If you like art, and you like people, you’ll love Craftstravaganza - a rogue art and craft fair for handmade art. My wife and I attended last year and were really impressed with the talent and variety of artists – some really great stuff. Great gift buying opportunities at affordable prices.
At that time our baby clothing project was still in the design phase, so one of our goals for this year was to apply to become a vendor - and am pleased to announce we were accepted. Vendors are judged and a limited number are accepted so we were very excited. Come and say hi, and support our local artists. In fact, I will even offer $5 off any onesie or t-shirt if you mention this post! Preview our wares, http://orangerhinokids.etsy.com
“Geek Industry Insights” is my series of posts exploring the inner workings of a technology company. I will discuss the unique culture, politics, and challenges that permeate the industry.
In this installment we will explore the lighter side of ArcStone’s company culture, and how humor can bring a boost of morale and productivity when it’s needed most.
There have been a few nerds who have attained prominent positions in politics, but you rarely hear about the flip side of the coin: the nerd vote.
Chris Knight of North Carolina is clearly vying for the nerd vote with his campaign commercial.
It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, tries to capture the nerd vote in the 2008 presidential race. Without Al Gore running I fear this growing and misunderstood voter group will once again be ignored. [Gizmodo]
Part blog, part polling system, Oobject picks topics of interest and lets users submit their top picks, sort of like a pageant of gadgets. Sometimes the lists are full of beautiful things, old things, or just supremely weird things.
Each day a new topic is highlighted for users to peruse. I urge you to take a look, there is a good chance you’ll see something you never knew existed.
A web application will be at least 100% better if the developers who create it also actively use it.
It is akin to a meal prepared by an expert chef. The best chefs constantly sample their creations as they prepare a meal. When it is ready, they’ll serve it to their patrons and then sit down themselves to enjoy what they have lovingly created.
Like a chef, expert developers need to actively sample (test and use) their software while working on it, then sit down and consume their own code as a user would.
QA provided by testing experts definitely has its place - but I fear that sometimes developers (even good ones) miss significant opportunities to write better applications because they rely too heavily on testers / users to catch bugs and provide interface feedback. This reliance costs time - but even more significantly, we lose opportunities to improve the user experience because those who know how to change the code don’t take the time to actively engage and use the application. This lost opportunity for creative improvement could be avoided if developers spent an hour actively using the application for every 10 hours spent coding.
When I say using - I don’t mean quick tests, scripted testing, a little demo or anything like that - I mean actively using the application like their users will have to. I’m talking really, really use it and engage. A good chef will sit down and eat the meals he prepares - from that he draws inspiration for improvement. Programmers who consume the applications they write will create better software - hands down.
Some time ago a friend invited to Goodreads, another one of these social networking sites where you open an account, add your friends, blah blah blah. As the name implies, this site targets a pretty strictly defined audience: bibliophiles. It’s a tool for book lovers to share their passion with their bookwormy peers — you can rate and review books and read through your friends rants or recommendations.
At the time, I wasn’t interested in adding yet another social networking site to my repertoire. Now that Facebook has a Goodreads app, I’m coming around. The app’s actions within Facebook are somewhat limited (Facebook directs you back to the Goodreads site to do anything more than rating a book), but it keeps my virtual bookshelves handy, and I secretly hope it guilts my friends into joining it too.
Current known competitors: Shelfari (I’ve heard the navigation isn’t up to snuff), Revish (which looks to be more text and less visuals), and LibraryThing (still in beta but doesn’t look bad).
I’m planning on using it to stay in touch with book group members while we’re all off reading the book of the month.
“There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.” - Bertrand Russell
(Note to Austin — I think any one who reads Ulysses reads it for the latter reason…am I wrong? )
Cursed with a little bit of free time this weekend, a need for a break from coding, and no desire to go out, I went to Borders on Saturday night to buy a book on Java (the incomparable Thinking in Java), since I discovered after a few hours of coding it on Friday that I’ve gotten a bit rusty (more on that later). Somehow, I ended up with all four “Revenge of the Nerds” movies, bundled to sell at $19.99. The original is a favorite of mine, but I hadn’t seen the other three, so I figured, why not? Then I watched them all in a row. Read the rest of this entry »
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