I listen to a fair amount of symphonic music.

I think of symphonic music first in terms of the composer (e.g. Bartok, Beethoven), then the work (5th Piano Concerto in E Flat Major), and then, in the cases where I have multiple performances of the same work, the conductor & performing orchestra (Julius Katchen & London Symphony Orchestra; Hélène Grimaud, Staatskapelle Dresden & Wladimir Jurowski).

However, music metadata format lists the conductor and symphony in the "artist" field on CDDB / iTunes. This is moderately annoying to deal with in the iTunes interface (I have to display and then sort by the correct columns of metadata) but absolutely intolerable on my iPod. Trying to listen to Smetana's Ma Vlast means that I have to remember the name of the composer and orchestra? Oh come on.

So I wrote an Applescript to fix the metadata on my symphonic catalog. It searches my library for all tracks whose genre is "symphonic" and swaps around some of the field values. I still retain the performance info, but as "album artist" instead of "artist".

(It similarly annoys me when other albums list both performers of a one-off song (e.g. Madonna and Justin Timberlake), which breaks that one song apart from the rest of the album when I sort by artist. In these cases I manually reset the "artist" field.)

* What people generally call "classical," but I refer to it as "symphonic" because of a snobby old habit of mine: "classical" refers to a specific period / style of symphonic music in the Western canon, e.g. Haydn and Mozart, so I use the more general "symphonic". I guess "orchestral" might be more appropriate... anyway, the organizing genre in my iTunes library is "symphonic".

Yes, I *do* need to create join tables in my database migration definition files.
It wasn't clear to me at first, but now what I'm realizing -- and hopefully this is correct -- is that the rails migration schema file is really just an abstracted way of writing a database setup script. Rails can translate its file into the setup script for whatever database you're using, but you still have to specify all the joins, defaults, etc. just as you would if you were setting up the database in its native language. Check and check.

I do use the scaffolding command to create multiple model-controller relationships. (See O'Reilly OnLamp: Rolling with Ruby on Rails Revisited.)

"test" is a reserved word.
This is apparently a problem. I'm building a DB to track usability tests, and I named one of my tables "test". I'm trying to migrate to "usabilitytests" but i'm running into problems. Solved by deleting the entire app and recreating. Obviously not something that one would always want to do, but I don't know how to un-create models and controllers and whatnot that have already been set.

functions in the controller are lowercase with underscores.
I'm not entirely sure of this, but I downloaded a sample application and checked out that code.

TOTALLY STUMPED: Radio buttons in RoR?
Okay, I found the documentation for how to render a checkbox. Am I smoking crack? Did the entire RoR project forget about the existence of radio buttons? From an interaction perspective, radio buttons are the exact same as SELECT boxes: They afford one-from-many selection. They're just rendered in an easier-to-read and easier-to-operate widget. (Select boxes are hard for people to use, and even if you know what you're doing, they're way more of a pain particularly for administrative-type applications when you interact with the box a billion times a day.) I expect there to be a function like collection_radio that operates almost exactly the same as collection_select -- but as far as I can tell, no such thing exists.

• I am a very good HTML, Javascript, and CSS "coder".


• I am a moderately proficient PHP programmer, which I use to create prototypes for usability tests and whatnot.


• I am nigh-on retarded when it comes to hooking a webapp to a MySQL database. Ergo, I usually don't get beyond the prototype stage for a lot of cool webapp ideas I've had.


• I can muddle along in a handful of other languages and frameworks, like Perl, Java, Clearsilver, Struts, and XSLT.


• I have zero exposure to Ruby, Python, Gems, etc.


• I'm good at programming -- thinking in abstractions, being efficient, breaking down a goal into minute logical steps, etc.

My goal: I'm helping a friend create a usability testing infrastructure for his startup. I want to create a website to recruit participants for various studies, let people sign up to be a participant, and do some lightweight CRM of when they were contacted, outcomes, and whether they have already participated in a test.

