Try MongoDB

January 02, 2010

Want to try MongoDB in your browser? Just deployed this a few days ago:

One of the nice things about MongoDB’s JavaScript shell is that we can run a variation on it directly in the browser. It doesn’t provide near the functionality of the actual shell, but users can still get a feel for CRUD in MongoDB, and it’s possible to use any of the nifty query and update operators.

Anyone who’d like to contribute can fork the code on github.

(Almost forgot to mention that this is indeed inspired by, and is a little homage to, the great _why.)

Slides: MongoDB (is) for Rubyists

December 15, 2009

Wherein I claim that MongoDB is for human-oriented programmers.

MongoDB Aggregation III: Map-Reduce Basics

December 12, 2009

If you’re accustomed to working with relational databases, the thought of
specifying aggregations with map-reduce may be a bit intimidating. Here, in the
third in a series of articles on MongoDB aggregation, I explain map-reduce.
After reading this, and with a little practice, you’ll be able to apply the
map-reduce paradigm to a huge number of aggregation problems.  (more...)

MongoDB Aggregation II: Grouping Elaborated

November 30, 2009

This is the second in a series of articles on MongoDB’s aggregation functions.
In the first installment,
we looked at count(),
distinct(), and some of the basics of
group(). But group() is rather a beast, so
here we take an extended example, and look at two deep features: finalizers and
key functions.  (more...)

MongoDB Aggregation I: Counting and Grouping

November 22, 2009

This is the first in a series of articles detailing the syntax, patterns, and
use cases for MongoDB’s aggregation functions:  (more...)

MongoDB in Three Minutes

November 05, 2009

Couple nights back, I was given three minutes to demonstrate MongoDB before a
somewhat large group of people who’d never heard of it. Source code is on
github. At one minute each, the highlights are these:  (more...)

Review: Finite and Infinite Games

August 17, 2009

Western thinkers are fond of dividing the world in two. Though simplistic,
it’s effective. The flesh vs. spirit characters in the novels of Nikos
Kazantzakis
are memorable. The modes of having and
being in Erich
Fromm are illustrative.
And when James P. Carse wrote about finite and infinite games, we were given
another dichotomous lens for peering into the mysteries of human being.  (more...)

Simple Proxy with Squid, SSH, and a VPS

August 15, 2009

Sometimes, while at home browsing the web, I’ll enter an erroneous address and receive my ISP’s custom search page – with suggested links – as a response. This is always a little unsettling because it reminds me that all of my network traffic is being mediated, and perhaps recorded, by a powerful media conglomorate.  (more...)

Nginx Subdomains Gotcha

July 18, 2009

I was trying to set up a subdomain, photos.kylebanker.com, using nginx. No problems, until I realized that *.kylebanker.com (e.g., whatever.kylebanker.com) was resolving to the content at photos.kylebanker.com. Here’s my initial configuration. Do you see the what’s wrong?  (more...)

Javascript, Tetris, and Hanami

April 27, 2009

Javascript and Hanami are the topics of this post, though they really have
nothing in common aside from being at the forefront of my mind.

See, just the other day, I gave myself the challenge of writing a Tetris clone
using Javascript and CSS. It also happens that I had recently visited the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden to witness the great blossoming (photos).

The result? A Hanami-themed version of
Tetris, to play in your broweser. Try
it out!.

Incidentally, Javascript’s functional paradigm is slick. Genuinely wowed by
this elegant little language. The code is on github.