I’ve encountered a problem, or trouble, with Ruby, Rails, UTF and ASCII encoding. I wanted to generate url-safe name out of a few strings. I didn’t know how to ask Google about it, but finally I’ve found valuable resources.
But let’s keep an order of the events.

Issue: permalink

The situation was like that – I needed to create unique, or nearly unique text out of web form’s data. Since I’m Pole – users of my site would be Poles as well. And they type characters as:

ą ś ć ź Ą Ę ł Ł Ń Ó Ć

And it’s simply impossible to use the concatenation of such strings as an URL, as a permalink.

I needed something to convert those characters to their base ASCII chars. Then I would be able to downcase it and eventually remove spaces or something like that.
I think it may be important to mention, that

• Ruby 1.9.3 String method “downcase” is able to treat ASCII characters only. So any non-ASCII ones would remain unchanged.
• Ruby 1.9.3 does not support Iconv library – it’s depreciated.

Ok, after some googling I got a solution, brute force. I want you to see that: http://dzone.com/snippets/national-characters-ascii

I even started doing something like that myself, but it was really imperfect. I knew someone has done it better. I tried Rails’ transliterate method, but it didn’t satisfy me.

Solution: stringex

Finally, I found this awesome, still  maintained gem called stringex: https://github.com/rsl/stringex It provides a number of useful methods related to permalink and link creation. If one needs to do some complicated transcription, it’s possible to configure non-trivial transitions. Just awesome!

Then it worked like a charm:

nice_name = nice_name.to_ascii
nice_name.downcase!
nice_name.gsub!(/\./,'')
nice_name.gsub!(/\ +/,'-')
self.nice_name = CGI.escape nice_name  #just in case

Encoding mess at unit testing

Great, now all that is missing is a test for it:

def test_nice_name_generation
@s = Someone.new :first => "Józef", :last => "Piłsudski", :country => "Polska"
@s.gen_nice_name

assert_equal "jozef_pilsudski_polska", @s.nice_name
end

After launching rake test:units I saw a nasty message:

invalid multibyte char (US-ASCII) (SyntaxError)

WTF? How should I test my national character changes and permalink generation if I cannot insert national characters into test? Everything I give to Rails app is UTF-8, everything I display is UTF-8 – why this cannot get compiled?

And then I remembered, that Ruby by default treats all the source code as ASCII. And the very solution was to specify the encoding in the first line of the test file:

# encoding: utf-8

And then- everything turns green, no errors or failures. Another feature was implemented! Hooray! Thanks to this super-gem everything was done. It took more time to find this gem or any other code snippet, that to implement the final solution… Life

 Post scriptum

Huge thanks to Russell Norris for his gem and gem’s maintenance. In Ruby world long-term support for libraries is not very popular, unfortunately…

In this article I’ll write about my current laptop – Asus U30JC/i5 520M/4GB RAM/ 500GB HDD and what can be done to make it work faster.

A problem

Recently I was struck by low performance of my laptop. I thought it would be nice to give it to my sister and by a new one for myself. I did some research, but the result were totally unsatisfying.. It turned out that a new laptop with fair performance speed up, compared to my current one, would be approx. 2000$. A year ago i bought mine for 1300$. That gives 700$ for:

• better graphics card – better gaming experience
• keyboard with backlight – I want it sooo much!
• 2nd generation i5 or i7 processor
• 2-4 GB more RAM
• SSD disk
• slightly worse on-battery work time

I compared my Asus with some ThinkPads and Apple’s MacBooks. Even if I paid those 2000$ I would get only slightly better performance. And it’s hard to find all those features coming with 12 or 13 inches of screen. And 8 hours of on-battery life. Such an investment is a most poorly attractive.

So I got some ideas to solve above aspects.

Minor solutions

Gaming XP- I bought myself a PS3 It’s far better and there’s definitely more fun than I would get with laptop. Big fail – no Witcher 2 for PS3… I gotta live with it…

Backlight for keyboard – I got USB keyboard from Tracer. It’s awesomely blue and eases working late, as it can be seen on the left. 10$.

2nd generation i5 processor – my current socket is compatible with it, so it’s the matter of time I change the processor.

2-4 GB more RAM – As far as I know – my current chipset accepts up to 8GB/1333MHz – for 100$ I can get it. And I still have 600$ to spare!

Major solution – SSD, welcome!