Requirements:

Participant:

Firstname Surname Phone Country Timezone Email(unique) DateOfSubmission Age Gender Occupation Industry Education ContactForFutureTests? NativeLanguage Status[ New | AssignedToTest | Archived | CompletedTest ] NOTES

Note: (Each participant can have several notes)
Author Timestamp ParticipantID NoteText

Test: (Each test has several participants)
TestID Status[ Active | Complete | Pending ] Date Description ConsentFormURL Compensation PARTICIPANTS

TestParticipant:
CompensationGiven ConsentFormSigned? ConsentFormID

ConsentForm
UniqueID HTML TestID

Note that this is NOT tied to the actual test data in any way -- that's not the point. This app is just to keep track of who we talked to and when. It's a very lightweight CRM.

I had a no-problem installation of Locomotive, the Mac OS X bundled installation of Ruby on Rails. I got my little app up and running on my Mac.

But now, what the frack do I do?

I need to tell it my database schema: the start page says "Create your databases and edit config/database.yml"

I open database.yml. It looks like it's already set up a database:

development:

  adapter: mysql

  database: UsabilityParticipants_development

  username: root

  password:

  host: localhost

Is this true? Do I have a MySQL database running? Or do I need to go create one now, named Usability_Participants? (I have MySQL installed already but it's not running now.)

On to the internet: I go to http://developer.apple.com/tools/rubyonrails.html. Blah blah blah install, blah blah blah create an application. Locomotive did that for me. Ah-ha: Jump-Starting the Application sounds like where I'm at.

And here's the money shot: "Now we need to actually create the expenses_development database. Feel free to use whatever tool you're comfortable with. Here's how to create the database using the mysqladmin command-line tool:"

Thank you, Apple tech writers! I have the visual MySQL application installed in my Mac preferences panes, so I start up my server. I open up a terminal window. I run the suggested command and this happens:

ellen-beldners-computer:~ ellen$ $ mysqladmin -u root -p create UsabilityParticipants_development
-bash: $: command not found

Okay, so maybe I need to reinstall MySQL...? Google for [install mysql mac os x]; Apple recommends this installation package. It took about 400 clicks to get to the actual download link for Mac OS 10.4 x86....

Installed and running. let's try that command again:

 mysqladmin -u root -p create UsabilityParticipants_development

Enter password: [return]

Argh. Okay, what's the default mysql password for root? Hmm, I need to set it:

mysqladmin -u root password {whatever}

(Also, shouldn't I be creating non-root accounts for these databases and having custom passwords for each? I have no idea what I'm talking about, really, but I know that "root" usually means "all powerful and really scary things can happen".)

Once again:

ellen-beldners-computer:~ ellen$  mysqladmin -u root -p create UsabilityParticipants_development

Enter password: 

mysqladmin: CREATE DATABASE failed; error: 'Can't create database 'UsabilityParticipants_development'; database exists'

You bastards! You already created the database? Or did I? Fine. Be that way.

{I write a lot more, and then I SAVE this article, and in the meantime my router crashes, so firefox hangs, and i lose a lot.)

Basically, what happens is Apple tells me to set up a migration to specify my database schema. I enter the command and i get an error message

ellen-beldners-computer:~/UsabilityParticipants ellen$ script/generate migration participant
Cannot find gem for Rails ~>1.2.3.0:
    Install the missing gem with 'gem install -v=1.2.3 rails', or
    change environment.rb to define RAILS_GEM_VERSION with your desired version.

I ponder reinstalling, but that seems really scary given all the ways that Ruby on Rails can fuck your computer up. So I go into my environment.rb file and make it like this:

# RAILS_GEM_VERSION = '1.2.3' unless defined? RAILS_GEM_VERSION
RAILS_GEM_VERSION = '0.9.2'

(My environment variables at localhost:3001 told me I was running 0.9.2'.)

And now my application won't start at all.

