Dealing With Excel Data in PySpark

Have you ever asked yourself, "how do I read in 10,000 Excel files and process them using Spark?" I hope not...it sounds like a terrible task...but in case you have, it just so happens I might have an approach your interested in.

General Approach

PySpark does not …



Replacing the Cron in AWS

Like most apps on the internet, the stuff that I write at Showroom Logic has scheduled tasks that must happen in a predictable fashion. In our case, we have some reports to run and deliver. Our app, like lots of internet apps, is distributed and runs in a Docker container …



JetBrians DataGrip Review

Recently, JetBrains released a new product called DataGrip. It's basically IntelliJ for databases, and so far, I love it! Granted: I'm biased. I do all of my Java and Python development using IntelliJ and PyCharm, respectively. That being said, I think that even if I were still using some other …


Perhaps You've Noticed: I Have a New Blog

Yep, that's right...I kicked WordPress to the curb and decided to do the whole staticly-generated-pages-thing. When I originally started this blog, WordPress just made the most sense. It was easy to install, easy to maintain, had plenty of skins and plugins available, and just worked.

So, why the departure …



Vindinium

I was recently lurking through the Programming Subreddit, and I came across a post about a game called, "Vindinium."

What Is Vindinium?

Vindinium is an AI competition.  Its a game that is played exclusively by bots.  You could create a bot that takes input from a human player, but the …



Getting Reacquainted with PHP

By day, I'm a Java developer.  Back when I was a systems administrator and a college student, I used PHP quite a bit.  It was my scripting language; my glue; my web platform.  I even have some PHP source published (Github, BitBucket).  When I started with PHP, I wasn't using …


Trying out Chololatey

I recently started working on a project that has me working with Windows (eww, I know, forgive me).  I opted to run this environment in a VM so that I don't have to pollute my gaming rig with all kinds of tools, patches, bit-rot, etc.  So, after firing up VirtualBox …










Boxee Box Review

For the last few years, I had been using a modified XBox running XBMC.  This was great for streaming stuff (movies, music, etc) from my Ubuntu SMB server to my TV.  Now that I own a TV capable of high-def, I wanted more.  I also wanted to lower my cable …



Welcome, 2012!

Twenty-eleven has had it's shares of ups and downs for me.  All in all, it's been an amazing year.

Just this past week, I've managed to really live up my last bits of 2011.  During the last week of December, I went to Longwood Gardens to check out their night …




Selling Stuff on eBay

I decided a bit ago that it was time to clean house.  I have a lot of old tech stuff that I have been holding onto for quite some time.  The majority of it was still in good working order, which is why I was so hesitant to let it …


Parting Ways with the Philadelphia BDPA

Yeah, I'm sorry to say it, but it must happen.  Unfortunately, I will not be participating in the 2011-2012 BDPA HSCC program.

What Gives?

In short:  I don't think the program is improving.  It improved wonderfully for my first year or two, and then went stagnant.  To be a little …


Minecraft Server

Back in the winter, Tim Henry got me hooked on Minecraft. Due to having a life, I probably only played the game for around 20 hours and then put it down for several months. Now that I'm not teaching, Tim and I decided to pick it back up again. Instead …




0 A.D. Alpha 4 Daedalus

Holy Crap!

Yeah, right?!  This game has come such a long way since I joined the team back in July of 2010.  I don't think that there's any moment where I've been more excited to be a part of this game!

Sweet Moves, Brah

I sat down tonight and played …


Moodle 2.0 Upgrade

I've mentioned before that I teach a class of high schoolers how to program in Java.  In order to make things manageable and to make the most of my time with the kids, I use Moodleto organize, store, distribute all of my course content.  I've fallen in love with …


IPB3 Upgrade for Wildfire Games

Despite my apparent lack of activity, I've been doing quite a bit of work for WFG lately.  Our messaging board system and some other parts of our website run on the Invision Power Board version 2.  We'd happily keep chugging along, but IBP2 is no longer supported, so we have …




Ford Fiesta

I had the unfortunate experience of finding out what happens when minivans and Ford Foci collide in August of this year.  My car got nailed (read: totaled), so I got thrown into the market for a new car.  The Focus had always served me well (I've owned two of them …




Public Code Samples

I recently had a recruiter ask me for some PHP code samples.  After doing some digging, I realized that I didn't have much to show.  Most of the cool stuff that I wrote was proprietary, so I couldn't just expose it.  The stuff that I've written for myself has been …



Firebug Intro

A few weeks back, Professor Lefkovitz asked me to help him diagnose a problem with a web app.  The issue involved the communication between a browser and an AJAX web service used for authentication.  The initial struggle was trying to find an easy and elegant way of viewing the AJAX …


Bass and Amp for Sale

Unfortunately, I'm putting my bass and amp up for sale.  Instead of trying to Ebay them, I decided to do a consignment deal with Springfield Music.  I'm selling a 5 string Peavey Foundation bass and a 100w Carvin ProBass 100 amp.  They're currently listed for $219.95 and $189.95 …



WordPress Legal Mess

Yeah, you like that rhyming!  Don't lie, it's catchy.  Onto something meaningful:

I've spent a lot of time doing WordPress work.  I've spent some time in the community and a lot of time using, hacking, and theming WordPress.  As I've stated before in other posts, this site is powered by …





Moodle

I recently wrote about the HSCC class that I teach and posted a link to the course's website.  While thinking the other day, it occurred to me that I have yet to write about my experience using Moodle, which powers that website.  Since its such an awesome piece of OSS …


HSCC Competition

I've never written a post about it, but if you read the "About Me" section, you'll see that I teach a few different technologies to high school students (I know:  who'd trust me with kids?! :p).  I wanted to write about two things:  Our recent trip to our regional competition …





Car to Car Wifi

Sorry that I haven't written in a bit -- I've been out-and-about instead of living in front of my computer for a chance.

So, here's a pretty cool thing that I recently saw (did?).  Last week, I traveled down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with a few friends to celebrate their …


Symfony Framework

I've been coding in PHP for a few years, but I've never been exposed to any of the PHP frameworks.  I've been curious about Code Igniter and Symfony for a while, but I haven't had time to play with either of them.  Until now.

I decided to pick up Symfony …





FIRST Robotics Philadelphia Regional

US FIRST logo

Sorry for the late post, but Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week is the Philadelphia Regional FIRST Robotics Competition!  Unfortunately, I will not be working at the event this year, but I'll be going anyway.  This year's goal is to try to get as many people as possible to …


First Bug Report

Last night, I spent some time checking over a graph that I created (This particular graph was the graph of connected traffic sensor stations throughout the Minneapolis road network).  While looking through my results in QGIS, I came across some strange behavior.  It turns out that I found a possible …


Dijkstra's Algorithm in PHP

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking:  Why PHP?

Well, I have a fairly small graph (< 650 nodes), so trying to get a C or Java to interact with my preexisting PHP software isn't worth the boost in performance.  The implementation I found can read my graph from my database …


First Post!

So, I've been telling myself for a few years that I'd start a blog so that I could keep track of some of the cool things that I've done. Well, here it is.