SSD disk – it’s kinda problematic as long as I have one HDD in my laptop. Buying a 200-300G SSD drive would cost me too much. I have found alternate solution.

I haven’t heard about this much in Poland (a few threads on some forums), but according to the information from the US – it seems to be a great solution.  You can use the bay for CD/DVD drive! I assume you don’t use CDs often. I can’t remember what was the last situation I had to use CD or DVD.  The only thing I have to do now is to order a piece called 2nd HDD caddy (15$, directly from Hong Kong) and a SSD drive – I like Intel’s 320 SSD, 120G, 250$. A more detailed article can be found here. For some pictures use images.google.com and look for 2nd hdd caddy.

These caddies are available in 3 versions, for Macs (some special editions or something), 12mm and 9mm tall. I’ve checked my CD drive – it’s 12mm tall.

A big advantage of such a solution is that I can still store large amount of data on 500G hdd and take an advantage of SSD’s speed and install OS on it. Or event 2 OSes. If I had just SSD – where would I put all my data?

A certain drawback is that I have to perform OS installation from USB stick. I’ve done this for Linux already some time ago and for Windows XP as well. I hope Windows 7 won’t be a problem.

Getting things done

A short recap – instead of buying a new notebook for 2000$ and being quite happy I will spend something like 350$ to make my current model as good as the new one would be, and still be happy within my 13.3” Asus. All I got to to is buy mentioned caddy on ebay.com (they are unavailable in Poland for reasonable prices), grab a nice SSD and 8GBs of RAM and put all that into my current laptop.

Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted with the results!

PS. If anyone wants to buy such a caddy too – let me know, we can combine the purchase.

Kolejny semestr studiowania, kolejne projekty. Znów okazja, by podzielić się dobrami studenckimi w myśl “ja już zaliczyłem, czas na Ciebie“. Tym razem ASU i projekt nr 2, dwuczęściowy. Pierwsza obejmowała Perla + Tk przy zarządzaniu użytkownikami i grupami. Podobno 12h roboty, jak nic. Nie zrobiłem

Druga część projektu była zróżnicowana, mi dostało się zadanie z transformowaniem tekstu. Proszę się częstować!

Treść zadania

Projekt 7

Konwerter plików tekstowych na HTML. Plik wejściowy przestrzego następujących konwencji:

• paragrafy oddzielone pustą linią,
• obrazy są umieszczone w katalogu images, odwołania do nich pojawiają się w pliku tekstowym w nawiasach kwadratowych
• tekst otoczony podkreśleniami (ze spacjami, czyli ” _” i “_ “) powinien być wyświetlany czcionką pochyłą,
• tekst otoczony gwiazdkami (ze spacjami, czyli ” *” i “* “) powinien być wyświetlany czcionką wytłuszczoną,
• tekst w nawiasach klamrowych jest łączem lub parą tekst|łącze (pionowa kreska), np.{http://example.com} lub {przykładowe łącze|http://example.com}.

Rozwiązanie

#!/bin/bash
# a scripthat transforms text file into html
# detailed rules are in attached pdf

# ASU 11L, Michal Pasieka aka profetes. http://profetes.pl/
# Some rights reserved, distributed under MIT Licence.

# checking the arguments

# there are 5 tags to be searched,
# <p> => beginning of the file till the end,
# </p><p> => on \n\n
# <b> on " *" and </b> on "* "
# {lll} into link with link as a test
# {aaa|bbb} into link with alternated text

usage="Usage: $0 -f outfile|- [<infile ]"
outfile=""

if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
echo "$usage"
exit 1
fi

if [ $# -eq 2 ]; then
while getopts ":f:h" optname
do
case "$optname" in
"h")
echo "$usage"
;;
"f")
if [[ "$optname" == "" ]]; then
echo "no output filename provided! Exit!"
exit 2
fi
outfile=$OPTARG
;;
*)
echo "Unknown error while processing options"
echo "$usage"
;;
esac
done
fi

out=tmp

function subst {
echo $( cat $out | sed s/"$1"/"$2"/g ) > tmp2
mv tmp2 $out
}

# main loop for input
echo '<html><head></head><body><p>' > $out
#IFS=$'\n'
while read line  # For as many lines as the input file has...
do
if [ "$line" == "" ]; then
echo "</p>\n<p>" >> $out
else
echo "$line" >> $out
fi
done

echo "</p></body></html>" >> $out

subst " _" " <i>"
subst "_ " "< \/i> "
subst " \*" " <b>"
subst "\* " "< \/b> "
subst " \[" "<img src=\"images\/"
subst "\] " "\" \/> "