# RAILS_GEM_VERSION = '1.2.3' unless defined? RAILS_GEM_VERSION
RAILS_GEM_VERSION = '0.9.2' unless defined? RAILS_GEM_VERSION

doesn't work either. Meh. All right, I'm starting over. Delete the Locomotive Rails ap, delete the files, and create a new one with the same name. Same thing happens:

Cannot find gem for Rails ~>1.2.3.0:
    Install the missing gem with 'gem install -v=1.2.3 rails', or
    change environment.rb to define RAILS_GEM_VERSION with your desired version.

I don't even know what this means!!! My environment variables are

Ruby version	1.8.6 (i686-darwin8.9.1)

RubyGems version	0.9.2

Rails version	1.2.3

Active Record version	1.15.3

Action Pack version	1.13.3

Action Web Service version	1.2.3

Action Mailer version	1.3.3

Active Support version	1.4.2

Application root	/Users/ellen/UsabilityParticipants

Environment	development

Database adapter	mysql

I think that the Apple site is maybe not my best bet at this point. Google [rails application with locomotive] and the second link or so is an ars technica article. They're usually pretty good.... but not in this case. Did you actually write an article on dragging locomotive into your Applications folder? Assholes. That doesn't tell me anything.

Here's the official Rails tutorial on Migrations. Same command, same problem:

ellen-beldners-computer:~/UsabilityParticipants ellen$ ruby script/generate migration participants
Cannot find gem for Rails ~>1.2.3.0:
    Install the missing gem with 'gem install -v=1.2.3 rails', or
    change environment.rb to define RAILS_GEM_VERSION with your desired version.

After some more searching, I found this lovely tutorial on a first rails app with locomotive. Following all the directions to the letter, I typed

ellen-beldners-computer:~/UsabilityParticipants ellen$ ruby script/generate migration create_participants

      create  db/migrate

      create  db/migrate/001_create_participants.rb

      

It worked! Yay! I have no idea why it worked this time but didn't before; this time I openend the terminal window from Locomotion, but before, I had doubled checked to ensure I was in the right directory. Weird. Maybe it didn't set up my paths correctly and stuff??

I open the 001_create_participants.rb file. I now need to tell it about my database; but first I take a few minutes to sketch out exactly how I want my pages to flow to ensure that I'm capturing all the information I'll need to make it work.

list of Ruby on Rails migration database datatypes

So I edited my .rb file to be like this:

class CreateParticipants < ActiveRecord::Migration

  def self.up

      create_table :participants do |table|

      # note that "id" is added implicitly, by default

        table.column :firstname, :string

        table.column :surname, :string

        table.column :namepronunciation, :string

        table.column :email, :string

        table.column :phonenumber, :string

        table.column :country, :string

        table.column :timezone, :string

        table.column :dateofsubmission, :datetime

        table.column :age, :integer

        table.column :gender, :string

        table.column :occupation, :string

        table.column :industry, :string

        table.column :nativelanguage, :string

        table.column :futurecontactokay, :boolean

        table.column :status, :string

  end


  def self.down

        drop_table :participants 

  end

end

I save and type the "rake migrate" command, which results in the extremely unsatisfying

rake aborted!
./db/migrate//001_create_participants.rb:25: syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting kEND

Investigation reveals that I was missing an "end" to close my "do" statement, rerun the command, and get:

ellen-beldners-computer:~/UsabilityParticipants ellen$ rake migrate --trace

(in /Users/ellen/UsabilityParticipants)

** Invoke migrate (first_time)

** Invoke db:migrate (first_time)

** Invoke environment (first_time)

** Execute environment

** Execute db:migrate

== CreateParticipants: migrating ==============================================

-- create_table(:participants)

   -> 0.0399s

== CreateParticipants: migrated (0.0401s) =====================================


** Invoke db:schema:dump (first_time)

** Invoke environment 

** Execute db:schema:dump

** Execute migrate

The rake task migrate has been deprecated, please use the replacement version db:migrate

ellen-beldners-computer:~/UsabilityParticipants ellen$ 

So I need to figure out what this updated "db:migrate" thing means. blerrrrrgh..... it means the correct command is

rake db:migrate

Based on the information in the official rails tutorial on migrations, I am now supposed to create a model. Here's what happens:

ellen-beldners-computer:~/UsabilityParticipants ellen$ ruby script/generate model Participant

      exists  app/models/

      exists  test/unit/

      exists  test/fixtures/

      create  app/models/participant.rb

      create  test/unit/participant_test.rb

      create  test/fixtures/participants.yml

      exists  db/migrate

Another migration is already named create_participants: db/migrate/001_create_participants.rb

