I was getting the following error:

Error: uninitialized constant MysqlCompat::MysqlRes

Then I uninstalled the mysql gem and tried to install it again only to get the following error:

Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError)
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

Then I issued the following command:

sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

and then installed mysql gem and it installed with no problems. Finally, rake db:migrate worked again.

The body language is important in situations where there is confrontation, opposition and reaction. It is also very important even for simple and relaxed chats. When two people try to discuss a difficult subject, it is very easy to get the wrong signals reading plain text. It would be a whole better if people were chatting face to face or even using voice.

What plays a key role is whether a person is generally pleasant when you are around them in the same room. When people smile a lot and generally approach things in a positive way, they are likely to transmit the same feelings even when someone is chatting with them using plain text. What helps, is the image of that person in the mind of the other chatting party. It’s the memories of the mood that person is in when interacting closely with the other party.

For example, when I chat with a person that is very distant and negative when I am around them, I get the same feeling when chatting with them using IM. It takes some effort to perceive what they type in a positive way even if they don’t say something in a negative way.

Being pleasant, smiling and open to your colleagues is a key factor towards a better communication even using text messaging.

After reading “Zsh Prompt Magic” I created the zsh_vcs_info file which you can download. You place it in your home directory and open .zshrc and add the following line:

source /home/user/.zsh_vcs_info

Notice that I added a . (dot) in the filename because I want it to be hidden. Also, notice that “user” in the path above, is the username of the account you use to log into Ubuntu.

<%= link_to 'List of posts', posts_path %>

or the following in the controller:

redirect_to posts_url

Why should I use _url in the controller. I have used _path and it seems to work.

This is an explanation I found in a forum and I quote:

*_path are for views because ahrefs are implicitly linked to the current URL. So it’d be a waste of bytes to repeat it over and over. In the controller, though, *_url is needed for redirect_to because the HTTP specification mandates that the Location: header in 3xx redirects is a complete URL.

DISCLAIMER: There are more ways and many situations that are not described here. This is only a note to self that may also be useful to you.

Pull from your remote repository to make sure everything is up to date

git pull origin master

Create a new local branch for keeping your changes way from your local master branch

git branch my_new_feature

Switch to that branch and start working

git checkout my_new_feature

After finishing work and running successfully any cukes/specs/tests, commit

git commit -am "Implemented my new super duper feature"

Then, switch back to local master and pull if you need to also merge any changes since you first pulled

git checkout master
git pull origin master

Merge the local feature branch to master and run any cukes/specs/tests and if everything passes push changes

git merge my_new_feature
git push origin master

This is my preference: I delete the temporary local branch when everything is merged and pushed

git branch -d my_new_feature

Update – Here is a more sophisticated approach: Agile git and the story branch pattern

$ git log

command doesn’t show the actual modified/added/deleted files. You can use the following command for that:

$ git log --pretty --stat

or

$ git log --pretty=format:"[%h] %ae, %ar: %s" --stat

I found the latter in one of Alex Young’s tweets.

If you have any favorite git log formats, please feel free to mention them in a comment.

For RSpec:

$ gem install rspec

For Cucumber:

$ gem install cucumber

Optionally, if you are on Windows, for color output you can also install Win32Console:

$ gem install win32console

Step 1: Find out your Highrise iCalendar URL

You do that by navigating to Tasks and looking at the bottom of the page for a link that says “Subscribe to your iCalendar task feed”. Clicking on that link will take you to another page where you can find your iCalendar URL. You copy that and you go to the next step.

Step 2: Go to your Google Calendar

Locate your “Other calendars” panel and click Add, to add a new calendar. Choose “Add by URL” in order to enter the iCalendar URL you found in the previous step.

Google Calendar Add By URL

Enter the iCalendar URL in the “Public Calendar Access” field and press “Add”. That’s it. This calendar will automatically contain all your Highrise tasks. You can go to the calendar settings and add a default notification setting for SMS. That way, every Highrise task will end up in your mobile phone.

If there are any connection problems that lead to a timeout, the build is broken. In older CC.NET versions I could have no Internet for hours, without getting any broken builds or error messages.

CC.NET 1.4.x lets you control the new behavior using three version control related configuration tags on the project level. Here is a portion of a CC.NET configuration file that shows these tags:

Note that the parameters you see above are optimal for my topology. Yours may need different combinations.

maxSourceControlRetries instructs CC.NET how many times to retry if there is a problem communicating with your version control server.

stopProjectOnReachingMaxSourceControlRetries = true tells CC.NET to stop the project after reaching the maxSourceControlRetries. This helps because if the communication problem is permanent, you don’t want CC.NET trying to connect to the version control system again and again.

sourceControlErrorHandling = ReportOnRetryAmount instructs CC.NET to report the error after it reaches the maxSourceControlRetries.

You can find detailed explanation of each of the parameters above in the CC.NET documentation.