Yeah, winters back. Besides the really short days of sunlight I am really psyched.
I like to thank wordpress for the falling snow option to help all get in the spirit of the fun white fluffy stuff.
Sledding anyone?
I hacking together a report today and discovered the Unicode text I received was actually in Unicode not ASCII. I remembered that ChrW(int) will convert character codes to their associated character. I really wasn’t in the mood to write parsing logic and test it, but luckily I came across a class which does this. I ripped out the method I needed and it worked great in all it’s simplicity. I have included this function below:
Public Function UnicodeToASCII(sText As String) As String
Dim saText() As String, sChar As String
Dim sFinal As String, saFinal() As String
Dim x As Long, lPos As Long
If Len(sText) = 0 Then
Exit Function
End If
saText = Split(sText, ";") 'Unicode Chars are semicolon separated
If UBound(saText) = 0 And InStr(1, sText, "&#") = 0 Then
UnicodeToASCII = sText
Exit Function
End If
ReDim saFinal(UBound(saText))
For x = 0 To UBound(saText)
lPos = InStr(1, saText(x), "&#", vbTextCompare)
If lPos > 0 Then
sChar = Mid$(saText(x), lPos + 2, Len(saText(x)) - (lPos + 1))
If IsNumeric(sChar) Then
If CLng(sChar) > 255 Then
sChar = ChrW$(sChar)
Else
sChar = Chr$(sChar)
End If
End If
saFinal(x) = Left$(saText(x), lPos - 1) & sChar
ElseIf x < UBound(saText) Then
saFinal(x) = saText(x) & ";" 'This Semicolon wasn't a Unicode Character
Else
saFinal(x) = saText(x)
End If
Next
sFinal = Join(saFinal, "")
UnicodeToASCII = sFinal
Erase saText
Erase saFinal
End Function
This has driven me crazy for weeks, I just haven’t been able to access web_dav I setup at dreamhost.com.
I found a perfect article on how to do it at Geek Boy’s Blog. It’s so simple,…
Make sure you add the port number to the url you provide for the network place.
E.g. http://www.mydomain.com:80/foo
Once I did that, I connected instantly. No more need for third party apps, I can just access it. 
The goal of this document is to walk through the installation of a MoinMoin wiki without getting bogged down in any details. We’ll go through requirements, decisions, and steps to complete, that’s all. (OK, I did end up indicating what directories are added; I can’t stand when stuff is added I don’t know about.) I will follow up this post with the details for those who are interested. Once you have completed the steps herein you will have a working MoinMoin wiki on your Dreamhost.com shared hosting account. By no way is this the only way to set up MoinMoin on an account, or even the best way, but I tested it and it will work. Lets get to it!
Requirements
- Dreamhost shared hosting account.
- A domain setup as fully hosted
- Shell and FTP access to the domain account
Assumptions
- Dreamhost running python version 2.4
- MoinMoin version 1.8.5
- Understanding of editing files from Linux shell
- acctname is the accout name you used to access your domain account through ssh and FTPS.
- ~/ = $HOME = /home/acctname/
Decisions
- URL to run wiki from (we use sub directory) [We will use: http://hosteddomain/wiki]
- Private name for the wiki’s instance name [We will use: dhwiki]
Steps
- Download MoinMoin wiki tarball from http://moinmo.in/MoinMoinDownload (moin-1.8.5.tar.gz) to your local workstation.
