The Rationalist Manifesto

A Good Ride

Tal Rotbart — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:38:11 +0000

Work mates of mine just released A Good Ride, it is a Rails 2.0-based motorbike riding site with some killer features. Check out the ride video feature.

Bookmark to:

Photos You Don’t Want on Facebook, Part II

Tal Rotbart — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:12:42 +0000

Bookmark to:

Photos You Don’t Want on Facebook, Part I

Tal Rotbart — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:29:37 +0000

Bookmark to:

Cute method_missing hack

Tal Rotbart — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:37:08 +0000

I love abusing method_missing in Ruby, it is great fun.

 module IsDoesIsntDoesnt

  def method_missing(method, *args)
    m = method.to_s
    if (m =~ /^is_(\w*?\?)$/) || (m =~ /^does_(\w*?\?)$/)
      real_method = $1.to_sym
      return send(real_method, *args) if respond_to?(real_method)
    elsif (m =~ /^isnt_(\w*?\?)$/) || (m =~ /^doesnt_(\w*?\?)$/)
      real_method = $1.to_sym
      return !send(real_method, *args) if respond_to?(real_method)
    elsif (m =~ /^(\w*?)s\?$/)
      real_method = "#{$1}?".to_sym
      return send(real_method, *args) if respond_to?(real_method)
    end
    super.method_missing(method, *args)
  end

end

Object.class_eval() do
  include IsDoesIsntDoesnt
end

Which lends itself to these types of natural statements:

?> "team".includes?("i")
=> false

>> "team".isnt_empty?
=> true

and:

>> [].is_empty?
=> true

>> [ :stuff ].does_include?(:stuff)
=> true

While I’m sure Ruby mavens will think of much nicer ways to implement this type of functionality, I had fun doing it.

An exercise for the reader would be to dynamically add the appropriate method, so the next call doesn’t rely on method_missing.

Bookmark to:

Back in Melbourne

Tal Rotbart — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:10:33 +0000

Home sweet home! ;-)

Bookmark to:

Phone number in Israel

Tal Rotbart — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:49:55 +0000

My cell phone number while in Israel is +972-54-4399-8I3 (O54-4399813 from Israel). Replace O with zero, and I with 1 (changed to avoid SMS spam). I’m not sure if I can reply to international SMS from this number, though.

Bookmark to:

I might be arriving tonight!

Tal Rotbart — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 03:38:08 +0000

Just spoke to El-Al’s Bangkok office and they said that there is a good chance that I’ll be able to board the flight, so I’m going to grab brunch and head off to the airport. I’ll be in stand-by, but hopefully I’ll get on the flight.

Hope to see some of you tonight ;p

Bookmark to:

Administrative stuff

Tal Rotbart — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:42:41 +0000

Firstly, please don’t SMS me here unless it is important. It costs me almost $2 per SMS sent and received.

Secondly, to clarify any emails I may have sent — I’m arriving either on the 3rd, or the 6th of September, with El-Al flight LY84, which lands at 23:20 at Terminal 3. I’ll let you all know here if I arrive on the earlier flight.

Bookmark to:

Bangkok, take III

Tal Rotbart — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:34:14 +0000

Arrived late last night into the hot, humid and polluted swamp that is Bangkok. I don’t dislike this city, but I very much hope I can get on the earlier flight to Israel (3rd of September) because I seriously don’t know how I’ll spend the time here until the 6th. Its too little time to go to the farther islands by plane and it is not quite the season either. Someone recommended Koh Samet to me but even that relatively close island is a almost day of traveling each way.

I have found a nice day tour to a tiger park where I hopefully will get to play with cub tigers ;p… I’ll book it today probably. If I become their lunch then they’ll get a heart attack.

Tonight I’ll go check out the Bangkok weekend nightlife, should be a riot. Hope I’ll find fellow travelers to hang out with.

Bookmark to:

Already?

Tal Rotbart — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 05:50:59 +0000

I’m not even within a week’s radius of landing in Israel and already I’m pissed at Israelis again.

Why? Because while sitting at the airport waiting for my flight I hear that every time they page for late passengers there are always Israeli names included, always. Do you realize how small the percentage of passengers are Israeli? Yet they are the star of the show when it comes to rampant disregard to anyone aside of themselves.

Passengers Vardi, Shavit, Egoz, Ronen and co., please get your lazy asses out of the duty free store and onto the bloody plane on time!

Bookmark to: