January 2012
1 post
“If I kept thinking, “I am doing something that could shape the character and...”
– Jennifer Trafton
December 2011
2 posts
“Late last night, inspecting Santa’s handiwork, a simple thought occurred to me....”
– John Gruber
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
2 posts
August 2011
2 posts
In NYC? Want to meet up?
Hello, folks following me on TUmblr …
I know a bunch of you are in/around Manhattan. I’m in town for a few days, and would love to meet up with you (that’s the singular “you”, but that goes out, individually, to all of you (plural)). I’d especially love to come cowork with you wherever you do your thing, but even if you just want to meet up for a drink,...
“In this town I’ve always said “Don’t ask for permission,...”
– Ian MacKaye (via mwfrost)
July 2011
5 posts
“The immediate, visceral negative reaction to the rich Corinthian leather...”
– John Siracusa, in his review of OS X Lion
From the Apple store, when it’s being updated / down for maintenance:
Interesting how those two words change the tone of the message, and, at least for me, the response of the reader.
The internet never forgets.
This is how you do a retraction:
The opinion column that follows doesn’t live up to the proud tradition and our best intentions for BYTE. It not only lacks the deep and authoritative technical content that we want BYTE to be known for, but it also doesn’t reflect the community’s views on Apple. Although there are plenty of people who don’t like Apple products, and some...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-7-3) →
She & Him (14)
DJ Krush (3)
NPR (2)
DJ Fox (2)
Animal Collective (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
June 2011
7 posts
“If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined. If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the...
“Being good is more important than being original. Originality is a product, not...”
– Mies van der Rohe (as quoted by Paul Rand)
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-6-12) →
Death Cab for Cutie (61)
Reel Big Fish (26)
The Postal Service (22)
The Mountain Goats (13)
Pixies (5)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-6-19) →
Owl City (25)
Helmut Winschermann: German Bach Soloists (18)
Portishead (11)
Trevor Pinnock: The English Concert (6)
Reinhard Goebel: Musica Antiqua Köln (4)
Imported from
“The path is created by walking.”
– Bertold Bernreuter
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-6-5) →
The Mountain Goats (12)
Erin McKeown (3)
The Postal Service (3)
Architecture in Helsinki (2)
Animal Collective (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-29) →
The Mountain Goats (9)
Fleet Foxes (3)
Johnny Cash (3)
Hungrian Concert Orchestra & Peter Janos (2)
Architecture in Helsinki (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by …
May 2011
12 posts
Cache-busting the WordPress stylesheet
Update: My friend Russell has a more evolved version of this, viewable here: Cache-busting Path Plugin for WordPress. I’ll probably still use mine, as I’m trying to limit the number of outside functions I’m including, but if you’re looking to add cache-busting into your blog, I’d suggest running with his.
This isn’t new, but it always takes me longer to find...
On the Google Wallet Logo
Google just sort-of announced a new project, Google Wallet.
I don’t have a lot of thoughts on the project itself (yet), in part because it isn’t out yet, and in part because it’s for Android (not the iPhone). But I do have a few thoughts about the logo.
It’s great.
The Colors
It incorporates the “Google palette” well, with each section of the band...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-22) →
Fleet Foxes (14)
The Clash (5)
Medeski, Martin and Wood (4)
Death Cab for Cutie (2)
Fatboy Slim (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-15) →
The Mountain Goats (20)
Johnny Cash (14)
Matt & Kim (5)
Kevin Cryderman (3)
Bridge Underwater (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“You don’t become great by trying to be great. You become great by wanting...”
– Zombie Marie Curie
DOC2DOCK: Save Our Supplies →
cameronmoll:
The service tells the story. Delightfully.
/via @carson
Excluding Individual Files in Git
I was looking for a solution to a problem I was having, and wanted to write up my notes on it.
The Setup
Tony and I have a codebase we’re working on (Monotask), that we’re currently deploying several times a day to our server at Slicehost. We’re also preparing a server at a new host (at Linode), as we’re going to transfer the whole app over to Linode. We use Git (and...
“If I think about why I share Groupme, it’s not because I’m unlocking a new feature by hitting Fbook like, or even saying something about myself, by displaying my usage. I pass groupme along because it’s a gift i can give to friends that doesn’t cost me anything. Too many viral mechanics focus on rewarding or incentivizing spread before the product has become awesome enough that it is a...
“Our job is to make products where the manuals are zero lines.”
– Aza Raskin
Aligning Baselines
Recently, I’ve been experimenting with some web typography … not experimenting with fonts, but working with typesetting and layout. My background is in typesetting and book design, and I like bringing some of my practices from that over to my web layouts (even though that’s not always ideal, as we get to later in this post).
So, anyway, I’ve been working on some layout...
April 2011
9 posts
Hashbombing
I’m surprised this hasn’t happened more.
It’ll be interesting to see how companies deal with this sort of namespace collision in the future, especially when a corporate entity (even one as tech-savvy and fluid as O’Reilly) has to deal with an “off-brand” bottom-up use of a “claimed” hashtag like this.
This one wasn’t even intentional...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-4-17) →
Owl City (22)
Jack’s Mannequin (14)
Matt & Kim (8)
The Style Council (2)
Alien Alright (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“Let’s build something awesome and be home for dinner.”
– Mark Brown
2 tags
A Thing I Made: OmniAuth for Sinatra
I’m not sure if I’ve talked at all about how much I love the programming framework Sinatra. It’s fun and “gettable”, especially for someone approaching programming from the perspective of a front-end developer.
But — like Rails — Sinatra doesn’t come with an out-of-the-box user authentication program. You have to code up the whole “create an account /...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-4-10) →
Faded Paper Figures (14)
Idioteque (10)
Owl City (8)
Norah Jones (3)
Andrew Bird (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“How can you change your mindset into a fear of not shipping rather than a fear...”
– Joel Gascoigne
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-4-3) →
J.R.R. Tolkien (20)
Dashboard Confessional (13)
Kate Nash (13)
Death Cab for Cutie (5)
Ben Gibbard (5)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“I have what passes for an education in this day and time, but I am not deceived...”
– Flannery O’Connor
March 2011
6 posts
“The 357th time I complained to my brother about salaryman hours, he told me...”
– Patrick McKenzie
1 tag
A Thing I Made: Right Now
I just put a new “project” up on Github; wanted to share it with you. It’s called Right Now. I’ve been using it for a few months, and I’ve found it to be helpful.
It’s a little hard to call Right Now a “tool,” as it’s so minimalist. And, yet, I’ve found it to be really helpful. In the vein of “use the most basic tool you can to...
“You’ll remember these days with the kids fondly. Because it gets worse.”
– my mom
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-3-6) →
Johnny Cash (14)
Helmut Winschermann: German Bach Soloists (12)
J.R.R. Tolkien (8)
Meagan Duffy (7)
Kissed Her Little Sister (6)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by …
February 2011
7 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-2-20) →
They Might Be Giants (26)
Helmut Winschermann: German Bach Soloists (19)
Trevor Pinnock: The English Concert (12)
Reel Big Fish (10)
Reinhard Goebel: Musica Antiqua Köln (9)
“The Bible is a story about trees. It begins, or nearly enough, with two trees in a garden: the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The pivotal event in the book comes when a man named Jesus is hanged on a tree. And the last chapter of the last book features a remade Jerusalem: ‘In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree...
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