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Scriptable Applications and the Web
March 15th, 2010
Scriptability is a great feature to have in your application. It’s neglected far too often by application developers, for a number of reasons. The developers might be skeptical of the benefits, they might not understand how easy it is to add, or they might not suspect that any of their users would want to write code. (Only in very rare cases is it actually undesirable.) As applications move to the web, scriptability becomes even more important, but also more flexible for both you and the user.
Even Reality TV Values IP Strategy
March 10th, 2010
I was recently hooked on a reality television show called “Shark Tank.” I know, I know! Before you go judging me, just hear me out. And yes, this somehow relates to intellectual property (IP) matters.
For those of you that do not know, the show, which is a remake, offers a fascinating look into investment negotiations between hopeful entrepreneurs and potential angel investors. The show is obviously over-dramatized and keenly edited to show some sort of tension. Entrepreneurs pitch to a panel of five veteran investors, to artificially create an environment of out-bidding and competition between the sharks. Needless to say, most of the fun with the show stems from watching crazy ideas fall flat on their face and, on the upside, cheering on novice businesses as they make a dream deal.
My 5 Favorite Career-Specific Sites
March 8th, 2010
We find that many of the folks (folks such as yourself) come to visit our site in search of jobs. While software is our game, our team members themselves bring a wide-range of job experience to the office every morning, reflecting that we have a unique blend of personalities on our team who have a many of passions and pursuits. Some of the other jobs of our team members have included, just to name a few, film producer, online video director, military soldier, smoke-jumping fireman, doctor (pending), open source guru, lifeguard, dock worker, business manager, real estate agent, TV studio page, concert security guard, financial analyst, stand-up comic, artist, blogger, screenwriter, machinist and baseball vending barker. Clearly, we all have a wide-range of interests and pursuits.
How OK Go and Ignite LA blew my mind
March 2nd, 2010
Last night I sat in a room with at least one hundred other people for Ignite LA. If you’re not familiar Ignite LA is a series of presentations by people who are passionate about something. Each speaker has 5 minutes, 20 slides and 15 seconds per slide. This event takes place in multiple cities, so definitely take the time to see if it’s near where you live.
At the beginning of the evening, we were told that by the end our minds would be blown. I wasn’t so sure. The first couple speakers were really great, but I wouldn’t say I was blown away. But I spoke too soon.
Poor Man's Webspider
March 1st, 2010
Webspiders are fun, but the learning curve is awfully steep. Websites don’t like crawlers stumbling about where they’re not wanted, and barriers as simple as a login screen can stymie a beginner. Add in checks on user agents strings and javaScipt-heavy links, and your weekend is over before you’ve gotten anything to work—side project over! This blog post will show you how to turn your browser and lamp server into a spider capable of taking you straight to the fun.
The Basic Idea
A greasemonkey script will pull data off the pages we’re interested in and send them to a php script. The php script will then tell the greasemonkey script what to do next: either open an alert box telling the user something went wrong, or move on to another url.
What in the world is Lomography?
February 25th, 2010
My experience with photography is very limited. I spent a couple of years buying disposable cameras in college before finally picking up one of the cheaper digital cameras I could find. The words, “alright, on 3” usually preceded the pictures that were generally taken so we had proof of being somewhere. You just never know when the insurance company might follow up on a claim (only kidding).
I read about a movement in the world of photography called Lomography last week and learned that there were workshops for beginners/novices taking place down the street from where I lived. Armed with a good excuse to get out of the house on a sunny day, I decided to head over to the Lomography shop to see what it was all about.
Don't Fear The Tweeter
February 23rd, 2010
I have immersed myself in the world of social media. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t tweet or check Facebook. Even when I try to have a technology-free day and disconnect, I’m still scheduling tweets and blog posts on the conversation calendar in my brain. It’s become so natural now; it’s a part of my routine. I wake up, check networks, go through Google Reader, search for and share interesting tidbits and start all over. It’s a viciously wonderful cycle that rarely ever leaves zeros on my alerts.
Because social media is such a big part of my life, I sometimes let my jaw drop when I learn that someone isn’t using it. Sure, I’m caught off guard when someone tells me they’re not on Twitter, but that isn’t what causes my jaw to hit the floor. We have been using social media for years, we just haven’t had a name for it until now.
The Case for IPv6
February 22nd, 2010
IPv4 has served us well. It got the internet off the ground. It’s time to move on.