# convert {.*|.*} into a link:
echo $( grep {.*} $out | sed -e 's/{\([^|}]*\)|\([^}]*\)}/<a href=\"\2\">\1< \/a>/g' ) > tmp2
mv tmp2 $out

#convert {.*} into a link:
echo $( grep {.*} $out | sed -e 's/{\([^}]*\)}/</a><a href=\"\1\">\1< \/a>/g' ) > tmp2
mv tmp2 $out

if [[ "$outfile" == "-" ]]; then
cat $out
rm $out
else
mv $out $outfile
fi

#eof!

Download

Paczuszkę z kodem, testami i przykładowym plikiem tekstowym można pobrać o tu

Among the other problems, I had an issue, to convert

{www.google.com} into <a href="www.google.com">www.google.com</a>

and

{google!|www.google.com} into <a href="www.google.com">google!</a>

Final solution with sed

with linux tools only. I’ve tried ordinal Bash, grep, awk, but a problem occurred when there were links in both styles in one line.

Eventually I started doing that with sed. It took me some time to learn some fancy switches and syntax, but after some time – I did it! I can absolutely recommend Tim Robbins’ tutorial about sed: http://docs.funtoo.org/wiki/Sed_by_Example,_Part_3, parts 1,2 and 3.

It’s late at night, there’s a mug with 2 sips of coffee left in front of me, music in my headphones and dim light in the room. Work for today is done. In the moments as this one – I feel so… student? It definitely means to feel alive!

Hey, I gotta go to work in a few hours! I’ll just tweet that post and I get lost

Wciąż mam na liście kontaktów na GG mojego wykładowcę z Algebry Liniowej – dra Junoszę-Szaniawskiego. Oto jaki dziś ma opis:

Co zrobić ze studentami, którzy sciągali na kolokwium? Tym którzy sie przyznają – 0 pkt, tym co nie – minus to, co uzbierali. Kto chce sie przyznać?

Szaleństwo

Jeśli ktoś ma chwilkę czasu – pozwolę sobie zaprosić na stronę tegoż wykładowcy: http://www.mini.pw.edu.pl/~szaniaws/www/. Polecane działy to humor (“na kolokwium” wymiata!) oraz zagadki świąteczne, o ile ktoś ma chwilkę czasu.

Twitnąłbym info o tym, ale był problem z bit.ly’m, nie chciał mi skrócić linka (http://www.mini.pw.edu.pl/~szaniaws/www/?Humor:%A6wi%B1teczne_%A3amig%B3%F3wki). Poza tym opis dra ma ponad 160 znaków… Stąd potrzeba napisania aż posta na ten temat. A twitnę sobie link do artykułu

ASU – Zadanie 12
Proszę napisać skrypt CGI organizujący listę zadań do zrobienia dla grupy roboczej jak w poprzednim zadaniu. Zadanie na liście składa się z opisu i daty wykonania. Skrypt powinien każdemu z pracowników wyświetlać listę zadań jeszcze nie wykonanych, wyróżniając zadania o przekroczonym terminie realizacji. Na życzenie powinna istnieć możliwość wyświetlenia całej listy zadań dla danego pracownika – zarówno wykonanych, jak i oczekujących na realizację. Pracownik powinien mieć możliwość oznaczania zadań jako wykonane (powinna również zostać zapamiętana faktyczna data realizacji zadania) oraz dopisywania sobie nowych zadań do wykonania. Szef pownien móc również dopisywać zadania do wykonania innym pracownikom oraz przenosić zadania między pracownikami.

It means the script has to allow add tasks for a certain group of users. Users are stored in a users.db file. There are leaders that can access users’ tasks, modify them, reassign, add new ones. The whole package is available in here.

Big thanks for Marian, a friend of mine, who helped me with this script!

