When it comes to musical accompaniment for coding or really any work that requires focus, I can never find anything better than SomaFM, a network of listener-supported internet radio stations. Many of them are low-lyrics or no-lyrics, and all are chill and contemplative in their different ways. Also no ads, just the occasional beg for donations.

In addition to the iTunes-compatible streams they also have apps for iOS and even Mac (I usually use the Mac one, though it’s got some bugs).

Some days I wonder why I don’t get anything done, other days I remember to turn on SomaFM. Here are my favorite stations (descriptions from the SomaFM site):

Drone Zone

Served best chilled, safe with most medications. Atmospheric textures with minimal beats.

Digitalis

Digitally affected analog rock to calm the agitated heart.

cliqhop idm

Blips’n'beeps backed mostly w/beats. Intelligent Dance Music.

Beat Blender

A late night blend of deep-house and downtempo chill.

What is Solarized?

Solarized is a programming color “palette” designed  by Ethan Schnoonover for use when writing syntax-highlited code. It’s based on color wheel and lightness relationships and it’s all sciencey and stuff, but the essence is that all the colors look good together and have good contrast, so you can use the different colors for different parts of your code (functions, variables, strings etc.) and no matter how you organize it the result should be easy on the eyes. It also has both a “dark” and “light” mode with different background/foreground colors, but most of the colors (red, green, magenta) work the same for both, which is cool.

Here’s a color reference I put together showing the various colors in Solarized Dark along with their RGB and hex codes. It was very useful to have around while working on the NetBeans theme (the Solarized site is strangely lacking a similar reference).

My Solarized Dark theme for NetBeans+PHP

As soon as I heard about Solarized I wanted to try it out with NetBeans, my IDE of choice for PHP/WordPress coding. I’ve spent many an hour tweaking my color schemes in NetBeans (and Smultron, my old text editor before that) and choosing the color relationships was always the hardest part, so having classy choices all laid out for me was very appealing.

The good news was that there is already a NetBeans port of the Solarized colors that worked as advertised. The problem was that IMHO it wasn’t particularly well executed. NetBeans has a lot of options in the color scheme settings, but they are also extremely confusing and often flat-out misleading, so I don’t blame the original author for not getting it perfect. He also may not have been looking at PHP code, in which case it makes sense that the PHP-specific color settings weren’t well organized. Lastly there’s a huge element of personal taste, even within the process of implementing a preset color theme like Solarized, so I recognize that the result is really just my personal opinion of what NetBeans+PHP+Solarized should look like.

All that said, here’s a screenshot of my NetBeans Solarized Dark theme:

I like to think it balances the need to have different parts of the code be different colors and the limitations of doing so using the NetBeans color settings. It should work just as well with procedural and object-oriented code.

One feature I added that isn’t in the original Solarized for Netbeans colors is SVN support. I had to invent them, but my theme has appropriate red, green and blue background colors when viewing a SVN DIFF.

Installing my theme in your NetBeans

Since NetBeans has a configuration import/export system you can install these colors really easily.

1. Download the .zip file linked below (don’t unzip it, NetBeans wants it as .zip).
2. Open NetBeans and summon the Preferences window (Options on Windows).
3. Go to the Fonts & Colors Preference tab.
4. Click Import at the bottom of the window.
5. Click Browse and find the .zip file, click OK.

Download netbeans-colors-solarized-dark-jer.zip »

Once you have the theme installed it should show up in the Fonts & Colors preferences as part of the Profile pulldown menu, where it’s identified as Netbeans_Solarized_Dark-jer.

Since I started using this I pretty much never feel the need to use a “light” theme so I haven’t tweaked the Solarized Light colors at all. Sorry if that’s what you would have preferred ;)

Anyway, hope some of you find this useful! I plan to someday get some of my changes added to the official GitHub repo, but wanted to get this out before my Code Faster and Smarter PHP with IDEs Like NetBeans talk tomorrow at WordCamp Montreal.

For the impatient, you can also go through just the slides on slideshare.

This is an idea/talk that has literally been years in the making. Ever since I used this “DRY CSS” system for the Global Voices redesign I’ve been meaning to do the background research and lay it all out clearly like this. To me the core principle is so simple and standards-based that I have trouble believing it’s not already a thing, but I can’t find anyone else promoting it so here you go:

Embed should be above, here’s a direct link to the slideshare page: DRY CSS – A don’t-repeat-yourself methodology for creating efficient, unified and Scalable stylesheets »

Or if you prefer you can download the slides as a PDF »

Let me know what you think! Am I crazy? Why aren’t we already doing it this way?

