Just a reminder to all my fans and interested folks that my supernatural thriller, Devil’s Hand, is currently on blog tour through November. What the heck does that mean, you ask? Well, it means that various reading/writing blogs, book review blogs, and blogs supporting the world of literature will be hosting reviews, interviews, and a [...]
Archive for the ‘Coding’ Category
Writing, Marketing, Programming, Designing
Posted: 22nd August 2011 by M. E. Patterson in Coding, WritingTags: design, marketing, programming, publishing, writing
So I have a confession to make: I do more than just write software. I know! Gasp, right? I’ll bet no one was expecting that! Yeah, well it’s true. Per my previous post, I’m also a (now published) author, a marketer-of-sorts, and in addition to programming, I’m also reasonably well-versed in design. I’ve designed more [...]
Check out my supernatural thriller!
Posted: 28th July 2011 by M. E. Patterson in CodingTags: devils hand, novel, writing
It’s a bit of a departure from my normal subjects on this blog, but I wrote a book and would love if it readers gave it a try (and passed the word along!) It’s a supernatural thriller about demons, angels, poker, and armageddon, set in Las Vegas. If you like Tim Powers or Dean Koontz, [...]
SQL/NoSQL Debate? Why?
Posted: 27th May 2011 by M. E. Patterson in CodingTags: databases, mongodb, nosql, sql
Short post here. I’m tired of hearing about the SQL/NoSQL “debate.” Seriously. I don’t really understand why there’s a need to stake out territory and then start a war over techno-ideologies. In my opinion, this debate is like having a debate about cars vs. pickup trucks. There are valid pros/cons to buying cars and valid [...]
Basic Linux Server Hardening
Posted: 18th February 2011 by M. E. Patterson in CodingTags: clamav, linux, security, servers
Some excellent tools and tricks to consider when hardening the security on your Linux server, mostly listed here for my own benefit later: Linux Malware Detector on a daily scan mod_security for Apache moving /tmp to a non-executable partition daily scan with ClamAV’s clamscan utility moving SSH to a nonstandard port removing the ability for [...]
Mongoid + Carrierwave + Virus scanning!
Posted: 30th December 2010 by M. E. Patterson in CodingTags: clamav, inherited_resources, mongoid, rails, ruby, virus
Ever wanted to have your app virus-scan uploads BEFORE you attach them to a model? My BigAuthor app for writers and agents needed to do exactly that — I didn’t want some bozo uploading a virus-laden Word doc and then distributing to all the agents that log in to the site. So I set to [...]
I feel bad. I really didn’t mean for you to find out this way, Haml. I mean, Slim is really a lot like you. Really. It’s just… slimmer. And it does all the same stuff, plus some stuff you would never do for me. It fulfills me. It makes me feel like all is right [...]
HOW TO: get fuzzy and plural matches from Sunspot / Solr
Posted: 5th October 2010 by M. E. Patterson in CodingTags: rails, search, solr, sunspot
Looked all over the place for a simple way to get Sunspot to give me back some basic ‘fuzzy’ search results, including ye olde “things that sound kinda like what I typed, even if I misspelled it” and “plural versions of the keywords I typed in.” It’s not that this is a super-hard problem that [...]
Nested forms, hashes, checkboxes and MongoMapper
Posted: 20th February 2010 by M. E. Patterson in CodingTags: inherited_resources, mongod, mongomapper, rails, ruby, solr, sunspot
While working on my upcoming BigAuthor project, I came upon an interesting challenge that turned out to be so simple with MongoMapper that I just have to share it here. Need to create a hash of multiple filter parameters on a MongoMapper document using a form that is cleanly resource-based, using InheritedResources? It’s not as [...]
Starting a new Rails app? Here’s my skeleton…
Posted: 15th February 2010 by M. E. Patterson in CodingTags: activerecord, gems, mongodb, mongomapper, plugins, rails
Not meant to be a “this is what should be done” as much as a “this is what Matt uses, based largely on community popularity, best practice, and Matt’s personal tastes.” Take it for what it is: a point of discussion. Of course, the skeleton of any Rails app will vary from project to project, [...]