And here’s the code of this application. There are some things to do, ie. locking dabase file on read. But the project got approved, I got max points for it and I’m just happy

#!/usr/bin/perl
#cgihello.cgi

# CGI script prepared by Michal Pasieka aka profetes
# some rights reserved. U can contact me at ja@profetes.pl
# Warsaw Univesity of Technology, semetester: 11L

# for more info - see info.txt, Polish only
# script is really minimalistic one, if you want to - you can extend it an make it more secure.

use strict;
use warnings;

use CGI qw(:standard);    #Importuj procedury HTML
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser); #Przesylaj bledy przegladarce
use Fcntl qw(:flock :seek);
use Digest::MD5 qw(md5_hex);
use POSIX qw(strftime);

my $cgi = new CGI;

# some variables
my $this = "http://$ENV{SERVER_NAME}$ENV{SCRIPT_NAME}";
my $userdb = "db/users.db";
my $leaddb = "db/leaders.db";
my $taskdb = "db/tasks.db"; #a blank file must contain \n char!!!

# for salting the session. to be more secure - use ENV{REMOTE_ADDR}
my $secret_md5_phrase = 'so-called-salt';

#gather params
my $params = $cgi->Vars;
my $action = $params->{'a'};
my $option = $params->{'o'};
my $message = $params->{'m'};

#===== helpers

# currently logged user
sub get_user {
    my @cookie_data = $cgi->cookie(-name => "username");
    $cookie_data[0];
}

# return available users on the system
sub get_users {
    my @data;
    open(DATA, $userdb) || die "Can't open $userdb: $!\n";
    while (<DATA>) {
        my ($u, $p) = split(/\t/);
        unshift @data, $u;
    }

    \@data
}

#someone needs to be in leaders.db file
sub is_root {
    my @cookie_data = $cgi->cookie(-name => "username");

    my %data;
    open(DATA, $leaddb) || die "Can't open $leaddb: $!\n";
    while (<DATA>) {
        my ($u, $p) = split(/\t/);
        $data{$u} = $p;
    }

    if(exists $data{$cookie_data[0]}) {
        1;
    }
    else {
        0;
    }
}

sub get_today {
    my $x = strftime "%Y%m%d", localtime;
}
#====== HTML

sub logged_menu() {
    print "<h2>Menu</h2>";
    print "<ul><li><a href=\"$this\">home</a>";
    print "<li><a href=\"$this?a=tasks&o=show\">existing tasks</a>";
    print "<li><a href=\"$this?a=tasks&o=new\">add new task</a>";
    print "<li><a href=\"$this?a=logout\">logout</a>";
    print "</ul>";
}

sub unlogged_menu() {
    print "<h2>Menu</h2>";
    print "<ul><li><a href=\"$this\">home</a>";
    print "<li><a href=\"$this?a=login\">login</a></ul>";
}

sub form_login() {
    print $cgi->h1(":Not to to: - please login");
    print $cgi->start_form(-action=>"?a=authorize");
    print $cgi->p("login: ",textfield('login'));
    print $cgi->p("passw: ",textfield('passwd'));
    print $cgi->p($cgi->submit);
    print $cgi->end_form;
}

sub form_new_task() {
    print $cgi->start_form(-action=>"?a=tasks&o=create");
    print $cgi->p("what needs to be done: ",textfield(-name => 'what', -size=>50));
    print $cgi->p("due date [YYYYMMDD]: ",textfield(-name => 'duedate', -size=>8, -default=>get_today() ));

    if (is_root) {
        print $cgi->p("assign task to: ",scrolling_list(-name=>'assignee',
                -values=> &get_users(),
                -default=> get_user,
                -multiple=>'false'));
    }

    print $cgi->p($cgi->submit);
    print $cgi->end_form;
}

sub form_move_task() {
    print $cgi->start_form(-action=>"?a=tasks&o=movetask");
    print hidden('ndx',$params->{'i'});
    print $cgi->p("assign task to: ",scrolling_list(-name=>'assignee',
                -values=> &get_users(),
                -default=> get_user,
                -multiple=>'false'));

    print $cgi->p($cgi->submit);
    print $cgi->end_form;
}

sub handle_message {
    my $msg = shift;
    if ($msg == '001') {
        print "error: no such user!"; }
    elsif ($msg == '002'){
        print "error: bad passwd!";
    }
    elsif ($msg == '003'){
        print "new task created";
    }
    elsif ($msg == '004'){
        print "the task has been moved";
    }
    else
    {
        print "unknown error code!";
    }
}

sub create_new_task {
    my $what = shift;
    my $duedate = shift;
    my $another_user = shift; #root may assign sby else

    my $u = '';

    if ($another_user eq '') {
        $u = get_user;
    }
    else {
        $u = $another_user;
    }
    my $today = strftime "%Y%m%d", localtime;

    open(DAT,">>$taskdb") || die("Cannot Open File");
    flock(DAT, LOCK_EX);
    seek(DAT, 0, SEEK_END);
    print DAT "\n$u\t0\t$what\t$today\t$duedate\t";
    close(DAT);
}

sub mark_the_task_done {
    my $ndx = shift;
    my $today = get_today;

