Way We Work

The goto statement is one of the most infamous and troublesome features of old, archaic languages like Fortran. It allowed programmers to quickly create spaghetti code that was confusing and impossible to understand. Thankfully when structured programming came into use in the late 1960s and 1970s with Algol, Pascal and later C, goto was no longer necessary.

This is all ancient history: why am I bringing it up? Well, I just discovered this week that Ruby, one of the most beautiful and expressive languages in use today, includes support for the goto statement!

Queenie's Treasury: Texas-bound.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

It's that time of year again, folks. Time for me to head down to Austin for SXSW, where I'll be staying with Nick and Louisa, cuddling with their dogs - and, most importantly, soaking up the sun on their patio. (Oh, and learning a whole lot of work-related stuff at the Interactive conference, and listening to awesome music, and eating a ton of good food.)

All of these activities demand, of course, serious preparation. Here are a few of the things I'm eyeing in anticipation of the balmy Texas springtime.

First up, a new swimsuit (or two). Lounging by the pool requires a wardrobe update. I can't decide between this floral number from Boden and this striped one from J. Crew. Both are winging their way to me right now, and I don't quite trust myself to send either back.

My toes will be getting the post-winter treatment with this juicy new color from Essie. It's called Ole Caliente, which seems just right, especially as I plan to consume many a plate of migas and many a taco.

Lastly, I'm in need of a little dress to wear as I gallivant from concert to concert (and bar to bar). This bright blue linen dress from Old Navy fits the bill: cheap, cute, and the shape I'm loving now. And it'll look awesome with sandals, flats or even flip flops. Sold!

Austin, here I come!

A quick cocktail.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Hudson Buck at The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights. A bit sweet for me (it had cider and ginger), but tasty nonetheless. If you go, make sure to order the Brussels sprouts and the shishito peppers. And the merguez sausage.

An Interview with Andre Arko and Terence Lee from the Bundler Team

3 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

Can any of you remember what life was like before Bundler came along? Getting a Rails application to work was often a long, tedious trial and error process: you would start up the app and hope that you already had all of the required gems installed. Then when the application didn’t work, you would have to figure out which gems were missing and install them one after the other, hoping you didn’t break other apps.

All of this became much, much easier with the advent of Bundler. Now each Ruby application could specify a list of gems it required, along with the precise version of each gem. Bundler would then allow the Ruby application to access only the specified gems, and no other gems that might be present on your machine.

This week I was lucky enough to have the chance to talk with two members of the Bundler core team: Andre Arko and Terence Lee. We talked about how Bundler works, how they got involved with Bundler, when Bundler 1.1 will be coming out, how the Bundler test suite works, and a few other things. You can read the interview over on RubySource.com…

Stumptown pitstop.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Monday was Presidents' Day here in the States, which meant I had a full extra 24 hours off. I spent my morning going to the gym and drinking a lazy, giant cup of coffee, then headed out for an afternoon of errands and a showing of The Artist. Afterward, I made my way down to 29th and Broadway to stock up on coffee (the lazy, giant cup having rather depleted my stash) at Stumptown.

I grabbed an Ethiopian blend from the shelf and ordered myself a cappuccino. I drank it standing in the window, watching dusk fall over the neighborhood. It was a bittersweet moment, knowing I had to head home to do a bit of work before the evening was out. But the sweet outweighed the bitter - just enough.

BOTS BootCamp | 26 Feb

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

Date: 26 Feb 2012
What time: 9:30am – 11:30am
Where: BumsOnTheSaddle

The Bootcamp is aimed at getting a biker comfortable owning his/her bike and understand how they can derive the max out of it.

If you have not yet received an invite and would like to attend this, please do send us an email at admin@bumsonthesaddle.com

Aavarana by S. L. Bhyrappa

3 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

Recently I read a Marathi translated version of a novel called 'Aavarana(2007)'. The book has been originally written in Kannada by the bestselling novelist Professor S.L.Bhyrappa and translated in Marathi by Uma Kulkarni. The novel portrays the relationship between Hinduism and Islam - in the past and in the present, with two stories going on a parallel track.

