Pockets of Blue

musings of my mind

Author: alalonde (page 4 of 14)

Automatic updates and software accountability

April 19, 2010 / / 0 Comments

I bought an iPhone a few months ago. It was a difficult decision, weighing the sheer beauty of the device versus its commandeering popularity. Having always resisted spending too much time on it, I never bothered searching out and finding interesting and useful applications. I did end up installing one game though, Scrabble, and have become quite attached to it. The other day I initiated a routine App update, let the updates install, and launched Scrabble.

Same splash screen as always, then, wait….nothing?

Just a black screen. I waited for a couple seconds and clicked the home button. Tried again. Same thing.

I must say that my experience on the device has been pretty great thus far. Beyond some annoying service interruptions here and there, everything of significance has worked quite well. Undoubtedly other, more enthusiastic users haven’t had the same experience, but this was a first for me.

Immediately I thought, crap, why do I bother downloading these updates? Everything works great, what’s the point? What’s in it for me?

Well, not a lot, really. I suppose it depends on the user, but if I download an app and it does exactly what I expect it to, I don’t think about changing it. Updates are just pushed down from the developers to provide new features, bug fixes, or, (unfortunately) advertising.

Not to say that perfection should be expected from version 1.0. This would be near impossible in any app with enough complexity. Bugs occur and need to be fixed. But what happens when users download these routine updates which render their applications unusable? Naturally, they stop trusting them, and with enough annoyance, stop bothering completely.

This is unfortunate for both users and other developers, rendering a useful feature less so. Yet software is increasingly deployed more or less automatically, rarely requiring more than a simple user click. The day of the shrink-wrapped software is past.

Don’t pollute the ecosystem! Think about, really, how vital is this new software update? How well has it been tested on each platform? How will it affect the user experience? And damnit, Scrabble, what am I going to do on the bus now?

Dude, what happened?

March 28, 2010 / / 0 Comments

If you’ve been here before, you’ve surely noticed that things look a bit different. Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally changing the blog’s theme to make it a) look better and b) more readable and usable. The old theme was a bit stale and I had gotten a few complaints, so here ya go. There have been numerous changes behind the scenes, too:

I upgraded from Typo 4.0.1 to 5.4.3. This is a major update. The entire back-end has changed (drastically for the better!), and things work as never before. Funny how you can get used to and just accept a crap version of something. Perhaps this will entice me to post a bit more, since the UI has gotten quite slick.

Now for the nitty-gritty details of upgrading. Don’t bother continuing unless you’re interested in upgrading Typo on a shared hosting service (in my case, Dreamhost). I ran into a few roadblocks along the way, piecing the steps together from numerous sources:

  1. First, I went to the typo upgrade site to get things going. These directions aren’t very good, so I’ll elaborate.
  2. I have gems installed on my account (~/.gems), since mine is a shared account and I like to have control over the software being run there. I simply ran

    gem update -i ~/.gems typo

    to update the gems in my account. Pretty simple.

  3. The next step was to actually install the updated Typo gem into my existing installation:

    ~/.gems/bin/typo install ~/blog_home

    which is where the troubles began. Turns out that the ‘install’ gem tries to back up your entire weblog database into a .yml file. Well, if you have a decent-sized blog, this is going to take a lot of time, and consume a whole lot of CPU and memory resources. Dreamhost kept killing the backup process for that very reason (as this guy experienced, too) which was frustrating. I contacted someone via online chat (which has been quite helpful recently) and got some tech guy on the other end who temporarily turned off the kill process for my account. Well, the backup still took forever, with dire warnings from him periodically (99% CPU. 800MB RAM. How long is this going to take? Uhh…just a couple minutes..)

  4. If the previous command causes these types of problems, I’d suggest backing up your blog database manually via mysqldump, phpmysql, or some other utility. Then disable the auto-backup by hacking the rails install gem ($GEM_HOME/gems/rails-app-installer-0.2.0/lib/rails-installer.rb) and commenting out the ‘backup_database’ step in the install_sequence function:

    #backup_database

  5. Now re-run the command in step 3. This got much further for me, but failed again during the schema migration when Dreamhost killed the process again. The simple workaround here was to run the migration manually from the rails home directory via rake:

    rake RAILS_ENV=production db:migrate

  6. And finally, re-run step 3. This completed successfully for me; however, navigating to my blog again was less than successful, giving the dreaded 500 Rails Application Error. Now, Passenger to the rescue:

  7. Create the file $RAILS_HOME/tmp/restart.txt. Passenger watches this file and restarts when it is touched. This is quite handy for debugging. Now go into config/environment.rb and add these lines beneath the #bootstrap require line:

    if ENV['RAILS_ENV'] == 'production'  # don't bother on dev
  ENV['GEM_PATH'] = '/home/USERNAME/.gems' + ':/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8'
  Gem.clear_paths
end

  8. This tells Passenger to use the gems in your local account first. Now touch the restart.txt file and you should be good to go!

Anticipation

March 9, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Time for a rare forward-looking blog post.

EDIT: This post isn’t quite accurate anymore, as I’ve had to bail on this trip to be in a good friend’s wedding in NY. The river trip’s still on; this one, not so much. I’ll be back.
</EDIT>

I try to keep myself busy, and it’s been a good winter. At least for my ice tools and crampons, not so much for the skis. It’s pretty clear where my priorities lie these days, and between work/climbing/girlfriend I’ve been staying pretty busy.

A couple years ago I was hoping to get in the groove of an international trip a year. This was right when I got back from Nepal — bitten hard by the travel bug. I haven’t been out of the country since.

That’s about to change. Well, actually, technically it’s not, but I don’t consider where I’m going to be part of this country anyway.

That should narrow it down for you. If not, think cold, think mountains, think glaciers, think BIG. I’m Alaska-bound. May 14 I’ll be flying into Anchorage en route to the Ruth Gorge, Denali National Park. I’ll be camping less then ten miles from the tallest mountain on the continent.

Oh, you’re going to climb Denali! How exciting! No. My aspirations have graduated from merely standing atop peaks to standing atop peaks via the most fun way possible. The Cassin Ridge isn’t quite attainable at this point in time, so the Ruth will have to do. Since we will only have a week or so on the glacier we’re looking at a few “smaller” routes, like Ham n Eggs or Peak 11,300. Because of the fickle weather up there, though, itineraries are useless, so all you can do is come up with the most inspiring line up the most inspiring peak possible and hope for the best. That’s what we’ll be doing. If we don’t spend the week storm-bound in a tent.

Oh, and I’m going on a river trip the week before that. Five days down Cataract Canyon in magnificent Canyonlands National Park. Woohoo!

Thank You

February 8, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Most of these posts incubate in my brain for days, weeks or even years before finally seeing light.

I just got done watching American Beauty for the umpteenth time. Perhaps, as the theme of this post weaved its way through my mind like mycelium, the film became the final piece of inspiration to bring it to fruition. Or maybe it was the recent conversation with my wonderful girlfriend, and my appreciation of her unyielding gratitude. She gets it.

You are lucky. If you have family and friends that love you. If you have always had the resources to support yourself. If opportunities fall from the sky into your lap.

I am lucky. I have all these things. Throughout my life, I have been supported by those I love and motivated in ways they’ll never understand. Brandon. Dennis. Evan. Only three of so many.

Thank you.

Six signs that you should probably be spending less time in the office and more climbing

January 7, 2010 / / 0 Comments
  1. You often find yourself at your desk making clove hitches and slipknots in your headphone cable
  2. You keep getting comments about white marks on your work clothes, especially on casual Fridays
  3. You’ve brought climbing shoes to work
  4. You’ve traversed, stemmed or laybacked the office I-Beams
  5. You’ve gone up or down office floors without use of the stairs OR elevator
  6. You constantly find rolled-up, discarded medical tape in your desk, car, etc.

