benr75

George Carlin

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:49:00 GMT

May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008

iNetwork Test Launches

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:47:00 GMT

After almost a year of collecting data and half a million results recorded, Xcellent Creations, Inc. has released the next version of the iNetwork Test web application. The iNetwork Test web application for iPhone has been moved to http://www.inetworktest.com/iphone_content. The main iNetworkTest.com is now a portal to Mobile Network Testing Results.

User's can now create an account which allows them to save all of their results and create a personal results map. This build out will also support new versions for the Android platform and the iPhone.

Posted in Ruby on Rails | Tags apple, iphone, network, speed, testing | no comments

Server Move

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Fri, 02 May 2008 00:24:00 GMT

If you are reading this you are hitting the new server. I separated my sites out into two servers, one running a LAMP stack and the other running a LNMR (Linux Nginx MySQL Rails) stack.

Tags announcement, server | no comments

PHP Compiled From Source Mac OS X Leopard

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:06:00 GMT

After getting passenger up and running I realized that I didn't have PHP cranking with the freshly compiled Apache. Here are the steps I took to get PHP going:

Compile PHP from source, be sure to check out ./configure --help for more compile options. Also as always adjust to your systems paths as necessary.

wget http://www.php.net/get/php-5.2.5.tar.gz/from/this/mirror
tar -zxvf php-5.2.5.tar.gz
cd php-5.2.5
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/php --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-curl
make
sudo make install

I am not sure why but the php bin file ends up being called php.dSYM. There might be a compile option I missed to fix this or it could be the Mac OS X compiler. I fixed the issue by creating a symlink.
```
sudo ln -s /usr/local/php/bin/php.dSYM /usr/local/php/bin/php
```
Add /usr/local/php/bin to your path in .bash_login and reload your terminal so that it is in your path. You can confirm that you are getting the right php by issuing:
```
which php
#The command should return:
/usr/local/php/bin/php
```
Add directives to the httpd.conf for Apache to find the PHP module and handle .php files
```
LoadModule php5_module        modules/libphp5.so
AddHandler php5-script php
```

Restart Apache

/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl restart

Put a file in the root of your server or in virtual host directory called info.php with the phpinfo command. Visit the file via your web browser to confirm your install.
```
<?php phpinfo() ?>
```

Be sure to leave comments with any issues you have, or updates I can make to this document.

Tags apache2, compile, php | 1 comment

Setup mod_rails Passenger Mac OS X Leopard

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:32:00 GMT

UPDATE:

In the latest version of Phusion Passenger (mod_rails) 1.0.3 the default Mac OS X Apache installation is now supported! If you're still into rolling you're own these directions still apply. To upgrade to the latest version if you already have it working:

passenger-install-apache2-module
sudo passenger-install-apache2-module
sudo /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl restart

Today I was very excited to see that Passenger (mod_rails for Apache) had been released. Here is how I got things rolling on my Mac OS X Leopard installation. Be sure to refer to the official docs for more information.

Compile Apache2 from source. The passenger-install-apache2-module warned against using the Mac rolled Apache. I used a pretty broad ./configure, feel free to customize.

curl -O http://www.alliedquotes.com/mirrors/apache/httpd/httpd-2.2.8.tar.gz
tar -zxvf httpd-2.2.8.tar.gz
cd httpd-2.2.8
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache2 --enable-access --enable-actions \
--enable-alias --enable-asis --enable-auth --enable-auth_dbm \
--enable-auth_digest --enable-autoindex --enable-cache --enable-cgi \ 
--enable-dav --enable-dav_fs --enable-deflate --enable-dir --enable-disk_cache \ 
--enable-dumpio --enable-env --enable-expires --enable-fastcgi --enable-file_cache \
--enable-headers --enable-imap --enable-include --enable-info --enable-log_config \ 
--enable-log_forensic --enable-logio --enable-mem_cache --enable-mime \
--enable-mime_magic --enable-negotiation --enable-perl --enable-rewrite --enable-setenvif \
--enable-speling --enable-ssl --enable-status --enable-suexec --enable-unique_id \
--enable-userdir --enable-usertrack --enable-version --enable-vhost_alias --enable-so \ 
--enable-module=all --enable-shared=max
make
sudo make install

Install the gem
```
sudo gem install passenger
```
Add /usr/local/apache2/bin to your path in ~/.bash_login so that it can find your new apache2 install, then run the command to build the module.
```
sudo passenger-install-apache2-module
```
Follow the prescribed instructions from mod_rails adding the following to /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf. BE SURE TO USE THE SETTINGS DUMPED OUT WHEN YOU RUN passenger-install-apache2-module as the paths on your system may differ.
```
LoadModule passenger_module /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-1.0.1/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
RailsSpawnServer /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-1.0.1/bin/passenger-spawn-server
RailsRuby /usr/local/bin/ruby
```

