I’m working on a prototype at the moment that requires me to insert data into offline tables (offline as far as Documentum is concerned). The examples that I’ve found all resort to specifying the exact structure of the table. create table DMI_OBJECT_TYPEx ( R_OBJECT_ID VARCHAR2(16) NOT NULL, I_TYPE NUMBER(10,0) NOT NULL, I_PARTITION NUMBER(10,0) NULL); The example above is smaller than most of the tables I have to create. The weakness with this is that you have to look up the table structure. The writers probably chose this method because the much simpler syntax shown below also brings any data that is in the table. CREATE TABLE DMI_OBJECT_TYPEx AS SELECT * FROM DMI_OBJECT_TYPE; My initial thought was why not copy the table and then just truncate it, but after a bit of searching I stumbled upon the solution. Essentially adding a WHERE clause to the end of the query that never evaluates to TRUE enables us to take the structure without the data. CREATE TABLE DMI_OBJECT_TYPEx AS SELECT * FROM DMI_OBJECT_TYPE WHERE 1=2;

I’ve finally decided to release ActiveDocumentum.  ActiveDocumentum is a Ruby Gem that I created to bring some of the goodness, learned by pulling apart ActiveRecord, to accessing Documentum. Its nowhere near as mature, but I has been doing the job pretty well so far for the scripts and sites I’ve been using it for. It has a dependency on JRuby because it hooks into the DFS client libraries to facilitate connecting to Documentum. I’m going to post some further examples, but for the time being, here it is.

http://www.github.com/vertis/active_documentum

You’ll need a Documentum repository, JRuby and a copy of the DFS sdk to play with it.

Update: I’ve also done up a quick sample which you can find on my github (right next door to the actual library).

http://www.github.com/vertis/active_documentum_sample

My first few searches turned up some fairly unpolished methods of accessing Google Maps from Ruby. I’m definitely using Ruby as a starting point in this challenge, its the language I’m most comfortable with. That’s not to say that I’m not going to do any other languages. I do want to do a Python/Django project at some point, just to get it out of the way.

After bit of digging around I discovered the YM4R gem. YM4R provides access to the Google Maps and the Yahoo! Maps Building Block API’s. Before we go any further lets just get a Google Map on the page and point it at a location. The gem also comes as a plugin for rails, which I’m about to find out has some different capabilities (more on that later).

To do that we need to get an API key here. Making sure to put in whatever url you will be using to access your application, in my case, at least for the example application, that’s http://localhost:4567. If you’re familar with the port number then you know that I’m using Sinatra rather than Rails, this means, is that I can’t use the YM4R/GM rails plugin (at least without hacking it up) & unlike the plugin the gem doesn’t contain the code to actually generate the map code. So I’m back to the drawing board.

Taking a step back I have a look at how difficult it is to just get it onto the page without a helper, which as it turns out is ‘not very’. Lets look at the code to get a minimal example happening:

And the view:

As you can see, It’s pretty simple to get a nice looking Google Map onto the page. In the next post I’ll go into the details of how to start manipulating the map for our purposes.

Unlike last year where I registered at the last minute and went it alone, I’ve been hanging out for this years dates to be announced. Now I’ve got a few days to put together a team and decide on an idea. You can find more information at the  Rails Rumble 2009 website.

If you’d said the word Zillow before lunch today I would have looked at you strangely. At lunch my iGoogle home page revealed a travesty taking place. A user of Hacker News was asking for advice regarding Zillow offering $250 for the his domain (and threatening to cut off API access).  It would seem from reading the thread, that Zillow (a real estate site),  had decided that Auston Brunson (and his domain iZillow.net) had out lived their usefulness.

iZillow has an iPhone app up on the app store that suddenly became a competitor to Zillow’s own newly released iPhone app. To make things worse there is clearly trademark issues, not to mention that Auston’s app relies on a public API supplied by Zillow. The advice from Hacker News users ranges from “time to play hardball” to “lets start a negative PR campaign on twitter (#zillowfail)”.

