This article on OPEN Forum about social media friendly business cards prompted me to create a personal QR code with my contact details.

Here’s a decent list of QR code generators.

A lot didn’t work for me — scanning the code with i-nigma reader app resulted in garbled or missing data that I couldn’t import into the iphone contacts. The i-nigma QR generator did work, producing the above code that has a vCard embedded. So you can scan it and import into your contacts list. However, the i-nigma generator is pretty limited compared to the others on the list.

I don’t know if I’ll add a QR code to my next business card, but this was kinda fun.

After upgrading a site with complex CCK node types, I ran into this error on the node type’s manage fields page:

This content type has inactive fields. Inactive fields are not included in lists of available fields until their modules are enabled.

It went on to list every Computed Field and FeedField I was using as inactive, even though those two modules were enabled and all updates had been run.  Googling the problem found lots of people who have run into the error.  The suggested solutions vary wildly in their complexity.

I decided to try disabling and re-enabling the modules responsible for the inactive fields.  Re-enabling the CCK related modules fixed the issue.

Some people are seeing the same error for non-CCK modules and/or re-enabling the CCK modules didn’t fix their problem.  This d.o comment links to a bunch of solutions.

I’m not a programmer so I’m especially happy when I can contribute to Drupal meaningfully.

I submitted a patch today to add caching to the Whois module.

http://drupal.org/node/698850

I bought and setup Kayako as our internal issue ticketing system this week.  Ran into a couple of small bumps during the install — I was missing Zend and mCrypt.  But otherwise, installation was smooth.  The Kayako manual is pretty good.

(Though it sucks that there is only a PDF version of the manual.  Come on!  HTML version please.  Even better, a wiki. There’s so much good stuff in the forums, but you need to know exactly what you’re looking for to find it.)

How to Install Zend Optimizer

Installing Zend Optimizer was crazy easy.

1. Download Zend optimizer package. You just need the runtime.

2. Extract. Find the right .so version for your PHP version. Use “php –version” to get your version.

3. Copy the .so someplace reasonable.  I created /etc/php5/extensions to store extensions, and dumped ZendOptimizer.so in there.

4. Edit php.ini to load it.  On my Ubuntu box, that’s at /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini. Add this line to the end (changing the full path to the .so as necessary).

zend_extension=/etc/php5/extensions/ZendOptimizer.so

5. Restart apache.

$ /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

How to Install mCrypt for PHP5

Again, easy with apt.

$ apt-get install php5-mcrypt

$ /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

I miss the eraserhead mouse pointer on my old Thinkpad. It’s so convenient for switching between typing and quickly using the mouse.

If the laptop only has a trackpad, you have to move your whole hand to move the mouse. It’s annoying.

With the eraserhead, you don’t even have to lift up your palm. Your thumb (button clicking) and index finger (pointer moving) are already in position.

It’s unfortunate that few laptops are built with the eraserhead these days. They just don’t pass the muster of an in-store test because it’s hard to control the mouse pointer when you’re not used to the eraserhead. But after a couple of days of use, you’ll want it on every keyboard you use from then on.

Even desktop keyboards could use the eraserhead pointer. I hate having to pick up my hand and move it over to the mouse.

I’m sad that the eraserhead is probably going to die out.

Apple’s “There’s An App For That” campaign is so good that I expect apps for all kinds of things, and have actually been disappointed.  I recently searched for these apps that don’t exist:

• IMDB — to add insult to injury, there isn’t a mobile version of the website.
• MSN/Bing Video — to watch The Guild.
• Netflix — though there are approved 3rd party apps.
• Google products like Gmail, Docs, and Reader — though their mobile browser versions are pretty good.
• Kayako — a very popular helpdesk application I’m evaluating for Killer Aces.
• Quantcast
• Compete
• ComScore

I’m not saying there aren’t plently of great apps on the iPhone. In fact, I recently contributed an article to Intel’s MyLifeScoop.com featuring the cool ways iPhone apps have made my life easier — 3 Ways Technology Makes Personal Finance Easier.

I’m saying that because Apple’s done such a good job with their app store (now with 100,000+ apps*), I now expect an app to exist for every web service or site I use.

* The link goes to a Wired article that says “But as the App Store continues to expand, an inevitable question arises: How many apps do you really need?” My answer is — more than what they have now!

This puts the pressure on developers. In addition to a Windows and Mac version, I now expect your service to have an iPhone version too.  (And I suspect Android users feel the same way. If not today, then soon now that a bunch of second gen Android devices have rolled out.)