    #read #ndx line and save this record
    my @task;
    open(DATA, $taskdb) || die "Can't open $taskdb: $!\n";
    my $i = 0;
    while (<DATA>) {
        if ($i == $ndx) {
            @task = split(/\t/);
        }
        $i+=1;
    }
    #delete old data and write remaining data
    open(DAT, $taskdb) || die("Cannot Open File");
    my @raw_data=<DAT>;
    close(DAT);

    splice(@raw_data,$ndx,1);

    open(DAT,">$taskdb") || die("Cannot Open File");
    flock(DAT, LOCK_EX);
    seek(DAT, 0, SEEK_END);
    print DAT @raw_data;
    seek(DAT, 0, SEEK_END);
    print DAT "$task[0]\t1\t$task[2]\t$task[3]\t$task[4]\t$today";
    close(DAT);

}

sub move_the_task {
    my $ndx = shift;
    my $u = shift;

    #read #ndx line and save this record
    my @task;
    open(DATA, $taskdb) || die "Can't open $taskdb: $!\n";
    my $i = 0;
    while (<DATA>) {
        if ($i == $ndx) {
            @task = split(/\t/);
        }
        $i+=1;
    }
    #delete old data and write remaining data
    open(DAT, $taskdb) || die("Cannot Open File");
    my @raw_data=<DAT>;
    close(DAT);

    splice(@raw_data,$ndx,1);

    open(DAT,">$taskdb") || die("Cannot Open File");
    flock(DAT, LOCK_EX);
    seek(DAT, 0, SEEK_END); 

    print DAT @raw_data;
    seek(DAT, 0, SEEK_END);
    my $line = "$u\t$task[1]\t$task[2]\t$task[3]\t$task[4]\t$task[5]";
    # chomp $line;
    print DAT "$line";
    close(DAT);

}

sub authorize {
    my $user = shift;
    my $pass = shift;

    #debug login:
    # print $user;
    # print $pass;

    my %data;
    open(DATA, $userdb) || die "Can't open $userdb: $!\n";
    while (<DATA>) {
        my ($u, $p) = split(/\t/);
        $data{$u} = $p;
    }

    if (($pass eq "") || ($user eq "")) {
        die "no user nor password can be empty!";
    }

    if(exists $data{$user}) {
        #sprawdzic hasla
        my $dbpass = $data{$user};
        chop $dbpass;
        if ($dbpass eq md5_hex($pass)) {
            my $secret_md5_phrase = 'so-called-salt';
            my $usr_md5 = md5_hex($user, $secret_md5_phrase);
            #usr_md5 is a salted and hashed login
            my @cookie_data = [$user, $usr_md5];
            my $cookie = $cgi->cookie(    -name  => "username",
                            -value => @cookie_data,
                            -expires => "+1d");
            #Goto tasks
            print $cgi->header(-cookie => $cookie);

            # now someone can be assumed as logged
        }
        else {
            # print md5_hex($pass)."|";
            # print $data{$user}."|";
            # print $data{$user} eq md5_hex($pass) ? "true" : "false" ;
            print redirect($this."?a=login&m=002"); #bad passw    
        }
        #ustawic cookies
    }
    else
    {
        print redirect($this."?a=login&m=001"); #no user
    }
}

sub authenticate() {
    my @cookie_data = $cgi->cookie(-name => "username");
    my $x = 0;
    if ($cookie_data[1] eq md5_hex($cookie_data[0], $secret_md5_phrase)) {
        $x = 1;
    }
    else {
        $x = 0;
    }
    $x;
}

