14 Dec 2010 at 22:41
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My transition to the open source world has turned me on to some great open source packages, as well as web services designed for the open source world. Here is a short list of some of my recent finds:
- Apigee: hosted API wrappers. Great for debugging, access control, rate limiting, etc.
- Heroku:billed as “Platform as a Service”; the easiest rails host I’ve run across so far
- Mongo DB: document-oriented database with short learning curve
- Sinatra: lighter framework than Ruby on Rails
- Twilio: unbelievably easy-to-integrate web telephony
- rvm: Ruby version manager–manages ruby versions and gems, eliminating a lot of unnecessary headaches
All of these products are free (or at least freemium) with generous limits for developers evaluating them. I’ll make some more detailed posts as I get my hands dirtier.
14 Dec 2010 at 17:01
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My blogging muse evaporated [obv] several months ago. Lots of stuff happened in the mean time, and lots more didn’t happen in the mean time. I might try to unwind that stack, but first I will get back to regularly sharing groovy and notable things.
tl;dr: took long hiatus; hiatus is now over.
16 Mar 2010 at 22:28
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memes
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Never before tonight have I gone to a web store and WANTED ONE OF EVERYTHING. Seriously, I want one of each. I’m a large.
For a while now I’ve thought it strange that I didn’t have a single web app out there that I could point someone to and say “I made that. From scratch.” I’ve been researching Python and Django lately and trying to think of a project with a narrow scope that I could use to learn the platform on. Someone showed me Shady URL and that got the wheels spinning.
Obviously I wasn’t going to exactly copy what they’re doing at Shady URL, but I love that they introduce cognitive dissonance as an intentional–and integral–component of the user experience. Most of my friends know that I have found so much joy in tricking them into clicking goatse links, so I’ve worked that angle into this project. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce…Goatse URL…
Been reading up on django lately and playing around with it during my spare time over the last few weeks. What an incredibly kind and gentle learning experience. Despite not really knowing python, I was able to create a url shortener inside of 20 hours. That’s no record breaker, but I’m still surprised I was able to create a complete web app, from UI to DB, in so little time on a new platform.
Here are some great django resources:
26 Feb 2010 at 14:20
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memes, musings
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The corporate media has been awash with stories about Texas suicide pilot Joe Stack being revered as “a hero” by the tea party crowd. It’s fairly plausible given the other completely wacky ideas that crowd tends to believe. However, I’m wondering if this is simply a case of poor research.
Here’s my odd hypothesis: perhaps they ran across supporting statements referring to him as an hero and assumed that the misspelling was not intentional. The stories run and now the gullible, irrational tea partiers become marginalized by the same corporatist media that has come to depend on them for filler. If so, this is possibly one of the best trolls ever.
24 Feb 2010 at 18:04
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memes, musings
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I have loved the Rage Meme since I was first introduced to it. It’s a cute and somewhat socially acceptable manner of cussing, just a Charlie Kilo away from FUCK! but acceptable in mixed company. It continues to gain appeal and I marvel at its staying power [TWSS!]
A few months ago I started to spontaneously let out a “FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-” now and then, usually in a bout of temporary frustration. Every once in a while, I hear someone around me–usually at work–let loose.
Today I heard it five times. Everything turned out better than expected.
23 Feb 2010 at 13:37
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If you happen to find yourself transplanted from one of these Metropolitan Statistical Areas to the other, you will experience some degree of culture shock, possibly toward the disorienting end of the spectrum. Use this helpful set of tips to ascertain your location.
Magazines in the checkout aisle
Miami: Gossip magazines a la “Look at what [insert name of celebrity / celebrity couple] did this time!”
San Francisco: Adbusters
What’s that smell?
Miami: tobacco, probably a cigar
San Francisco: chronic
Car of choice
Miami: Hummer H3 w/ “Salt Life” sticker on rear glass
San Francisco: Subaru or Honda w/ “Clif Bar” sticker on bumper
Clothing
Miami: Ed Hardy t-shirt
San Francisco: North Face hoodie
You absentmindedly step into a crosswalk. What happens
Miami: You die, ese
San Francisco: All cars stop
Food
Miami: empañadas, sushi
San Francisco: burritos, sushi
When will it stop raining?*
Miami: about five minutes
San Francisco: next week
*Special thanks to Alex.
18 Feb 2010 at 19:42
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memes
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The folks (I throw around that word wantonly) over at Meme Generator have fun generators for all your image macro needs. I used their handy generator generator to generate an Advice Burning Man meme generator. That’s a lot of generation.
So far there are a handful of creations, only some of which are mine 
My fave, which popped into my mind a few days before Burning Man 2009:
18 Feb 2010 at 02:23
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email
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On any given day, at any given time, up to 90% of email traffic is spam. Even in 2010.
If you are a spammer, you will find this series annoying and unhelpful. Piss off.
If you are a legitimate sender, you must take many steps to prove that you are a legitimate sender. Even then, you live at the mercy of anonymous bureaucrats–nameless and faceless admins (or apps) who can bulk you or shitcan you at their whim, unless, of course, you also pay extortion racket large sums to the email mafia reputation monitoring companies.
A spam complaint rate of 0.1% is enough to cause deliverability issues, and that big shiny Report Spam button is awfully close to the delete button. People will click it because it’s easier than unsubscribing. So as an email ninja, you must do all that you can to keep people away from that button.
In short, a good email sender
- Sends only to interested recipients, and only sends them messages they wish to receive
- Takes many steps to prove that the message came from where it claims to have come from
- Sends messages containing verbose, non-shady copy
- Provides recipients with an opportunity to unsubscribe with a single click
All of these categories will be explored in detail.