I just spent about two hours trying to set up Ruby on Rails on my Mac with MAMP. Here’s a quick and dirty of how to do it for those of you who don’t feel like going crazy.

Follow the installation steps for RoR here: http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/getting-started/installation/mac

Edit your MAMP MySQL installation using the steps provided on this website: http://boonedocks.net/mike/archives/175-MAMP-and-the-Ruby-MySQL-Gem.html

After you’ve created your first Rails project, locate it on your computer, then go to config/database.yml and enter the following:

development:
 adapter: mysql
 database: XXX_dev
 username: root
 password: root
 timeout: 5000
 socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

# Warning: The database defined as "test" will be erased and
# re-generated from your development database when you run "rake".
# Do not set this db to the same as development or production.
test:
 adapter: mysql
 database: XXX_test
 username: root
 password: root
 timeout: 5000
 socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

production:
 adapter: mysql
 database: XXX
 username: root
 password: root
 timeout: 5000
 socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

Finally, follow the steps provided here to create your MySQL DB for the project.

Good luck.

The juxtaposition is just…

I’ve started a blog with a few friends over at theweeklyshiner.com, and integrated within that are Google AdSense ads.  The only problem is, AdSense takes everything on the site too literally and, frankly, comes up with some ridiculous ads for the various pages of my site.  Where AdSense would work for a blog like this that – for the most part at least – puts up serious content, it can’t work on a blog that jokes about hockey teams, or Tucker Carlson running for the presidency.  You simply end up with ads that have no relevance to the content, and thus have low conversion rates.  So what’s a website aiming to monetize to do?

Well, for one, we can (once we gain popularity) offer a freemium version of The Shiner while keeping exclusive content for the payers.  But this seems like a difficult option, as I’m at pains to determine just what to exclude from the main site and offer to paying users.  We can also, to help supplement cash, open a shop and start selling swag.  There’s no way, however, that a website like this can ever completely prop itself up on gear sales.  So either way, this leads me to wonder what I am going to do, or what I can offer, that will allow us to survive beyond ad revenue.  Which brings me to this article from TechCrunch, where I’m stealing and adapting this point to inform my own current predicament:

This discussion certainly isn’t over. We’re going through a major sea change. It happened to music, it happened to consumer services, it’s happening to newspapers and publishing, and it will happen to business software. The business models are changing. It means software businesses will need to be innovative and adaptable, but ultimately you’ll survive if people want what you have to offer, regardless of the price tag.

In other words, a web start-up is going to have to work really hard to convert those users into a revenue stream.  The rub, however, is that your exposure is much more than you could have hoped for anywhere else during any other previous decade.  The potential for making money is there.  So, while I’m being forced to work harder to monetize my news site, I sort of enjoy it.  There’s a challenge in this all to come up with new ways to bring people into your brand while providing something people want to pay for, consistently.  How about you guys out there?  Anyone got a bright idea?

By the way, I don’t want to come off as someone solely concentrated on money.  I’m doing The Shiner because I love the process of writing news and satire.  This is just an issue that’s been stuck in my brain for some months…

The first debate topic has been chosen: Data Retention & the Internet.  It’s been something swirling around in conversations with people I know – in no congruent fashion – and seems to be coming to the fore of some people’s concerns over the future of the Tubes.  So what’s the big deal?

Without trying to pigeonhole any argument, I’ll try to give a breakdown:

Web services like Twitter, URL shortening sites, and picture posting sites leave some weary that their information may not really exist forever on the internet and that it, furthermore, won’t be archived for future generations.  This view holds that the promise of the internet lays in its ability to retain data forever, and that this is an important point to focus on when creating any new web service.

On the other side of this debate are the “who cares” people.  In other words, why does it matter that data is retained on the internet?  Their arguments are myriad, but one that seems to repeatedly come up is this: the expectation of the user is not that their data will be held forever, but that they will be able to use the service for its immediate purpose (posting pictures, sharing links, whatever).

In essence, the debate seems to come down to data.  Do we feel data retention is important to the survival of the internet?  If not, what is the great promise of the internet?

Stay tuned next week for what I hope to be a lively debate.

About seven years ago I started into text-based online gaming with Kings of Chaos, which was, to my knowledge, very beta at the time.  It sucked me in!  No computer requirements, demand on time being as little or as great as you wanted without sacrificing interactivity, and above all… it was fun!  For all I know, it still is.

But I quit Kings of Chaos a long time ago because of the linear nature of the game.  It was too simple.

