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/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.8/lib/active_support/memoizable.rb:32: [BUG] Segmentation fault
ruby 1.8.7 (2009-04-08 patchlevel 160) [x86_64-linux]

Aborted (core dumped)

Here’s a fun error I kept knocking up against when trying to run migrations, rake tasks, or script/console on a server here. Before you start uninstalling gems, reinstalling ruby, etc. check and see if you are on a CPanel server. If you are, most likely shell fork bomb protection is enabled in CPanel’s WHM. Shell fork bomb protection severely limits the amount of memory that shell users can access. Unfortunately that protection can prevent you from running legitimate processes, like rake tasks.

If you are the admin of the server, just log into the WHM, and disable shell fork bomb protection, then open a new shell and try your commands again. You do need to log out of the shell and open a new shell for the SFBP restriction to be lifted.

Of course, if you are on a shared server and not the admin, you might be out of luck. It’s doubtful that the server admin will disable this protection since it does serve a useful function, mainly preventing users from running reckless scripts that could take the whole server down. I haven’t looked into it, but there may be a way to configure CPanel to allow a higher limit, or opt-out certain users.

It doesn’t matter if your web site gets 10 hits a day or 10 million hits a day. It’s a good coder who plans for future growth and anticipates how a site will scale as traffic and load increases. Gregg Pollock of Rails Envy has an excellent (free!) 5 part series up at RailsLab. Definitely worth checking out. Gregg also has a (not free) Scaling Ruby screencast on the EnvyCasts web site. I haven’t watch it, but I have watched the Advanced ActiveRecord screencast and it was both informative and entertaining. Gregg and Jason make this stuff fun! So check them out.

RailsConf 2009 registration is now open. You can save a boatload on registration if you register early. And you can blow the saved money on the tables at the casinos.

This weeks RailsEnvy podcast is up this morning. Gregg and Jason bring you all the weeks news in the Ruby and Ruby on Rails world, mixed with a healthy dose of humor. Always a good listen!

Amy Hoy, et. al. have put together a very nice quick guide on getting up to speed with credit card processing based upon their experience with the subject when launching Freckle Time Tracking. It’s a wee bit Rails-centric, but overrall it got plenty of info whether or not your using ActiveMerchant or not.

I built my first web page around 1995. I was a second-semester freshman at UMass Amherst and had just bought my first real computer: A Packard-Bell 100Mhz with 8MB of ram. I was the envy of many at the time, both in having Windows 95 and being able to navigate the servers at OIT. My first site was called MURG (named after a friend whom we affectionately called Grum), and was a collection of random, like so many web sites were around that time. I wish I still had a copy of it. The floppy I backed it up to seems to be corrupted and the WayBack Machine doesn’t go that far back. The site was hosted on the Umass OIT-UNIX server, which was my first experience with bash and shell work. Ah, these were the salad days when the web was green and new.

Now, I can trace my technical lineage back further to around the time I was in 5th or 6th grade. Like so many other geeks in my generation, my first computer introduction was a RadioShack TRS-80 and BASIC  programming. I used to stay up all night typing in lines and hoping the program would run. It was a lesson in zen-like detachment, as I had no way to save my work. I later learned how to play music in basic and do graphics rendering. My prowess in BASIC earned my an achievement award in junior high. A little later I got a computer that ran MS-DOS. But even still I used to boot disk to program in BASIC.

Various hand-me-down computers came into my life between junior high and my first real computer in college. I learned a lot about breaking things and getting them to work again. I was a brute force computer user and learned the most from my mistakes.

Today, I am a web designer, web developer, and a server administrator. A sort of interdisciplinary web geek if you will. Along the way I have worked for an ISP, published in computer magazines, started several companies and consulted for numerous others. I am a devoted Mac user as of 2007, having switched after getting into Ruby and Ruby on Rails (more on that later). Although, I still spend a lot of time each day on Windows still. I am very passionate about Ruby as a programming language and Ruby on Rails for application development. I still feel like I am in the honeymoon phase with Ruby on Rails and continue to be amazed by it. Rails has changed the everything about the way I work and how I approach problems. It has been the biggest influence in my professional life apart from the web itself.

I am also a father to Erin and a husband to Amy. My wife runs KnittingHelp.com, one of the most popular knitting sites on the web. I serve as the designer, developer and host and she is the talent. When I am not on a computer I like to do strength training,  eat good food, enjoy beer and wine, take photos, and just enjoy the world around me. I am also a sacred harp singer.

This blog is powered by WordPress. I had a hard time deciding between using a Ruby on Rails blog engine (Mephisto or Typo) or sticking with a PHP blog. Ultimately I choose WordPress, but I still have a pang of regret for not using a Rails blog engine.

On this blog I hope to share some of the things I am passionate about and give back a little of what I have learned over the last decade or so of work with the web.