- From FTP: upload file to Dreamhost into folder ~/files [/home/acctname/files]
** All commands from now on are from your shell access ** - cd ~/files
-
tar -xvzf ~/files/moin-1.8.5.tar.gz [new directory is created: ~/files/moin-1.8.5
-
cd ~/files/moin-1.8.5
-
python setup.py --quiet install --prefix=$HOME --record=install.log
[two directories created: ~/share/moin; ~/lib/python2.4/site-packages/MoinMoin]
- Setup environment variables
-
export PREFIX=$HOME
-
export SHARE=$PREFIX/share/moin
-
export WIKILOC=$SHARE
-
export INSTANCE=dhwiki
-
-
cd $WIKILOC
-
mkdir $INSTANCE
-
cp -R $SHARE/data $INSTANCE
-
cp -R $SHARE/underlay $INSTANCE
-
cp $SHARE/config/wikiconfig.py $INSTANCE
-
chmod -R o+rwX $INSTANCE
- Edit file $INSTANCE/wikiconfig.py
Find and change the follwing lines:- sitename = u'Your Wiki Title'
- logo_string = u'<img src="/wiki/common/moinmoin.png" alt="MoinMoin Logo">'
- Remove hash (#) in front of: page_front_page = u"FrontPage"
- data_dir = '/home/acctname/share/moin/dhwiki/data/'
- data_underlay_dir = '/home/acctname/share/moin/dhwiki/underlay/'
- url_prefix_static = '/wiki' [(remove # from line)]
- mail_smarhost = "dreamhost smtp server"
-
cd ~/hosteddomain
-
cp -R $SHARE/htdocs wiki
-
chmod -R a+rX wiki
-
cd wiki
-
mkdir ./cgi-bin
-
cp $SHARE/server/moin.cgi ./cgi-bin
-
chmod -R a+rx ./cgi-bin
-
cd ./cgi-bin
- Edit file moin.cgi
Find and change the following lines. Please remove the # if they exist on THESE lines:- sys.path.insert(0, 'home/acctname/lib/python2.4/site-packages')
- sys.path.insert(0, '/home/acctname/share/moin/dhwiki')
-
cd ..
- Edit file index.html
Find and change the following lines:- <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL=cgi-bin/moin.cgi/">
- Click <a href="cgi-bin/moin.cgi">here</a> to get to the FrontPage
- Go to your favorite browser and enter your wiki's domain: Http://hosteddomain/wiki
Use these instructions at your own risk. I extend no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy or safety of your data or website.
These instructions where tested by building the following wiki: http://MMonDH.brettski.com/wiki
All comments are welcome
References Used
- http://master.moinmo.in/MoinMoin/InstallDocs#basic-install
- http://www.wombatnation.com/misc/installMoinMoinDreamHost.html
Revision Information
- 11/21/2009
- Initial post after successfully building a wiki following exact steps
| Is this a negotiation, or are you just not interested? I am spending about 40k a month right now on consultants, so I have plenty of money to spend. Culture, to me it's directly impacted by budget and resources. At the time that we spoke my budget isn't nearly as high as it is right now. If you are talking about working evenings you do that already. | ||||||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:11:16 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | When we first spoke, I was under the impression you no longer available after 6:00. You underpromised, so you could over deliver. I found out later that you were one of the hardest working guys that I know. | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:13:30 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | Maybe you don't want to work that hard which is why it became an issue for you when I was pressing it. When I interview people, I always try and understand where their comfort levels are so I understand their boundries. The way I saw it is you wanted to have dinner with your family and got back on the computer later. Here is what I would ask for you to do. | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:15:12 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | Look at your last month, and figure how many hours you really worked. Was it 40-50? 50-55? or +55 hours per week? I am interested in knowing because I am guessing your somewhere between 50-55. | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:18:46 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | When we were in our discussions, you were giving me the perception that it could cause a problem for you at home if you were hoing to have to put in over 45 hours. What I really think is if you could make $110,000 in a 50 hour work week, or you could make $150,000 in a 60 hour work week I think you would probibly work 60. And then figure how you could get it down to 55... and then 52... | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:21:25 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | And at the same time you were doing that, you would get me from 65 to 58, and 58 to 52, and so on. So at the end of the day, it really comes down to how much my time is worth as well as your time. Which is something you might not be taking into consiteration when you limit your opportunities and not discussing this further. | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:23:43 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | Currently, I have 3 consultants I am paying 170,000 and they are not as smart as you are. They are down the street and you were down the block. At a certain point, I am sure you can understand that I can only afford to spend so much time in IT. I am ready to discuss dollars if you are. I am willing to discuss the boundries, or we can not discuss it at all. | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:24:56 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | Hopefully you at least know where I am