Author: underblob

MySQL Trace

I moved an install of a CodeIgniter app from netbook to desktop (both running XAMPP) and notice these peculiar errors started showing up on every page:

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: Unknown: 3 result set(s) not freed. Use mysql_free_result to free result sets which were requested using mysql_query()

Filename: Unknown

Line Number: 0

Took me a while to figure out but this PHP setting in php.ini was causing the error:

mysql.trace_mode = Off

The Lawn

This is an idea for a bar. Ideally it would be an entire city block in a densely populated urban metropolis. Outside would be a very dense and magnificent 20 foot tall hedge that would serve as the walls of the establishment. The entrance to the bar would be two twelve feet tall red double doors in the hedge. Inside the entire space would be a well manicured lawn. There would be some tables and benches at the perimeter but mostly just a vast lawn and a huge bar that stretches across the entire length of the lawn at the far end.

Anne Rice on Being a Christian

I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

— Anne Rice

Political Purchase

Idea for a mobile app: scan barcodes with the phone’s camera to see where the resources used in the product are from, where the production takes place and a percentage breakdown of the retail price by resource distribution to each country/region. This will be a tool for politically and socially-minded consumers. By knowing which country their hard-earned money is going to, they can boycott countries that they do not agree with politically. It will empower the consumer.

Users can create a profile to track their spending habits on a main website. The site will keep a running tally of all products scanned and user will be able to toggle which products have been purchased — to which they have ‘committed’ their patronage.  Data breakdown for each profile will include geographic and corporate mapping on personal expenditure.

Scanned products will also provide product feedback from other users of the app. Feedback can be entered into the mobile app at the time of scan if desired (voice recording transcribed to text?) or feedback can be entered via the website profile.

Information for products will need to be surrendered by manufacturers or farmed from existing data sources if possible.

Possibly pitch to Consumer Reports and integrate with their product data and cross-market.