Thoughts on Google's data storage service
A friend sent me a link to this story about Google planning a service to store user's data. I read the article, and all I can say is "no thanks". I might use it as a backup service, but I sure don't...
View ArticleDatabase-driven version of states dropdown data
Some time ago I created a brief blog entry that shows an HTML select/option block for displaying all the states in the United States in a dropdown list (combo box). After a few requests I'm now...
View ArticlePut Perl test data in the same file as your source code
Perl test data FAQ: How can I store some sample/test data with my source code in Perl?Answer: With Perl it's very easy to store some sample data in the same file as your Perl source code. Assuming...
View ArticleShould design be held back by a tyranny of data?
When Doug Bowman left the Google design team, he didn't leave quietly. He wrote two blog entries about his reasons for leaving (Goodbye, Google, and Hello, Twitter).read more
View ArticleHow to embed data in your Perl program
Here's a sample Perl program that demonstrates how you can include (embed) data inside of your Perl program, right in there next to the source code.This simple program takes the data after the special...
View ArticleRuby CSV - An example of how to split CSV row data into fields
Ruby CSV FAQ: Can you share some sample Ruby code to demonstrate how to read a CSV file in Ruby?I just created a Ruby script that would open, read, and parse a simple CSV file. If you're interested in...
View ArticleHow to sort an array of Ruby objects by multiple class fields
In a previous tutorial I wrote about how to sort an array of Ruby objects by one field in the object. In today's tutorial I'd like to demonstrate how to sort an array of Ruby objects by multiple...
View ArticlePerl files example - How to open and read data files with Perl
Perl files FAQ: How do I open and read files in Perl?This article demonstrates how to open and read files in Perl. As you'll see, the creators of Perl thought this was a fundamental activity, and...
View ArticlePerl pipe - Reading from a pipeline with Perl
Perl pipeline FAQ: How can I read output from a shell command pipeline (pipe) in a Perl script?One of the great things about Perl is that it's very easy to run operating system commands, and read the...
View ArticleJava URL and URLConnection example - how to read content from a URL
Question: Using Java, how can I open a URL from my program, and then read the content of that URL?read more
View ArticleJList "add data" - how to add/edit JList data
I don't need to do add data to the JList in my current Java/Swing application, but out of curiosity I did some research to see what you would have to do if you wanted to add data to a JList, and here...
View ArticleHandling spaces in Linux shell script input (and for loops)
Linux shell script FAQ: How can I deal with spaces (blank spaces) in my input data when I'm writing a shell script for loop or while loop?I was just working on a Linux shell script, and ran into the...
View ArticleScala - calling foreach on a Seq to populate sample data
I just saw the following Scala source code in a Play Framework 2 sample application, and it struck me as a nice example of how to call the foreach method on a Seq to populate some sample data:read more
View ArticleHow to populate sample data when a Play Framework application starts up
If you ever need an example of how to do something when a Play Framework application starts up, check out the Zentasks application in the Play distribution samples directory. You'll find the following...
View ArticleConnecting to the NeuroSky ThinkGear API (in Scala)
If you want to connect to the NeuroSky ThinkGear API -- what they call the ThinkGear Socket Protocol -- this code shows you how to do it, at least in Scala. It consists of a few pieces of code I pulled...
View ArticleA Sencha Touch 2 container/list with static data
There are probably simpler ways to do this, but for the moment, here’s a Sencha Touch 2 panel with a static list of data:read more
View ArticleHow to extract data from XML nodes in Scala
Problem: In a Scala application, you want to extract information from XML you receive, so you can use the data in your application.SolutionUse the methods of the ScalaElem and NodeSeq classes to...
View ArticleScala: Extracting data from an array of XML elements
Problem: Your XML data has an array of elements, and you need to extract the first element, second element, or more generally, the Nth element, using Scala.SolutionThe following simplified version of...
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Software is amazing
It’s amazing what you can do with software. A “solution” with one set of data can become a denial of service attack against yourself with a larger set of data. (This graph shows the result of the...
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Is the "War on Drugs" working?
This article shares the graph shown that says the “War on Drugs” isn’t working. That appears to be true, but unfortunately you can’t really know that it’s true because there is no control group. What I...
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