All entries of my technical and business blog

Ubuntu: lightdm login manager does not display properly on boot

Feb 5, 2013 linux

When I installed Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04, I had the problem where the terminal would boot up until it said something about checking battery state, and then freeze. If I flipped to a different terminal, I could sudo launch lightdm - and then login on the first terminal. Obviously, this wasn’t my first choice in fixing this, though.

Theoretical Thoughts on Data Object Validation

Jan 29, 2013 php programming

One of the things I struggle with is the validation of data objects. I submit that there is such a thing as a dumb data object and a validation domain object. The validation object could also be some sort of helper or a service I guess. But, the point is, that the main data object doesn’t have validation on it. It has coupled objects that provide that validation.

Conway's Game of Life - In Javascript

Jan 22, 2013 javascript programming

Recently, someone mentioned to me Conway’s Game of Life was a programming challenge at a code retreat they attended. I had never heard of it so I went to take a look at the concept. It seemed like a cool idea. So, I decided to use Canvas and Javascript to create my own instance of it. This is just my first draft of it - so take a look. And, if I’ve done anything incorrectly, please please please! let me know.

Idea: Bible Verse A Day

Jan 15, 2013 business ideas

I did a bit of looking for websites that will service a Bible verse of the day via email, and I did not like what I found. First, I felt that a lot of them were very confusing to use. It wasn’t immediately clear what you were there to do. I didn’t know where to put my email address, etc. Finally, after reviewing a lot of the copy right information with bibles, I wonder if they weren’t breaking the copyrights for a lot of the bibles they offered.

Should you use software you are making new again?

Jan 1, 2013 programming

Lately, I’ve been working on the “2.0” of a very old piece of software in our organization. I rarely use this software - partially out of the pain caused to try to figure out how to navigate it and the associated slow user interface - and partially out of a different theory about new software development. Let me explain.

Using custom view scripts for Zend_Form in ZF1

Dec 25, 2012 zend-framework

To start out, I realize that a lot has changed in Zend Framework 2 regarding Zend_Form. I think there have been a number of interesting changes, but perhaps those changes weren’t explained that clearly either. But I digress. This piece is about Zend Framework 1.12.x Zend Form - and using view scripts for elements/the form.