Installing MySQL gem on Mac OS X Leopard
Installing the MySQL gem on Leopard was much more painful than I thought. I had the 64-bit version of MySQL already installed. So I had to uninstall MySQL on Leopard, which was a challenge all on its own. Here is what I did (after stopping MySQL, and backing up my databases first, of course):
sudo rm /usr/local/mysql sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql* sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My* sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mysql* sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/MySQL* vi /etc/hostconfig # remove the line MYSQLCOM=-YES-
Then I had to install the 32-bit version of MySQL for Mac OS X. After that is installed, I had to use the following to get the gem to compile:
sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install mysql -- \ --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/mysql --with-mysql-lib=/usr/local/mysql/lib \ --with-mysql-include=/usr/local/mysql/include
iPhone UI for Rails applications
I knew something like this should and would exist – nice work.. Will try and incorporate into the next Rails thing we do!
Configuring Gmail as SMTP Relay on Elastix
Elastix uses Postfix, and getting Postfix configured to use Gmail as a SMTP Relay has been incredibly painful to do. This should not be as difficult as it turned out to be, but here is what I had to do to get things working.
Edit the /etc/postfix/main.cf file
nano /etc/postfix/main.cf
Change these lines to your external domain and the name of your elastix server:
################################ #Ingresado por yb-webadmin mydomain = myrealdomain.gotdns.org myhostname = elastix.myrealdomain.gotdns.org
Change the following line
#relayhost = [an.ip.add.ress]to
relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
Create a new file /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd and put the following line in it
[smtp.gmail.com]:587 loginname@gmail.com:password
Then run the following command
postmap hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
Create a directory /etc/postfix/certs. Generate a self-signed certificate as follows
cd /etc/postfix/certs openssl req -new -x509 -keyout cakey.pem -out cacert.pem -days 365 openssl genrsa -out gm.key 1024 openssl req -new -key gm.key -out gm.csr openssl ca -cert cacert.pem -keyfile cakey.pem -out ./gm.pem -infiles gm.csr
If you get an error that says something like
Could not open directory ../../CA/newcerts
then do the following before you run the commands above
mkdir -p ../../CA/newcerts touch ../../CA/index.txt echo "01" >> ../../CA/serial
and after you are done, you can remove the above directory using
rm -rf ../../CA
Add the following lines to /etc/postfix/main.cf
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd smtp_sasl_security_options = smtp_use_tls = yes smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous smtp_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer = yes tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom smtp_tls_scert_verifydepth = 5 smtp_tls_key_file=/etc/postfix/certs/gm.key smtp_tls_cert_file=/etc/postfix/certs/gm.pem smtpd_tls_ask_ccert = yes smtpd_tls_req_ccert =no smtp_tls_enforce_peername = no
And finally run
postfix reload
Check your setup by sending a test email
mail myself@myemail.comAnd check the logs for anything going wrong
tail -f /var/log/maillog
How to Choose a Doctor
Having a child is a exhilarating experience. Dealing with the health system in this country however, evokes the exact opposite emotion. One of the most traumatic experiences we had to revisit with the birth of our child was to pick a doctor, a pediatrician, for him and a OB/GYN for my wife. For myself, it was never really an issue, as I rarely visited the doctor. With a pregnancy and a child however, the doctor is critical, as we are likely to see that person a lot more than our parents 
So I got to thinking – how do you pick a doctor. What do I look for in a doctor… (more…)
Typing in Indian Languages
I have always been interested in typing in Indian languages on computers, but wanted it to be as easy as typing the equivalent in English and have it transliterate dynamically. Alas, due to the complexity of indian languages and the variation in how people type the equivalent in english, it is hard for that method to be reliably correct all the time.
That method however seems to be called RTS by most folks in the know of such things. I created a custom dictionary file for my Pidgin Instant Messenger that lets me type in Hindi by using the Text Replacement plugin. You can just download my version of the dict file and replace the one in the settings directory of your Pidgin installation – and enable the Text Replacement plugin. And voila – you can be typing in Hindi on IM too! And since most IM clients show international characters correctly, the people on the other side do not have to be using Pidgin to be able to see your Hindi. In fact, it works great on gmail’s version of GTalk, and even Fring on the iPhone! Here is my Pidgin Text Replacement plugin Hindi Transliteration dictionary
And to type in Indian languages on my blog, I am using the Indic Input Extension firefox extension. It supports RTS method of input in most languages, but also supports WX – which is very close to RTS, but just uses capital letters for the stronger version of a letter (k is क and K is ख). And it is called WX since only W and X are different than what is obvious – त is w and द is x. The other thing that took me a while to figure out was how to get half characters like त् – the answer is _ – the underscore key allows you to shorten the character just before it. This allows you more control over how the word is displayed. And it allows you to switch between English and the Indian language with just a Ctrl+Space. Beautiful!
In Thunderbird, my email client, unfortunately the above plugin is not available. So I use the Indic IME plugin. The only downside with the Indic IME plugin is that it does not support RTS. So you have to use the WX notation with Indic IME. Since the RTS is kind of unreliable on what it spits out, getting used to WX for Indian languages is probably the best option anyway.
The Thunderbird IndicIME plugin has it limited to versions 2.0a1. I edited the file to make it work on Thunderbird versions that are current. Indic IME Plugin modified for Thunderbird version 2.1
So here is the WX notation in Telugu
Telugu WX notation
And MozDev hosts a version of the Hindi WX notation
The TV Gods look kindly upon BillShrink
The TV Gods are smiling at BillShrink this week. Close to a 100 TV stations across the country have played segments on BillShrink over the last two days. Both CBS and NBC recorded segments on BillShrink. This is the first time the TV stations have profiled the company directly, as opposed to previous segments that focussed on some of the products that we happen to have built some expertise on. CBS 5 ran the segment on the 6 o’clock news today. You can see the video below.
http://www.satyavolu.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/schwark_cbs.flvAnd NBC ran another story on the 11pm news. The video for that is below
http://www.satyavolu.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/schwark_nbc.flvSocial Networking in a box
I have been looking for a while for a bunch of social networking functionality to use out of the box – it is ridiculous that you have to build all the same basic things over and over again. I think I found exactly what I was looking for – Community Engine can be used as is, but is designed as a plugin as opposed to as an application. Very nice. One of these days, I might actually try it out. Now this is the kind of stuff that makes it harder to go with Django – community is more vibrant on the Rails side.
Hello world!
Welcome to the new and improved Satyavolu Family Website. I decided to call it Rajahmundry, after the ancestral town from which the Satyavolus hail. This website will now be regularly updated as a blog with both public and private posts. Happy New Year everyone!
