While in PDX for RailsConf 2013, if you find yourself wanting to checkout gamer havens this article has you covered.
Alternative things to do while in town for RailsConf
16 Apr 2013
Misc Posts
Did Google kill RSS?
13 Mar 2013
The truth is this: Google destroyed the RSS feed reader ecosystem with a subsidized product, stifling its competitors and killing innovation. It then neglected Google Reader itself for years, after it had effectively become the only player. Today it does further damage by buggering up the already beleaguered links between publishers and readers. It would have been better for the Internet if Reader had never been at all.
My RSS consumption was at an all-time high in the few years prior to Google Reader coming out. Once I migrated from a desktop RSS reader to Google Reader, I found myself opening it less often. Over the years, it's fallen off my radar. I only check a few times a month. Did Google kill RSS? On purpose? Accidental? Is RSS dead? Do we all need to rely on the sites we "follow" now via Facebook, Google+, and Twitter? Better? Worse? Inevitable?
Don't Let Momentum Define Your Career
1 Nov 2012
I started my career way back in the year 1996, fresh out of college with a Bachelor’s Degree in graphic design. I had spent the past four or so years learning the tools of the trade. Some of these tools were a bit older than others. Computers were starting to come on the scene in desktop publishing in a big way. So, interspersed in my curriculum were classes that represented the old and the new. In one class I might have been hand-lettering the alphabet with brushes and paint while in the other I might have been laying out a magazine-style article with copy and images on a Mac. It was quite the transitional period. However, no matter the technique I was using, be it old or new, the basis for everything was design. I was going to school for graphic design so I fancied myself a designer. It just so happened that design work was now accomplished with a keyboard and a mouse.
Photo by John Altdorfer
Avoid stupidity
17 Oct 2012
Try to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.
Fun interactive web-based visual toy
10 Oct 2012
It is the first ever Design Week Portland and I stopped by Fullscreen PM last night, a “casual creative show and tell meet up” and one of the multitude of nifty DWP events. There were a bunch of cool projects that artists, designers, and developers showed off, but I particularly liked Kaleidoscope, made by the folks at Instrument. It’s a beautiful javascript-based physics toy with which you can generate revolving clouds of customizable particles and then split it all apart into a lovely fracturing kaleidoscope. Hypnotic on large screens, engaging and interactive on handheld devices, Kaleidoscope is definitely worth exploring.
Portland the best city in the country (for developers)?
25 Sep 2012
The folks over at "appfog":http://appfog.com/ have put together an extensive argument for why Portland could be the best city in the United States for developers.... and covered a lot of compelling things related to the local developer ecosystem.
Having said that... they missed everything around Portland that makes me stay in the area. All the hiking within "60 miles of Portland":http://www.amazon.com/60-Hikes-Within-Miles-Including/dp/0897329759 (there are even several trails within the city limits!), all of the rivers for kayaking, windsurfing, the snow resorts, all of the camping and backpacking that we can explore... etc.
Outside of getting immersed into your craft, it's nice to get out of the city to ponder those technical challenges while on a hike.
APIs explained via the shipping industry
24 Sep 2012
Containerization from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.
APIs explained.
Now _THIS_ is a job posting.
18 Sep 2012
What a novel idea: Put a ton of effort and creativity into the task of advertising an open position, and I guarantee that the caliber of the applicants will be higher. And man that penguin is cute.
&yet talks to Cabel Sasser + Steven Frank
11 Sep 2012
&yet stopped by Panic’s HQ to interview their founders and discuss shopping software and being a team.
Portland Timbers... game day
29 Aug 2012
Nice video video put out by the Portland Timbers…
update: …found myself in it.
