Shamiq

I own a company now

Just filled out my incorporation paperwork. Hopefully, I’ll have my own company soon.

Scraper

Writing a website scraper in Ruby for a freelance gig I picked up on Craigslist. Using Nokogiri to make an XML tree out of the documents, then grepping for the stuff I need within the document.

Turns out if the designers of the page used a very structured format, it’s much easier to grab the text I need. This should have been obvious.

So my workflow:

1. Do the task by hand and note all the URLs involved.

2. Change URL parameters and see if you can get the web app to respond appropriately.

3. Build your script to automatically generate the parameters.

4. Build the modules that can parse the results.

5. Test to ensure you’re covering all cases with your parser.

6. Build the modules that’ll extract the data you need.

7. Test the extractor.

8. Manipulate the data so that it’s usable.

Gymming it. Kinda like slimming, but with more effort.

Mints…

My search for mints has led me to Starbucks, and disappointment :(

I was hoping to find the gum in the little tin can, but alas — my endeavors were in vain.

Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies

Made cookies today following the Nestle-Tollhouse recipe. I didn’t have a full 12 ounces of chocolate chips, so I added an ounce of Macadamia nuts.

Let’s see if I can remember it…

2.25 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 sticks melted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

10 ounces of Chocolate chips

1 ounce of Macadamia nuts

Stir the first three together in a bowl.

Beat the butter, vanilla, and sugar in another bowl. Add the eggs one at a time while you keep beating. Then slowly beat in the flour. When it’s well mixed, add the nuts and chocolate chips.

Oven at 375 F, 9-11 minutes per batch. They’re delicious.