Setup a folder to hold vhosts

sudo mkdir /usr/local/apache2/conf/vhosts

Add an Include to httpd.conf as well and turned on Name Based Virtual Hosts
```
NameVirtualHost *
Include /usr/local/apache2/conf/vhosts/*
```

Create a virtual host(s) that points to your rails app public folder. You can create one for each app you would like to run with Apache

# Example App
<VirtualHost *>
  ServerName app.test 
  DocumentRoot /Users/benr/Rails/app/public 
  RailsEnv development
</VirtualHost>


# Example App 2
<VirtualHost *>
  ServerName app2.test 
  DocumentRoot /Users/benr/Rails/app2/public 
  RailsEnv development
</VirtualHost>

Edit /etc/hosts file to include a line for the vhosts
```
127.0.0.1  app.test app2.test
```
Now I store my apps in /Users/benr/Rails, so I turned on the User Home directories mod
```
# User home directories
Include conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf
```

I then configured the httpd-userdir.conf so that it used that folder, much like in the default Mac Apache it allows you to put a site in ~/Sites

UserDir Rails 


<Directory "/Users/*/Rails">
    AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit Indexes
    Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
    <Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
    </Limit>
    <LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS>
      Order deny,allow
      Deny from all
    </LimitExcept>
</Directory>

Start Apache

sudo /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start

To restart your app, create a file called RAILS_ROOT/tmp/restart.txt and reload your page. < HOT!

Voila! It worked when I visted app.test and app2.test. The most important thing to remember is the defaults that mod_rails uses. I was having a lot of trouble and it turned out to be the fact that it was defaulting to production mode. The best place to track down the errors is in your RAILS_ROOT/log/YOURENV.log

If you would like to have your newly compiled Apache start on boot, Jose Hales-Garcia posted this comment:

Create a new file in /Library/LaunchDaemons

sudo pico /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

Paste in the following lines and save the file (UPDATED thx: ecchi):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>org.apache.httpd</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd</string>
      <string>-k</string>
      <string>start</string>
        </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    </dict>
</plist>

Load the daemon into the launchd system using the following command:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

That's it. The local httpd daemon will load on start-up after that. While it's running you can control the Apache daemon with the /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl command. To unload the daemon (if Apple ever fixes Apache) do: sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

UPDATE! Also remember to trash the .htaccess that comes with Rails. This was jacking up a couple of my applications.

UPDATE 2 Don't forget to turn off the Mac OS X Apache if it is running. System Preferences > Sharing

HOPE THIS HELPS! Pease leave comments with suggestions or issues you run into!

Tags mod_rails, phusion, rails | 19 comments

Force SSL For a Rails Application with an Nginx Proxy

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:52:00 GMT

Today I needed an entire site to run over SSL. I implemented a very straight forward before_filter that would catch a request and redirect to SSL if the request was not local and not already over SSL.

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base

  before_filter :ensure_ssl

  def ensure_ssl
    redirect_to url_for params.merge({:protocol => 'https://'}) unless (request.ssl? || local_request?)
  end

end

All this resulted in was an endless loop, with the action constantly redirecting. I turned on some debugging:

logger.info url_for params.merge({:protocol => 'https://'}) # Confirming URL was correct
logger.info request.ssl? # Confirming the request was SSL
logger.info request.port # Checking the port the request came in on

It turned out request.ssl? was nil and the port was always 80. Nginx was not properly proxying along the fact that it was running over ssl. I added the following to my server / location declaration in the nginx.conf:

proxy_set_header X_FORWARDED_PROTO https;

Restart Nginx and request.ssl? returned true and request.port returned 443. I also just found some other great nginx examples from halorgium

Tags nginx, rails, ssl | no comments

Web Server Type Determination Ruby Script

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:18:00 GMT

After seeing the Python version, then the shell script version, I decided to write the Ruby version. You could use the class anywhere, but this example is a nice command line script you can call.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'net/http'

class WebServerInfo
  def self.server_type(host)
    http = Net::HTTP.new(host, 80)
    resp, data = http.get('/', nil)
    resp['server']
  end
end

if ARGV[0].nil?
  puts "usage: which_webserver DOMAIN || IP"
else
  puts WebServerInfo.server_type(ARGV[0])
end

Cheers to Corey Goldberg and Brock

Tags ruby | no comments

Safari 3.1 Update Hangs on Mac OS X Leopard

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:47:00 GMT

Today I jumped on the 3.1 update for Safari via Software Update on my brand new MacBook Pro. Sadly, the installation hung with the message under the progress bar, "Configuring Installation". I restarted, tried it again, and had the same result. To fix my problem:

Deleted Safari.app from the /Applications folder
Downloaded/Installed Safari 3.1 directly from Apple.com, here.

That's it, Safari Version 3.1 (5525.13) worked after a reboot.

