Todd Smith-Salter

Random ramblings and musings of a father, web developer, Grande Prairian, and man of faith.

Useful Git Commands

Apr 18, 2012

I've been finding myself searching for a few useful Git commands lately that you'd think I'd know of by heart, but, you know, it hasn't happened for whatever reason. Here's a list of commands I keep going back to.

Clone a only specific branch

git clone -b <branch> <remote_repo>

Get a local working copy of a remote branch

git branch -a
git checkout -b branchname origin/branchname

Stage deleted files for commit

git add -u

Untrack files without deleting them

echo "*.config">>.gitignore
git rm --cached "*.config"
git add .
git commit -m "Ignoring and deleting config files."
git push origin

2012 Alberta Election Resources

Apr 13, 2012

Where do I vote?

Help me decide who to vote for!

Latest Poll Results

Parties, Leaders, Platforms

Wildrose Party of Alberta - Danielle Smith

  • View the Wildrose Pledge on Scribd
  • Balanced Budget and Savings Act. Careful spending, saving for the future, and living within our means. Invest half of our surpluses in the Heritage Fund over the next 20 years and grow it to $200 billion.
  • Family Pack. Help families by making life more affordable through tax deductions for children under 18, ban all manadatory school fees in public, Catholic, and public charter schools, $500 tax credit for fees spent on children's sports, arts, and cultural activities.
  • Alberta Energy Dividend. Send 20% of provincial surpluses generated by oil and gas revenues directly to Albertans.
  • Patient Wait Time Guarantee. Provide alternative independent facilities for Albertans on wait list longer than the Canadian Wait Time Alliance benchmarks, and have it paid by Alberta Health Insurance. Add capacity to the health system by allowing for a mix of public and independent delivery.
  • Accountability Act. Allow MLAs a free vote on every proposed law and give voters the right to recall MLAs who put the interests of themselves or their party over the interests of their constituents. Fixed provincial and Senate election dates. Roll back the 30% increase in Cabinet Ministers salary. Prohibit MLAs from setting their own salaries in the future. Make it easier for citizens to access government documents and information.

PC Alberta - Alison Redford

  • Alberta By Design PC Election Platform
  • Secure Alberta's Economic Future. Make strategic investments in education, human capital and infrastructure to strengthen Alberta, growing our knowledge-inspired economy, and improving Alberta's competitiveness in the global marketplace.
  • Advance World-leading Resource Stewardship. Develop our natural resources responsibility to protect our environment and grow our markets.
  • Invest in Families and Communities. Support wellness, families and communities as an investment in Albertans and Alberta's future.

Alberta Party - Glenn Taylor

  • We can dream bigger - Alberta Party 2012 Election Platform
  • Rethink Healthcare. Better healthcare needs a better strategy. We must focus on long-term outcomes rather than short-term costs and shift the system from treatment to prevention. We must make transparency a core value of the system so that we can get the information we need to make the system stronger.
  • Respect our Students. Stable, predictable, long term funding. We will prioritize funding for primary and post-secondary educatino so that our students can excel in a competitive world.
  • Reimagine our Democracy. Ask, seek and implement solutions to the difficult questions. Develop policy with meaningful citizen engagement and transform the role of MLAs to ensure that they are connected to their constituents.
  • Reinvigorate our Economy. Make it easier to start and grow a business, both within and outside of the resource industry. Ensure that smart regulation fosters growth and protects our environment.
  • Reinvest in our Communities Maintain investments that strengthen the fabric of our communities by providing stable and predictable funding for our municipalities and social services.

Liberal - Raj Sherman

  • Alberta Liberal Platform
  • Guarantee for Health Care Delivery. Greatly expanded home care and seniors care. The creation of access to safe, quality preschool. Getting serious on foreign credentials.
  • Ending School Fees. Provincial school lunch program.
  • Eliminating University Tuition. Forgiving student debt for graduates who stay and work in Alberta. Increased funding for the arts, culture and spors. Carbon levy and green transportation fund. Municipal charters for Calgary and Edmonton.
  • Direct Funding of Neighbourhood Associations. Reducing the number of MLAs.
  • Instant Run-off Voting. Free votes in the legislature.

