Reality Me

So you want to work for youself

Doug McCaughan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:17:55 +0000

The grass is always greener on the other side. If you dream of escaping Cubeville to work as a freelancer or consultant taking business calls from the beach, setting your own schedule, working in pajamas or nothing at all, and taking vacations whenever you want, I am here to warn you about the brown spots in that greener grass. The biggest brown spot will be cash flow. That 8 to 5 job which you view as a prison to escape provides something unknown to the self-employed…predictable income. For instance, I expected a full payment from one client last night; instead, I received a half payment today. That should be no big deal since another client was scheduled to deliver a full payment today but instead delivered a message that the payment should come tomorrow. These scenarios are why people recommend keeping 6 months of income in the bank. If you don’t have that, the greener grass is too dangerous. Stay in Cubeville! If you are venturing over here from Cubeville with that 6 month income in the bank, your exit plan from self-employment back to Cubeville better be well before that reserve hits zero. Exit plan? Don’t have one? Well, that’s for a different post, but if you don’t have an exit plan, you aren’t ready for self-employment.

LOST Thought

Doug McCaughan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:57:23 +0000

For the record, I have thought for a long time that Season 1 was the middle of this story and not the first time that the main characters had been to the island. But there’s holes in that theory.

Of Being Dad – Smack Talk

Doug McCaughan — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:59:40 +0000

There’s something wonderfully amusing in listening to the four year old talk smack with the thirteen year old.

Of Grasshoppers

Doug McCaughan — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:42:25 +0000

Student: I am overwhelmed.
Master: Perhaps you do too much at once.

Of Grasshoppers

Doug McCaughan — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:30:25 +0000

Student: I was very happy until I was told I wasn’t.
Master: With great effort, we climb to heights from which it is so easy to be knocked down.

My Snowy Saturday…working

Doug McCaughan — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:45:24 +0000

The children are playing in the snow and taking breaks to warm in front of various video games from killing zombies, to fighting a Legoized Darth Vader, to playing songs with the Beetles. In the meantime, I’m day dreaming of working on the house while pounding keys on the computer. I just overcame one of my weekend’s technical hurdles. I think that calls for a lunch break. After lunch, I return to programming.

BBC explains why people vote against their own interests

Doug McCaughan — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:40:32 +0000

The BBC has delivered some excellent commentary on what we are living in American politics. These quotes hit the nail on the head:

[Thomas Frank] believes that the voters’ preference for emotional engagement over reasonable argument has allowed the Republican Party to blind them to their own real interests.

Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America’s poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.

[Source, BBC, Why do people often vote against their own interests?]

…whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different:
"You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining." [Source, BBC, Why do people often vote against their own interests?]

And here’s my favorite. One for the history books:

"It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy." [Source, BBC, Why do people often vote against their own interests?]

Magento – Not currently favorite color

Doug McCaughan — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:54:41 +0000

Why is debugging and troubleshooting in Magento so difficult? Because of error messages like this:

Notice: Undefined variable: rootNode in C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Eav\Model\Entity\Attribute\Source\Config.php on line 53
Trace:
#0 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Eav\Model\Entity\Attribute\Source\Config.php(53): mageCoreErrorHandler(8, ‘Undefined varia…’, ‘C:\Domains\exam…’, 53, Array)
#1 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Adminhtml\Block\Widget\Form.php(196): Mage_Eav_Model_Entity_Attribute_Source_Config->getAllOptions(true, true)
#2 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Adminhtml\Block\Customer\Edit\Tab\Account.php(54): Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Form->_setFieldset(Array, Object(Varien_Data_Form_Element_Fieldset))
#3 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Adminhtml\Block\Customer\Edit\Tabs.php(58): Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Customer_Edit_Tab_Account->initForm()
#4 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Abstract.php(642): Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Customer_Edit_Tabs->_beforeToHtml()
#5 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Text\List.php(43): Mage_Core_Block_Abstract->toHtml()
#6 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Abstract.php(643): Mage_Core_Block_Text_List->_toHtml()
#7 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Abstract.php(503): Mage_Core_Block_Abstract->toHtml()
#8 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Abstract.php(454): Mage_Core_Block_Abstract->_getChildHtml(‘left’, true)
#9 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\design\adminhtml\default\default\template\page.phtml(58): Mage_Core_Block_Abstract->getChildHtml(‘left’)
#10 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Template.php(144): include(‘C:\Domains\leoa…’)
#11 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Template.php(176): Mage_Core_Block_Template->fetchView(‘adminhtml\defau…’)
#12 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Template.php(193): Mage_Core_Block_Template->renderView()
#13 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Adminhtml\Block\Template.php(81): Mage_Core_Block_Template->_toHtml()
#14 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Block\Abstract.php(643): Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Template->_toHtml()
#15 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Model\Layout.php(526): Mage_Core_Block_Abstract->toHtml()
#16 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Controller\Varien\Action.php(347): Mage_Core_Model_Layout->getOutput()
#17 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Adminhtml\controllers\CustomerController.php(117): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Action->renderLayout()
#18 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Controller\Varien\Action.php(376): Mage_Adminhtml_CustomerController->editAction()
#19 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Controller\Varien\Router\Standard.php(248): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Action->dispatch(‘edit’)
#20 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\code\core\Mage\Core\Controller\Varien\Front.php(158): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Router_Standard->match(Object(Mage_Core_Controller_Request_Http))
#21 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\app\Mage.php(459): Mage_Core_Controller_Varien_Front->dispatch()
#22 C:\Domains\example.com\wwwroot\magento\index.php(65): Mage::run()
#23 {main}

