On the Floor

Ruby Gotcha With Array::uniq!
I had a method that added a bunch of stuff to an array, then did some clean-up to it before returning it.   # collect stuff here. . Read more...

Automatically Encode Video to HTML5 Formats With Zencoder
(Note to readers: this is a highly technical tutorial aimed at intermediate to advanced Rails developers who wish to add video encoding capabilities to their application. Online video is increasingly popular, so managers, clients, and most importantly users, are clamouring for integrated video capabilities on websites. However, serving video online can be a tricky proposition. Read more...

Turn Wordpress into an Image-Slinging Warhorse in Three Steps
Wordpress: know it, love it. One of the largest publishing platforms in the world, used by everyone from CNN to Kobe Bryant to some guy in Provo who really likes Tetris Party. Wordpress: something for everyone. Read more...

3 jQuery plugins I use all the time
When making anything over and over you tend not to notice repetitive actions. The other day I stepped back from what I do and I noticed a few things. I've used a lot of jQuery plugins. Read more...

Operator Precedence and Code Readability in Ruby
I was reading about operator precedence in ruby the other day and noticed that the "and" and "or" operators are NOT the same as the && and || operators.   They are actually about 6 levels of precedence below && and ||, meaning that there is a lot of stuff that gets processed before "and" and "or" become relevant. This means that your logical expressions can become a little more readable by using a mix of the two kinds of logical operators. Read more...

Goodbye NetBeans, Hello Textmate
I recently decided to give up on NetBeans as my editor/IDE for my rails development as it was bogging my system down too much.   It, coupled with 20 open tabs in Firefox, and my countless desktop widgets were making my system unusable.   Rather than cut back on widgets, I've decided to give Textmate another shot, and have been really happy with it, after an initial period of adjustment. Read more...