The term 'Aavarana' is used in Vedantic literature to denote that aspect of nescience (Avidya) that obscures all things. It is the 'Avidya' that hides the real truth behind its covers. Prof. SL Bhyrappa chose the same name to his novel because he wanted to highlight the current so called Secular and Social faces in India who are trying to hide the real truth with the help of political support.

The book is very informative as the author has actually referred to many books himself before writing this novel. This list can be found at the end of the book nicely included as a part of the story. The incidents that he has narrated by means of a story are based on these references. The author has made very clear that the relationships between communities should be based on a strong foundation of truth rather than systemic misinformation. To be frank, today's education about the Indian history lacks the truth.

One should definitely read this book and have an introspection about what we have been taught since childhood and what is the actual truth. Certainly, no one should feel against Islam or any other religion, that is not the book's intent as clearly stated by the author. The intent is to understand that no relationship can stand successful if it is not based on a strong foundation of truth. Because truth will never die!

Impulse baking.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Last Sunday, I felt the need to bake. I made my mom's fudge brownies, which came out pretty well. The texture was awesome (beating the egg and sugar until they are very pale and thick is the trick), but I used inferior chocolate, and it showed. Or tasted. You know what I mean.

Good chocolate: it is key.

Encased meats, indeed.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

When in Chicago, one should probably eat sausage. The city's heritage lies in its former stockyards, and a Chicago dog is still one of the best things the city has to offer. These days, local folks in the know (and lots of obnoxious tourists like moi) venture north to Hot Doug's for their sausage needs.

The line at Hot Doug's is ever-present, but they keep the pace up and people move through so quickly that there's always somewhere to perch once you get your order in. (And don't forget to bring cash - they don't take plastic.) sEllie and I decided to order two sausages and some fries to split between the two of us. We ordered a chicken sausage, Italian-style, topped with everything (pickle, onions, tomatoes, celery salt) and a brat, topped with grilled onions and mustard.

Both were delicious. The brat was beery and porky and marvelous, split down the middle to allow for just the right amount of mustard and onions in each and every bite. The spicy chicken sausage was brightened up by the vegetables, and its casing snapped as perfectly as any pork link's.

And the fries! We didn't even make it on a weekend (Friday & Saturday, to be exact) when they have duck fat fries, so these were the low-end version - and they were still insanely delicious. Perfectly cooked, but clearly made with fresh potatoes. In-N-Out, take note.

Queenie's Treasury: Escapes.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Thanks to the unseasonably warm weather, I've begun thinking a bit about spring. And summer. And vacations. That said, I also miss the snow, and would give anything for one whopper of a storm before time runs out. My contradictory wishes have led me down a twisty path of vacation home fantasy. First up, winter.

This is Maison Roly, a bed and breakfast in Belgium. When its owners wanted more space, the architects at AABE gave them a modern glass addition that seems to float between the brick of the original house and the snowy ground outside.

It seems to me the perfect thing for a snowy day - sitting right in the middle of the storm, wrapped up in a cashmere throw, drinking coffee or hot chocolate, with the snow swirling all around.

Yes, please.

Now, for my summertime fix, a little midwestern goodness. This is Camp Wandawega, a rustic outpost on Lake Wandawega in Wisconsin (an easy drive from Chicago), which has been around in one form or another since the 1920s.

I absolutely love this treehouse, with its antler chandelier and sleeping loft, and can imagine it would be the perfect place to play Scrabble and make s'mores all summer long.

And, I mean: who doesn't love a rope swing?

Race 1 | Bangalore Bicycle Championships 2012 - Individual Time Trial

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

Race Details

Date: 19 February 2012
Time: 0730 hrs IST (volunteers meet at 7am)
Category: Individual Time Trial
Distance: 20km (10km loop x 2)

This year of racing is gonna see a sea change and is bound to be a lot more exciting!

Oh yeah, since we recommend utmost safety during our races – we are offering a 10% discount on helmets/gloves picked up at the store today (18 Feb).

The Bergamont's are here!

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

The Brand

Bergamont is a German brand and like most brands out of that region they ride on a promise of precision design and stringent quality.

Most of the information available on the internet is in German (use Google Translate) and it’s hard to find Bergamont bike reviews in English.

The Bikes

The bikes seem to be loaded with the right amount of tech, like any good brand would, trying to keep a sensible price and at the same time ensure a quality ride quality.

We saw some good Schwalbe tires, a nice wide handlebar, very comfortable Bergamont saddle and grips and a well designed gusset on the entry level mountain bike. This is apart from the normal ‘features’ that we would expect – hydroformed tubing, good quality drive train components and all backed by stringent testing (on word of the company).

The Hybrids/Cross bikes also come with features like dynamo hubs and disc brakes at competitive prices. The Indian market seems to go ga-ga over mountain bikes while a good quality hybrid would definitely hit the spot and ensure a lot more riding! Looks like the cross category from Bergamont might just about fill that niche.

Our Demo ride

Turahalli is our backyard and the perfect testing ground for mountain bikes – some kickass trails and a good downhill section too.

The build quality of the bikes, the ride experience and the brand commitment cross the threshold which allows us to recommend and stock Bergamont’s at BumsOnTheSaddle!

The bikes are priced reasonable well – the mountain bikes are similar (quality/pricing) to most of the other better known brands out there. But the hybrids kick ass! Pricing, feature-wise and a sweet ride to boot.

Experience the ride!

You are more than welcome to drop into BumsOnTheSaddle and take a Bergamont for a spin and experience the bikes.

Hipster Chicago.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

While in Chicago, I got a chance to see its hipster side in full effect. Examples include this meticulously-curated collection of vintage kitchenware at the Randolph Street Market (the whole place was lousy with hipsters)...

...and this chair at Buzz, a coffee shop in Oak Park. (Oak Park, I understand, being the place where Chicagoan hipsters go when they pop out the babies.)

Is Ruby interpreted or compiled?

3 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

Ever since I started to work with Ruby in 2008, I’ve always assumed that it was an interpreted language like PHP or Javascript – in other words, that Ruby read in, parsed and executed my code all at runtime, at the moment my program was run. This seemed especially obvious since the default and most popular implementation of Ruby is called “MRI,” short for “Matz’s Ruby Interpreter.” I always thought it was necessary to use an interpreter to make all of the dynamic features of the language possible…

Wah! Guru

3 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

Last Sunday, I watched an excellent Marathi drama called 'Wah! Guru'. My favorite actor Dilip Prabhawalkar performed excellent in casting the character of Professor Sapre. The drama is based on Mitch Albom's best-selling novel 'Tuesdays with Morrie - an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson'.

It is a story of courage and optimism of Professor Sapre who is diagnosed with the terminal illness of Motor Neuron Disease (MND), a very rare disease due to which the patient loses his muscular control and finally succumbs to it. But Prof. Sapre asks himself - Do I wither up, or do I make the best of my time left?

He makes Death as his final project. Since everyone is going to die, his death can be taught in personal class, that's what he thinks. He starts teaching the bridge between life and death to one of his students by narrating small inspirational stories. And the student actually benefits from his teachings, his positive attitude.

I liked this dialog - 'When you're in bed, you're dead!'
And also this conversation between the student and the professor:-

Student : "Why should we care or think about death now as it approaches towards end of our life ?"
Professor : "My thinking is opposite. The life ends when death approaches us. And hence we need to think of Death every day."

The ebook is available @TuesdaysWithMorrie

So, please watch this wonderful drama or read the book if you haven't already ! Needless to say that my next plan is to read this book ! :-)

ERROR: ActiveRecord oracle_enhanced adapter could not load ruby-oci8 library. Please install ruby-oci8 gem.

3 months ago | Manohar Amrutkar: majestic rails

If you are facing an error on ubuntu while connecting oracle even though you have installed ruby-oci8 and activerecord-oracle_enhanced_adapter you need install following library.