Why shouldn’t Zillow shutdown someone that is infringing on their trademark? After all, what right does iZillow.net have to use the name? If it was a clear cut case of trademark infringement, then I wouldn’t be posting this, I’ve had these kind of discussions with Etsy about my former site EtsyTools (the death of which had nothing to do with trademarks). Without going into to much detail, Etsy was outstandingly reasonable in the protection of their trademark, since it’s a case of protect their trademark or risk losing it (so fair enough).

It seems like from Zillow’s perspective at least it is a clear cut issue. A comment from Drew Meyers (representing Zillow) has suggested that this is indeed what the communication is about.

Drew Meyers on April 30, 2009 11:34 pm

I’ve been in contact with Mr Bunson about the issue being discussed on Hacker News. I don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss our conversation in public, however, I will say that what is described here is not a complete representation of the conversation. Mr Bunson is welcome to continue to use the API as long as he doesn’t infringe upon our trademark and use our brand name “Zillow” on his website.

I would agree with this except its taken them a whole year to get around to ‘protecting’  their trademark, and it comes suspiciously around when their releasing their own iPhone app. There is nothing stopping Zillow from using trademark and API access to effectively shutdown their competitor, that doesn’t make it right. Whether he’s right or wrong in his actions, Auston has built up a user base, and invested a large amount of effort into the site.

I can’t help but wonder if going to Hacker News will help or hinder. Certainly the wrath of an incensed mob is nothing to be ignored, but by bringing it out Auston Brunson may have aggravated Zillow. I certainly hope that Zillow will reconsider it’s initial position.

Update:

David and Drew (from Zillow) have been very agressive in maintaining that this is just a trademark issue. They also maintain (this has been confirmed by Auston) that the $250 figure was Auston’s number. According to Auston they offered “a couple of hundred bucks”.

It’s not, and it never will be just a trademark issue, not to Auston anyway. He’s been running iZillow.net since May last year (and all the sweat and blood that comes with that). Has built up a user base & links from the rest of the internet (NYTimes, blogs, etc). Claiming it’s just a trademark issue, will give little comfort to anyone else using Zillows API. The timing is just too close to the release of their own product.

Regardless of who put the figure on the table, I would like to see Zillow rise above and put a large figure on the table. They need to think about the impact that they’re having on an individual.

It’s been almost a month since my last post, disgraceful. While I have the will to maintain a blog, I certainly don’t have the time. We’re currently in the thick of a large Documentum deployment, which means that there are bucket loads of new users that each have their own issues with the system.

I have learned SO much over the last few months, hopefully I’ll have a chance to sit down over the next week or so and distill some of that wisdom. Until then, keep safe.

I don’t pretend to be a marketing expert, but every so often when I’m watching the TV in the evening I get a sickly taste in my mouth. A tragic advertisement will flash briefly across the screen pushing me to buy something or trying to enhance a brand name. Currently, that ad is one for a new range of pasta from Pizza Hut. I’m going to break my objections into two halves; the advertisement & the product.

The Advertisement

The ad starts with people eating dinner at a restaurant called ‘Tuscani’. They have hidden cameras much as you would find in a restaurant show like Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. All to make it seem like it’s a real restaurant. After the people have discussed convienently enough how creamy and excellent the pasta is, the chef(?) comes out and announces that he has a confession to make; He didn’t cook anything tonight it was all delivered by Pizza Hut. At this point the Pizza Hut people have appeared with ‘The Product’. There is delighted surprise & and applause. You can find the copy I found on youtube below (NB: The version below is slightly different than the Australian version, with a different chef & people, and different restaurant location).

Here is how the advertisement fails:

1. People don’t like being deceived – The restaurant is not real and therefore your ad is based on a lie.
2. People don’t react like that when deceived – Pull that kind of stunt in real life and people would be walking out and/or demanding the meal for free. *If* the ad were based on real events you’ve just defrauded 20-50 people out of their money.
3. No self respecting chef would (a) allow that to happen in his restaurant and (b) confess that to his customers – it would be a sure way to bankrupt your business.
4. You don’t have enough range for people to believe they are ordering from a restaurant menu (3 types over there, 2 here) – You can’t honestly make me believe EVERYBODY in the restaurant just happened to want the type of pasta that the tuscani range offers.