It’s a common joke made amongst network engineers that the internet was an experiment that escaped the lab before it was finished. The first time I heard that was from Paul Vixie during a talk at USENIX around 1995 or so. The most recent time I heard it was from Vint Cerf during a talk about IPv6. I find it funny because it’s kinda true. When the addressing scheme for IPv4 was decided, it was still an experiment in a lab, and the designers of the protocol figured they would have an opportunity to change the addressing at a future date. Then the internet became wildly popular and took off beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. We’re rapidly running out of available IP addresses.
The Monetization Challenge for Internet Based Companies
February 18th, 2010
One of the most complex problems that Internet based companies face is how to sustainably generate profits.
Having a huge user base has proved not to be a guarantee of becoming profitable. Some of the great players in the market have had trouble doing so, even when they have strategic relationships with marketing agencies, vast amounts of cash to advertise their products and experienced business developers. The cases are well known, You Tube, Facebook, Twitter. The increasing pressure from stockholders to bring in cash has pushed their business developers along with the engineering teams to look for more creative ways to translate usage into money. When it comes to generating revenues there are currently two ways to go:
Where's an app for that
February 16th, 2010
As many of you (presumably) are, I am also paying about $50 too much for a ‘smart phone’ that makes calls and checks e-mail.
‘Don’t forget about the apps,’ you say?
Apps are indeed one of the major selling points for these phones and have enabled that flimsy devise of ours to do much, much more than simply make or receive a phone call—they are essentially what we’re paying for.
However, I’m sure the App Store was once some happy place where folks found useful applications that actually made our lives better; but it has now become that (sometimes, not so) wonderful place where we get to fill up our phone memory and prepare our thumbs for countless right to left, page-turning motions to go through the seven seas of apps that we end up never using.
Design Critiques for Non-Designers
February 15th, 2010
You may have noticed that our society is becoming increasingly driven by visual communication. From billboards to magazines to websites to computer applications, people are more tuned in than ever to the aesthetic of the designs they encounter. Most of the time this visual processing is done sub-consciously, to the point where you might think that every day people aren’t sensitive to good and bad design. However, there is definitely a proven correlation between good design and the resulting trust and love of your product or service. This is why it’s important that people learn how to think about and talk about design to others even if they’re not a designer themselves.
Creating A Social Balance
February 11th, 2010
Last week I wrote about networking events and stepping outside of your comfort zone.
On Monday I had another chance to do that and boy did I step far outside of my comfort zone. I attended Social Fresh in Tampa, FL with our Strategy Analyst. Anyone having anything to do with marketing, no matter how indirectly, should attend Social Fresh. We probably didn’t need to fly across the country for this event, but the list of speakers were too good to pass up.
Should the CEO be worried? (Part 1)
February 9th, 2010
Napoleon was a prototypical CEO, one could argue, and I am sure many people secretly see themselves as his modern counterpart. One of the things he used to do (it was said) was to go amongst his soldiers disguised as one of them, to hear their conversations and observe their morale. I, of course, cannot disguise myself (or … can I?), but I do try to spend time with my “troops,” and sometimes I … see things. I thought I’d share some of these with you in my new Series “Should the CEO be worried?”
A Pamphlet On Surviving the Web Development Wilderness
February 8th, 2010
So here we are on the eve of a public beta launch for a project we have all been working extremely hard on. In a flurry of excitement and anticipation we have spent the last few weeks buttoning up absolutely every tiny detail we can to muster the strength and time for. My team is responsible for a web app interface (built on rails) to our new service. In the current push to get everything in order and prepare ourselves for the onslaught of real users we have been repeatedly telling each other how lucky we are that we have good test coverage and an excellent work-flow.
Make It Work, For You
February 4th, 2010
I’m a big fan of Project Runway, the reality TV show where fashion designers create a new look and fashion piece every week with a limited amount of time and materials. I admit that I’m not a fashionista like the show’s host, Heidi Klum, but I do have ‘girly girl’ tendencies like an insane love for accessories and shoes. However, I’d like to think that my girlish ways aren’t the only things that contribute to my obsession with the show. I consider myself a fan because I enjoy watching the creative process each designer goes through. To witness the inspiration behind an idea and then watch it evolve and come to life is intriguing.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
February 2nd, 2010
One of the scariest things you can do is put me in a room full of one hundred strangers and tell me to mingle. You probably wouldn’t guess that if you met me, but I’ve once been described by a friend as the most social anti-social person they know. I like to stand back and take in the room, observe people and eavesdrop on as many conversations as possible. That doesn’t mean I don’t like people. It’s just that I get extremely nervous, turn red and stumble over my words when people look at me. Hence my unhealthy love for Twitter.