Exercise and Injury

December 11, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Any of my climbing and/or skiing partners over the past two years will attest that I’ve fairly injury-prone. I’ve suffered from one ailment or another for the past 12 months with a broken bone a couple years ago.

However, it should be said that my lifestyle has changed completely since moving to Utah 2.5 years ago. Whereas in New York I’d be lucky to get outside to hike or something once every two months, some weeks I’m outside 3-4 times, with workouts every day in between. I’ve become somewhat of an exercise junkie: Pull-ups, push-ups, fingerboard workouts, front lever progressions, and most recently weighted ice tool dead-hangs. Pretty much every day I’m not actually climbing, I’m doing some other type of workout. Not to mention 20 miles of running a week back when I was training for the Steeplechase and The Other Half Marathon in Moab.

While the broken collarbone was due to general jackassery, the latest injuries have been from overuse. Not wanting to plateau in my performance, I’m constantly mixing things up and pushing myself. I’ve had three finger injuries in the past year (putting me out of commission for maybe 3-4 months total), all from crimpy gym boulder problems. A couple of years ago I had tendonitis in my ankle and leg from running too far, too fast. In early October I injured my Iliotibial Band three weeks into an 18-mile-a-week training schedule off the couch (ugh…stupid).

Thus, my main goal currently is recovery (well, second to climbing as much ice as possible). I’ve learned how to cope and am back to climbing in the gym twice a week with a much-improved finger. Gym bouldering is probably out of the picture for a long time, at least crimpy problems, as finger injuries are awful for a climber. I’m probably going to be suffering through the IT band injury for as long as there’s ice to climb this winter, but that’s ok. It’s all about priorities. Running is out of the picture for as long as necessary.

Looking back, I wouldn’t change anything. It’s a learning process. I’ve never really trained before. High school sports didn’t count — nor did the sporadic weightlifting in college. It’s a new era, and the dreams haven’t gone anywhere…

Goings On

December 1, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Well, it’s been exactly two months. I can’t say I’ve been too busy to post, but this is what’s been going on in the life of Alec…

Sept 26: Adopt-A-Crag Day: Ferguson Canyon

After two years of climbing all over the Wasatch, I decided to put in a Saturday to contribute back to the community.

Steve and I were in a group of 10-12 climbers tasked to do some trail work in the Cathedral area — mostly moving big boulders around and raking dirt and scree. Hopefully our work will prove fruitful in the Spring when the runoff is diverted away from the cliffs and the newly constructed trail. It was a fun if not exhausting day. Honestly, though, I was just itching to climb, so I returned the next day:

Oct. 09: Craggin’ Classic

The second annual American Alpine Club’s Craggin’ Classic event was held in Salt Lake this year, featuring slideshows by local badass Brian Smoot and renowned alpinist Steve House. I spend an inordinate amount of time looking at routes on Mountain Project, and have come across (and climbed) dozens of Brian’s, so I was excited to match a face to the name. The slideshow was superb, looking back at 60 years of climbing in the Wasatch, in every area, in every medium. Seems like the dude has done it all, and is still incredibly humble.

The main event though, of course, was the day of cragging in the canyons. I had signed up for a clinic with a friend, and we happened to fall under the guidance of Cedar Wright, a professional climber known for his crack-climbing expertise. Nancy Feagin, another local under-the-radar badass climber, tagged along. Both guides were exceptionally helpful and modest the whole time, leading by example. We went to the Dihedrals area of Little Cottonwood and played around on some 5.9s and .10s. There I met Erik, a correspondent for Alpinist magazine on his way to moving to Boulder, who later posted this article about the event. It was pretty fun — I even took my first lead fall on my own gear later in the afternoon, just to scamper back up and finish off the climb without further mishap.

Nov. 07: Castleton Tower

Ever since I started climbing, I had heard of the otherworldly sandstone towers of Southeast Utah: hundreds of feet tall, solid rock, and amazing scenery. At last, I made the trip down to Moab to climb to climb the most famous one, Castleton.