Yes, it screams "undefined variable" which is rootNode but through Magento’s excellent use of object oriented spaghetti, the error does not in anyway reveal what is truly causing rootNode to be undefined nor where to even begin looking.

And if the crik don’t rise…

Doug McCaughan — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:27:52 +0000

Rains have come. The creek out back has enough water in it that we can see the water from the house. I just checked the trench, wanna be French drain, that protects our basement from flood and sure enough, the sides have collapsed. We don’t have water in the basement yet but will if I don’t get out there and dig us out. I need to be programming every second of today but this has to take priority. Back to the Mosquito Coast.

Note: On the above video, after the first twenty seconds or so I figure out how to not have that obnoxious noise.

The creek in this video is at least 5 feet deep.

IRC Support for Zend Framework is on Freenode

Doug McCaughan — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:23:50 +0000

The unofficial IRC support channel for Zend Framework is on Freenode at #zftalk.

Teens in ABC Documentary: Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss

Doug McCaughan — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:20:05 +0000

One, there are some things a father does not want to hear:

Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss [Source, Mashtrends, Teens in ABC Documentary: Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss]

Two, holy cow, I was born 25 years too early! In all seriousness, I hope this report is media hype and construed data:

After four years researching for the documentary, Azam told "Good Morning America" that oral sex is as common as kissing for teens and that casual prostitution — being paid at parties to strip, give sexual favors or have sex — is far more commonplace than once believed. [Source, Mashtrends, Teens in ABC Documentary: Oral Sex Is the New Goodnight Kiss]

Talk to your teens! The schools are certainly not giving adequate sex education.

Air America is gone

Doug McCaughan — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:49:59 +0000

Announced today at AirAmerica.com:

It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business. … Air America Radio launched in April, 2004. [Source, AirAmerica]

Current Magento Questions – getCustomerFormData

Doug McCaughan — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:18:17 +0000

The Magento ecommerce question I am trying to answer right now is what does getCustomerFormData() do?

In AccountController.php and Register.php there is this reference $data = $this->_getSession()->getCustomerFormData(true); and this reference $data = new Varien_Object(Mage::getSingleton(‘customer/session’)->getCustomerFormData(true)); respectively. I’ve searched using grep and within eclipse’s file search but can find no other reference to getCustomerFormData.

I can find no reference to getCustomerFormData other than these two lines of code. So what is this supposed to be accomplishing?

Protected: Can you read this?

Doug McCaughan — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:01:27 +0000

Magento – Developer Killer

Doug McCaughan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:09:11 +0000

While trying to add some functionality to my client’s Magento ecommerce store, I came across an article that summed up my Magento experience quite well:

Most of us in ecommerce application development have already heard of Magento. Some would call it new ecommerce killer app. I myself stand with that statement for many of reasons. However I would like to call it with one more name, developer killer app. This developer killer is what I literally had in mind. Magento is currently one of the most difficult PHP systems out there a developer could learn and master. [Source, {}activecodeline, What makes Magento so hard to learn (emphasis added)]

I have put so much effort into learning this system that I both never want to touch it again AND must do more Magento development so that this exercise of gaining knowledge does not go to waste.

Today’s links for Magento success: