Recently in Articles and seminars Category

Some of us does not have a approved SMTP server on our development server, or are working outside the office. So how do you then send email when using Django as your python framework?

The answer is simple: Gmail

You will need:

• A gmail account
• Django (of course...)
  

Open up your settings.py and enter the following information:

EMAIL_HOST = 'smtp.gmail.com'
EMAIL_HOST_USER = '<user>@gmail.com'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = '<password>
EMAIL_PORT = 587
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True

That's it. Given, you can't use it in your production environment. But it works like a charm during development. And if you need help sending html mail with alternative content (html+txt), check out Ross Poultons article Easy Multi-Part E-Mails with Django

Tradedoubler is one of Swedens largest ad networks. However, all ads are served over a none secure connection (https). This is fine for regular users, but if you are building a member only site with secure login (https) you are out of luck:

Serving both secure (https, all your content) and none secure (the ads) brings up a IE message asking the user if they want to "show unsecure objects" on the site. Every time the users loads a page. (In swedish: "Denna sida innehåller både säkra och osäkra objekt. Vill du visa osäkra objekt?")

So how do we solve this problem?

Usual Tradedoubler Ad code is something like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
var uri = 'http://impse.tradedoubler.com/imp?type(js)g(<id>)a(<id>)' + new String (Math.random()).substring (2, 11);
document.write('<sc'+'ript type="text/javascript" src="'+uri+'" charset="ISO-8859-1"></sc'+'ript>');
</script>

As you can see, the url is http://impse. None secure. But a little known fact is that tradedoubler ads can also be served over https://tracker.tradedoubler.com. As far as I know there is no difference.

So we do what many organisations do (such as google analytics). We let javascript check if the maste page was served over http and https. Such as this:

<script type="text/javascript">
var tdHost = (  ("https:" == document.location.protocol)   ?   "https://tracker."  :   "http://imp."  );
var uri = tdHost + 'tradedoubler.com/imp?type(js)pool(<id>)a(<id> + new String (Math.random()).substring (2, 11);
document.write('<sc'+'ript type="text/javascript" src="'+uri+'" charset="ISO-8859-1"></sc'+'ript>');
</script>

Simple as that. If it's https it will use https://tracker.tradedoubler.com, if it's http it will use the regular http://imp.tradedoubler.com

The script is hardly perfect, but it works for most purposes. Tradedoubler has been notified of the problem, and hopefully they will implement a solution.

Good luck with your ad serving...

For a while ago I had problem with my OS X. It simply halted when only the spotlight icon is visible. Some searching reveled that this was related to a corrupt font cache.

Gerrit DeWitt describes the problem on Apple Support Discussions:

"The problem is due to a font cache file becoming damaged or being saved incorrectly. I think the situation may be the latter because if you force restart after the hang and restart in single user mode, perform a filesystem check (fsck -fy), then mount the startup disk's filesystem (/sbin/mount -uw /), you'll almost always see a message about orphaned files being cleaned up (deleted). These orphans usually reside in /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS - the ATSUI typography cache folder. The number of orphans removed should exactly match the number of files listed with an invalid name during the filesystem check. Thus, it may be simply that ATS or Suitcase is writing cache files with invalid filesystem names."

So the quick solution is (for me atleast):

1. Boot up in single user mode (see this article)
2. Run a filesystem check (fsck -fy)
3. Mount the startup disk's filesystem: /sbin/mount -uw /)
4. Delete the folder /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS
   by typing: sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS
5. Restart your computer by typing:
   sudo shutdown -r now

Everything should be solved.

Jesse Warden is a Flex guru who were scheduled to talk at the 360 Conference but who unfortunately got the flu. He has now published his seminar, "Being Independent & Making Money Using Flex" on his blog.

He has also published his "erratta & Citations", a short list of do and don't.

Continue to his blog post

"[...] If you try to solve the second kind of ignorance [fear or lack of interest] with a manual or a PDF or a blog post or even a long infomercial, you're going to fail."

Read more in Seth Godins article the Two kinds of "don't know".

Portfolio.com is running a story named Google's Secret Formula with a good flash animation explaining how Google works. It's an interesting story, especially since Google now serves more queries then Microsoft and Yahoo combined...

Earlier this year Ben Collins and Brian Fitzpatrick gave a seminar on Google TechTalks on the subject "How Open Source Projects Survive Poisonous". It's an interesting seminar and one can learn a lot from it since many of their points are valid even for none-open source projects.

» Continue to the Google video
» Search for more Google TechTalks

The Psychology blog has a short but interesting article about communication. When communicating persuasively, should one use face-to-face or email?

So, if you want to persuade someone with whom you have a competitive relationship - whatever your and their gender - email might be a better choice. On the other hand, if your persuasion attempt is aimed at someone with whom you have a more cooperative relationship, face-to-face could be a better choice. Unfortunately, it isn't always possible to see someone face-to-face, so it's very useful to be aware of the processes operating in both face-to-face and online interactions.

Continue to the article

Earlier this year New York Magazine published the article Can't get no satisfaction, also known as "Where Work Is a Religion, Work Burnout Is Its Crisis of Faith". From the article:

"Burnout is the illness of just about any averagely driven, obsessive New York professional. Bankers, high-tech workers, advertisers, management consultants, lawyers working in their mustard-lit honeycombed Hades--all of them are as likely to complain about burnout as schoolteachers and social workers. In 21st-century New York, the 60-hour week is considered normal. In some professions, it's a status symbol. But burnout, for the most part, is considered a sign of weakness, a career killer."

It's a must read for pretty much everyone. Project managers, chiefs, staff. You will get a historical overview of burn outs but also a deeper understanding of the psychology behind it. Hopefully it will open your eyes and make you take a closer look on your and your companies situation.

Continue to the article