Tag: common sense

ExtJS’s Grid Clipboard plugin is borked by design

I’ve been meaning to write this for nearly a year, but I held off hoping things would change with the next release. They didn’t, so I’m writing this: the Clipboard plugin for the Ext.grid.Panel class – which provides cut-and-paste support for the enhanced table widget – is borked by design. It does stupid things, and Sencha says it should do the stupid things. In this post I share what these things are, and how I’ve overriden the default behaviour to do something hopefully less stupid. Warning: this is a rant.

Continue reading “ExtJS’s Grid Clipboard plugin is borked by design”

Git Tip – Use different SSH keys per server

A lot of public git repos are configured around the use of SSH keys for authentication. It’s a good idea to use different keys for each server.

Doing this requires two steps:

  • create a unique key for the server (and submit it as normal)
  • configure your SSH client to use the new key just for that server

Creating the key is easy (Linux/Mac – sorry, Windows users) – ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/site_key (rename site_key as appropriate)

Then, you need to add a section like this in your ~/.ssh/config file:

Host    site_name
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/site_key

(Again, change site to whatever is appropriate)

Congrats! You’ve now got a unique key just for one site – this means if they happen to get compromised, all you need to do is regenerate the key, and away you go.

(Of course, you may want to use passphrases, and other appropriate measures, on your end – but that’s good advice anyway)

Airconditioning Dilemma

You work in an airconditioned office. The thermostat for the airconditioner is set to 23.5C. The thermometer gauge says that it is currently 24.2C. Do you:

A) Ignore it;
B) Close the door to the stairwell that all the cold air is escaping down;
C) Set the thermostat to 21C so that it gets colder. After all, it should go down to 21.7C, right?

I’m sorry, I can’t believe this one…

Saw this as a comment on Russel Beattie’s blog: dozens of buses flooded out in New Orleans.

This is just bloody ridiculous. There’s probably close to a hundred buses there. Why weren’t they used in the pre-hurricane evacuation? Why weren’t they moved to higher ground if they weren’t used in the evacuation? Those buses represent 10,000 people per round trip who could have been taken out.

Frankly, the US government (both state and federal) obviously have no ability to cope with disaster planning.

Um, how’s that going to work again?

Fujitsu is going to roll out trolleys with scanners so that shoppers can avoid the checkout queue. Naturally, this assumes a degree of honesty on the part of the shoppers. What’s amusing about this is how they plan to “trust, but verify”.

Continue reading “Um, how’s that going to work again?”

Doesn’t this mean that they should have smaller classes?

The NY Times is running an article on the upcoming challenge to Florida’s controversial voucher system for student education. There seems to be a point that’s been overlooked.
Continue reading “Doesn’t this mean that they should have smaller classes?”

Some businesses just don’t get it

Well, this entry started as a quick blurb to highlight an article on my boss here at Wotif.com in the Australian Financial Review But that’s not what it’s ended up as. 🙂
Continue reading “Some businesses just don’t get it”

%d bloggers like this: