Friends and cohorts keep asking me me to recommend books so in an effort to slightly curb this I’ve manifested the list below. Warning: I cannot guarantee I’ve finished these books. I have a tendency, possibly fear, of finishing books. I literally get to the last chapter and it sits on my coffee table for weeks. So far, these have been intriguing books to me: Blink and The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell.
I found some great Ruby code to assist in creating a simplistic search engine for your Rails app. It can be found on the Rails Wiki under TextSearch. I recommend clicking on the “edit” button at the bottom to copy and paste the code out of the text field because some of the syntax gets lost on the page version. Just don’t click save :) You may want to add ‘%" on either side of the search terms.
No the rumors are not true. I haven’t been kidnapped by the government in suspicion of plotting the end of the world. Although some may suggest it is the dawn of the end. Jesus, yes I do mean you, what the hell is going on? Earth is shakin, wind is blowin, water is getting everywhere, and birds are out of control! Not too worry, it hasn’t disrupted the good old midwest, yet.
Everyone should participate in a little people watching activities. It allows you to jump out of your inner chaotic life and realize that you’re not alone. Now, there are a few keys to successful people watching. I’ll share some of mine, then you can pass yours along if you wish. Avoid eye contact. In order to remain a fly on the wall you must avoid eye contact at all costs.
Playground Blues is officially on Rails. Approximately two weeks ago I started chugging along and with this new language. Surprisingly it’s been quite welcoming and easy to learn. I only wish it were just as easy to ween clients over to this oasis. Along with the change of language came some other needed changes. One of them being my move from Textile to Markdown otherwise known as BlueCloth in Rails. Markdown just seemed more natural to the way I type.
I have a new PodCast to add to your library. It’s by Art Mobs and its called Art Mobs MoMA Guides. The descriptions is “A ‘Commons’ for audio guides to artworks at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.” Basically an entertaining discussion about modern art. I think this is by far the most creative use of PodCasting, no pun intended.
I spent last weekend learning Ruby on Rails (http://www.rubyonrails.com) and now I can’t help but wonder why the hell it took me so long. My work (http://www.bradv.com) was kind enough to fetch me a copy of Agile Web Development with Rails (http://pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/index.html) and I’ve had a hard time focusing on anything else. I’ve already started porting some of my apps (http://glide.playgroundblues.com) to Rails and its surprisingly elegant and fun. After figuring out associations between database tables I feel well on my way.
Why would anybody want to pre-order an album off of iTunes? The whole idea of the “pre-order” is that your John Hancock gets placed on a list of elite few who get first dibs on a product before it sells out. It is virtually impossible for iTunes to sell out of a song, which makes me wonder what yahoo in the war room decided it’d be cool to have “pre-orders” in iTunes.
Since the release of Tiger and particularly Quicktime 7 sporting the new H.264 codec I’m beginning to wonder if we’re glimpsing a bigger picture here. If you haven’t checked out the unbelievable quality of H.264 go over to the HD Gallery and witness the days of pixilation disappear. With this brings some interesting thoughts; does Apple have a roadmap for video on demand? Well, they’ve already started doing it with iTunes 4.
This is my last week at my current employer, Look and Feel which would explain my lack of good posts. I can’t express how fortunate I am to have spent time with the fine lads of LaF. I will miss them dearly, although, I’ll still be living in the neighborhood so I’m sure our paths will cross. My near future rests at a place called Method within Bernstein-Rein. A fortune teller has forcasted very long hours but many laughs and Belgium beer flowing from the hill tops.
Time to chim in on Tiger. Dashboard, Spotlight, Automator, Oh My! I was worried at first, things were slow and hard drive was crankin'. Once Spotlight finished indexing my mess of over six years of files I breathed a sigh of relief. Apple has posted a handy little Dashboard Programming Guide with all sorts of design guidlines and API info. They have done the same for Automator. This little app can save scary amounts of time.
Ruby buzz has been making its rounds these last few months. I’m anxious to use Rails but my ISP nor my employer support it. So I’ve been stuck staring at the colorful lollypop from a distance. Cake may be the solution to my problems, at least until Ruby becomes more widely supported. Cake is a PHP framework based on the Rails design. It’s still in its infancy but it looks pretty solid.
The Faint, The Ataris, The Features, The Futureheads, The Cure, The Hives, The Killers, The Music, The People, The Prodigy, The Roots, The Bravery, The Kills, The Samples, The Shins, The Doors, The Stills, The Streets, The Strokes, The Used, The Walkmen, The Darkness, The Who, The Ramones, The Sights, The National, The Wrights, The Republic, The Congos, The Zincs, The Stix, The Perishers, The Police, Rapture, The Unicorns, The Kinks, The Mollys, The Soviettes, The Winners, The Velons, The Smugglers, The Makers, The Upsidedown, The Donnas.
Lately I’ve been going back and forth with my colleagues regarding pre-built admin tools. My position has been the benefits of adopting a framework outweigh any off-the-shelf tool. What is the difference between a framework and an off-the-shelf system? It’s like buying fake plants instead of real ones. off-the-shelf products leave very little wiggle room for growth and are inevitably more than what you need. They also exhibit poor usability, with there shiny plastic leaves and all.
This launch is softer than a baby’s bum. Please excuse the possible broken links, sparse content, grayed out links, and unusually shaped big toe. Things should be up to speed by the end of this week so keep checking back from time to time. Also, if you don’t mind, I’ll throw you a me update: I’m done photo blogging. It was fun while it lasted but I’m out of good photos so back to writing.
Lately I’ve become a little obsessed with the “Broken Window Theory.” I was introduced to this theory by Travis and Charlie. Soon after, it began popping into my head at work, home, or while I was coding. Then I started noticing it in books and on the radio. The theory is normally applied to urban decay and crime, however, it can be applied to almost anything. How did your apartment get so dirty?