I must say I was quite intimidated at the parking lot. The tower looms in plain view, seemingly vertical and unclimbable. However, around the back side of the tower was a series of stepped dihedrals and chimneys that looked easier and less exposed. This is where the Kor-Ingalls (5.9+ III) route lies.

As expected, we ran into several parties on the route, as early November is peak season for desert sandstone. The climbing went pretty quickly, though, and Brian made sure to stick me with the crux third pitch. I needed a few minutes to compose myself before setting off on lead, shimmying up the first section before wedging myself in a chimney to get some gear in. A large section of the crux pitch is unprotected, and only a very low bolt and two small cams protected the upper part, which I chose to stem. The stemming was technical but not too strenuous and I ran it out to the top, heart pounding. Exhilarating! Soon afterwards we were on the summit, about as wide as my house.

Photos

Nov. 13-15: Red Rocks

After reading so many great things about Red Rock Conservation Area, near Las Vegas, NV, I decided I needed to see for myself. Luckily, Brian’s trip was postponed to a later weekend and I was able to tag along. Brenton unfortunately had to drop out so it was just the two of us. We took off early Friday morning and drove through a snowstorm for about four hours down to Cedar City. By the time we passed through Arizona it was sunny and warm again, and soon enough we were passing through the City of Sin. We secured a campground (barely) and made our way to Red Rocks.

I was (am) nursing an injury to my IT band so I was hoping to limit the uphill hiking to keep the pain to a minimum. Thus, we chose to climb in First Creek Canyon the first day. We started on Black Magic, an excellent 5.8 on the Lotta Balls buttress. Brian led the first and third pitches, by far the best of the climb, while I gladly followed. For some reason my lead head was not in shape for the whole weekend, a shame since I ended up on the sharp end for eight or nine pitches! I can only chalk it up to not being familiar with sandstone, especially the textured sandstone of Red Rock. Breaking off a pebble on my first lead of the trip probably didn’t help, either..


Cloud Tower


Mount Wilson and Cloud Tower. The rightmost tower in the center has a 1000′ crack system on the right containing Crimson Chrysalis

The second day we got up at five to beat the crowds to Crimson Chrysalis, a nine-pitch 5.8+ in Juniper Canyon. The approach was arduous, and I was feeling the pain in my knee about an hour into the hike. By 8:30 we were climbing, psyched to be the first party on the route. The climbing was steep, continuous, and surprisingly moderate. I again had to psych myself up for the lead, even though it was only 5.8, and terrifyingly made my up to the next anchors. About half of the belays were hanging, a rarity on a 5.8!

Brian and I swapped leads for the rest of the day, clipping bolts and face climbing. I didn’t need to do more than a dozen or so jams the entire route — gotta love Red Rock! Around 1-2 we topped out on a glorious summit with magnificent views of the valley and Rainbow Wall, towering over us to the west. I’d say it was the best route I’ve ever climbed, and we didn’t see a soul all day on it!

The rest of the trip was pretty anti-climatic, we returned to Lotta Balls buttress the next day for another classic four pitches before making the long drive back to Salt Lake. I’ll be back this Spring!

Photos

Cold Winter Love

October 1, 2009 / / 0 Comments

There aren’t many moments from my childhood I can still recall. One, however, remains illuminated fifteen years later. I was sitting in the back of a classroom with the rest of my 4th-grade classmates in a group discussion with my teacher, Mrs. Bingle. I forget the discussion, but I do remember the question: What’s your favorite season?

I was an exceedingly shy kid growing up (surprise surprise). Rarely would I raise my hand to answer a question or participate in a discussion. My quarterly report card would be immaculate save for a few demerits concerning “needs to participate more” or the like. This time was different, though.

“Winter!” I exclaimed without hesitation before anyone else.

We took a vote, tallied the results, and lo and behold — winter had twice that of any other season.

“I would’ve thought for sure it’d be summer!” Mrs. Bingle said after the tally. “You don’t even have to go to school then!”

