January 2009
42 posts
Plaxo » A Recipe for OpenID-Enabling Your Site →
A walk-through of how to implement OpenID on a web application.
In Praise of Lo-Fi →
I have a feeling this will be seen as a watershed piece in a few years. Shoot. I see it as a watershed piece right now. Jack Cheng has quickly risen in my pantheon of “internet people I think are…
Calisota Online →
A phenomenal resource with extensive research into the universe of Carl Barks / Don Rosa / the extended Duck family.
Pulled from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_color
HTML name
Hex code R G B
Decimal code R G B
Red colors
IndianRed
CD 5C 5C
205 92 92
LightCoral
F0 80 80
240 128 128
Salmon
FA 80 72
250 128 114
DarkSalmon
E9 96 7A
233 150 122
LightSalmon
FF A0 7A
255 160 122
Crimson
DC 14 3C
220 20 60
Red
FF 00 00
255 0 0
FireBrick
B2 22 22
178 34 34
DarkRed
8B 00 00
139 0 0
Pink...
Seth's Blog: Take the ball and go home →
“Bullies can’t be bullies when they are alone.” I have no application of this right now, but it’s a good post, and I wanted to have it in my archive.
“Experimental innovators don’t overanalyze or put all of their hopes into...”
– Peter Sims, in the HBR Blog
1 tag
Let's Talk About x, Baby
I’m cleaning up some old archives from previous blogs. I wanted to not lose this post. So I’m reposting it here. I originally wrote it in November or December of 2007. The “font-size-adjust” property is now covered, as you’ll see later on in the piece (assuming you’re on a browser that renders font-size-adjust properly).
Get ready for some type-nerd-ery.
...
“It’s the year of the Ox — a symbol of hard work, success and humility.”
– Twitter / Jack Cheng
These four should be understood as warm-hearted friends:
One who is a helpmate; guarding and protecting, a refuge in danger, giving more than is asked.
One who is the same in happiness and sorrow; sharing and guarding confidences, remains a friend when things are bad, giving of themselves.
One who gives good counsel; refrains from evil, encourages us to do good, informs us what is unknown of...
Trying to think through the ingredients necessary for productive work (for me):
direction
a clear understanding of the end goal (what does “success” look like?)
a clear understanding of the next thing that needs to be done
equipment
the right tools for the job
ancillary assets (coffee? music?) {these cross over into environment}
environment
a...
Why the Army in Iraq has improved dramatically... →
A fantastic post / speech, on the military and why the officer corps is so resistant to change. “Combat forces operate under a simple, brutal incentive system — adapt or die. … The institutional…
“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest...”
– Paul Rand (via Jason Santa Maria)
“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really...”
– Steve Jobs (via superamit, on down the line, to gcn)
Rails performance tip - using YSlow →
A good overview of ways to incorporate YSlow tips with a Rails app.
The Game →
Tragic. It’s easy to write off concerns and anxieties about the safety of these sorts of things: “It’ll be more fun if it’s dangerous!” But risks are real, and can have incredible consequences. This…
Whip your Firefox windows into shape | Something... →
A quick write-up on how to get firefox to open links in tabs, as opposed to new windows.
Work smarter and harder →
From Jeffrey Kalmikoff:
It appears that it’s no longer noteworthy to simply be successful — you have to achieve it with as little effort as possible. Why is hard work no longer news? From the four-day workweek to the four-hour workweek, there recently exists the idea that it’s possible to achieve just as much (if not more) while cutting back on time spent actually working.
My...
How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days →
I don’t play many computer games — time is more of the limiting factor, rather than interest. But two of the best games I’ve played in the last year — World of Goo and Crayon Physics — were both…
Writing in the Age of Distraction (Cory Doctorow) →
BRILLIANT STUFF HERE.
“Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call...”
– Wendell Berry (via Brandi)
Tumblr people, if you’re listening: This would be a cool feature: A ‘recommend’ button, like the ‘loves’ heart, but that would allow you to easily nudge a Tumblr post from one tumblelog over to another Tumblr user. Like the Delicious ‘For:’ feature. Just sayin’.
Killing distractions →
From Eoghan McCabe:
“What the —— have I become? I’m a wholesale consumer of useless information I already know about five minutes ago; a genuine data glutton. But what’s worse, I’m not just some freak specimen of the modern man that went wrong, I’m a typical web worker “keeping up-to-date”. And I know far too many people with this same problem. In fact, you’re probably one of them.”
There are two things I love about Merlin Mann. The first is that he is working diligently to disabuse people of the myths that creativity (or success, really, but his niche is conceptualized goods) comes without hard work and intent focus. The second is that he’s so doggone devoted to his family. I LOVE that.
Anyway, Merlin spoke at Macworld this week, on Patterns for Creativity. As he...
“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The...”
– Teddy Roosevelt (via withoutlove)
“Hell begins the day that God grants you the vision to see all that you could...”
– Goethe
Using Gmail SMTP with ActionMailer →
If you’re reading this on my blog, you’ll probably want to skip this one. An overview of using Gmail’s SMTP service with a Rails app. Useful as we get M configured at SliceHost.
“[ahem] LOVE LIFE! Nothing happened, just happy. I mean how lucky r we, no matter...”
– Twitter / Gary Vaynerchuk
via courtney:
Hot Chip and Peter Gabriel cover...
Can I just say how much I like not having to come up with a title for Tumblr posts?
So much.
“Unfortunately, my greatest asset is ADD.”
– Dean Kamen (via Esquire) (via jackcheng)
Work Ethic 2.0: Attention Control →
A person who works with total focus has an enormous advantage over a workaholic who’s “multi-tasking” all day, answering every phone call, constantly checking Facebook and Twitter, and indulging…
Work Ethic 2.0: Attention Control
This whole piece (Work Ethic 2.0: Attention Control) merits reading, but here’s their summary: “A person who works with total focus has an enormous advantage over a workaholic who’s ‘multi-tasking’ all day, answering every phone call, constantly checking Facebook and Twitter, and indulging every interruption.”
A few more choice quotes:
Columnist David...