Problem:

ERROR: ActiveRecord oracle_enhanced adapter could not load ruby-oci8 library. Please install ruby-oci8 gem.

Solution:
sudo apt-get install libaio1

I hope this should work for you.

Déja vu, sushi-style.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

On Saturday night, before we went out drinking (but not really carousing), Ellie and I decided that we needed some serious sushi. Ellie suggested Oysy, which, hilariously, is where Nick, Louisa and I ate lunch when we were visiting Chicago in 2009 for Louisa's incredible birthday weekend-of-eating. (If you haven't seen those posts, you should - it was an insane couple of days. Alinea, Tru and Trotter's.)

And so we hopped on the El and made our way to Oysy, where we sat down at the sushi bar and proceeded to eat ALL THE FISH. First, though, I had a most excellent seaweed salad, which came with cucumber. GENIUS.

I did a few orders of ngiri, including scallop (creamy and mild), toro (luscious and meaty), sweet shrimp (chewy and rich) and omelet (sweet and satisfying). Sometimes I forget how wonderful sushi is, especially in its simplest incarnations. It's the ultimate in all-about-the-ingredients eating - not that skill isn't a huge part of it, because it is. But there's something so primal about unadorned, raw fish. Love it.

And then to the not-so-simple. This was the (adorable) red dragon roll, with cucumber, tuna, salmon, roe and spicy mayonnaise. It was good, though not as mouth-poppingly exciting as I'd been hoping for. But really solid.

Mmmmm, sushi.

I love this section in my newspaper..

3 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

Lol…the fun in being married..

3 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

Watershed moment.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

On the Saturday night I spent in Chicago, my friend (and hostess extraordinaire) Ellie took me to a cocktail bar called Watershed, which is hidden below a Champagne bar at State and Ohio. The name is a nod to the bar's focus on local beer, liquor and wine. The room is lovely and warm, with generous banquettes and little tables, and the staff were so freaking friendly in that unpretentious Midwestern way.

I ordered a Manhattan made with a local rye: Lion's Pride Dark Rye, which is distilled just a few miles north of the bar, right in Chicago proper. It was rich and a bit sweet, and made a delightfully old-fashioned (pun not intended, but not edited out, either) cocktail.

On my next trip, a distillery tour is most definitely in order. Or maybe a class about distilling? So many options! Chicagoans, go forth and make some whiskey!

When in Rome.

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

My friend Nicholas is headed to New York for vacation, and asked me to suggest some places where he simply has to eat and drink. Places that fall into the category of "quintessential NYC, on a budget." Well, Nicholas...ask, and ye shall receive. Here are some ideas!

Frankies Spuntino

You all know how much I love the Frankies. (If not, all you need to know is this: it's a lot.) You can't come to New York without eating at least one Italian meal, and these guys do it right. The menu is incredible, the wine list wonderful and reasonably-priced, and it's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner - especially good when you're on vacation and have so many opportunities for deliciousness. Go, and make sure that at least one of you orders the cavatelli with browned butter and spicy sausage. And the escarole salad.

Momofuku Noodle Bar

Another one of my obvious favorites. The Momofuku empire encapsulates the most recent evolution of the New York dining scene, where casual has replaced sumptuous as the go-to model. You may sit on wooden stools, use paper napkins and bump elbows with your neighbor at Noodle Bar, but you'll also eat some of the very best seasonal dishes around.

Café Sabarsky

This cafe is meant to recreate fin de siècle Vienna on the Upper East Side, and it pretty much achieves its goal. Set in a paneled drawing room in a Fifth Avenue mansion-turned-museum, it's filled with Thonet chairs and adorned with Hoffmann sconces. The savory food is good, but the sweets (especially the linzertorte) and the coffee (especially the einspanner) are the best part. Go early to avoid the nutty lunch crowd that inevitably gathers on weekends.

