjoy the sun, the surf, the turf, whatnot, and try not to think about the fact that tomorrow is a workday.

Happy Fourth!

The problem is choice

8 months ago | Rocky Jaiswal: Still learning ... Thoughts of an Agile developer

One of my favorite dialog exchange in movies is the one between Neo and the Architect towards the end of Matrix Reloaded. Who can forget – “Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to …

Read more »

Learning SAS

8 months ago | Prasoon Sharma: Enterprise Software Does not Have to Suck


I want to learn the heavy-weight of Statistical softwares - SAS. It seems like the default choice for high-end statistics and I want to understand why.

I'm working in the healthcare practice in our firm and want to analyze claims and credit data (Terabytes, 50M+ records). Traditional ways (SQL) are limiting and desktop statistical softwares like R and Stata aren't suitable for such large data analysis. Other contenders (Matlab) don't seem to be in the same league.

So, its time to take a deep dive into SAS.


I'm looking for some advice to create a learning plan...

Good books


Good tutorials

  • I like video tutorials with examples e.g Statistics202.
  • I also like tutorials from a programmer's perspective better
  • Anything for SAS out there?


Good blogs


Experts

  • Will start exploring this. If you know of someone, please let me know. 

Good training courses in New York area

  • Preferably not the ones run by the company themselves. I'm looking for SAS experts who can run hands-on classes

SAS interest groups in New York area

  • I learn well in a study group. Any meetups?


Something good to read !

8 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

After a long time, I got a chance to read two wonderful books - 'The old man and his God' and 'Wise and Otherwise'. The books are written by Sudha Murthy. She has shared her own real life experiences in such a beautiful narrative way that they touch your heart. The most important thing behind narrating these incidences is to pass on a specific message to the reader so that he/she can think over it, can relate the stories to his/her own life experiences and last but not the least can act upon it.

The stories such as freedom of speech, the journey, two faces of poverty, the grateful tenant, an old man's ageless wisdom, forgetting our own history, a bond betrayed on rakhi day, light as many candles as possible, bahut kuch hota hain, Salaam Namaste, crisis of confidence, etc. teach us many things. I am sharing some good thoughts from this book.

----
This is the reply that an old man from Kalahandi forest gave to Sudha Murthy when she showed him some Indian currency :
"This is just a piece of paper. For this paper, people fight, go away from our ancestral land,leave our forest and go to cities. Have we not led a complete life without the piece of paper? Our ancestors did. We are children of God, settled here happily without this paper. This is God's land. Nobody owns this land. No river is created by us. No mountain is made by us. The wind does not listen to us. The rain does not ask our permission. These are gifts of God. How can we 'sell' or 'buy' land, I do not understand. When nothing is yours, then how can you make such transactions?"
The writer ends this chapter with following question: Who is more civilized- this wise old man in the forest or those of us with our fingers on the pulse of the Internet?

----
Everybody should know his/her own capacity and strength. One should also know one's limitations. It is more difficult to recognize our weaknesses than our strengths. Don't aim for the sky. Keep your feet firmly on the ground and work around you. There is so much misery and gloom, but it is better to light a single candle than to remain in darkness. Try to light as many candles as possible.

----
Education means more than scoring good marks in exams or receiving certificates. Life is an exam where the syllabus is unknown and question papers are not set. Nor are there model answer papers. There are various types of questions that can come from any direction, but one should not run away. Education and financial independence are tools that can help us face difficulties, but confidence must be developed throughout life.

----
Each patient is precious. If a patient dies, it is just one more hospital death for the doctor. But for the unfortunate family, it is a permanent loss.

There are a lot of good messages like above ones in these two books. I am sure I have lit a small candle of interest into your minds, and you are certainly going to read these books if you haven't already. Happy reading ! :-)

In-the-Flow with American Hospital Association

8 months ago | Michael Idinopulos: Transparent Office

At last week's E2.0 conference in Boston, I was surprised and pleased by the way my "in-the-flow" phrase has gained common currency. I was also surprised, but less pleased, by some of the "best practices" I heard flying around. Whether...