Category Archives: Posts

Fixing problems caused by using an old version of RubyGems (1.7.2)

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I recently had to install an old version of RubyGems (v1.7.2 to work around an incompatibility with a Rails 2.3.x app I’m working with. This caused Capistrano to freak the older RubyGems version out with this error:

Invalid gemspec in [/Users/myusername/.rvm/gems/ree-1.8.7-2012.01@mygemset/specifications/capistrano-2.11.2.gemspec]: invalid date format in specification: "2012-02-22 00:00:00.000000000Z"

This broke RubyGems so bad that every gem (such as the Rails gem) stopped working because RubyGems wouldn’t load. Switching to an earlier Capistrano didn’t help, so I ended up just changing the date manually in the Gemspec (the file listed by the error). I did that by changing this line:

s.date = %q{2012-02-22 00:00:00.000000000Z}

to:

s.date = %q{2012-02-22}

After that, everything started working again. Messing with the Gemspec like that probably isn’t ideal for various reasons, but it got my environment going again.

Update: Yeah, turns out it’s a pain in the backside running with a old version of RubyGems. This problem isn’t just Capistrano, all my gems started freaking out. Solution to that was to nuke all my gems (thankfully I use RVM so it was just a case of rvm gemset gemsetname delete), upgrade rubygems with gem update --system and start over again.

Unadopted Podcast Session 035 Out Now!

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The Unadopted Podcast is 5 years old! To celebrate, here’s a new session with a bunch of great music I discovered in 2011. Bit of a mixed bag this one, with some Azealia Banks, Holy Ghost!, Evil Nine, LCD Soundsystem, Zombie Nation, Daft Punk, Ladyhawke, Bag Raiders and much more!

If you love the Unadopted Podcast, please add Unadopted on Facebook and tell your friends about the podcast, then tune into Unadopted Radio! Also, please be good and buy the tracks you like, it’s only a few pence a track these days!

Want to send music in to the Unadopted Podcast? Now you can! Visit the Unadopted Soundcloud and send your music in (it’s dead easy). If I like it, I’ll try and get it into one of the sessions!

  1. Bag Raiders – Sunlight (Armand Van Helden Remix)
  2. The Dukes Of Windsor – The Others (TV Rock Mix)
  3. Ladyhawke – Paris Is Burning (Alex Metric Remix)
  4. Holy Ghost! – I Know I Hear (Jacques Renault Remix)
  5. Only Children – Don’t Stop (Hey Champ! Remix)
  6. Sohodolls – Right And Right Again (Alistair Whitehead Mix)
  7. Daft Punk – Aerodynamite
  8. Evil Nine feat El P – All The Cash (Alex Metric Remix)
  9. Azealia Banks – 212
  10. Sneaky Sound System – Tease Me (Bag Raiders Remix)
  11. Zombie Nation – Overshoot (DJ Mehdi Remix)
  12. Boy 8 Bit – Madrigal
  13. Fake Blood – Deep Red
  14. Siriusmo – Wow
  15. The Presets – My People (The Hump Day Project Remix)
  16. The Goodmen – Give It Up (2011 Edit)
  17. LCD Soundsystem – You Wanted A Hit (Soulwax Remix)
  18. Friendly Fires – Skeleton Boy (Grum Remix)
  19. Caribou – Sun (Unadopted Remix)

Listen now over at http://unadopted.co.uk/podcast/. If you haven’t already set it up, search for “Unadopted” in the iTunes Store and have the latest sessions automatically delivered right into your iTunes Library!

Unadopted Podcast Session 034 Out Now!

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Yep it’s Monday again, but here’s something to make the week go that bit quicker! Music this time from Tiga, Cut Copy, Carte Blanche, Ladytron, TEED, Eyerer & Chopstick and more!

If you love the Unadopted Podcast, please add Unadopted on Facebook and tell your friends about the podcast, then tune into Unadopted Radio! Also, please be good and buy the tracks you like, it’s only a few pence a track these days!

Want to send music in to the Unadopted Podcast? Now you can! Visit the Unadopted Soundcloud and send your music in (it’s dead easy). If I like it, I’ll try and get it into one of the sessions!