Two Little Red Hens

Some people will tell you that the city's best cupcakes are to be found elsewhere. Those people are, in a word, wrong. Just...wrong. The Hens make the best cupcakes - not too sweet, full of quality ingredients and bursting with flavor. All that said, their breakfast pastries (scones, muffins, sticky buns and - my favorite - cinnamon rolls) and non-cupcake sweets (date bars, fruit pie, cream pie) are my usually choices. But I do have a weakness for their mini chocolate-peanut butter cupcake, too.

And lest this become a novel of truly epic proportions, I'm going to list the rest of my recommendations a bit more briefly. In no particular order...

Balthazar
Head to this classic SoHo bistro for breakfast. You'll save some dough (lunch and dinner can be pricey here), enjoy delicious pastry, and spy on many a power diner.

The Breslin
Another great place for breakfast. You won't have to wait for a table, and you'll enjoy one of the best breakfasts in the city. After all, isn't eating breakfast out one of the great pleasures of vacation?

Ceci-Cela
Best croissants in the city. For reals.

The Dutch
My favorite things here are the cocktails, the oysters and the brunch. Go for drinks or go early.

Five Points
This place isn't new, but it was one of the flag-bearers in the local-and-seasonal-but-not-obnoxiously-self-righteous movement of the early-to-mid aughts. Fantastic cocktails and really great emphasis on seasonal veggies. The kale Caesar is to die.

Acme
My new favorite restaurant - also a great place for a drink. New Nordic cuisine with local ingredients and really cute waiters.

Sripraphai
First of all, this will get you out of Manhattan. Second of all, it's the best Thai food in the city. Take the 7 to Woodside and make sure to order the papaya salad and the pork with chili and basil.

PDT
Really delicious cocktails in a quiet bar. Entering through the phone booth in Crif Dogs only makes it more fun. (You can order hot dogs to your bar stool or booth, too.)

Making Gedit look like Textmate for Ubuntu

3 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

Textmate is the most popular editor tool available exclusively only for Mac OS. Developers love it due to its simplicity, lightweightness and excellent feature set availability. While working on Ubuntu (11.10 64-bit), we have the default gedit editor available which is also very good. However, if we want to have some Textmate like features with gedit, we can follow these simple steps to make gedit look like Textmate:-

(1) Installing extra gedit plugins :-

$ sudo apt-get install gedit-plugins

(2) Installing Textmate 'Monaco' font

Download from http://www.gringod.com/wp-upload/software/Fonts/Monaco_Linux.ttf and execute below commands:

(3) Installing syntax color scheme darkmate.xml

Download the darkmate.xml file from http://grigio.org/files/darkmate.xml

From gedit, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Font & Colors. Then click Add button and locate the download file(darkmate.xml). Also select the Monaco font.

(4) Activating installed plugins from gedit -> Edit -> Preferences -> Plugins

From this pane,we can enable following plugins as per our requirements :-
-Bracket Completion
-Code Comment
-File Browser Panel
-Snippets
-Word Completion, etc.

With these settings, your gedit now looks like Textmate :-

If you want to avoid the above steps, then we have also another option called Gmate. GMate is a collection of plugins, themes/styles and other improvements to get TextMate-like features in Gedit. The package will add some themes and plugins you can enable/disable from the Gedit preferences. To install GMate in Ubuntu, use the following commands:

In the upcoming posts, we will also try some other text editors available for Linux Ubuntu.

BBCh12 - bigger, better, stronger, faster

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

What is BBCh

A set of 10 awesome bicycle races thru the year in Bangalore. Every 3rd sunday of the month, February thru November.

Race Schedule

We have a rough race schedule out there. You can sign up for the races well in advance if you like. If you have any issues with signing up please do email us at admin@bangalorebicyclechampionships.com

Awesome New Features

Feb Race

The First race of the season would be a prologue. You can sign up for it here – More details about race day would be shared by the team

Interesting links

There are a ton of folks who are making BBCh12 happen this year, too many to talk about here!
If you would like to sign up to help out please do request access to our BBCh12 planning group

BBCh12 - bigger, better, stronger, faster

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

What is BBCh

A set of 10 awesome bicycle races thru the year in Bangalore. Every 3rd sunday of the month, February thru November.