What does this mean? I don't know. Does it work? Is it broken? Should I do something else? Oh. Scaffolding:

ellen-beldners-computer:~/UsabilityParticipants ellen$ script/generate scaffold participants signup

      exists  app/controllers/

      exists  app/helpers/

      create  app/views/signup

      exists  app/views/layouts/

      exists  test/functional/

  dependency  model

      exists    app/models/

      exists    test/unit/

      exists    test/fixtures/

      create    app/models/participants.rb

      create    test/unit/participants_test.rb

   identical    test/fixtures/participants.yml

      create  app/views/signup/_form.rhtml

      create  app/views/signup/list.rhtml

      create  app/views/signup/show.rhtml

      create  app/views/signup/new.rhtml

      create  app/views/signup/edit.rhtml

      create  app/controllers/signup_controller.rb

      create  test/functional/signup_controller_test.rb

      create  app/helpers/signup_helper.rb

      create  app/views/layouts/signup.rhtml

      create  public/stylesheets/scaffold.css

I'm able to go

http://localhost:3000/signup

A: A howdah duty.

I was impressed -- the interlanguage (and intercultural; "howdy doody" is moderately obscure, no?) pun is pretty sophisticated.

We had a thread on the UE team mailing list where someone had -- reasonably -- gotten a bit miffed that Joel Spolsky blithely assumes that most of usability and design are trivial functions that anyone can easily do anytime. One of the Joelisms she cited from User Interface Design for Programmers was:

if usability engineers designed a nightclub, it would be clean, quiet, brightly lit, with lots of places to sit down, plenty of bartenders, menus written in 18-point sans serif, and easy-to-find bathrooms - and nobody would be there? (p. 130)

I am generally a huge fan of Joel on Software -- although I am a bit annoyed by his attitude towards my profession -- and to lighten the mood, said this as part of my message in the thread:

...and by the way, we all know that usability engineers would never design a brightly lit nightclub. you'd do some contextual interviews, learn that no one really wants to see each other in a nightclub because the primary user motivations are getting laid and drinking away depression, and obviously the place would need to be dark. at which point the designer would come along and suggest putting the menus with 18-point type behind lucite slabs (protects against spilled drinks, too!) with LEDs embedded in the top edge. ;)

So true. I got dinner with a coworker last night. He volunteered to drive us on his motorcycle. As much as I appreciated it, I elected to have my driver take us. I haven't seen any accidents yet and presumably people are used to driving this way, but I'm sure as hell not used to it yet.

Friends who have been to India have told me that it can be very psychologically difficult to see the poverty and the class divides. I absolutely understood that, although having just been to Central America this summer, I didn't expect to be surprised.

Turns out I was totally blown out of the water.

But the driver was there with a Goog-branded sign that had my name on it. Relief.

The past few days I've mostly stayed close to work and the corporate apartment. I don't like the corporate housing. It has staff -- the home has 4 bedrooms, and there must be 8 staffpeople. It makes me rather uncomfortable. I get juice and panckakes for breakfast: I appreciate the concession to my presumed tastes, but I don't like those things and I don't eat them at home -- too sugary. I tried requesting the traditional Indian breakfast of rice and dal, but I guess that didn't go through. I feel exceedingly uncomfortable telling the staff what to make for me; quite honestly I'd rather do my own cooking. I also have no idea how the food's being prepared. When I was in Zurich last year and stayed in corporate housing I liked it a lot because it was like being at home -- I had some privacy, I could do my own cooking, it was great. This is sort of a weird hybrid where people notice my comings and goings, I have to tell them whether I'll be home for dinner or not, and notify the driver when I'm planning on leaving for work and returning home.

