---
title: "Writing"
description: "Essays, build logs and field notes by Kevin Hunt, then and now."
author: "Kevin Hunt"
canonical: "https://kev.in/writing"
---

# Writing

## 2008

- [How to limit users to one vote per IP address](https://kev.in/writing/how-to-limit-users-to-one-vote-per-ip-address): January 18, 2008. A reader Aaron J. writes in response to the short article How to obtain the IP address of the current user: Do you have any advice on how I can take this a…

## 2007

- [Ruby, Rails and hash's with_indifferent_access](https://kev.in/writing/ruby-rails-and-hashs-with_indifferent_access): November 30, 2007. Ruby developers like to be clear in their naming of variables, modules, classes, methods, and so on. I believe this comes from the idea that code should need…
- [Using dp.SyntaxHighlighter with Valid XHTML](https://kev.in/writing/using-dpsyntaxhighlighter-with-valid-xhtml): November 29, 2007. Over at Rails Authority I use a great client-side syntax highlighter called SyntaxHighlighter to make code examples look nice, but it doesn't support Valid…
- [Thanksgiving: Thanks for Radio Lab](https://kev.in/writing/thanksgiving-thanks-for-radio-lab): November 26, 2007. While getting fat on turkey and mashed potatoes in Minnesota over the holiday, I discovered a great little radio show called Radio Lab, which is also…
- [Indispensable Rails Plugins](https://kev.in/writing/indispensable-rails-plugins): September 4, 2007. Obie Fernandez's post about his most favored plugins prompted me to consider how much I use not only the Rails core framework, but also some excellent plugins…
- [Restoring Rails session data when cookies aren't available](https://kev.in/writing/restoring-rails-session-data-when-cookies-arent-available): August 30, 2007. If you've ever needed to implement user-friendly upload, you know intimately what a pain it is to get right. The web just isn't built for uploading files from…
- [De-tangling attr_reader, attr_writer and attr_accessor from attr_protected](https://kev.in/writing/de-tangling-attr_reader-attr_writer-and-attr_accessor-from-attr_protected-attr_accessible-part-1): August 27, 2007. What a mess. You have undoubtedly run across these methods sprinkled throughout the Ruby and Rails world. If you've been working with Rails for even a short…
- [How to obtain the IP address of the current user](https://kev.in/writing/how-to-obtain-the-ip-address-of-the-current-user): August 26, 2007. Web applications can receive requests directly, via a CGI process, through proxy servers, relayed from front-end web servers, and so on. This can complicate…
- [Microsoft adCenter vs Google Adwords (Round 1)](https://kev.in/writing/microsoft-adcenter-vs-google-adwords-round-1): August 23, 2007. At the risk of being called a keyword Nazi and having to endure accusations that I care just a little too much about this stuff: Microsoft just managed…
- [Yahoo Marketing vs Google Adwords (Round 1)](https://kev.in/writing/yahoo-marketing-vs-google-adwords-round-1): August 21, 2007. I've been advertising Dibs.net on both the Google and Yahoo ad networks for three weeks. I'll have more to say later on, but I did want to share some notes…
- [It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing](https://kev.in/writing/it-was-a-musical-thing-and-you-were-supposed-to-sing): August 3, 2007. "We thought of life by analogy with a journey, with a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, the thing was to get to that end, 'success' or…
- [Announcing dibs.net](https://kev.in/writing/announcing-dibs-net): August 1, 2007. You might be wondering what I've been up to since leaving my job several months ago. I made a movie to explain, in a series of pictures, what my day-to-day…
- [dibs.net: Born 3pm July 15, 2007; 0 lbs 0 oz](https://kev.in/writing/dibsnet-born-3pm-july-15-2007-0-lbs-0-oz): July 16, 2007. It's alive and kicking! Read more about dibs.net. From Kevin Hunt's 2007 archive on kev.in.
- [This Weekend or Bust](https://kev.in/writing/this-weekend-or-bust): July 7, 2007. For the last few months I've worked tirelessly on my pet-project-cum-fulltime-startup. The cadence of my work has accelerated in recent weeks as I have put…
- [Top Ten Most Frequently Things Overheard* at RailsConf '07 in Portland, OR](https://kev.in/writing/top-ten-most-frequently-said-things-at-railsconf-07-in-portland-or): May 21, 2007. 10. "WTF, I've been here four days and have yet to see the Space Needle..." 9. "Is DHH single?" 8. "I just started working for a startup..." 7. "So, can Rails…
- [RailsConf '07: Days 2 & 3](https://kev.in/writing/railsconf-07-days-2-3): May 20, 2007. Day 2 Yesterday at RailsConf was mainly uneventful. Two good talks were the panel discussion on "The Business of Rails," and Ezra's deployment talk. The…
- [RailsConf '07: Day 1](https://kev.in/writing/railsconf-07-day-1): May 18, 2007. Back from the first real day of RailsConf after yesterday's tutorial day. DHH's talk mainly covered Rails 2.0. I like the way he presents because he goes…
- [RailsConf '07: Day 0](https://kev.in/writing/railsconf-07-day-0): May 17, 2007. I managed to snag a secondhand ticket on last week and drove to Portland yesterday for RailsConf '07. Today was "tutorial day." As Jason Hoffman noted in the…
- [Re-entry](https://kev.in/writing/re-entry): February 14, 2007. I used to be an above-average programmer. I started coding BBS utilities in Pascal when I was 13, and eventually got to be pretty proficient with algorithms…
- [One of these days](https://kev.in/writing/one-of-these-days): February 6, 2007. One of these days I'm going to start a blog. It will be perfect. It'll be informative, thoughtful, witty, current; maybe a little snarky. It will have a…