# wyswietlic, kolorowac, edytowac
sub print_list_element {
    my @row = shift;
    print "<li>elemt: @row->[2]";

}

# http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/perl/94552
# multidimensional arrays of data
# task: id; user; done; text; start; due; done
sub get_user_tasks {
    my $user = shift;
    my $cond = shift;

    my @tasks;
    open(DATA, $taskdb) || die "Can't open $taskdb: $!\n";
    my $i = 0;
    while (<DATA>) {
        my @task = split(/\t/);
        unshift (@task, $i);
        $i+=1;

        if ($task[1] eq $user || $cond eq 'root') {
            if ($cond eq 'undone') {
                if ($task[2] == 0) {
                    unshift (@tasks, \@task);
                }
            }
            else {
                # all!
                unshift (@tasks, \@task);
            }
        }
    }
    print "base no of tasks: ". ($#tasks + 1). "</br>\n";
    print "<table border=1><tr style=\"font-weight:bolder;\"><td>task</td><td>owner</td><td>started</td><td>due date</td><td>finished</td><td>operations</td></tr>";

    my $today = strftime "%Y%m%d", localtime;

    foreach (@tasks) {
        if ($today > $_->[5]) {
            print "<tr BGCOLOR=\"#ffcccc\">";
        }
        else {
            print "<tr>";
        }
        print "<td>$_->[3]</td><td>$_->[1]</td><td>$_->[4]</td><td>$_->[5]</td><td>$_->[6]</td>";
        # advanced actions
        print "<td>";
        if ($_->[2]){
            # done already
        }
        else {
            my $tmp = $_->[0];
            print "<a href=\"$this?a=tasks&o=done&i=$tmp\">[mark done]</a> ";
            # if root - moving the task
            if (is_root) {
                print "<a href=\"$this?a=tasks&o=move&i=$tmp\">[move the task]</a>";
            }
        }

        print "</td></tr>";
    }
    print "</table>";
    @tasks;
}

#==============================================================================
#========== the very begin ====================================================

# print $params->{'login'};
# print $params->{'passwd'};
# print $cgi->url_param('a');

#logging in, the rest of the actions is below

# POST requests
if ($cgi->url_param('a') eq 'authorize') {
    authorize($params->{'login'}, $params->{'passwd'});
    # print $cgi->redirect($this."?a=tasks"); #tasks
    $cgi->start_html("not to do");
    logged_menu;
    $cgi->p("logged in");
    exit;
}

if (($cgi->url_param('a') eq 'tasks') && ($cgi->url_param('o') eq 'create')) {

    create_new_task($params->{'what'}, $params->{'duedate'}, $params->{'assignee'});

    print redirect "$this?m=003&a=tasks&o=show";
}

if (($cgi->url_param('a') eq 'tasks') && ($cgi->url_param('o') eq 'movetask')) {

    move_the_task($params->{'ndx'}, $params->{'assignee'});

    print redirect "$this?m=004&a=tasks&o=show";
}
# header setting requests
if ($action eq 'logout'){
    my $cookie = $cgi->cookie(-name  => "username",
                            -value => "",
                            -expires => "+3s");
    print $cgi->header(-cookie => $cookie);
}

# GET requests

print $cgi->header();
print $cgi->start_html("Not to do");
print $cgi->h1(":Not to do: by profetes");
print $cgi->h2("Dont do CGI at home!");

if ($message){
    print "<p font-color=\"#f00\">Message:</br>";
    handle_message($message);
}

if ($action eq 'login') {
    form_login;
}
elsif ($action eq 'logout'){
    unlogged_menu;
    print "logged out."
}
else {
    # the rest of requests
    my $logged = authenticate;
    my $root = is_root;
    my $user = get_user;

    # print $logged;
    # print $root;
    # print $user;

    if ($logged == 0) {
        unlogged_menu;
        print $cgi->p("to explore further options you must login!");
    }
    else {
        #logged.
        logged_menu;

        #analyze the acrions and call subs
        if ($action eq 'tasks') {
            #task menu:
            print "Task view: <a href=\"$this?a=tasks&o=show\">to be done</a> | ";
            print "<a href=\"$this?a=tasks&o=showall\">show all mine</a> | ";
            print "<a href=\"$this?a=tasks&o=new\">create new</a> | ";
            if ($root) {
                print "<a href=\"$this?a=tasks&o=other\">show all users</a>";
            }
            print "<br><br>";
            # print add-new, there root check
            # if root - show for the other user