<?php
	$me = new Lover;

	$me->partner = $you;

	$me->feelings = array('adore','miss','want','love');

	foreach ($feelings as $feeling) {

		$me->express_feeling($feeling);

		if ($you->feeling_mutual($feeling))
			$me->epic_hugs($you);

	}
?>

Sure, it’s not the most expressive form of writing out there, but like with Haiku I think the limitation and challenge of putting poetry into code form can help push you to create something really fresh and strange without the baggage and cliché feel of regular poetry. I also just love naming variables and methods ;)

Either way, I think my poem is at least more uplifting than this other PHP love poem I found.

It was actually a follow-up to a shorter, twitter-length PHP love poem I wrote around the same time:

<?php
	$things_i_dont_miss_about_you = array();
?>

Submit your coded love poems in the comments, bonus points if it could at least theoretically execute in real life (assuming for example things like the existence of a “Lover” class with an express_feeling() method). If you’ve got the time write us an Epic PHP Poem, including all the needed class definitions :P

Note: I’m too lazy to find links for them all. Open up iTunes and search and you should be able to find them pretty fast.

Utilities/reading/reference

• Instapaper – Does nothing by itself, but add the special bookmarlet to the bookmarks bar on your normal browser (and iOS browser), then when you get to a long article you want to read later you ‘add to instapaper’, then on your idevice you open the instapaper app and all the articles are waiting for you in pleasant easy-to-read format with no adds and configurable fonts. It tracks where you are in the articles and lets you archive them when your’e done. Takes some time to get used to filling it with articles, but once you get in the habit it’s very useful for always having something to read when you’re out (just remember to sync when you have wifi once in a while). It’s a lifestyle more than just an app, but I love it a lot. Especially useful when checking twitter because you can ‘add to instapaper’ things that you want to read after you’re done with twitter. There is ‘add to instapaper’ integration in the official twitter app (“read later” option in the arrow menu once you have your instapaper account set in the twitter settings under advanced)
• Twitter – of course.
• Wikipanion – dedicated Wikipedia app, faster than using browser.
• Reeder – if you want a good way to check your google reader subscriptions. Not free but wondrous.
• Find my iPhone – to track it if someone robs you or you lose it.
• Touch Pad – to use your device as a mouse/keyboard for your mac.
• Stream to me – if you want to watch videos stored on your mac using the device.
• Soma FM – beautiful radio stations
• Netflix – Requires a subscription. YMMV on tiny screen, I really only use it on iPad.
• Art – Reference for history of art with a fun game where you guess the artist
• Stanza – best free ebook reader with integrated catalogue to find free stuff. All public domain books are there but also modern stuff that is free. If you’re lost just look for Cory Doctorow and read his books cause they rock. Also useful for reading PDFs and other docs though on small screens YMMV with that shit.
• IMDB – faster than web version.
• Dictionary.com - why not? fast free dictionary
• Skype – works surprisingly well

Games anyone could enjoy

• Tiny wings - 1$ well spent, everyone loves it and it’s surprisingly intense to play.
• Carcassonne – expensive but beautiful board game conversion.
• Shanghai Mahjong – most beautiful and functional i’ve tried, free version has what you need.
• Dead Runner – so fun and simple
• Spike Dislike – so fun and simple
• Free Solitaire 3D - not beautiful but really fun and free. Only has strange new variants that are challenging but engaging and way more interesting than normal solitaire. iPad and Mac App Store versions are also excellent. Makes normal solitaire feel like  a waste of time for babies.

These are all apps I have installed on my iPhone, so they are all handheld-friendly. They also mostly have iPad versions that work well, but the list would be longer if I included iPad-only apps too.

Grab a badge for your blog here.

If you use WordPress and have been meaning to learn more about it you should definitely come. In three years I’ve literally never heard anyone complain that WordCamp is a waste of time, even when they find a million other things to complain about ;)

Tickets are on sale now, so you should register ASAP.

It assumes that the astronauts (Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin) are trapped on the moon and doomed to die. The American people know about it in real time and need guidance:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

(Emphasis mine)

Obviously this is a beautiful and moving speech, and should have helped Americans understand this theoretical tragedy had it occurred, but what I love best is the careful avoidance of any mention of God or religious ideology.

The writer mentions ‘Mother earth’ and ‘fate’ but the overall feeling is clear: Mankind did this thing on our own, using our ambition, ingenuity and hope. Whether the mission is successful or not we had achieved something miraculous and unbelievable all on our own. We can take credit for the success just as we must face the blame if things go wrong. Either way we had re-invented our place in the universe for all eras to follow, and, most importantly, for the best possible reason: “the search for truth and understanding”.

Too bad the space race was as much about the cold war as it was about science, and that Nixon was a horrible person in the long run. For today his alternate-universe self will be my Atheist superhero. (The actual speechwriter was William Safire and not Nixon of course. Here is some audio of Safire talking about writing the worst-case scenario speech).