Posted in OS X | Tags apple, leopard, mac, safari | 5 comments

Install RMagick on Mac OS X Leopard from Source

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:50:00 GMT

Here are the commands I used to compile the required libraries and programs for RMagick to work on Mac OS X 10.5. It is largely the same as this article with slight adjustments. After completing the process I dumped my history.

Before you can execute these commands, you MUST HAVE

The Developer Tools Installed
/usr/local in your path, see Hivelogic

Begin by creating a folder to hold the src.

cd ~
mkdir src
cd src

wget

I like wget, which I use in the commands below. To start compile that or replace the wget command with curl -O.

curl -O http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/wget/wget-latest.tar.gz
tar -zxvf wget-latest.tar.gz 
cd wget-1.11/
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
cd ..

FreeType

wget http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.3.5.tar.gz
tar zxvf freetype-2.3.5.tar.gz 
cd freetype-2.3.5
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
cd ..

PNG Library

wget http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/libpng/libpng-1.2.25.tar.gz
tar -zxvf libpng-1.2.25.tar.gz 
cd libpng-1.2.25
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
cd ..

JPEG Library

wget ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz
tar -zxvf jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz 
cd jpeg-6b/
ln -s `which glibtool` ./libtool
export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.5
./configure --enable-shared --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make install
cd ..

TIFF Library

wget ftp://ftp.remotesensing.org/libtiff/tiff-3.8.2.tar.gz
tar -zxvf tiff-3.8.2.tar.gz 
cd tiff-3.8.2
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make 
sudo make install
cd ..

GhostScript Fonts

wget http://superb-east.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gs-fonts/ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz
tar -zxvf ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz 
sudo mkdir /usr/local/share/ghostscript
sudo mv fonts/ /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/

ImageMagick

wget ftp://ftp.imagemagick.org/pub/ImageMagick/ImageMagick.tar.gz
tar zxvf ImageMagick.tar.gz 
cd ImageMagick-6.3.9/
export CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include
export LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib
./configure --prefix=/usr/local  --disable-static --with-modules --without-perl  --without-magick-plus-plus --with-quantum-depth=8  --with-gs-font-dir=/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts
make
sudo make install
cd ..

RMagick

sudo gem install rmagick

MiniMagick

sudo gem install mini_magick

Clean Up

cd ~
rm -Rfv ./src

Posted in OS X | Tags compile, imagemagick, rmagick | 6 comments

That Computer Won't Work

Posted by Ben Reubenstein Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:00:00 GMT

My nephew has been saving his money to purchase a new laptop. He enjoys playing flashed based games, and is known to play RuneScape. Just recently he managed to scrap together $350.00 for the purchase. I found a laptop for exactly $350, but after closer examination found it did not include wireless. For $50 more I found a Lenovo 3000 N200 with wireless so with a little help from his Grandpa to make up the difference, we were off to the store.

Here are the specs for the box:

15.4" widescreen WXGA TFT LCD display
Intel Celeron M 1.73GHz Processor
512MB DDR2 Memory and 80GB Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Basic
CD-RW / DVD-ROM Combo Drive

I found an employee at MicroCenter and requested to purchase the machine. He enquired if I had been told about it and I replied no, I would like to buy that machine. He informed me that it was only good for Internet and "wouldn't do pictures" since it was not very fast. I told him I was planning to ditch the Vista Home Basic for Linux. He was convinced that wouldn't work, so at that point I gave up, and told him flat out, please just get me the box. On our way out I think he told his supervisor that I was crazy, but oh well I was out the door.

Now I know this is a Windows world, so the plan is to setup a dual boot. Just starting the machine for the first time however took 20 minutes. Windows Vista had to check out the performance of the box, and slowly allow me in. Once in my nephew and I were greeted with 6 shortcuts on the desktop to products we could purchase and a ton of tiny icons already running in the task bar for various media programs and other crap.

We installed Ubuntu on the box next. This process took about 20 minutes, and it handled resizing the existing windows partition and putting the necessary GRUB entries in. It started up quickly and the only time consuming issue I had was getting the wireless card to work. After that however, we were cooking. The machine was extremely responsive compared to Windows Vista. It also included all the productivity software my nephew would need.

It is criminal that this machine is sold with Windows Vista. It is in no way capable of running it with out a significant bump in RAM. I can now understand the hesitance with which it was sold to me.

Tags ubuntu, vista | 3 comments

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benr75

"And you are?" ... "Just a guy"

George Carlin

iNetwork Test Launches

Server Move

PHP Compiled From Source Mac OS X Leopard

Setup mod_rails Passenger Mac OS X Leopard

Force SSL For a Rails Application with an Nginx Proxy

Web Server Type Determination Ruby Script

Safari 3.1 Update Hangs on Mac OS X Leopard

Install RMagick on Mac OS X Leopard from Source

That Computer Won't Work

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