laconic compositions

Book Review: Java Precisely, Second Edition

2011-05-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

A new review has appeared on VictorsReviews: Java Precisely. Thanks Joshua Bloch for recommending.

New Article on Victor's Reviews

2011-04-15T04:28:00.000-07:00

What E-Books Publishers Don't Get. Hope you will like it :)

New Search Engine Project

2011-03-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

The Reviews is a time consuming project. I have to read the books, then write my thoughts about them. During my short lifetime I can't possibly read all programming books and recommend the ones I like. BooksQuery came as a solution to this issue to me.

The project is still in its early stage :)

On Writing Books for Programmers

2011-02-18T10:36:00.000-08:00

My new article, On Writing Books for Programmers.

Kernighan and Pike on Design

2011-02-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

It is not usually until you've built and used a version of the program that you understand the issues well enough to get the design right.

Link.

New Website is Up

2011-02-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, The Reviews's sister, The Quotes went online just yesterday. There is only one quote at the moment :)

New Article

2011-02-13T13:25:00.000-08:00

My new article is up on The Reviews: Stop Imposing Programming Languages On Kids. Comments and feedback really appreciated.

What is going on with PowerShell?

2011-02-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

The last version of PowerShell is 18 months old. Hello? I wonder if the project has been abandoned or something.

I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't use those Linux/Unix shells tools for windows. I have stayed faithful to Microsoft on this one for only too long. Powershell is just too slow and buggy. Even my text editor, Vim, does directory completion faster...

Improvements to The Reviews

2011-02-08T20:14:00.000-08:00

The Reviews (my reviews website) has been improved. A nice intro has been added. ShareIt and Paypal Donate buttons too. I like the template I created for it, it's called Maki. And I will use the same template for another website coming up in the next few days.

Book Review: Python Algorithms

2011-01-22T03:35:00.000-08:00

Here's another book review posted yesterday on my reviews website: Python Algorithms. A great read.

AppEngine Remote Shell, Part 2

2011-01-09T05:17:00.000-08:00

After my post on remote manipulation of the Google AppEngine datastore, I have been told that GAE included remote_api_shell.py.

After trying desperately to use it, I went back to my simple script. Here's a StackOverFlow post about the issue I have encountered.

GAE guru Nick Johnson commented (in 2009 mind you):

Google Accounts for authentication, and you yourself use a Google Apps account, you will not be able to authenticate against your app as an administrator using that account, even if you've created a Google Account for that email address. The workaround for now is to create a gmail account and add it as an administrator of your app, using that whenever you need to authenticate against your app as an administrator. You can still use your existing account for deployments and to log in to the admin console.

It's a pain, I know - I run into it every day myself.

And the problem is still there today, in 2011, while my humble script works for all I need it for.

New Review Uploaded

2010-12-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

Check out my new review:

Language Implementation Patterns

I have a review website now!

2010-12-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

I just uploaded my review website to AppEngine check it out:

http://the-reviews.appspot.com

Beat AppEngine get limit (offline mode)

2010-10-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

def get_entities(kind):
    c = None
    es = []
    while True:
        q = kind.all()
        if c: q.with_cursor(c)
        i = q.fetch(1000)
        es.extend(i)
        if not i: break
        c = q.cursor()
    return es

Manipulate AppEngine datastore from the Python interactive console

2010-09-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

# wednesday june 23, 2010 11:39 pm
# Victor N.

import sys
import code

gaedir = 'path/to/gae'

sys.path.append(gaedir)
sys.path.append(gaedir + '/lib/yaml/lib')
sys.path.append(gaedir + '/lib/webob')
sys.path.append(gaedir + '/lib/django')
sys.path.append(gaedir + '/lib/fancy_urllib')

extra = 'path/to/extra/libs'
sys.path.append(extra)

from google.appengine.ext.remote_api import remote_api_stub


def auth_func():
    return 'da_username', 'da_password'


def main():
    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        print 'Usage: %s app_id [host]' % sys.argv[0]
        return

    app_id = sys.argv[1]

    if len(sys.argv) > 2: host = sys.argv[2]
    else: host = '%s.appspot.com' % app_id

    remote_api_stub.ConfigureRemoteDatastore(
        app_id,
        '/remote_api',
        auth_func,
        host
    )

    code.interact(
        'App Engine interactive console for %s' % (app_id,),
        None,
        locals()
    )


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

now you just do:

python the_script_name.py your_app_name

you know who to blame if it does not work for you.

semper fi.