Race Schedule

Awesome New Features

Feb Race

The First race of the season would be a prologue. You can sign up for it here – More details about race day would be shared by the team

Interesting links

There are a ton of folks who are making BBCh12 happen this year, too many to talk about here!
If you would like to sign up to help out please do request access to our BBCh12 planning group

Covey’s Time Management Matrix

3 months ago | Riju Kansal: Riju's Thoughts Captured...

I'm back!

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Hi, all! I'm back from Chicago, and can report that it was awesome. I had sushi, a Manhattan made with local rye, sampled two sausages from Hot Doug's, visited Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio, and...lots of other stuff, too! Detailed reports to follow, so get ready for some midwestern goodness.

For now, I leave you with a shot of the moody sky above Frank Lloyd Wright's first home, in Oak Park. Cool, right? Right.

Permission denied . fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

3 months ago | Doel Sengupta: Doel

Journey to the center of JRuby

3 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

This week I decided to take a look at JRuby, which is a Java implementation of the Ruby interpreter. I’ve heard great things about JRuby, but had never taken the time before to look at how it works internally. What I found was an amazingly complex system involving many different technologies. Following the path of execution through the JRuby stack was like peeling away different layers of an onion – there was always another layer inside.

Read on to join me on a journey through all of these layers; we’ll see how a simple Ruby String method call is handled by Java, how it’s translated into Java byte code, and, ultimately, how that is translated into native machine language by the JVM’s Just In Time (“JIT”) compiler. While you may not be convinced JRuby is the right platform for you – certainly just the hearing word “Java” is enough to send chills down my spine – I hope you’ll come away with a new appreciation of the elegance and sophistication of what the JRuby team has built…

Recording tests with JMeter

4 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

We had a requirement of load/performance testing in one of my earlier projects. Instead of using commercial and expensive Silk performer, we gave a try to open source Apache JMeter and it worked really well for the purpose that we were looking for.

The Apache JMeter is an open source software, a 100% pure Java application designed to load test functional behavior and measure performance.

There is an excellent step by step guide available @JMeter proxy Step-by-step for how to record tests with JMeter. The guide explains the steps for creating a test plan with JMeter's proxy. The proxy records the requests sent to the server.

There are different kind of Listeners available for viewing load test results like Aggregate Report, Aggregate Graph, Summary Report, View Results Tree, Monitor Results, etc. Sharing one sample output of Aggregate Report :-

While setting up the load tests, we also need to take care of some config elements for more accurate results like HTTP Cookie Manager, HTTP Authorization Manager,HTTP Cache Manager, HTTP Request Defaults,HTTP Header Manager, etc.

I could not go through all the elements of test plan in depth due to time constraint, but one can go through these documentation links for stepping into more technical details :-

- JMeter User Manual
- Elements of a Test Plan
- Component Reference

Just the way I like it.

4 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

Best way to eat leftovers? Spoon them into a ramekin, top them with an egg and bake the whole thing at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolk is still a bit wobbly.

Sriracha is optional, but recommended, as is a sprinkling of sea salt and a grind of black pepper. A green salad on the side wouldn't hurt, either.

Oh, and - the leftovers in question (this time)? Lentil salad with bacon.

Chicago, here I come!

4 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

My last trip to Chicago was something of a whirlwind. It was Louisa's 30th birthday, and we were there to sample the most luxurious fare the city had to offer. The chef's table at Trotter's, a caviar staircase at Tru, and pure imagination at Alinea.

This time around, I'm going for something a little more low-key. A tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio, dinner at Longman & Eagle, and brunch with the lovely Jessi.

But what else, folks? What else shall I do? I'm off to Chicago tomorrow, where the weather is unseasonably warm and the food is notoriously tasty. I wouldn't mind a bit of shopping, either. Tell me your secrets, Chicago dwellers and lovers! Share your favorites, and I'll do my best to visit them all.