Perhaps my rare enthusiasm influenced the vote. It doesn’t matter. As soon as those first flakes start flying, I’m as giddy as a fourth-grader. For the past few days, there has been snow in the forecast for the mountains, and today it came. I awoke to 40-degree temperatures and a cold misty rain over the valley. Sometime around mid-day the fog lifted enough to reveal a snowy blanket on the foothills. I looked out my third-floor window and smiled.

Lately I’ve been basing my ranking of the seasons based on the outdoor activities tied to each. Winter means ice climbing, skiing and mountaineering. How you can go wrong? So what if it’s dark by five? So what if you have to bundle under two extra layers just to go to work? There’s snow!

I’m getting ahead of myself, of course. The snow in the mountains will be gone in weeks, if not days, and the first real snowstorm likely won’t be til November. But these winter teases are all it takes to get me fired up. I’m sick of 85 degrees. It’s been too damn sunny. So bring on the cold and bring on the snow, I’m ready. The rest of Northern Utah sure as hell isn’t, but I sure am. Bring it!

Perfectionism

August 25, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Seven years ago I sat down at a Unix terminal in a dark, stuffy, tiny computer lab in the old Computer Science wing at RIT. Coming from a non-programming but computer-enthusiast background, the whole command-line environment was quite foreign. I was tasked with implementing a few Java methods as part of a weekly lab and, though looking back it seems trivial, was rather overwhelmed. How many lines should this algorithm require? Are there naming conventions I should be following? How should I format my code?

I’m a perfectionist. I got it from my Dad. For a while I thought it was a bad thing and that it was preventing me from getting stuff done. I don’t think that anymore; rather, I think that in order to be a competent programmer you must be a perfectionist.

This isn’t to say I’ve some sort of rock-star programmer. Far from it, actually. Writing code is hard. There are so many variables to consider when writing the simplest of functions it makes your head swim. What if the database server goes down? What if, after checking for a user’s existence, another thread creates that user right before you try and create it yourself? What if all the parameters are null?

Every day, I find myself making incremental improvements in my code. Realizing new error conditions. Documenting more thoroughly. But what am I still leaving out? A lot, undoubtedly. But only through constant re-analysis do I even come to these small realizations. Re-reading methods and comments. Refactoring constantly. Writing girl code. I can’t imagine what a less-obsessive developer is leaving out. Frankly, it’s scary. But, then again, programming is hard. It’s not going to get easier any time soon, and there’s no silver bullet. For now, I’ll just be my anal self, which, luckily, comes rather naturally. Some aren’t so lucky, and, arguably, perhaps shouldn’t be writing code.

It’s really not about you. Sorry.

July 30, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Today I stumbled upon another fantastic blog post by the inimitable Kathy Sierra. It may contain the single best piece of advice for teachers of any kind: center the experience around the students, not yourself. Check it out.

But the concept doesn’t just apply to teaching. I often find myself, likely due to my personality, in situations where I’m thinking “are you really still talking about that? This conversation should’ve ended 15 minutes ago.” This is especially apparent in business settings, where underlying political agendas can so easily derail (or make interminable) the original topic of discussion. Does what so-and-so said really need to be repeated slightly paraphrased by half the meeting’s participants? What benefit is your contribution providing to your audience? Why should anyone care? Everybody’s busy. Perhaps the most effective means of paying respect is by respecting one’s time.

Why stop with teaching and conversing? The best writing employs the same techniques: conciseness and a central focus on a target audience. This blog is probably not the best example, since it was originally a way to let people know of my travels abroad. It’s since had to morph into something different, but I’ve been noticing recently an inverse relationship between a post’s popularity and how much it’s about me. Shouldn’t have really come as a surprise, but strangely, it did. Not that I’ll stop discussing my adventures, of course, but I’ll try to make each more relevant to my (miniscule) audience.

Paying close attention to your audience and their desires is essential. It’s not about you. It’s about them.

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