comming from. Bottom line, I am sitting here writing big checks saying to myself. Would I be writing checks this big and having to invest the time if Brett were here? | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:27:22 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | I don't mind writing the checks, what I mind is when I have ot write the checks and still put in the time. You asked me what my commitment to you would be. If we were to do something, I told you I would give you a year of 60 hours a week of helping you acclimate yourself to our company. Thats a big investment of my time. I apprechiated the question because no one had ever asked me before. | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:29:59 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | So here is what you have to ask yourself... Do I want to pass on the biggest financial opportunity of my life without going to see this man? The question I would ask you, is why would you want to limit your opportunities? | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:34:35 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | The only thing I can think of is that you would be affraid of the industry, maybe that you were getting dragged into the deep end of the pool, giving up a job that I like that I am currently doing. Also, I did hire a senior level programmer for more money than you were asking for when you were interviewing and I am willing to pay him. Because I see how much value he brings me. | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:35:27 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | I guess the question I would ask you is would you be willing to work with a programmer that makes more money that you did if he had the tallent? | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:38:26 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | We have an aggressive agenda, I am looking to bring in top guys to make my life easier. I think you would be a good fit. Tallent costs money, I realize that. Something to consider, the banks are looking to change the comp plans for the Loan Officers and cut what they pay the Loan Officers by 50% of what they pay now. They are doing this as a result of the pressure they are getting from the gov | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:39:50 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | The insurance companies that own mortgage companies are following suit. Which means that we have hundreds of people who are looking at our company as a result of massive pay cuts across the industry, which we are not participating in doing. | ||||
| 11/20/2009 | 8:41:18 PM | mikeg1@ephmc.com (E-mail address not verified) | Brettski *red+u | I know you have been looking for that 1 opportunity that you could capitalize on. Maybe this is it? Is it really that far from the relm of possibility? |
Twitter has always been a big question mark in my head. I must admit, I do use it more and more as businesses use it to send alerts, super sales, and general status updates. And I suppose I wouldn’t of been able to deal with all of this information if it wasn’t for Tweetdeck. What a good way to organize all the noise. Personally I have setup a Loud group, for all those tweeters like Elijah Manor (@ElijahManor) and Jeff Atwood (@CodingHorror). Then there is the main group, for most of the other stuff except for the ones in the last group, alerts. Alerts are for my ISP and other providers who post system and service update via twitter. I actually really like this functionality aspect of twitter, as I am watching one feed to get all my information. In the past (and I guess I still do) I would have to subscribe to many, many rss or atom feeds.
Twitter in one respect is becoming a bunch of bots following each others tweets. There are so many apps out there which auto-follow based on keywords or when someone follows them, that you get these clusters of drones passing data to each other. We should be careful you never know if this may become some AI cognitive network!
This is truly an exciting day for me. The buzz around Microsoft’s latest OS reminds me of the release of Windows 95. Back then it was the new platform, moving away from the DOS/Windows separate systems and memory issues. It was a fun time.
Now, many of us have used Windows XP for eight years or so, not liking the newer, problematic OS’s which have been released. I have used Windows 7, and I like it and I know it will be the OS that corporations replace their aging Windows XP machines with. It’s always a good feeling when things are moving forward in a positive direction
Happy Windows 7 Day!!
I have spent much of my professional career among the windows of MS Access. No matter where I am working or what type of work I am doing, it just seems to follow me. MS Access is surly one of the most important business application to ever hit the market. I really don’t think too many people would argue that point. Well, it’s great until you get big, but its a wonderful way to get there.
So tonight I spent a good 4 hours trying to export an MS Access report to RTF. It wasn’t a complicated report by any means and it’s driving data source is pretty basic too. Though for the life of me I could not print a clean report. Either the lines would wrap in strange ways, or I would get blank pages, or the worst one, footer text landing on the next page.
