Fri Dec 26 2008
For a while I’ve wanted a better way to find titles that I could
watch instantly on Netflix. Recently Netflix released an API, and this past
weekend I decided to make a website that would make finding instant titles
easier.
Wed Oct 1 2008
This script checks your Gmail inbox for new messages every 2 minutes and beeps
if it finds any. It’s probably the most bare-bones of all the Gmail notifier programs
out there.
To use, just copy this script into a file on your local computer. You can name the file “gmail.rb”.
Mon Sep 9 2008
For Kindle owners: I just created a website that delivers your favorite feeds
to your Kindle. It also lets you schedule automatic deliveries.
It’s currently in beta, so there may be a few bugs or features I need to add,
so I appreciate your help and feedback. Please visit
Fri Aug 22 2008
kindle-feeds is a command line tool that downloads Atom and RSS feeds and converts them into
a special HTML file optimized for reading on the Amazon Kindle.
Here are some screenshots of the kindle-feeds output transferred to the Kindle. (Sorry
for the super-amateur photography.)
Sun Aug 17 2008
This is a simple command line program to search for tracks on iTunes
and play them. You can also adjust the volume, see all the artists in the
library, and queue tracks with simple and convenient commands.
itunes-command is available as a Ruby Gem. To install, open a Terminal window
and type
Mon Jul 28 2008
Managing web passwords has been an minor annoyance for me for some time. For a
while I kept my web passwords in a plain text file that I had to manually
encrypt and decrypt every time I wanted to look up or add a password. Then I
moved my passwords over to index cards in an index card file. I wasn’t happy
with either method.
Apple’s Keychain password manager is a bit too byzantine. It’s also not very
portable to other computers. I’m impressed the technical wizardry of online
password manager Passpack, but I don’t
feel comfortable storing my passwords on a third party website that might
someday go out of business or accidentally lose its data.
Wed Jun 25 2008
There are software programs that use occasionally, and there are software
programs that people spend a lot of time in. A feed reader falls in
the second category for a lot of people, including me. So it’s important to
have an affinity for your feed reader, like you might have with
your pet and your jeans.
I’ve tried three feed readers in recent years: NetNewsWire, NewsFire, and Google Reader.
Thu Jun 12 2008
ri is the local, command-line viewer for Ruby documentation. I vastly prefer
looking up documentation with ri over mousing up and down and in and out of
HTML frames, scrolling through PDFs, and flipping through books, which have
unfortunately become much more common ways to search Ruby documentation.
ri rocks. But one thing ri does not handle well is ambiguous method lookups.
Thu May 22 2008
This is a simple but convenient Ruby script for anyone who has gotten duplicate
tracks into their iTunes Library and wants to remove them.
iTunes currently provides some
safeguards that prevent the importation
of duplicate tracks, but nonetheless lots of people in one way or another
wind up with them.
Thu May 22 2008
I’ve been Ruby software developer for about 2 and a half years, mostly on
other people’s projects.
Recently I started working on my own independent software in my free time.
Just a few things so far, and pretty small beans. But some other people might
find these programs useful, so I set up this simple blog to announce and link
to them and provide some documentation. Also to rant from time to time on
internet software related topics.
a tweaked version of the micro theme by seaofclouds, and powered by YAML, Textile, and this simple, home-grown ruby build script.