Around that time, I started searching for other games to fill my KoC void and came upon Utopia: a fantasy based game that groups you into kingdoms with other random people from around the world and allows you to pit yourself against rival kingdoms.  FUN!  I played Utopia off and on for several years, but it got boring to constantly interact with people I had no connection with, and the amount of time spent on the game was way more than I was willing to dedicate.

Needless to say, I gave up text-based gaming for a few years while I dedicated my time to other games (World of Warcraft, Team Fortress 2, Civilization IV, to name a few).  But, as work got more hectic and I had less time to play these games, the itch to play a text-based game came back.  So I began the search.

And I found Dossergame.

I’ve been playing Dossergame (found at www.dossergame.co.uk) for around half a year now, and so far I find it incredibly interesting and interactive.  And it’s funny as hell.

The premise: you’re an alleycat with a drive to rise to the top.  You start out with a cockroach as a pet (to defend you in battle), no education, and no money in your pockets.  In order to educate yourself to gain useful skills, you need money.  In order to get money, you need to either orchestrate robberies (for instance, rob a hotdog stand), or collect junk (literally called junk in game) which you can then sell.  As your education goes up, you can buy more pets, weapons, or new instruments that help you gain money on the streets.

And, if you wanted, that could be the extent of your activity in-game.  But, if you choose, you can also join a gang!  This gives you additional benefits, like special upgrades to all members of a gang (if your gang chooses to invest in them), gang wars over turf, and the general support of being in a group.

So far, I’m playing this game with my brother and a friend.  If you’re interesting in joining us, sign up at the aforementioned website (dossergame.co.uk) and let me know.  The Latino Marx Brothers are short on gang members, but we are a hearty bunch!

Tweetie: This is my favorite Twitter client thus far, with features like Trends, Twitter Search, and, of course, landscape keyboard.  Tweetie also allows you to manage multiple accounts with ease and has a very pleasant UI that is both clean and clear.

Guitar Toolkit: I use this when I don’t feel like tuning my guitar by ear, or when I have a question about a certain chord I’ve never played before.  Also features a metronome and setups for 12 string acoustic, bass, and 5 string bass.

Remote: I’ve got this set up on every computer in my house.  This is a free app released by Apple that allows you to control your iTunes music on any computer from anywhere you can grab your WiFi connection.

WordPress: I don’t do much posting with this app, but it does allow me to manage and edit my blog posts and comments when I’m on the move.

Dictionary: Dictionary is my new favorite toy.  Because I’m always chewing on some new word, I find myself using this all the time to help with pronunciations, origins, and multiple meanings.  Oh!  And it has a Word of the Day feature.

I’ll get on the subject of domain squatting in later posts (as well as my promised writing about Tony Blair at the CCGA.  I know, I’ve been slacking).  But, humor me for a moment and allow me to discuss Twitter.

Let me direct your attention here, where Patton Oswalt’s name is being squatted on Twitter by some enterprising individual who also owns the Gmail address “twittmeanoffer@gmail.com”

Aside from the topic of squatting in general, some sort of discussion needs to take place on celebrity names (and names, in general) being squatted on Twitter.  I’d be remiss not to mention the hostile takeover the Obama campaign waged on a guy who was running a MySpace account under Obama’s name, unsolicited.  In this case, MySpace basically buckled and stripped the user of their account, giving it over to the Obama campaign.  This was an independent act taken by MySpace, and I’m a little unsure of the legal grounds surrounding it (if there are any at all).

So let’s use that to inform our discussion going forward, because the question really posed is whether or not Twitter will start doing the same.  So far, the answer seems to be “no”.  Shaq had to register under The_Real_Shaq due to his account name already being taken, though the person who grabbed it certainly is nothing like the aforementionied Oswalt squatter.  The ShamWow guy’s name is also taken on Twitter.

Neither of these fake accounts post malicious or character damaging material; they’re actually pretty funny to follow.

But what happens when people start grabbing names for the sole purpose of trying to sell them?  We can agree, at least, that this is wrong on some sort of principled grounds.  Doing some quick searches around the net, Oswalt’s account seems to be the only one blatantly being squatted.  I’m sure there are others, though.

And so we come to the key question: at what point can Twitter, and other social platforms, step in and strip a user of a name they created in likeness to a celebrity?  And, again, my mind wanders to malicious content.  At some point, Twitter will end up dealing with a user who’s not only pretending to be a celebrity, but doing it in such a way as to be convincing enough, and damaging enough, to warrant some sort of intervention.

We’re not there yet.

So what to do about account squatting?  Probably nothing.  While it’s reprehensible, it’s also not character damaging.  But the time will come when someone crosses the threshold of what’s acceptable impersonation and wanders into the realm of account revocation.