On the above note let me move on to ripping a hole in the product itself.

The Product

1. As mentioned above there are only 2 to 3 different options when it comes to the pastas you can get from pizza hut, this is a pitiful offering considering the fact that there are half a dozen ‘Pasta Pantry’ franchises sprinkled across the Sydney CBD and the range offered is outstanding(~20 different pasta dishes + salads, soups & other items).
2. A recent study found that pasta is the commonly eaten dish, fine, I can see how someone high up in pizza hut could want to include pasta in the menu – which results in a big FAIL for you my friend. Pasta is a common dish because it is probably the easiest thing in the world to cook short of boiling an egg or putting bread in the toaster.
3. Besides being super simple to make, it is also a staple in most diets because it is cheap enough to be affordable even on the tightest of budgets.
4. There is no vegetarian option. How FRACKING hard do you think it is to offer a vegetarian option (sorry, pet hate)

Conclusions

The Tuscani Pasta commercial is an epic fail.

The product: not cheap, not flexible and has a lousy range.

The commercial: dishonest, unrealistic and poorly conceived

EPIC FAIL

It’s late (or very very early). The heat from today has finally gone, though its still muggy and sweaty. I’ll post a picture of the view from the back of the apartment block when I get the chance. Why would you be reading this anyway, I don’t have any great pearls of wisdom like randsinrepose, and I certainly don’t have a fascinating life jetting around the world, riding a web 2.0 wave.

Nope, I’m just me. I’m a hacker, or so I like to think, the white hat variety if you want to classify me further. I spend countless hours writing code in a variety of languages, and perhaps I’ll share some of that here. 

No, what I am is a man in his late twenties who is struggling to find balance and purpose…beyond that of just surviving. I watch as people get rich in the industry around me and wonder where I went wrong. Not that anything is drastically wrong, but I’m not making a bucket load of money or solving all the worlds problems either. I haven’t created any great and wonderous technologies that I can be proud of.

I am dark and empty. I’m looking to build, and expand – to learn and to excel. This is certainly not the first time I’ve blogged. But it is a new beginning. A lot of what I would like to accomplish is to learn to put words on paper again. I’m no poet or author but I do have stories to tell and questions to ask.

Enough for now, I have to sleep and then get up and go to work. One more day.

The room is empty except for a desk and a chair. I walk across and unpack my laptop, setting it up on the desk and plugging it into the power. I haven’t even swept the place yet, or replaced the blown light globe. It has the dusty feel of a place that hasn’t been used in quite a while.

There is power but no phone or internet, so its just as well that I have a couple of 3g cards hanging around from my work. The apartment is not the nicest place that I’ve ever lived but it has the benefit of being close to the city.
About the only thing that I’ll definately *have* to have to make the apartment habitable is an airconditioner.  I am definately not fond of the hot summers that cook Sydney. My first love affair with air conditioning came when I’d just started high school and we moved to the country town of Mildura, VIC. Its a farming town at the tip of Victoria, right before where the Darling River joins the Murray.

As towns went I didn’t hate Mildura, of course I had the internet for the very first time in Mildura so maybe that puts it up there on the list of place i’ve lived. I digress, Mildura bakes in the dry heat that only a place on the edge of the desert can. EVERY house has an airconditioner, they don’t make them without the big box on top.

The heat will burn you to a crisp out there, so having somewhere to escape after walking home from school is what made me appreciate air conditioning.

I have to go out. I’ll tell you more later.

I have a lost iPod currently staying with me. It was waiting at the front door when I went down stairs to collect the Thai order that was to be friday nights dinner. There just outside the door on a little ledge was a iPod that looked so lonely and confused. I can only assume that it had wandered away from its owner and then not been sure how to get back. A sign has been placed in the notice board in the lobby since it would seem likely that the owner might walk past that point. If the owner doesn’t then I will have to take more drastic measures to get the iPod home. In the meantime i’m not sure whether I should feed it or not, and if I did feed it would the owner be angry when they got it back or just grateful that I’d taken care of the iPod. Finally should I just feed it mp3s or spoil it with videos?