that's cool

Quicky:

Are you using OS X to develop the next big Rails app and need ImageMagick, RMagick and friends?

Well, just point your browser to rubyforge and download the rmagick-osx-installer package, unzip it and read the fine manual. If you have all the pre-requisites, "sudo run" the installer script and then... go out for a coffee.

When you're back you'll have the following log in your terminal windows:

libpng was installed successfully
libjpeg was installed successfully
ghostscript was installed successfully
ghostscript-fonts-std was installed successfully
FreeType was installed successfully
libwmf was installed successfully
ImageMagick was installed successfully
RMagick was installed successfully
Removing rm_install_tmp directory...Done

That simple.

Everybody loves a self explanatory error message....

...and this ain't a very good example of one, is it?

my version of this week in tech

Like most geeks I spend much of my off (work) time trying out software solutions just for the sake of knowing how it works and evaluating my options.

So this week I got interested in streaming again. Apple as a good offer. You should check it out. Not only is Darwin Streaming Server free, it is also open source (well not _exactly_ open source, but you can get the source), and they offer you pre-compiled binaries for Linux and Windows.

ESR, one of my personal heroes seems to have fallen out of love for Red Hat and is currently trying to land a job with Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth, it has been rumored, was seen buying a one way ticket to the next space shuttle for tourists (tm). Probably no relation what so ever between these events.

Steve Balmer said that Vista's poor sales are a consequence of pirating, giving linux lovers and CTOs all around the world another reason to suspect Microsoft’s stance on security. I mean, if they can't protect their own software...

Of course that since that they're being so generous with their licensing this time, I'm sure the adoption rate will not reflect the sales figures.

Mono is now supporting native Visual Basic code in their new release.

Sarcasm mode on:
Well, Mono belongs to Novell, Novell seems to be 0wn3d by Microsoft so I'm not surprised.
Sarcasm mode off:
Really, this is great news for me and, I'm sure, to some other ex-VB addicts.

Finally, it seems that Terrasoft (Yelow Dog Linux, anyone?) is giving me another reason to buy a PS3.

open software everywhere

One of the biggest surprises that my new job had stored for me, was the abundant usage of open source software all over the infrastructure!

I mean, I expected to be one or two apaches in there, but found that there were only one type of web server that would do the trick. Apache. It makes perfect sense.
But that's not all, we (damn..I'm one of them...) use:
-Apache
-Mysql
-Tomcat
-Ubuntu
-Joomla
-Perl

The list could go on, but you get the picture.

But what I'm most proud of, is that they are now beginning to know and love ruby. And that was thanks to me :o)

skype reads your mail... err .. web-pages

Today I learned that a new feature in skype announced in their web-page as a " a “cool new thing"” actually (and obtrusively) reads the content of the web-pages you visit.

How it works, is that whenever the daemon reads a number that it thinks is a phone number, it automatically adds a link to the page allowing the user to make a skype phone call to that number.

But what it also does (and that could be just bad programming...), is that when your visiting a page (lets say that its your e-banking page), it searches for numbers (for instance, your bank account number and that it'’s something like 0351214412233) and then offers you to call someone Portugal (international country code 351) with the phone number 214412233.

What that reveals is not a wonderful feature that skype now brings you, but that you privacy is not so private when you use their software.

Best-ever freeware

Today I saw (another) list of "Best-ever freeware" on digg, wich was aimed at MS Win users. People never seem to get enough!

One of the biggest problems IT Staff find in their jobs is preciselly supporting software that users decided to install because they had read somewere that is was "the best app in the world" or something to that liking.
Even in home environements, people seem to only be satisfied when they have positively crammed their PCs with all the (most times) useless junkware!

That leads us to the biggest problem in the computer world... Ignorance (wich is said not to be an excuse). I personally think that its my obligatoin (and anyone who knows what he's saying ... er... writing...) to help others make better use of their computers and teach them how to avoid turning their computers into zombies or spam boxes used by criminals.

Altough most software that you'll find either in magazine companion CDs or on the web promise to make your life easier and your on-line experience better, try to think about these few simple questions before you download and install any of them:

1- Would you eat food that you didn't know (or at least have a reasonable expectation) that it was safe? So why would you install software that you don't know anything about its makers?
2- Do you have private photos, movies or any other files that you don't want just about anybody to see? If you want to go into filesharing, consider that others will have (at least) the same access to your PC that you'll have to theirs.
3- Cracked software isn't all that different from a stolen car. It just gives you the feeling that you can't get caught. The keyword here is "feeling". When ever you want a particular piece of software that has a price tag, pay for it. If you can't, consider a free (and open source, if possible) alternative.

Security is an achivable goal. And security will make your life easier and your on-line experience better.