OpenVBX and Lighttpd
I run my web server on Lighttp to keep things clean. Being the red-headed stepchild of the web server world, I've had some minor hurdles to overcome over the years (I'll contemplate switching if I hit a big one...).
Wanting to take advantage of the awesomeness that is Twilio through OpenVBX, I found no one who had done this with lighttpd.
All you have to do is enable mod_redirect:
server.modules = ( "mod_redirect", )
And configure a redirect thusly:
$HTTP["host"] =~ "openvbx.example.com" {
url.rewrite = (
"^/(.*)/index.php(.*)$" => "/$1/index.php?vbxsite=$2",
)
}
Voila!
Twilio + Trello = Twellio
Shortly before the end of 2011, the intrepid developers over at FogCreek Software released a new, free product called Trello. Trello is, at its core, a pretty simple idea: collaborative list management. The end result, however, is a great product that solves many issues from collaborative discussions to brainstorming to TODO lists.
Walking home one day early this month, I had a thought I wanted to capture in my Trello TODO board. Now, Trello works well enough in my smartphone's browser, but sometimes that is a bit heavy to use. "What if," I thought, "I could send a text message to Trello?!" And thus, Twellio was born.
Out of sheer happenstance, I checked my Google Reader that night and saw the first Twilio developer contest of 2012: an app for DOers. I hacked Twellio together over the next couple weeks, and it's now functional. Combined with the Direct SMS widget found in Android Ice Cream Sandwich, capturing items on my Trello board is very quick.
I've been working on a side project written in django for awhile now, so I naturally started this project in the same framework. I've been enjoying Python immensely, especially faced with the verbosity of Java on a daily basis.
A library for interacting with Twilio via Python already exists, but Trello was so new there was no such thing. When I started hacking on Twellio, there was no public API yet. I began py-trello reverse-engineering the (mostly) RESTful URLs from using Trello. Shortly thereafter, work on the Trello Public API began. I've since switched py-trello to use the real API and plan on keeping it up to date as best I can. If you're interested in features, I've created a Trello board to track features, discussions, etc.
For now, Twellio is available for free. I may add features and create a paid version later on, but I don't want to build a second product simultaneously. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, etc., please head over to the Twellio board to discuss.
Cheers!
New year, new problems, new toys
I was recently in Dallas to assist in an IT weekend. My company is in the process of making ourselves as agile as possible. This process involves liquidating everything possible - including the office. We're getting rid of our primary data center (and moving our customers to their own hosting) and making our secondary data center our only - and utilizing it for corporate IT.
This past weekend, we trekked to the data center and proceeded to give our rack a cleaning it so desperately needed. Now, everything is organized quite nicely. Part of this restructure was to be the movement of personal servers to virtual machines. I had started building my VM, but we were not planning on migrating just yet. When I hooked my server back in, it did not boot. I also did not have a CT/2 cable with me, so I took the server out. I got the VM (and my server) up and running the next day. Lesson learned: NEVER buy a server with a proprietary KVM cable.
Tuesday night, I decided to reboot my desktop to remove the region lock on my DVD drive. Some friends of mine had a British DVD they could not view, so I wanted to get at it. My desktop decided it did not want to power back on. I had seen this issue a few times before, but it has passed quickly in the past. This time I was not so fortunate.
Wednesday morning, my machine is still not booting. I do a bit more research on the issue and discover a Supermicro FAQ describing this issue. Supermicro's response? They only support Supermicro power supplies powering their motherboards. Wonderful. I had been talking about an upgrade anyway, so I have fresh parts from Newegg arriving tomorrow...
Today I read a post on Joel on Software regarding goals. I've felt the need for setting some goals recently. Moving to a home office has been great, but I have felt like I am wasting a lot of time. I've really been missing goals. I, therefore, plan on setting some goals for myself for the year and beyond. I've scribbled down a few things which have come to mind, but I want to put a decent amount of effort into it.
I look forward to building my new box tomorrow - unboxing photos should be up this weekend - and orienting myself toward a better me this year. Stick around; it should be fun.
Recent
- OpenVBX and Lighttpd
- Twilio + Trello = Twellio
- CODE: A review four years in the making
- Sadism: the order of the day at Disney
- Twice the bits, twice the time
-
18 May 2012
@twilio Moving. I'll be working about half a block North of the Founders' Hangout. ;) -
18 May 2012
@twilio Awesome! I'll see you there in about 6 weeks. ;) -
18 May 2012
@czmilosz I grounded them to the inside of the metal tube by drilling a hole and using a screw + nut. I covered that in the epoxy to seal. -
17 May 2012
I just earned the 'New Brew Thursday (Level 10)' badge on @untappd! http://t.co/TQx4faG1 #NewBrewThursday -
17 May 2012
Time to channel @amyhoy to verbally flog this unmitigated ass who called me at 0643 this morning...
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