---

Long time no see, my Hacking Journal. As much as I want to play catchup with what has happened since my last post I have other things to talk about first. I got my Programming Ruby (Pickaxe) book today so I spent some time hacking up a script. It was the first time I was using the net libraries in Ruby and found that they are pretty easy to use. The net/smtp is just about as easy as running mail -s... inside a bash script. So I was able to setup a little server monitor script that will test connections and log to a file if there are any errors. I probably will extend it later, I already want to set it up so I can enable/disable the different types of checks (smtp, www, ftp).

Also I got an iCurve laptop stand today. I know I don’t have an Apple but my Dell looks so bad ass on it. I mostly got it as I was thinking of replacing my desktop completely with my laptop but I cannot get the VGA-out working 100% on the laptop. So instead I am keeping the desktop and running synergy to control the laptop’s mouse/keyboard from my main keyboard. With the laptop elevated now, the screens almost line up so I can actually use the laptop more now. I think I might try to use the laptop to run my unit tests while I code (or Zen Tests if I get that setup).

I am looking forward to this weekend, I should have a good chunk of time to hack on some Ruby and Rails. Maybe I can even hack on some eXPlainPMT also.

Eric Davis