Author: Matthew

  • How to block ads on Facebook

    The ads they run on Facebook are getting downright annoying. I’m confident I’m not alone in this feeling. Here’s a beginner’s tutorial describing how you can prevent Facebook ads from being displayed. You also pick up a few other nice features in the process.

    1. Download and install Firefox

    If you’re already using Firefox, you can skip this step. If you’re not, consider this your wake-up call. Internet Explorer just doesn’t cut it anymore. Aside from being completely open source, Firefox allows installation of scripts that enhance your browsing experience. You won’t be able to block Facebook ads without using Firefox.

    Visit this page, click on the big green download link, save the installer to your hard drive, and run it. Proceed through the installation…

    2. Install Greasemonkey

    Greasemonkey is an add-on for Firefox that allows for customization of the way a web page is displayed. It relies on JavaScript, but that’s not important to know for what we’re doing (unless you’re a geek).

    First, bookmark this post. You’re going to restart Firefox after this step. You’ll want to get back to this post so you can pick up where you left off.

    Next, visit this page and click the green “Add to Firefox” button. A dialog will pop up. Wait for the countdown to finish, then click the “Install” button. A new dialog will ask if you want to restart Firefox. Yes, you want to, so do it.

    3. Install Facebook Companion

    This is a Greasemonkey script that does three nice things to Facebook:

    • Removes ads
    • Adds an “Ignore All Requests” button (useful if you don’t want to see new app requests)
    • Adds a plus over all thumbnails that, when clicked, pops up a large version of the image

    To install, visit this page and click on the small, gray button on the right side titled “Install this script” (it’s just below the search box). Again, you will be presented with a dialog and an “Install” button. Click it…

    4. Visit Facebook and enjoy

    Now it’s time to visit Facebook and do some ad-free social networking. Enjoy!

    Extra credit: if you’re interested in browsing for Greasemonkey scripts that do other cool things, check out Userscripts.org

  • One week left for Ruby Hoedown proposals

    You’ve got about a week left to get your proposals in for a talk at the Ruby Hoedown, the South’s regional Ruby conference. Speakers will receive free admission and an as of yet undetermined honorarium along with dinner the night before the conference. (C’mon, you can’t possibly pass up free food.) Ping proposals@rubyhoedown.com if you have any questions.

  • Why geeks need public speaking

    If you know anything at all about public speaking, your perception of it is probably that it’s a playground for salespeople, marketers, and trainers; an outlet for extroverted businesspeople to practice their presentations to upper management. This is certainly true, but there is another group that can gain enormous benefit from learning and practicing public speaking: software developers.

    Let’s face it, we software developers are not thought of as your typical public speaker. But there is room us to learn this skill. There is room to push ourselves to do something that will not only benefit us personally, but help the people around us as well.

    Continue reading at the Career 2.0 blog…

  • Setting speed dial numbers on a Sprint RAZR V3m

    I’ve been generally displeased with my Motorola RAZR. Sprint gave it to me over a year ago and aside from terribly poor battery life, it has one of the worst user interfaces I’ve ever seen on a phone. Despite that, it’s very compact and since my Sprint plan doesn’t expire until October of this year I’ve stuck with it.

    Something I couldn’t figure out was how to set the speed dial numbers. Turns out that there isn’t a way to do this through the main “Contacts” list (seems like that would be the best place for it). After Google failed to turn up anything, I began randomly clicking through my settings menu in frustration, attempting to locate the speed dial settings. I finally found them. Finally.

    Go to the main settings pane, then select the “Contacts” button (orange book with a phone icon on the front). There will be an entry on this menu titled “Speed Dial #s” which will let you configure everything you need. Why this wasn’t included on the main contact list I’ll never know, but there you have it.

  • Download an image file using wget

    wget -O filename.png "http://some.url/folder/some_image.png"

    And to upload the same file using Capistrano:

    task :something do
  put File.read("filename.png"), "#{deploy_to}/remote_filename.png"
end

  • Key_read/uudecode failed when pulling from git

    I began getting a strange error message from git earlier this week:

    key_read: uudecode (random SSH key junk here)
 ssh-rsa (more random SSH key junk here)
 failed

    The error message only showed up when I ran git pull. Google didn’t find much to help me, but acting on a hunch I removed the IP address of my git repo from my known hosts. The error immediately went away.

    If you’re getting the same message, determine the IP address or domain name of your git repo. Search for those values in your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file and remove them. You should be good to go after that.

  • Career 2.0 at TriJUG tonight

    Has your career been a random product of your manager’s whims or company’s needs? Never rely on your company to keep your skills current and marketable. Take control of your own career with a proven strategy.

    Jared Richardson presents a talk titled “Career 2.0: Take Control of Your Life” at tonight’s Java Users Group meeting in RTP. If you’re curious about the book we’re working on, come on out. His talk will cover a lot of what we’re writing about. Pizza and networking at 6:30, talk starts at 7.

  • Motivation and goals

    Motivation is generally the natural result of what we’re doing. We’re motivated to get a license so we can drive to the store. We’re motivated to learn a new programming language because our current job is boring. We’re motivated to lose weight because we want to look like the people in the movies. But often, motivation isn’t natural or free.

    Yet most things worth doing in life require the proper motivation. If we have goals that don’t have built-in motivation, it’s up to us to provide what’s lacking. For example, I’m not wild about a consulting gig I’m on right now. The work just isn’t that interesting. I motivate myself to work on the project each day by taking hourly breaks and ending the day with a reward… an hour spent reading a book or watching a movie.

    This is what has worked for me in my particular situation. The things that motivate you will probably be different. Being around certain people can be motivating. Seeing clear progress towards a goal can be motivating. Cash can be motivating. Reading certain books can be motivating.

    Speaking of motivation, Jared Richardson and I have been in the planning stages of a new book for the past few months. We launched this blog to motivate us to move more quickly toward our goal of publishing the book before the next ice age hits. Having a blog about the book makes us accountable to the public. If we aren’t making progress, people will complain. That’s highly motivating for us.

    What motivates you? Tell us in the comments.

  • Ruby Hoedown 2008

    Ruby Hoedown 2008The Ruby Hoedown moves to Hunstville, Alabama this year. I’m filling Nathaniel’s place as co-organizer this go round, along with Jeremy McAnally who was the driving force behind the conference last year too. We’re cooking up a good mix of Ruby talks. It’s not too late to get your own proposal in: the deadline is June 2nd. David A. Black and Chris Wanstrath are keynoting so you’re in good company.

    This year’s conference is shaping up to be another rip-roaring success, with several companies already onboard as sponsors and some nice giveaways in the works. I expect to see y’all down south in Alabama come August to celebrate our favorite language: Ruby!

  • test_spec_on_rails goes Git

    The test_spec_on_rails plugin, which provides some nice helpers for testing Rails applications when using test/spec, has moved from Subversion to Git.

    Check out the profile page or clone the repository itself from this path:

    git://github.com/pelargir/test_spec_on_rails.git