TL;DR If you are new to the asset pipeline in rails, using custom fonts can be a bit confusing. This is how I recommend getting started: add fonts… [goto](http://aokolish.me/blog/2011/12/24/at-font-face-with-the-asset-pipeline/)
Day 32 of MakerSquare. Friday is Tie Day. Shout out to everyone else who wore a tie, especially the ladies who rocked them with dresses and blouses. Keeping it classy. Front-end: Adding ZURB Foundation to a Rails app and using Sass to write markup. In the evening, I found a blog post detailing how to incorporate custom fonts in Rails, which I’ll link later. Once again, going through Foundation, I admire the speed and ease with which I can get something looking decent, especially next to what I made before I started at MakerSquare. Not that the older stuff was bad, but writing code by hand takes a lot longer. ...
timoarnall: mostlysignssomeportents: Try as I might, I can’t shake the feeling that 2014 is the year we lose the Web. The W3C push for DRM in all browsers is going to ensure that all interfaces built in HTML5 (which will be pretty much everything) will be opaque to users, and it will be illegal to report on security flaws in them… It’s basically all being driven by Netflix. Everyone in the browser world is convinced that not supporting Netflix will lead to total marginalization, and Netflix demands that computers be designed to keep secrets from, and disobey, their owners (so that you can’t save streams to disk in the clear).We are Huxleying ourselves into the full Orwell. ...
Day 30 of MakerSquare. Front-end: We covered a couple of topics today. First, we worked with a weather API to pull a JSON object using AJAX within a JavaScript tag. APIs are powerful tools, but as we saw earlier in the program when GitHub changed theirs, too fragile. Maybe APIs need a versioning system and/or a way to allow developers to test their code against updated APIs to ensure the new release doesn’t break stuff. ...
Day 29 of MakerSquare. Front-end: more jQuery and then digging into Presenters for riot.js. We continued to build our app that allows for posting and commenting on pictures of animals. Our directive today was to study changes in the code and then add a feature to tally the total “likes” on comments for a specific picture. Back-end: Helpers of all sorts in Rails. Partials for the views and helper methods to take “the business logic” out of the views and into model helpers. Glad I completed the Hartl tutorial over the break because: seeing things a second time helps with learning, and I have a new appreciation for Haml, which we used today.
Day 28 of MakerSquare. The day started with a rundown of the schedule and structure of the next week and an impromptu MakerStory from Osei, our new instructor. He previously did a seminar for us on debugging JavaScript in the browser console & was really energetic about it. So, looking forward to seeing what else he has in store for us. Front-end: Lordy, my JavaScript got rusty over the break. Luckily, we had some WD-40 in the form of another review before learning more about the presenters in riot.js. The title of this post came from Gilbert, as he questioned us on how functions are called & the dreamspace they manifest. ...
When we first started writing tests, I developed a sort of existential test crisis: How can I ever know if my tests are right if I’m the one writing them? Is there a way to test my tests? & if so, do I need to test the tests that test my tests? Thankfully, I found my answers in this book. Reading “Everyday Rails: Testing with RSpec” by Aaron Sumner.
Alias for my command line - Gist is a simple way to share snippets of text and code with others. Listened to a Ruby Rogues episode on sharpening one’s tools. Finally started to put together shortcuts for my command line. Thanks to Boggsy & Mike for sharing how to get started over the MakerSquare mailing list.
Find the folder you want to modify. CMD + I to open up the info window. Set this aside. Find the image you want to use. CMD + I to open up its info window. Click on the thumbnail then CMD + C to copy it. Go back to the first info window you opened. Click on that boring thumbnail. CMD + V to paste the new thumbnail image. PROTIP: this can work with any image. Transparent .png icons work the best. Bask in the glory of Nibbler waiting to gobble up your code. *Tested only in 10.6.8 because I’m old school like that.
Day 27 of MakerSquare. Friday is Tie Day. Analog morning: we got a quick lesson on working with clients [read: ask good questions] & how to translate their ideas into specs, which we can use to determine what sort of product to build and how to build it. Then, Casey put on a ten-gallon hat and turned into Mr. Gus Chiggins, Idea Man. Mr. Chiggins asked us to build a web app he dubbed “Weightable” which will allow users to sign up, set weight goals, and start tracking their weight daily. Their friends can see their progress and give them encouragement along the way. We then worked in groups to put together the client spec and clarify what he said he wanted. ...