Effect.Flip = Class.create();
Object.extend(Object.extend(Effect.Flip.prototype,
  Effect.Base.prototype), {
 
    initialize: function(element, flip_graphic, original_graphic) {
      var options = arguments[3] || {};
 
      this.element = $(element);
      this.flip_graphic = flip_graphic;
      this.original_graphic = original_graphic;
 
      if (this.element.getAttribute('src') == this.flip_graphic) {
        this.flip_graphic = this.original_graphic;
        this.original_graphic = this.element.getAttribute('src');
      }
 
      this.width = options.width || this.element.getWidth();
      this.delta = this.width * 2;
      this.flip = 1;
 
      this.start(options);
    },
 
    update: function(position) {    
 
      var change = this.flip * (0.5 - position) * this.delta;
      var padding = this.width / 2 - change / 2;
 
      this.element.setStyle({
        width: change + 'px',
        padding: '0 0 0 ' + padding + 'px'
      });
 
      if (change < 0)
      {
        this.element.writeAttribute({ src: this.flip_graphic });
        this.flip = -1;
      }
    },
  });

You can use it like that:

new Effect.Flip(element, 'graphics/original.jpg', 'graphics/flip.png', { width: 120 });

I will post a demo tomorrow - I promise, it looks cool!

Well, again, this feature is really handy but can lead to problems if you forgot that you activated it and just want to change the postal code of one of your models. Because the geocoder will still find the right address (mainly because the street name is the same) and actsasgeocodable will correct the invalid postal code for you. And you gonna have no clue why it won’t take the postal code you’ve used in fixture_replacement’s helper methods.

A simple fix for that is to add the following setup method into your unit tests:

def setup
  # This ensures that we can set individual attributes of our model
  # without being overridden by acts_as_geocodable.
  Property.acts_as_geocodable_options[:normalize_address] = false
end

But I discovered (or merely googled) a small tool which prevents your Mac from activating the screensaver, dimming down the screen or even going to sleep: Caffeine. Trust me, you need this tool.

Hpricot::XChar::PREDEFINED_U.merge!({" " => 32})

Ahm, okay. I didn’t see any changes made to the overall layout of Hpricot so I suspect that line should work. Any ideas?

(If anyone is interested in the meaning of the above line, check this ticket).

I stumbled over Rory McCann’s python-osm lib over at Github. His version was missing the relation feature of the osm data structure but it was a one minute walk to implement it.

You can access the forked project @Github.

Yesterday I stumbled over some glitch with Lightbox (or Script.aculo.us, I’m not really sure) which results in a mal-sized picture. For the sample, go here. The fix is quite simple, you have to explicitly set the width of the image (that should be around line #260):

imgPreloader.onload = (function(){
    this.lightboxImage.src = this.imageArray[this.activeImage][0];
    // The following line will fix the glitch:
    this.lightboxImage.width = imgPreloader.width;
    this.resizeImageContainer(imgPreloader.width, imgPreloader.height);
}).bind(this);
imgPreloader.src = this.imageArray[this.activeImage][0];

[Warning: tech stuff follows] Anyway, I’m doing quite fine. My bachelor project is slowly taking shape. Currently I am modifying SharpMap for our needs (adding a dynamic layer for our data, adding some events to know what’s going on inside of SharpMap,…).

I’ve also touched the clipping function, which really sucked. I replaced it with Sutherland-Hodgman’s polygon-clipping algorithm which works like a charm. This move was necessary because GDI+ has some problems rendering invalid data (meaning data which is far outside of the viewport). The process doing the drawing will block all others and your system will come to a halt - no moving cursors, no task manager, no nothing.

Because SharpMap is released under the LGPL, I will post the .diff patches as soon as the major work is finished.