In order to better establish a web presence for myself, I am rebuilding my own website. I have big ideas for this, displaying my writings, past and present, my interests, my friends, my work, and also as an living technical showcase for my abilities. One feature I wanted to have is a display of whatever I am up to in the online world. I wanted, to start out with, aggregate my Flickr, Tumblr...
Out of desire to learn something new, and in part due to specific needs on upcoming client engagements, I sat down and plowed my way through Expression Engine. After about five or six hours of slugging through Michael Boyink’s amazing tutorial, I’m feelin’ a bit like Neo (youtube video below) Having started out hacking out sites in phpNuke way back in the day, then b2 (the...
Alex and I went to Disney World mid-June, as a graduation present. While I had been to Disneyland every year as a kid, I had never been to Disney World in my life, let alone Florida! The logistics alone were amazing, and worth the prices. I checked my bags in at Dulles, and we never saw them until they showed up in our room. Same going back; someone just came and picked them up, and again...
A little over two years ago, in the summer between graduating and starting a “real job” I spent a good amount of time at the gym, brushing up on my various web skills, and building cool apps. I didn’t necessarily want to get rich off them, they were more exercises in taking my ideas and actually doing something with them, rather than letting them linger in the netherworld of...
My first job out of college was working for a major consulting company. As is common in large companies, corporate principles and values are conveyed through long-thought out materials… standardized presentations, decks, and emails. One of the values that was always conveyed to me was creating and maintaining a standard work-life balance. At that point in time, I couldn’t understand what that...
My father‘s satellite launched on Wednesday!
GLAST Spacecraft Lauch
Long time no posting. I’ve been rockin’ hard at JESS3. It’s been trying times, but I’m learning a lot and we’re making great things. Unfortunately that means no blog-reading, no blogging, and a host of other things sacrificed. Opportunity costs of getting things done. I love a good challenge. It’s been exactly two years since I graduated from the University of...
I touched on this before, but Marc Andreesen’s essay about careers and creating and accepting opportunities rather than having a definite plan really resonated in me. I believe a huge part of what people would like to refer to as “career planning” is being continuously alert to opportunities that present themselves to you spontaneously, when you happen to be in the right place...
This popped up on a picture I posted… Completely unrelated, but I wonder how they are doing it. I doubt it’s any kind of recognition. My bet is it saw that I was attending these two events (or supposed to) at around the same time, and thought I might have taken it there. May be more useful in the long run… if you’re the type that posts pictures during or immediately after...
Happened across this – Apple Human Interface Guidelines, along with having the standard instructions for developing a product that looks, well… Apple-y, has some great content in their Characteristics of Great Software section. When making design decisions regarding features in your application, it’s important to weigh the costs, not all of which are financial, against the potential...