(Found in this amazing article by Robert Krulwich about the Soviet space program and it’s awfulness).

This post is about Munin and the custom theme I built for it, Raven.

Click here to skip to the download and installation instructions if you just want the theme »

Click here if “Load average” means nothing to you.

What is Munin and why am I bothering with it?

Munin is a program you install on servers to track their resource usage and application performance on a minute-by-minute basis and present you with graphs giving tons of detail about it’s status over time (each report can be viewed for daily, weekly, etc.) It has lots of core and community-built plugins to track different server applications and different aspects of a server’s health.

The basic idea is that you install a ‘node’ on each server you want to keep track of, then one ‘master’ that queries the nodes and generates the graphs for you. I’ve had it recommended to me by pro sysadmins a few times in the past but was intimidated by the complexity of installation and the inscrutability of the resulting graphs, which depend on you having pre-existing knowledge of the command-line tools who’s output they aggregate. Oh, my iostat is up… um… what do I do about that?

The best guide to understanding and installing Munin I found was this great set of articles on the Slicehost blog. They are intended for Slicehost customers, but seem to apply pretty well to anyone using the Linux distrubutions they cover.

The problem with Munin and it’s Theme ecosystem

So I got it running and am trying to figure out how to read the information it presents but there’s a problem: It’s woefully, sinfully and abysmally ugly. The web pages output by munin are not just composed on 90′s style tables, they are ugly tables, with tiny text and wasteful spacing.

It seems the sysadmin crowd just doesn’t care about these things, because even though there is a really easy system for modifying and restyling the underlying HTML and CSS there is only one alternate template available on the whole internet! You can find it here in the Munin docs but it is almost as ugly as the default and the way you install it is completely counterintuitive and under-explained. On the bright side it has some really useful javascript features that the default doesn’t, if you can get it to work that is.

FWIW I don’t even know how to refer to this. The files themselves are called ‘templates’ in various places on the Munin site, but IMHO the package as a whole should be called a “theme”, at least that’s how we do things in WordPress land. I tried to use both in this post so people find this post, but I’ll call it ‘theme’ from now on.

My Munin Theme: Raven

Screenshot of Raven. Click to enlarge. Compare with screenshot of alt-default theme.

My answer to this problem is a new theme based on the javascript-enabled alternative from the Munin site. I call it Raven because Munin is named after a Raven ally of Odin, Norse king of the gods. Essentially it’s just the default theme with 80% of the ugly removed and a grey and white facelift. There is still a lot of work that could be done to actually fix all the ugly-ass HTML, but I want to see if this gains any traction before putting in the time.

Features of Raven compared to the default theme:

• Javascript-enabled so the various sections of the ‘overview’ page are in tabs at the top instead of one never-ending page. (this is the most important usability improvement)
• Larger text all over to actually use up all the empty space created by the unavoidably-large graph images.
• Reduced unneeded spacing and <hr> tags that just added noise.
• Calm light-grey colors and rounded corners to soothe your mind while you toil over server performance.
• Readme/installation instructions in the .zip file.

Download Raven theme

munin_templates_raven_0.1.zip

If I get good feedback about this I’ll post it on the official Munin Wiki, but for now you can grab the zip file above. Please take a look at the contents and read the README-INSTRUCTIONS.txt file before installing the theme.

Installation Instructions

The README-INSTRUCTIONS.txt file contains all the information you need to use Raven, including detailed instructions with background information about the locations you need to upload files to. Here is the summarized instructions so you can get a sense of how simple installation is:

• Upload the “templates_raven” directory from this zip file into your Munin config directory (i.e. same directory that munin.conf is in, probably /etc/munin/)
• Upload the ‘raven-htmldir-files’ directory from this zip file into your Munin HTML directory (where the public HTML is served from).
• Edit your “munin.conf” file on the master and change the “tmpldir” property to reference the new “templates_raven” directory in your Munin config directory instead of the default “templates”.
• Wait 5 minutes for the Munin master to refresh itself and reload.

Feedback? Thanks? Bugfixes?

Obviously this is my first attempt at a Munin theme and there is not a lot of other examples to emulate, so I may have done something horribly wrong. If you have questions or comments please use the comment form below to let me know about them.

I will try to get back to you ASAP but be warned: I am not going to support your Munin problems for you. I am sharing this theme to give back to the community, but if your problem is complicated I may not be able to help.

Thanks in advance to anyone brave enough to try out the theme and leave feedback!

Not there? Missed my talk? Forget everything? You can see the slides I used for the talk on my slideshare account. It should also be embedded below: