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423 - links for 2007-03-01


422 - links for 2007-02-28


421 - links for 2007-02-27


420 - links for 2007-02-25


419 - links for 2007-02-24


418 - links for 2007-02-22


417 - My Greenhybrid.com MPG tracker

Below is the graphic for my MPG tracking at GreenHybrid.com. The wierd thing I’m still trying to get used to is the difference in MPG numbers between the MID and hand calculated numbers. I’ve decided to stick with hand calculated numbers since it’s harder in my mind to dispute actual gallons used compared to miles driven. There are so many other things that can throw the MID off.

This image will grow and change over time as I log more tanks of data into the site. Right now I’m at 47.8 MPG avg over four tanks of gas. Not as high as th MID average, bu I’ll take it.


416 - links for 2007-02-19


415 - Sending HTML emails in Rails using LoginEngine’s UserNotify model

I was having trouble with my latest project quite a while back in that I couldn’t get LogineEngine’s UserNotify model to correctly send HTML emails.  I would keep setting the Content-type header to “text/html” but it would always revert back to “text/plain”.  Grrrr!

Well, the issue lies in its use of Rails’ ActionMailer gem. It seems there is a particularly annoying bug in that ActionMailer unassumedly gobbles up certain common headers, even if properly set and replaces them with default settings (or rather, ignores them.)  There’s a patch in the bug, but we prefer to keep as clean a version of Rails as possible to make upgrading and versioning much easier for our production environment.  Note that even though the referenced bug may not seem to apply, the root problem causes both this issue and the one described in the bug (and another for using the proper headers to help thread conversations using In-Reply-To headers).
The solution lies in the RDocs for ActionMailer, so I’m very surprised that no one else has mentioned this solution yet.  It’s so easy of one I kicked myself for taking so long to find it.  Basically, instead of trying to set the Content-Type header, you need to set the @content-type variable equal to “text/html” in the action you have which sets up your email before it gets sent.  Don’t forget that SMTP RFCs say you need a “Mime-Version: 1.0″ header when setting the content-type header.  Below is the code to insert into your setup action, or the action you use to send the mail if you don’t have an action to setup from, etc…

@content_type = “text/html”
@headers['Mime-Version'] = 1.0

As an additonal tip, don’t forget to make sure your from address is properly formatted.  It should include a name AND email address of the form:

@from = “My Email Address Name <user@domain.com>”

This will make sure that your email is less readily identified as spam.


414 - Beating the EPA


Beating the EPA

Originally uploaded by mykoleary.

I haven’t yet had the time to post about my new love – the Prius we got for Christmas at the end of 2006. It’s a much more comfortable ride than the CR-V, and the gas mileage beats the pants off of it too. Both are huge pluses for someone with a 1-2 hour commute.

I’d been getting down quite a bit from the drudgery of the drie, but with the Prius have a new spring in my commute step. We just got back from visiting Ocean Shores yesterday also, so it’s just been on its first official family trip. Now it just needs to hit Oregon and California… :)

Anyway, this is an ego shot of the MID/MFD in the dashboard showing a glorious 65.9 MPG for a 28 mile trip I took to work a couple weeks back. It doesn’t include the 5 or so miles to the gas station from our house, but still, that’s a pretty darn good rate for the remainder of the trip!

Once I get the past four tanks of gas information into my greenhybrid.com account, I’ll post an entry with my cumulative MPG for any other Prius lovers who may be interested in seeing another Puget Sound MPG data point.


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