Installing VM(with Ubuntu + RVM + Ruby + Rails) on my Windows 7 system

4 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

I wanted to give a try on my Windows 7 system to create and run Virtual Machine with Ubuntu OS. As my colleague Manohar rightly pointed out the reason @Ruby on Rails Development Platform in Enterprise behind this, I followed the instructions to install VMWare and Ubuntu on my Windows 7 laptop.

A. Download and Install VMWare Player which is free for personal non-commercial use.

B. Download 64-bit ISO of Ubuntu.

C. Create a New Virtual Machine for Ubuntu 64-bit using VMware Player. The steps are simple. It takes default 512 MB of RAM but I allocated 2 GB of RAM. It took me around 1 and half hour to install all the necessary files for ubuntu. So have a patience!

My host system configuration :-
Processor: Intel Core Dual i5 CPU, RAM: 6GB, 64-bit Operating System, Windows 7 Home Premium

Some issues that I faced and the corresponding resolution :-

(1) With Ubuntu 32-bit(recommended) ISO file download, the VMWare could not identify the 64-bit Ubuntu OS. So I downloaded 64-bit ISO file for Ubuntu 11.10 verison. With this file, the VMWare was able to detect 64-bit Ubuntu OS correctly.

(2) When I went ahead with the installation, I got 2 warnings/errors :-

To run virtualization software and virtual machines, hardware virtualization technology should be enabled. I enabled Virtualization Technology (VT) in motherboard BIOS settings which is disabled by default and then restarted my machine. This resolved my issue and Ubuntu(64-bit) was then successfully installed on my VM.

I followed the steps mentioned @Ubuntu, Ruby, RVM, Rails, and You to install RVM, Ruby 1.9.3, Rails 3.1.3 and mysql2. The steps are self explanatory and straight forward to follow. Thanks to Ryan Bigg for this !

Now I am ready to try out some ruby/rails development on Ubuntu @ my home pc :-)

Snaps from Sudhagad fort

4 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

My wife and I recently visited Sudhagad fort near Pali. Sharing few snaps captured from Sudhagad fort. (Sunset view is my favorite! :-)

Tailbaila view from top :-

Sunset view :-

Enjoy the nature beauty ! :-)

A chat with Nick Quaranto about RubyGems.org internals

4 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

Nick Quaranto (@qrush) revolutionized gem authoring in 2009 by launching a new gem repository called Gemcutter.org. Suddently for the first time any Ruby developer could publish a new gem simply by running “gem push my_awesome_gem.” The speed and simplicity of this new process caused an explosion of Ruby gem development and publishing. Gemcutter.org was later moved to RubyGems.org and became the Ruby community’s default gem repository.

I enjoyed listening to Nick chat with the RubyRogues about RubyGems.org a couple of weeks ago, especially the stories about how Nick got started developing Gemcutter and it’s early history. Then last week I had the opportunity to chat with Nick about how RubyGems.org actually works. I was curious to know more about what happens on the server when I push a new gem file, how it serves gems to everyone so quickly, and how it works with the new Bundler 1.1 dependency API. You can read the highlights of our conversation over on RubySource.com…

Who is talking?

Archive

3 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

3 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

Race Details

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

The Brand

The Bikes

Our Demo ride

Experience the ride!

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

3 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

3 months ago | Manohar Amrutkar: majestic rails

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

3 months ago | Nirmal Merchant: Urban Gypsy

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

What is BBCh

Race Schedule

Awesome New Features

Feb Race

Interesting links

3 months ago | Rohan Kini: blog@BumsOnTheSaddle.com - Home

What is BBCh

Race Schedule

Awesome New Features

Feb Race

Interesting links

3 months ago | Riju Kansal: Riju's Thoughts Captured...

3 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

3 months ago | Doel Sengupta: Doel

3 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home

4 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

4 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

4 months ago | Queenie Takes Manhattan: Queenie Takes Manhattan

4 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

4 months ago | Niranjan Sarade: InLoveWithNature

4 months ago | Pat Shaughnessy: Pat Shaughnessy - Home