I tried every grouping, ungrouping I could imagine, moved objects around and I just couldn’t get a clean report where footer text didn’t land on the next page.
What finally fixed my report is to leave some footer after the footer text objects. About the same amount of space as the text objects themselves. Once I did this, I did not experience footer text on the next page again.
It’s always something like this when working in MS Access. You get real far in an app, and then hit some crazy snag that lays you up for some time.
Truly a love/hate relationship
I know I am not the first one to bring this up by any means, but it’s really bugging me. I have done OK this year with my freelancing. It hasn’t been too much work where I am enslaved completely, but enough to help with the bills around the house. Supporting a stay-at-home mom and two kids burns money faster than I could ever imagine. So most of what I have made has been burned away, and nothing has been paid toward taxes. I know it will be a lot, but how much? A headline caught my eye (Extremely Important Tax Rules for Designers in the United States, at In The Woods [an rss I watch]) and basically kicked me in the butt to look into this before I am sitting down filling out my 1040.
With the year winding down, I am thinking about my tax return for this year and how my added freelance-earned money may effect it. Well as I have read into it, it will effect it a lot! One helpful article I found on the matter is, Taxes and Freelancing at About.com. This article coverd much of the basics and has some good pointers on getting organized and what information you will want for filling out Schedule C on your tax return. The article supplied better information the the In The Woods one.
So, sure that is a bit of a pain, a lot more to organize and keep track of, but one of the biggest part of the pain is Self-Employment Tax. What is Self-Employment tax, well in a nutshell its the Social Security and Medicare taxes you pay on any net profits you have.
The Self-Employment tax is 15.3% — Social Security Tax is 6.2% and Medicare Tax is 1.45%. Wait you say, that only comes to 7.65%, and you are correct, though since you are self employed, you must pay the employee and employer portion of the tax. 7.65% times two is 15.3%. For those of you who are a bit curious yes, if you are a W2 employee you pay 7.65% in Social Security and Medicare taxes. Please note, in 2009 Social Security tax is only paid on the first $102,000 subject to Social Security tax. I am sure this will play into your Self-Employment tax number too, though I don’t know for sure. I can speak more to this once I go through it next February and if I make it over that amount
Please realize, I am not a tax accountant or CPA nor do I play one on TV. The information written here is solely based on my readings and limited experience. Consume it at your own risk.
It feels a bit strange seeing the one plus terabyte drives roll out to the market. It reminds me a lot of when the one plus gigabyte drives came out. It all really seems the same: sizes, pricing, amazement.
I look at some drives sitting around my desk; removed some time ago do the the plowing of a machine (I prefer a new hdd over erasing a current one). I look at a drive, 80GB hmm, that seems small. Really, did I just think that–yes I did. Simply because the 500GB drive I have installed now has plenty of space on it. This is no different than when it was 80MB drive and I had that first 720 MB drive in my main machine. This all really has the same smell.
Funny, even though I balked at that 80GB drive, I plugged it in to load up my Windows 7 beta. You know what, there was more than enough room for Win7, VS2010, Office 2007, etc.
What are we doing with all this extra space we have on these drives?
My wife and I got some kid-free time today and went to see Julie & Julia. I must say, a very, very good movie. Meryl Streep better get some type of award for her performance, it was just wonderful. I spent much of my childhood watching Julia Child, and Mrs. Streeps performance was so right on!
After the movie, we stopped of at a book store to look around do some browsing without having to chase kids around. Something we did a lot of, pre-kids. I couldn’t believe on how empty the bookshelves were. Only two book sections for computer books. Amazing, I guess everyone is going to on-line tutorials and buying their stuff from Amazon. Perhaps a story for another time, I digress.
While looking through the cook books I found something interesting, “501 Must-drink Cocktails.”
So I have this intersting idea, to have 501 different cocktails in 365 days, and blog about my experience making and consuming the drinks. My inebriated state could only help my writing I am sure. What a perfect farce off of the movie. It would sure make for an interesting time, nonetheless.