            # print $cgi->h2("Tasks of the user: $user");
            if ($option eq 'show') {
                print $cgi->h3("undone");
                my @taskz = get_user_tasks $user, "undone";
            }
            if ($option eq 'showall') {
                print $cgi->h3("all");
                my @taskz = get_user_tasks $user, "all";
            }
            if ($option eq 'other') {
                print $cgi->h3("all the employees");
                my @taskz = get_user_tasks $user, "root";
            }
            if ($option eq 'new') {
                print $cgi->h3("new task form");
                form_new_task;
            }
            if ($option eq 'move') {
                print $cgi->h3("move a task to someone else");
                form_move_task;
            }
            if ($option eq 'done') {
                my $ndx = $params->{'i'};
                mark_the_task_done $ndx;
                print $cgi->h3("marked as done");
                print "go to <a href=\"$this?m=003&a=tasks&o=show\">your tasks</a>";
            }

        } #tasks
    }
}

# print "<h1>test part</h1>";

#     print strftime "%Y%m%d", localtime;

# print $action;
# print $option;
# print $message;

# print $this;

# logged_menu;

# unlogged_menu;

# form_login;
# form_new_task;

print $cgi->end_html();

#========= the very end ===========
#print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
#print "Hello world\n";
# print "your IP: $ENV{REMOTE_HOST}\n";
print "<hr><ul>";
foreach (sort keys %ENV) {
    print "<li>$_: $ENV{$_}\n"
}
print "</ul>";

[for English - scroll down]]

Opublikowałem świeżutką wersję SmartDictionary, programu wspomagającego agregowanie i naukę słówek. Jest dostępna na dedykowanej stronie projektu – http://smartd.profetes.pl/ lub pod bezpośrednim linkiem do instalatora.

W najnowszej wersji 0.100.32:

• tryb nauki w przeciwnym kierunku, tzn. z tłumaczeń na słowo podstawowe

• możliwość ignorowania polskich znaków przy sprawdzaniu poprawności słowa
• poprawka dla systemów Vista/7 dot. uprawnień do plików

Historia wszystkich zmian dostępna w changelogu.

W najbliższym czasie przewidziano reaktywację projektu.

English

In my free time I’ve been developing a dictionary-like application with possibility of learning the words that have been gathered.  The website is available here, and HERE I believe is a translation. Unfortunately there’s no English language available for this app.

I’ve just been created a profile on http://about.me/! I find it just amazing, because under such a nice domain name there’s some place for me.

About.me project is currently in beta version, but for now it allows you to link your existing pages and profiles (blog, twitted, fb and so on). More, you have very limited space to write some sentences about you. In the background there’s a BIG wallpaper chosen by you. Under the hood there works click tracking system to log your page’s displays and clicks. Awesome.

Thank to such a functionality it can be called a contemporary, modern version of business card. Instead of placing many links in you signature under the mail you can just drop this one link.

You can visit my profile at http://about.me/profetes/. I think you should also review some random profiles, because some of them are simply amazing!

I got very enthusiastic, when a colleague of mine told me about his project. He made it possible to turn your Windows (Windows 7 and Server 2008R2) info wireless router to e.g. share internet connection!Of course, you may say, there already is such a functionality – one can create Adhoc Wifi network. But it’s so time consuming and it keeps disconnecting and it requires active connection each time… In my entire life I’ve used Adhoc wifi network twice.

But now out life is easier, because there’s SeventhGate: http://seventhgate.codeplex.com/ Let me quote Piotrek, the author, about example usage:

Use cases

• Providing Internet access to all your wireless-capable devices
• Creating private network for gaming, file sharing, multimedia, network development projects
• No more need to lug your router to University in order to play network games with friends

I find this tool amazing, I’ve downloaded it and it’s ready to use! Whenever I need to connect my computer with another one – I just launch SevethGate

Thanks, Piotrek!

Szukaj o .NET – szukajo.net

to inicjatywa kolegi Fonesa - http://blog.fones.pl/post/2010-11-17/szukajo-net-start/

Świetny pomysł, który zasadza się na personalizowaniu zapytania do Google’a. Zamiast pytać na stronie głównej wyszukiwarki o informacje na temat związany z .NET, a potem dopasowywać wyniki, by odfiltrować wszystkie “śmieciowe” wyniki – możemy skorzystać z już odfiltrowanych wynikików na stronie szukajo.net! Przeszukiwane są najbardziej popularne i rzetelne polskie serwisy poświęcone tej technologii. (za: http://szukajo.net/Home/Sites).

Sądząc po komentarzach na blogu Fonesa – pomysł został pozytywnie przyjęty. Ja również dodałem tę stronę do zakładek A w po zwiększeniu ilości artykułów o .NET na moim blogu – poproszę o dopisanie do indeksu!