Category Archives: Technology

Words about technological innovation. The study of practical arts and sciences; the application of scientific advances to benefit humanity.

Bitnami Ruby Stack Testing

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I loaded the latest Bitnami Ruby Stack (RubyStack 1.5-2) on my personal Windows-XP development machine this morning. I say loaded, because there is very little configuration that needs to be done.  The bonus (for me) is that I get Ruby 1.8.7 and Ruby 1.9.1 plus a complete Ruby on Rails environment and upgrades for many other packages in the full stack. This is my first time running Ruby 1.9, so I look forward to trying that out.  It’s a hefty package to download and install (225MB), but the Bitnami/Bitrock installer makes configuring your Ruby on Rails development (or test) environment as easy as riding a bike, or falling off a log.  Just hop on and ride — or fall off and roll (depending on your favorite metaphor).

Here’s a listing of the major components that are included in this FOSS (Free Open Source Software) stack.

  • Ruby 1.8.7
  • Ruby 1.9.1
  • RubyGems 1.3.4
  • Rails 2.3.2
  • ImageMagick 6.5.2-9
  • Subversion 1.6.2
  • SQLite 3.5.1
  • MySQL 5.1.30
  • Apache 2.2.11
  • PHP 5.2.8
  • phpMyAdmin 2.11.9.4
  • Git 1.6.3.1
  • Nginx 0.7.59

Lot’s of great choices and options make this “a very powerfull stack.”  Bitnami’s latest RubyStack (RubyStack 1.5-2) goes above and beyond to give you a full Ruby environment (for the two latest stable releases of Ruby), a PHP environment, two SQL database servers, two web servers, and two version control services. Wow! All that, and it only takes a few minutes to configure and install.

I’ll be using the Bitnami stack (with Ruby 1.8.7 and Ruby 1.9.1) as a test environment while working on the Ruby and Rails book reviews I mentioned yesterday.

More Ruby Books in My Queue

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After several months of quietness, I’m gearing up for a burst of new book reviews.

Here’s a brief summary of some tasty new treats in the Ruby lineup:

  1. Learning Rails (Rails from the Outside In) by Simon St. Laurent and Edd Dumbill, published by O’Reilly Media (See Learning Rails book cover and O’Reilly catalog description here.)
  2. Wicked Cool Ruby Scripts (Useful Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems) by Steve Pugh, published by No Starch Press (the Finest in Geek Entertainment). You can download a PDF of chapter 1, “General Purpose Utilities”.
  3. Enterprise Recipes with Ruby and Rails by Maik Schmidt, published by Pragmatic Programmers
  4. Programming Ruby 1.9 (The newly updated Pragmatic Programmers Guide, aka the Pick-Axe book), by Dave Thomas with Chad Fowler and Andy Hunt, published by The Pragmatic Programmers
  5. Agile Web Development With Rails (Third Edition) by Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson with Leon Breedt, Mike Clark, Justin Gehtland, James Duncan Davidson, and Andreas Schwarz

I hope you are enjoying your summer reading as much as I am.  What new books are you reading?

Who is Vos?

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VOS, VoS, V.O.S., Voice of Soul

VOS, VoS, V.O.S., Voice of Soul

FAQ – Frequently Asked Question:

Question: Who is VOS? and is VOS related to the Vos Virtual Network?

Answer: V.O.S, “Voice of Soul” is a Korean R&B group that is made up of members Choi Hyun-joon, Park Ji-hun, and Kim Kyung-rok. The group debuted in 2004 under record company, Star Empire Entertainment. In year 2007, V.O.S released a special single album and the title track called ” Everyday” has become very popular to most of the Korean public, leading to an increasing number of fans.

VOS is also the acronym for Virtual Operating System.

The Vos Virtual Network is a fast growing online magazine (blog) published by Douglas Vos from the Detroit (Michigan) area. The Vos Virtual Network covers a variety of topics… including anthropology, biology, musicology, theology and technology.

Explosive Combination: SEO, Blogging, and Social Media – Create Powerful Marketing Results

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Internet marketing slides from today’s HubSpot webinar about Inbound Marketing.

How to combine SEO, blogging, and social media for powerful marketing results.

“Here is a breakdown of an easy three-part campaign that any marketer can easily adopt into his or her own strategy.”