Fred Wilson talked about this a few weeks ago when Droid came out.  He said the mobile web (meaning apps, not mobile versions of websites) was the next big thing in tech.  He said:

I believe that mobile devices are bringing web services into our pockets and purses, onto restaurant tables and bars, and into schools and stadiums…

The “mobile web” is where “it” is at right now. And it is also where it is all going…

The mobile web sector is developing quickly and innovation is happening all over the place. It is very exciting to see.

I wanted to add a “currently reading” list of books to this blog.

One of the better plugins I found was Aaron Forgue’s Amazon Showcase.  It lets you create multiple showcases — lists of Amazon items you select using the ASIN or ISBN-10 number.  Each showcase can then be used in the sidebar as a widget.

Pros:

• Relatively easy to add items to the list.  Just paste in the ASIN or ISBN number.
• Multiple lists (showcases).
• Easy to pick thumbnail sizes and displayed information from the input page, on an item-by-item basis.

Cons:

• Can’t configure the template code universally, though it’s cool that you can tweak it on a per-item basis.  Fortunately, I wasn’t too picky about this.  I did add one line to my custom.css file to make the book thumbnails display inline.

***

Another useful Amazon related plugin I found is Amazon Reloaded.  It adds an easy way to search and insert Amazon links on the post editor page.  I hated going to the affiliate dashboard just to get a link to

Tip: If you just want a quick way to link to an Amazon page with your affiliate ID inserted, without using this plugin, just add “?tag=gregorygo-20″ to the URI.  Obviously, replace “gregorygo-20″ with your own affiliate ID.

***

I started down this road because I added a book to my wishlist.  Then I thought that it’d be cool to embed my wishlist on the sidebar here.

You’d think Amazon would have an easy way to embed your wishlist onto a site, but nope.  No embed code that I could find.

This post makes me think they used to have an embed function, but I can’t find it anymore.  It seems like the only way to share lists nowadays is to email them or post directly to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or Delicious.

I’ve since decided against embedding my wishlist here, and opted for putting in a “currently reading” list instead.

***

Amazon is a genius company for so many things, but I’m still occassionally amazed at how clueless they are about certain things.

No RSS feed or embed code for wishlists? Ridiculously complicated affiliate text links just to link to a book page?  Why??

Maybe they need a Chief Usability Officer for Power Users.

My first taste of Drupal was the 4.6 version in 2006.  I very clearly remember running into the flexinode module and thinking “OMG, custom content types!  Woo! That’s exactly what I want in a CMS!”  Haven’t looked back since.

Below are the slides that Dries used to present the State of Drupal at Drupalcon ‘09.  Yeah, it’s from 5 months ago, but I just ran into it and it was entertaining, so I’m sharing it here.

If you’d rather read about the State of Drupal, here’s a writeup from Lullabot of Dries’ talk.

Watching the slideshow is entertaining, even without sound or the actual text for reference.  It very clearly shows the rapid evolution of Drupal and the Drupal community.

I’ve worked in IT for nearly 10 years now.  First as a help desk operator, then a Linux sysadmin, and now a Drupal developer/webmaster.   In that time, I’ve run into a handful of really perplexing problems.  ”Perplexing” meaning after hours (usually, days) of troubleshooting, I can’t figure out why the system is suddenly unstable.

You know those type of problems, right?

The kind that’s so perplexing that you’re sure it’s gotta be a hardware problem, even though your years of admin experience tells you it’s almost never (like 99.999% of the time) a hardware issue.  But you’ve looked at (seemingly) all the possible software causes.

I was just reminded of this recently, and I’m here to remind you:  It’s never a hardware problem.  It’s always a software problem.

PS: If you’re looking for VPS or dedicated server hosting, Rimu Hosting is a great choice.  When they say they have “professional technical support with a personal touch”, they mean it.  Rimu has by far the best support team of the half-dozen hosting companies I’ve worked with. And great support is the only differentiator that matters when choosing a hosting vendor.

I took my sysadmin friend Marc to DrupalCampLA 2009 this past weekend. When we get together, I go on and on about Drupal and he waxes on about Django.

I think he got the sense of why I tell everyone I know to use Drupal for their web projects. Especially after sitting in on Rain Breaw’s (awesome name btw) great Views Demystified session . Wow, point and click content slicing and dicing?! Awesome.

I wonder if he’s going to make me learn Django. Uh oh.