Disabling PHP in a specific directory

To disable the PHP processor in a given directory, put the following in an .htaccess file. If one doesn’t exist, create it.

# Disable PHP
AddHandler default-handler php
RemoveType application/x-httpd-php php

# Make .php files display as plain text
AddType text/plain php

This assumes an Apache server. PHP on IIS may involve different steps.

Files starting with a . are hidden by default on *nix OSes. To see them in listings, use ls -a.

ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

I ran into a tiny pickle while installing the ibm_db gem on Ubuntu:

Select which gem to install for your platform (i486-linux)
 1. ibm_db 0.9.5 (ruby)
 2. ibm_db 0.9.5 (mswin32)
 3. ibm_db 0.9.4 (ruby)
 4. ibm_db 0.9.4 (mswin32)
 5. Skip this gem
 6. Cancel installation
> 1
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError)
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

ruby extconf.rb install ibm_db
extconf.rb:9:in `require': no such file to load -- mkmf (LoadError)
	from extconf.rb:9

The problem is that mkmf isn’t included in the base Ruby package on Ubuntu. You need need the full development package to install gems from source. Installing it solves the problem.

sudo apt-get install ruby1.8-dev

Rails and DB2 data types

When creating a table in a Rails migration, you have to specify data types using platform-agnostic names. The mapping of Rails types onto DB2 types is defined in ibm_db_adapter.rb:

:primary_key => @servertype.primary_key,
:string      => { :name => "varchar", :limit => 255 },
:text        => { :name => "clob" },
:integer     => { :name => "integer" },
:float       => { :name => "float" },
:datetime    => { :name => "timestamp" },
:timestamp   => { :name => "timestamp" },
:time        => { :name => "time" },
:date        => { :name => "date" },
:binary      => { :name => "blob" },

# A boolean can be represented  by a smallint,
# adopting the convention that False is 0 and True is 1
:boolean     => { :name => "smallint"},
:xml         => { :name => "xml"},
:decimal     => { :name => "decimal" }

Useful Resources

InfoCenter | DB2 Data Types
dW | DB2 and Ruby on Rails, Part 1 (May 2007)
dW | An Introduction to Ruby on Rails for DB2 Developers (June 2006)

The DB2 adapter is now called ibm_db. You can refresh your installation by typing gem install ibm_db at the command line and choosing the latest win32 release.

Choosing colours

One of the tricky things in web design is picking the right colours. They need to be easy to read, not grim, not flashy, yet somehow distinctive. Often, taking a stab in the dark and then tweaking a screenshot of the result for saturation, contrast, and the like can be very effective. At other times, you need a starting point.

These have all helped me:

• Tango palette
• Web 2.0 palette
• Category:Colours on Wikipedia includes shades of Orange, Green, and so on
• ColourJack Sphere is a useful widget for finding matching colours
• Colour Lovers features user-submitted colours and palettes