Old School
January 28th, 2010
Let me start by saying, I’m With CoCo. To those of you who have been living in a bunker below Mount Whatthewhat for the past month, Conan O’Brien is no longer the host of The Tonight Show. To those of you who have been living in a bunker below Mount Whatthewhat for the past year, Jay Leno is still the host of The Tonight Show. I’m not here to breakdown the parties involved, as that has been done ad naseum.
However, I did want to take pause to recognize how Conan ended his reign as host of the most storied franchise in television.
How a fish became a girl...
January 26th, 2010
Taking risks is scary. Every day, we analyze costs, risks, time, potential success, and a host of other variables, to balance the analytical and the creative. But, every once and a while, you see things that seem so insane, you’re not sure how they got past the number crunchers and risk analysts.
For me, that’s the movie Ponyo.
Stateless Tests in a Stateful Protocol
January 25th, 2010
Lets suppose you want to test the correctness of a protocol. I know I do, all the time; get me that input fuzzer. A typical way to start might be a minor variation on how I learned to test my code in CSE 142 and hadn’t really thought too much about since: plug in some “representative” values and see if it does the right thing. But let’s suppose someone came over with a pile of documentation and said “Here. Some genius in the back room made this insanely complex server that apparently speaks this protocol, and somehow managed to do it without so much as a single unit test. Can you test it? By the way, we want some guarantees about security.”
No Headphones Thursday
January 22nd, 2010
Fun fact: I moved to Los Angeles from Chicago for a job that I couldn’t tell people about.
As you can imagine, I get asked about my job a lot. Most people are naturally curious. Family members just want to make sure I didn’t run off and join a cult. My tech-savvy friends are especially interested, hoping they get first dibs. No matter the person, I always answer with “I love my job.” And I do!
When you are in the dark, you can see the stars
January 21st, 2010
I would be highly surprised if I had any new information to add to the Internet.
But therein lies the principle of this entry. What if the point of this entry was to encourage others to subtract from their ever-expanding body of knowledge?
Multikernel
January 18th, 2010
I’ve always been a bit of an operating systems junkie. It suits my hacker nature because kernel hacking requires tinkering and taking things apart, which is something I’ve been doing since I was a child. Naturally, when a new operating system comes along, the first thing I want to do is install it either in a VM or preferably on real hardware.
Wordless Wednesday
January 13th, 2010
Mt. Olympus Burger from the Clinton Station Diner in Clinton, NJ.
What Makes You CL!CK?
January 12th, 2010
The Internet’s head nearly exploded yesterday with all the hubbub about Facebook’s privacy shenanigans. If you were one of the many people tracking that story, or playing with your new Google Nexus phone, then you probably missed out on some pretty exciting news. Here’s a hint: It’s awesome. What could be more awesome than a brand spankin’ new Nexus? Well, a shark with laser beams on its head for one. I sent a letter to Sea World and everything! Could you imagine…? Shark Week: With Lasers! Ahem, anyway. This week’s news involves LEGOs. Yes, those wonderful magical toys that can keep any kid (or adult) entertained for hours upon hours.
Border Stylo's Making the Site
January 11th, 2010
It’s been just over a month now since we launched the latest redesign of borderstylo.com and to celebrate I am going to let you know a little about the design process behind it. When I say design, I don’t mean beautiful images and colors filling the page, instead I am referring to design as the organization of information and how the user interacts with this information.
When the average user interacts with a site they usually don’t pay attention to the design they are interacting with. They probably couldn’t tell you the difference between good and bad design outside the fact that they like one over the other. With that in mind, they probably have little understanding of what the design process is like, which is why I’m gonna share a little bit on the process I took with the borderstylo.com redesign.
Born 2 Clown
January 7th, 2010
I was able to travel during the holidays this year and decided to take a trip up and down the West Coast. After ringing in the New Year in Seattle, it was time to hop in the car on New Year’s Day and make the 12 hour drive from the Emerald City to Oakland. That drive on New Year’s Day sparked something in me, while relatively simple; I will keep in mind as I start the New Year.
Stay Classy Internet
January 5th, 2010
If 2009 has taught us anything about social media, it’s that it is way too easy to become overwhelmed and lose sight of goals. New tools are popping up every week and the network has become better, stronger… faster.
Top Ten Geek Destinations In L.A.
January 4th, 2010
Los Angeles isn’t particularly known for its geek culture, but in a city this big, there’s something for everybody, even us nerds.
Favorite Songs 2009 (Noise Bleed)
December 23rd, 2009
When I told Jenn I was going to write a blog post about music she rolled her eyes. In the office/life I seem to go on prolonged rants about music. I guess I get a little excited talking about this stuff. So I thought I actually write some of them down for you nice folks!