NDP - Brian Mason

  • NDP Platform Booklet
  • Quality Public Health Care. Guarantee fully public healthcare. Continuum of care so seniors can live in dignity in their own homes as long as possible, and when they can't, be sure of quality long-term care.
  • Delivering Affordable Electricity. Regulate electricity rates so that we have stable prices that are as low as possible. Remove cabinet power to approve utility projects - examine all projects through full public hearings.
  • Education for Success. Childcare system:Introduce a childcare system that moves towards a maximum daily cost of $25 per child, with a $9 per day cap for after school care; and increase the number of spaces available. Elementary and Secondary Schools: Reduce G1-9 class sizes as per the recommendation of the Learning Commission. Voluntary full day kindergarten. Targeted school lunch program for elementary. Adequate funding of special needs students and English as a second language. Revise funding formula for schools to ensure vital schools in mature neighbourhoods are not closed. Post Secondary: freeze tuition fees. Remove all non-instructional fees. Reduce tuition by 10% in Fall 2012. Forgive up to $1000 per year in student loans until paid off for those who graduate and are living in Alberta.
  • Protect the Environment. End Carbon Capture and Sequestration Fund's handouts to the oil industry. Interest-free loans to help Albertan's retro-fit homes for energy efficiency and revise building codes. Stop expansion of water markets. Science-based deadlines for clean-up of existing tailings ponds, costed to the companies. Create Renewable Development Fund, to support activities to make Alberta a leader in energy efficiency. More...
  • Oil Sands Prosperity. Develop a differential royalty system on bitumen and upgraded products that encourages value added in Alberta. Require all new oilsands developments to have plans for upgrading in Alberta.

News Media Election Sites

Articles

April 18, 2012

April 14, 2012

The Basic Political Spectrum

These terms are very broad and are meant to serve as only an outline of historically understood political positions on a single axis.

Left Centre Right
Social conditions need to change as quickly as possible Change of social conditions should take place, but at a cautious pace. The present system should be maintained. Change only when absolutely necessary and do it slowly and carefully.
Society is not bound by tradition Tradition is important, but change must be accepted if it is the will of the majority. Traditions must be respected. They provide society with stability and security.
Government has a moral obligation to take care of needy persons directly. There are many different approaches to caring for the needy. Government should not interfere in the lives of individuals (government provides a helping hand, not a handout). Private charity and self-reliance are better.
Everyone should have equality of condition Everyone should have equality of opportunity and condition. Everyone should have equal opportunity.
The rights of the individuals have the highest priority. Law and order is important, but the rights of the individual come first. Law and order have the highest priority.
The government should own key industries, banks, transportation facilities and natural resources. Some form of government management of the economy is necessary. Business and industry should be kept in the hands of private individuals.
Left is generally associated with being socialist. Centre is generally associated with being liberal. Right is generally associated with being conservative.

Student Vote Resource

The Best IE Testing Setup on a Mac

Jan 9, 2012

I don't know about anyone else, but I find testing Internet Explorer incredibly difficult on a Mac. There are no really fantastic methodologies for making it happen, only a few best practices.

Here a couple things I do know

  • Don't use IE Tester or Multiple IE. These two solutions show inconsistencies between the original rendered output of the browsers they claim to support.
  • Testing platforms like BrowserLabs, Browsershots, and BrowserCam give you a flattened image of what the site would look like in IE. Not my cup of tea, especially if there is any type of animation, CSS3 or JavaScript. Same goes for Expression Web SuperPreview.
  • Browser and Document Modes in IE9 has a number of funky quirks, like providing incorrect user agent strings, and some rendering issues show up when tested against the original browsers.

The Best Way

As stated in a Smashing Magazine article, the best way to achieve accurate results Virtual Machines + IECollection, or remote testing through a third-party service. I won't regurgitate the article here, as I'm sure you can read it for yourself if you wish.

Personally, I've opted for a setup of IE9 in Windows 7 and IE7/8 in Windows XP, both virtual machines mounted in Parallels 7. I've also sublimented these with BrowserStack to fill in any gaps when needed.

A Place for Random Thoughts and Musings

Jan 8, 2012

I've been thinking for awhile that I need a place to journal some thoughts running through my head. I guess that for now, this will be the place where I archive the mess.

This blog is delivered with Scriptogram, a simple online tool that converts static Markdown text files located in my Dropbox, into a web log.

All text, media, and photos are my own, or used with the express consent of the owner.

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