Mathieu Jobin's Life and Thoughts

So Dreamhost recently celebrated their 9th anniversary. and for this event they upped our disk space and bandwidth limit BY TEN (10). Actually, it feels like 20x.

So I was using 30% of my 20GB of space (got lot of pictures). and suddenly I am now only using 3% for my new 200GB of space ;) I wonder what would happen if everyone would suddenly decide to fill it up ;)

The best part is, I got this account for so cheap, I'm even a bit shy to tell you all the details....

So go ahead and create yourself a Dreamhost account by clicking here and save even more money by using this coupon code. GODREAMHOST20 Simply enter the coupon when you sign up for your account, you will save 20$ dollars on your invoice. its as easy as that.

if you need more info about Dreamhost and what not, feel free to ask me. I used them for a bit more than a year now. And I am simply more satisfied with them every single month.

Tags 0, code, coupon, dreamhost, flash, hosting, html, javascript, js, mysql, php, programming, rails, rebates, revate, ruby, rubyonrails, saving, subversion, web, web2, www

As most of you might already know, I really like Apple products, especially their shiny new computers with Mac OS X. They keep saying its read out-of-the-box and you can do whatever you want from Day one. no other software necessary. its actually true. but there is one software missing that I can't beleive they did not include. Its a Paint program. There is no paint program shipped with Apple. I suppose its because most Apple user used to be designer and all needed Photoshop. but I don't need photoshop, I don't want to pay for it and I don't want to pirate it either.

So here comes, I have taken a screenshot for my desktop (for my next post) onto my clipboard and I need to paste it somewhere. Holding onto my paste I am hunting down Free Paint software for OSX.

I actually found quite a few.

First google result returns TuxPaint, some kind of kiddish paint program. Probably very good for 3-5 years old kid who wants to learn how to use the mouse and draw stuff. but ain't really what I was looking for.

Then I remembered the obvious The Gimp. Being a Linux user for many years, I know The Gimp as the de-facto imaging program under linux. But The Gimp still requires X11 to run, which is not as slick as I would expect and X11 also prevented me from pasting my image contect onto the gimp. BAD. Good news is that it got much faster than it was last year. anyway, lets move on.

ArtRage another totally different alternative. I could not do what I wanted but I discover what many people might like to play with. The paint tool is a pleasure to use. for all the artistic people within you, try this one out. its something to see going.

more seriously there is Seashore which is a port of the Gimp apparently. Mac-ized. Pretty sweet. I've done what I needed pretty quickly. It also got much stabler that last time I tried it, about a year ago. definitely a good pick.

and The one that is gonna stick into my applications folder. Pixen. just like Seashore I've been able to do what I needed. but it just look slicker. ain't a port of something else. worked perfectly. well actually now that I remember correctly, it crashed on the first paste. but I restarted the application and it worked fine.

so conclusion both Pixen and Seashore are good pics. ArtRage deserve a try for his artistic behaviour and if you got a kid you might want to install TuxPaint, just and only for him ;)

Happy painting ;)

Update: apparently PhotoShop Elements is also very good and inexpensive (ie. cheaper than Photoshop ... $150US) but I have not tried it as I was looking for something Free.

Tags apple, download, graphics, imaging, os, osx, paint, painter, program, programs, software, softwares, x

I got it. I finally understood this quickly aging 2001 Microsoft Windows XP system. No more regular 6 months reinstallation. I am currently using my windows system and the famous firefox webbrowser to write this blog post. Although I installed it more than a year ago, its still amazingly stable. The solution ? Everyone is listening ?

Simple, If a Windows system usually last about 6 months or close to 180 days of uses. I just use my windows system only one day every 1 or 2 months. This way, my windows can potentially last 180 to 360 MONTHS !!!! Is this not very super crazy amazing!?!?!. Its more than enough long to survive before Apple Leopard comes out (Spring 2007).

In the mean time, If you wonder what to use the other 27-30 days of the months. Get yourself a copy GNU Kubuntu Linux. It's very inexpensive and definitely worth every penny you'll invest in this operating system.

comments very welcome.

Tags apple, jokes, kubuntu, leopard, Linux, microsoft, operating, systems, windows

I recently phoned my best friend and telling her about that movie that I saw recently. From a cinematographic point of view, it ain't a chef-d'oeuvre. But it's still very interesting and worth seeing. Actually I don't like giving to much details about a movie so I'm gonna be brief. Just like I'm not a movie preview or review fan, I won't give the story away.

I was talking about What the Bleep Do We know? [ 1 ] [ 2 ]

Because I am in Japan and the movie is kinda craz, She ask me if it was Japanese, no it is not but that made me thought of another excellent but totaly different movie I saw recently. and this one IS Japanese. Densha Otoko.

And Apparently, "The film was shot in 25 days, then released into cinemas only 35 days later.".

Go check them out.

Tags bleep, densha, japan, movie, movies, otoko, physics, quantum

I was using skype quite often before and quite like it too. they've done a pretty amazing job. Yet, there was many little things I was not happy with and I keep this old habbit to try out what's available see If I could not find any better. The main reasons I wanted something else is because release for Windows, MacOSX and Linux are not in sync and features sets are so different, it's quickly becoming different software. While they first advertise their software to be using Qt and full cross plateform. I remember The KDE News Site advertising Skype as this freshly created startup that commercially use Qt and we were all so excited about getting a decent VoIP cross-plateform. The other reason is, I never got it to work under Linux. If you have a desktop, with one simple sound card and a stupid basic microphone plug onto it, it should work. but if you have a laptop, with some weird sound card, a USB mic, or worse a USB webcam with internal microphone. just forget about it. There is tons of hacks around the internet. but seriously. none works. and think about it, when you want to call your mother and you are paying for a software, hacking around is not really what you want to spend time on.

So times has changes now, and there is various alternative. Gizmo and WengoPhone to name the two most serious ones. Both free, opensource and available on all commun plateform. There is others choices under linux, but I would want to make them appear worth than they are so I'm just not gonna name them.

So, few months ago, I decided to give a serious try to WengoPhone and bought 10Euro worth of credit. cost me roughly 14.50$can. They had a god promotion such as If you were buying credits, you would not used them. That's it fee calls. Sounded weird, but I tried it. So it last about a month, I could call my family for free, seeing my credits jammed at 10.22Euro.

To that point, things were great. I was using my girlfriends windows computer and I could do my calls for free. I was also looking for a cheaper altertive over to skype and Wengo is definitely cheaper.

but then a few flaws started to appear. You contact list is local to your wengo install. so if you switch computer, user, or reinstall wengo, you'll loose your contact list. I learned quickly how to not use their contact list and just use my address book for the number I have not memorize. Something a user should never have to do. Also, if there is two user logon on your windows machine at the same time, only one instance of Wengo can run at the same time, the second one simply won't launch.

As wengo is a french company, and all calls are virtually routed from France, every occupied-messages, dialing-error-messages or any type of message you usually hear from your phone company is in French. bonus points for people who doesn't understand french.

but the windows client works, well, the old version. the latest beta crash on started up. I submitted a bug report more than a month ago and nothing has changed, so I have to use the version 0.99

At work, I am using Mac, the beta version of Mac works. well, I have to launch it 3 times as it crashes on startup as well. but after 3-5 crash it seems to figure out his way through and then I can makes calls. weird? funny? I don't know but it's certainny nor fun nor quick to use.

So today I went on their website again to see if they had release a new beta. unfortunately not, but what I noticed though is the fact they are stating their BETA for PPC is "For advanced users only" while the BETA for Intel isn't. Well, it could be true, but let me doubt here. the look of this strangly look like a copy paste of the Win32 version, which states the BETA is "For advanced users only" but the 0.99 version not. which makes sense. so they copy/pasted this block, replace the version for the proper Mac version, but forgot they were both beta and they did not duplicated the warning for advanced users. A minor error you will tell me. but I seen so many mistakes of that kind on their websites, thinking about the actual code of the application scares the hell out of me. Such People lacking attention to details such as this can only provide crashing applications.

I'm gonna slowly use my wengo credit and then might switch back to Skype. well, I'll see at that point. but changing evil for worse was not for all the best. except that I could try out this app. I guess its something more under my belt but how usefull is it?

ah,... those guys over at WengoPhone.

I should mention a bit about Gizmo Phone project. I have not seriously try it, just installed it and did couple of tests, but nothing serious. but they also have an interresting promotion. They allow free calls between gizmo users. Skype also advertise something like that but there is a big different. Of course, all software as such allow you to do audio conferencing over the internet. but What Gizmo allow is different. You can call your friends real phone number for free if your friend as an account on gizmo and he had this phone number to his user profile. I don't know how secure it is to put your phone number in there. but I would expect that only my trusted contacts can have access to this information. but the point is. you sign up, enter your phones into your profile, your friend does the same and when he is not online, you can call him for free using gizmo. They are sure losing money on this. but they wants users so. way to go.

maybe gizmo is next finally, I don't know.

I hoped you enjoyed readings and won't post your useless thoughts on the comment box below.

Tags crossplateform, gizmo, gizmoproject, Linux, mac, multiplateform, os, osx, qt, skype, voip, wengo, wengophone, windows, x

As some of you might already know, Japan has been hit by a typhoon this weekend. The typhoon travelled from east to west on the pacific ocean, hit kyushu, the southern most main japanese island (ie: excluding okinawa), causing a train to fall on the side and killing three people. Then it travelled north into Japan see and stayed away enough from Japan to not cause anymore trouble. but how strong was the wind, crazy. definitely my first time watching something like this. I don't know how much time I spent looking through the window at the wind and the clouds going. You know sometimes you can see clouds moving and you can predict in which directions they are going? well, that night you definitely did not need to be a psychik. The clouds were going FAST. it was very impressive.

later on in the weekend we started installing poles on top of furnitures. the pole goes from the top of the furniture and touch the ceil. It prevents furniture from falling down during earthquakes. never saw one of those either before. clearly, Japan as way more natural catastrophe than Canada. I know nobody likes it, but I'm excited to see everything.

And after seeing what Japan did over the past years to recover catastrophe, I think we should all get more of those, remember how week we are and how strong we need to hold on to each other.

Tags catastrophe, death, earthquake, japan, japon, natural, nature, typhoon, wind

To every canadian and every human on this planet. The City of Quebec in Quebec, Canada will celebrate his 400 years anniversary. Please come in great numbers to have fun with all of us.

This is schedule to be on July 3rd 2008.

For more details checkout the website at http://www.quebec400.qc.ca/

Tags 2008, 400, anniversary, decouverte, discovery, quebec, travel, trip, voyage

The new Nintendo Video Game console, previously codenamed Revolution and now called Wii is coming out very soon, around November 7th according to various rumors. And will most likely be a gaming revolution. Instead of just iterating on what is already known, the Wii promess a different style of gaming. Hell, it might even become healthy. What else could we ask for. With this new product they are targeting everyone, not only hardcore gamers or kids, but also parents, grand-parents and hell your dog might want to play.

There is various Nintendo convention announced around the world, This friday in America, Japan and Europe, not sure of the exact details at the moment, I can't find the link. And also the famous LEIPZIG GAMES CONVENTION 2006 and the exciting Tokyo Game Show from September 22nd to 24th.

As you might guess, I'm very excited. I could not exactly describe why as I have not been a big gamer, but like many of us, I start playing video games as I was kid and I always been very interrested looking at the newest stuff. Although I was not playing. Just following up with the news has been so far enough for my gaming needs. Until now, I thought everything was pretty redundant. Better graphics, faster game play, more AI, more stuff on the screen going at the same time. but overall, same games were just refactored and resold. The Wii changes that. It brings a whole new world of games into your living room. and as I said before, It might even be healthy. Fooling around with this Wiimote, standing up with your friends and family.

So for more excitement, I started looking at them game titles line-up to see what I might get. For more details about my choices, click on for reading.

Tags bros, games, karaoke, mario, nintendo, video, wii, wiimote

Your coming into a forum or an IRC channel, you ask a simple question, yet uncommon. and people are screaming. “Stop, Don’t do it!”, “it’s evil”, “these are bad programming practices, prove me you can’t do without”. And such, before you had time to say more than two lines.

But why is everyone trying to preach absolutely nothing without knowing a thing. They have no clue what I am working on. What would I do with this bit of information and what particular problem I’m trying to solve. but yet, they know it’s evil and I should not do it. Hell, I’m not even sure what I’m gonna do yet. I’m looking for different solutions. What exactly is evil? I have not thought of anything yet.

for people who know C and used to pointer basics have a quick look at the following example.

void foo(&var) {
  var = 42;
}
x = 0;
printf("%d\n", x);
foo(x);
printf("%d\n", x);

I was simply asking if passing a variable by reference in such a way would also be possible in [Ruby](http://ruby-lang.org). I have been refered, among other things, to an excellent page documenting [Ruby bindings](http://onestepback.org/index.cgi/Tech/Ruby/RubyBindings.rdoc/style/print). I am not sure yet if bindings is the only way to go in order to achieve something as simple as this. but what I do know, though: “ITS EVIL”…

actually, I knew Ruby bindings before. But I wanted to use something simpler, more embedded into the syntax. I thought hearing something different, more C-like that I could use. but getting actual help through all the flames was a challenge on its own. so it’s all I got.

yet, I’m not sure I’ll use it for my particular problem, for one, I was looking for something different and for two, well, its EVIL apprently. And god knows I don’t do EVIL ;)

I got another example, this one happen few months ago. I’m heading into the ruby channel again asking for a ruby+japanese related questions. no anwser, total silent. I figured nobody knows as they are almost all english and don’t deal with japanese stuff. but since Ruby programming language in born in Japan and the japanese community is quite active, I thought asking in Japanese. suddenly I got an answer.

the first one, in japanese was simply answering my question. politely and perfectly. the second one? just english screaming. “This is an english channel, talk in english, this is not a japanese or internation channel, stop, its EVIL.”

god, what the hell. you use computers and ruby you should at least appreciate the multi-cultural side the internet offers us. well, he was probably scared I was flaming about his grand-mother. what else could I think?

anyone has a decent explanation for such behavours? am I the one who is weird/wrong?

Tags bindings, c, evil, irc, people, ruby, world

Here is a couple of links about rubyonrails performance and m2m features I ran into today. I just want to keep them as I do not have time to go through them all fully and assimilate everthing.

about performance

• railsexpress's rails template optimizer beta test
• infoq's Rails Performance
• scada2's ruby on rails is it really simple
• serverside project page
• serverside rdoc
• railsbench

about has_many :through

• Collection assignment to a has_many :through
• join models not proxy collections

My favorite tooltip js library

• walterzorn's js tooltip

Tags has, links, many, performance, rails, ruby, rubyonrails, through