  1. Eyerer & Chopstick feat Zdar – Make My Day (Vocal Club Mix)
  2. Evil Nine – Stay Up
  3. Dada Life – White Noise Red Meat (Original Mix)
  4. Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls (Foamo Remix)
  5. Cold War Kids – Hang Me Out To Dry (Hostage Remix)
  6. Monarchy – I Won’t Let Go (Jaymo & Andy George Remix)
  7. Tiga – You Gonna Want Me (Tocadisco Remix)
  8. Carte Blanche – Gare Du Nord
  9. Urchins – Xylophobe (Grum Remix)
  10. Cut Copy – Lights & Music (Boys Noize Happy Birthday Remix)
  11. Ladytron – Ace Of Hz (Punks Jump Up Remix Radio Edit)
  12. Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs – Garden (Joe Goddard Remix)

Listen now over at http://unadopted.co.uk/podcast/. If you haven’t already set it up, search for “Unadopted” in the iTunes Store and have the latest sessions automatically delivered right into your iTunes Library!

Unadopted Podcast Session 033 Out Now!

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Right then, here’s a bunch of nice music I’ve been listening to lately: MSTRKRFT, Depeche Mode, Foster The People, and even a bit of Jamie XX remix action.

If you love the Unadopted Podcast, please add Unadopted on Facebook and tell your friends about the podcast, then tune into Unadopted Radio! Also, please be good and buy the tracks you like, it’s only a few pence a track these days!

Want to send music in to the Unadopted Podcast? Now you can! Visit the Unadopted Soundcloud and send your music in (it’s dead easy). If I like it, I’ll try and get it into one of the sessions!

  1. Simian Mobile Disco – Turn Up The Dial
  2. Goldfish – We Come Together (Goldfish’s Fishy Beat Mix)
  3. Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks (Gigamesh Remix)
  4. The Naked & Famous – Young Blood (Futurecop! Remix)
  5. MSTRKRFT – Easy Love
  6. James Yuill – Crying For Hollywood (Bright Light Bright Light “Red Carpet” Mix)
  7. Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus (Alex Metric Remix)
  8. Muse – Plug In Baby (Herbdout’s Rakit Edit)
  9. Adele – Rolling In The Deep (Jamie XX Shuffle)

Listen now over at http://unadopted.co.uk/podcast/. If you haven’t already set it up, search for “Unadopted” in the iTunes Store and have the latest sessions automatically delivered right into your iTunes Library!

Removing stuck Finder sidebar items in OS X Lion and Snow Leopard

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Having trouble removing some pesky icons that have gotten stuck in the Finder’s sidebar? If you’re on Lion or Snow Leopard, the solution is easy:

  1. Click on the folder and drag it away from the sidebar
  2. Before you let go of the mouse button, hold down the Command (⌘) key
  3. Now that you’re holding down the Command (⌘) key, release the mouse button
  4. The icon should now finally disappear from your sidebar in a puff of smoke
  5. Hooray!

(Credit: Hybridair at MacRumors Forums)

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Unadopted Podcast Session 032 Out Now!

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The Unadopted Podcast is back with an action-packed set of fun electro tracks to get you warmed up for your Intro weekend, with music from Alex Metric, Boys Noize, Dragonette, Lykke Li and Crookers!

If you love the Unadopted Podcast, please add Unadopted on Facebook and tell your friends about the podcast, then tune into Unadopted Radio! Also, please be good and buy the tracks you like, it’s only a few pence a track these days!

Want to send music in to the Unadopted Podcast? Now you can! Visit the Unadopted Soundcloud and send your music in (it’s dead easy). If I like it, I’ll try and get it into one of the sessions!

  1. Freeland – Under Control (Alex Metric Remix)
  2. Lykke Li – Dance, Dance, Dance (Dada Live Guerilla Fart #4)
  3. We Have Band – Divisive (Tom Staar Remix)
  4. Rex The Dog – I Can See You, Can You See Me? (The Touch Remix)
  5. Alex Metric – It Starts (Reset! Remix)
  6. Tom Staar – Console
  7. Crookers feat Róisín Murphy – Royal T (Foamo Remix)
  8. The Gossip – Standing In The Way Of Control (Soulwax Remix) (Unadopted’s Less Lyrics More Noise Edit)
  9. Boys Noize – Yeah
  10. Foamo – Centavo
  11. Underworld – Ring Road (Fake Blood Remix)
  12. Armand Van Helden – You Don’t Know Me (GRUM Remix)
  13. Dragonette – I Get Around (Van She Vocal Mix)

Listen now over at http://unadopted.co.uk/podcast/. If you haven’t already set it up, click the “Subscribe” link on the right-hand-side when you get there to get the podcast automatically delivered right into your iTunes or RSS reader whenever I release a new session!

Switching between Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server

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It’s easy enough to start out with an Ubuntu Server machine and install the desktop packages, leaving you with an Ubuntu Desktop machine. Just run:

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-desktop

…and you’re done. Unfortunately, going the other way isn’t so easy. Just removing the ubuntu-desktop package doesn’t remove all the other packages for me, I had to list a whole bunch of packages (enough to trigger all the dependencies, and get all the other desktop packages autoremoved). Long story short, I just fired this (very long) command and it did what I was after:

sudo aptitude remove ubuntu-desktop gdm nautilus \
xserver-xorg libgtk2.0-common metacity x-session-manager \
gnome-session xorg capplets-data gedit-common \
gnome-panel gnome-orca gnome-control-center libgnome2-0 \
mousetweaks network-manager synaptic evolution \
gcalctool gconf2 software-center nautilus-data \
rhythmbox vino vlc update-manager firefox compiz-core \
network-manager-pptp openoffice.org-help-en-us \
gnome-media-common gnome-panel-data gnome-screensaver \
gnome-terminal-data gstreamer0.10-plugins-base \
indicator-me indicator-messages indicator-session \
update-notifier indicator-applet \
indicator-applet-session libappindicator1 \
libcanberra-gtk0 empathy-common evolution-common \
evolution-plugins gwibber-service ibus jockey-gtk \
libbrasero-media1 libpam-gnome-keyring \
nautilus-sendto-empathy rhythmbox-plugins \
xul-ext-ubufox empathy gnome-applets gnome-keyring

Warnings/disclaimers/tips:

  • Make sure you’re not in a GNOME session while you’re doing this, or it could have unexpected results.
  • It’ll remove a lot more packages than those listed above. Read the list of packages that are going to be removed CAREFULLY and be sure before you confirm the removal.
  • You may not hold me responsible if you hose your system by blindly removing packages. You should know what you’re doing before attempting this, if you’re not sure what will happen, you should do some more research first.
  • If you don’t have aptitude installed, just replace “aptitude” with “apt-get” in the commands above. I prefer aptitude, so that’s why it’s in the commands above.
  • My scenario: I started off with an Ubuntu Server 10.10 (not a fresh install, I’d been using it a while, so forget this being a clean experiment!), then installed the Desktop, installed Chromium and Flash, then switched back to Ubuntu Server.
  • This will almost certainly need some tweaks to work on earlier or later versions of Ubuntu than 10.10. If you do tweak the above command for another version and you feel like helping out, please comment with the relevant remove command that worked for you so it can be shared.

If this works for you, drop me a comment below!

PS: Nope, I don’t understand that photo either. :)

Unadopted Podcast Session 031 Out Now!

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The Unadopted Podcast is back with 1 hour and 8 minutes of great music from Mylo & Cut Copy, Miike Snow, Phoenix, Uffie, Alex Metric, The Rapture, Twelves, and more!

If you love the Unadopted Podcast, please add Unadopted on Facebook and tell your friends about the podcast, then tune into Unadopted Radio! Also, please be good and buy the tracks you like, it’s only a few pence a track these days!

Want to send music in to the Unadopted Podcast? Now you can! Visit the Unadopted Soundcloud and send your music in (it’s dead easy). If I like it, I’ll try and get it into one of the sessions!

  1. Phoenix – Lisztomania (Alex Metric Remix)
  2. Cut Copy – Take Me Over (Mylo Remix)
  3. The Rapture – Olio
  4. Drop Out City Rockers – International Track
  5. Miike Snow – In Search Of
  6. Massive Attack feat Hope Sandoval – Paradise Circus (Gui Boratto Remix)
  7. Maximum Balloon feat Theophilus London – Groove Me (Alex Metric Remix)
  8. The Count & Sinden feat Mystery Jets – After Dark (Extended Club Mix)
  9. Fenech-Soler – Demons (Yuksek Vocal Remix)
  10. Chromeo – Hot Mess (Duck Sauce Remix)
  11. Uffie – ADD SUV (Carte Blanche HMV APC BTW Mix)
  12. Etienne DeCrécy – Fast Track (Erol Alkan’s Bugged Out Mix)
  13. Twelves – Nightvision
  14. Layo & Bushwacka – Love Story (Solo Bootleg)

Listen now over at http://unadopted.co.uk/podcast/. If you haven’t already set it up, click the “Subscribe” link on the right-hand-side when you get there to get the podcast automatically delivered right into your iTunes or RSS reader whenever I release a new session!

Safari skews web stats

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Here’s an interesting thing to consider next time you’re looking through your web stats: the popularity of Safari 4 and later (the desktop version, not the iOS one) probably looks way higher than it actually is.

Safari’s “Top Sites” feature checks sites to see if any content has changed since you were last there (and also to draw the preview images), and it does this reasonably often. The way it checks is to load your website behind the scenes, which means your server gets hit, and your stats show Safari’s more popular with each refresh.

Perhaps Apple should make the background thread use a different user agent string so that we can differentiate real requests from the Top Sites updates?