So, I just couldn’t resist and set a new blog with new rails app and layout called Obtvse and it is mimicking Svbtle.
Anyhow here it is and we will see how things will go. it is definitely not wordpress but it is fun.
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A lot had happened in the meantime, I’ve been doing a lot of awesome stuff, some stupid stuff as well. Since I was mentioning that I have big man-crush on Tony Hsei, I have to say that in the meantime I managed to meet him, introduce myself and express how grateful I am for him being my inspiration. He is as cool as I imagined him. Maybe by the time he builds his Vegas Paradise, I will have something lined up and move there… not likely 
.
Chicago weather is awesome these days, it is like summer, we had 30 C yesterday and it is middle of March.
If it isn’t obvious, I intend to rant quite a bit here from now on, mostly inspired and nudged by my friend Tomas Ordonez. Who, would you believe, just applied to be Excelerated into proper enterpreneur and business man, like he isn’t one already.
What else, I am very much into prototyping lately, I always was big on that, but lately I feel like I don’t want to compromise on that any more. I intend to make next post a little about that.
So, few things iPad is missing are: SD card reader and good stylus. It turns out, at least for this other thing there is an easy remedy.
After seeing one my colleague Mat got, I realized it could be easily made. Here is the one he got, it is very flimsy and doesn’t give you very good feel.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358529,00.asp
I started off with experimenting with different materials. It turns out that those gummy kitchen sponges works exceptionally well.
After that I experimented with how to fit sponge into pen and which one would be good for it. It turns out, from my vast collection of pens and writing paraphernalia, very few can be used. Only Parker Jotter was close and because of how deep barrel of the pen is, I have to give up of sticking sponge through it.
I had to think long and hard what could be used for it and then it hit me to use drinking straws for it. For a moment it looked like this will not be good, but it turns out it works fantastic. Responsiveness of touch-screen to it is awesome. It is very easy to manipulate icons as well as to draw in drawing apps.
I hope this will inspire other people to make their own, maybe few in different colors. Let me know how it goes.
Now I am trying to find good app for jotting down notes and sketches. If you have any recommendations, please let me know.
I needed something to search codebase with and after trying to do
sudo gem install rak
and rak installed like that is a little flaky. Probably something missing but I didn’t want to spend time researching, so ack to the rescue.
ack is perl utility to search codebase.
In ubuntu install is super simple.
sudo apt-get install ack-grep
however on OSX things usually require more work. Here is how to install ack on OSX that worked for me (Snow Leopard)
download it: curl http://betterthangrep.com/ack-standalone > ~/ack
make it executable: chmod 0755 ack
move it to bin so it would be in path: sudo mv ack /usr/local/bin/
enjoy.
more info at http://betterthangrep.com/
I couldn’t stop laughing reading article in NY Times about how US is first in the world in broadband, contrary to what all of us who are trying to use it know. It isn’t last of course but first it surely isn’t. Forget South Korea, Japan, France, Netherlands and many others, what they have is nothing compared to what we have here. Right . And then you wake up.
There is surge of articles in printed media that are totally detached from reality, maybe they always did that (most likely) just that because we are now better informed we can spot them more easily. Like the one that proclaimed as most succesful startup that failed search engine that was founded by ex-Google guys (can’t remember the name), in Business Week.
I think printed media should die, short and quick death as far as I am concerned. I do enjoy reading Chicago Tribune in printed form, as well as numerous other publications, however those big news outlets are simply flawed beyond repair and I believe this is fundamental flaw that enables outrageous lies to be reported as news over and over again. Now they can say that bloggers are not professional and can be manipulated, and this is true of course, but what they are doing is creating false reality and thank God for Internets as that their time is coming to an end.
What US is still leader is innovation and Internet is fantastic vehicle for innovation, however if intenet infrastructure is not among the best, it will slow innovation and business and other countries will overtake the lead. Not that that would be end of the world.
Rails and Merb projects decided to merge and create a powerful foundation for the future together, as of Rails 3.0 Merb will be integrated into the code and bring numerous benefits and performance improvements.
This is fantastic news for whole Ruby development ecosustem. Merging this two projects together and focusing efforts better will bring huge benefits but this is also one of those heartwarming things that people in Ruby community known for common sense approach decided that those projects have enough in common to be better off working together.
Most people read this news in total disbelief. I don’t think I read single negative reaction nor I would expect that there would be. This is awesome news and one more proof that Ruby people do things differently. I can’t wait to get my hands on Rails 3.
Merb gets merged into Rails 3!
I would like to congratulate both teams on important and fantastic decision.
Jonathan sent me these rhymes.
<http402> Time to bend over and apply a patch,
<http402> Your brain’s throwing static like a CD with a scratch.
<http402> Your connection got nuked and you’ve met your match.
<http402> You run a single process like a VAX with a batch.
<http402> I’d pass the torch to a real winner
<http402> But it’d just scorch a while-loop spinner
<http402> Caught in a loop that you cant escape,
<http402> I run clock cycles around your words and flows,
Chicago will have it’s own Rails conference in September and I will be there. Since price for attendance is reasonable and all the cool people are already here, I am pretty certain it will be awesome event and I am looking forward.
Plus our friends from Obtiva are one of the sponsors.
I meant to post the comic here, but can’t fit the layout and when I resize it, it is not readable. So instead of explaining, here is a link, enjoy.
Ever since Richter Scales made their awesome video, which doesn’t stop to amuse me, there is this Lane person who can’t stop trying to turn attention to her. First she made video removed from YouTube and then she was all hurt and upset how her work is not appreciated enough. Now she wants to get paid . I bet I can found enough people to write to Wired to find someone else instead of her, as this is just too much.
Lane, you are lame, move away and let us enjoy truly creative people. You know people who make things, as oppose to people who snapped one pic at the party and now world can’t turn without them.
Truly awesome video. If I ever had website launch paid by investors, I would hire them to sing and I suspect they can’t get enough time to do all the gigs where they are invited to sing.