I've also barely talked to anyone the past few days. Most people in the office have been on holiday, although yesterday a coworker apparently took pity on me eating lunch by myself and said hello. We grabbed dinner last night at a sort of waterfront food court. Intestinal integrity still intact.

India is an astonishing place. It strikes me as having a very strong sense of itself: a very definitive culture that is trying to be itself but better, rather than just being the U.S. or Western Europe. (I mean, given India's colonial history, I'd dare to say that it probably had enough of being like Western Europe.) I've never closely thought about the politics and psychology of colonialism and postcolonialism, but I feel very, very strange here. Very self-conscious. Very out of place. It's humbling.

I'm extremely independent, I have a wide social network, and on the scale of global wealth I've got nothing to worry about. It's a rare situation that gets me feeling lost and intimidated. I'm sure it's good for me to share in the human experience of being out of my element, not in control. Even most of my normal "control" over my environment is tenuous at best, a modest illusion that rests on an immensely complex culture and infrastructure. Isn't this the shock of globalization? Isn't it why the US government is so perplexingly incalcitrant about protecting the American dream against the tides of global warming, the geopolitical and economic changes posed by China, India, and the Middle East?

(1) Ambien is great. I slept almost the entire plane flight. My Peltor ear mufflers and an eye mask helped too. I've always hated sleeping pills and painkillers -- I don't like the total blackout feeling, the where-did-my-8-hours go. But when I went to Vienna for New Year's last year, the jet lag f*cked me up for about 5 days and the only reason I got over it was because I went to St. Anton and boarded all day. Anyhow, I asked the doc for the meds this time to help regulate my sleep.

(2) I saw a horse wearing [faux] antlers.

(3) The Davenport rules 'cuz it has adapters for US and European plugs built into the wall. Yay, I can charge my toothbrush without buying an adapter!

(4) I forgot to pack pajamas & bought a pair at La Senza. I love La Senza. It's cute, not expensive, and holds up as well as any other brand of lingerie I've bought.

(5) I have cellular connection in Europe! Not on my Verizon-powered Treo, naturally, because Verizon doesn't have roaming agreements with any non-North-American networks, because clearly they hate me. I had to buy an unlocked GSM phone ($150 razr from cellhut) a couple of weeks ago and today I bought an Irish SIM. I was able to buy EUR 10 of credit at the shop. I quickly ran out today, making a couple of calls to the U.S., and was able to top up via phone without actually giving them any sort of payment or billing information. I wonder how this will work. Obviously at some point they will want me to give them money or I won't get to use the phone.

(6) I set up my US 415 SkypeIn number to forward to my Irish cellphone. This means that U.S. people can dial the US number and it gets routed via VOIP to my Irish cellphone. I pay SkypeOut minutes (cost to connect to a real phone from Skype, which are cheap); incoming calls to my cellphone are free. Not bad. Sound quality is a B+.

(7) Tomato relish sounds like a nice thing that I would enjoy eating on a grilled cheese sandwich. Unfortunately, it turned out to be ketchup. Yuck.

Anyway, I wasn't quite happy with the angled countertop my architect had designed for the space. It was cool, for sure, but it didn't make great use of the space. I couldn't figure out how I was going to fit even basic furniture in there. It would have made invisible lines that claimed too much active area for the kitchen and afforded traffic patterns that would wipe out a lot of usable floor area. Plus, when the contractor finally figured out the stair specs, we realized that the stairs were going to require chopping the counter short by a bit, which in turn meant that the cabinets I had made to go under that bit of counter weren't going to fit. Great.

So I've been trying to figure out what to do with that space. Again playing in Sketchup Pro:

I'm not sure what finish of wood I'd want for the stairs / cabinet / shelves. And I think that instead of making the countertop / eating bar a contiguous outgrowth of the rest of the countertop, I'd make it as a freestanding table that abuts the rest of the counter -- and, ideally, can somehow fold open to double its size and become an 8-person dining table.