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Author Archive for Phil Crissman

Flex and Rails

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on July 24, 2008
in Code
.

I’ve started to be interested in Flex, recently. This interest piqued when I saw some of the rates that were being offered for Flex developers in this area, so I suppose my interest is completely mercenary and not particularly motivated by an interest in the technology, per se. I think that I’m okay with that.

That said, it does look interesting. And, naturally, some people are using Flex front-ends for Rails applications: one good resource in particular looks to be http://flexonrails.net/.

Also interesting is Project Sprouts, which is a gem and seems to make good use of ruby and rake to automate some aspects of ActionScript, AIR, and Flex development. I’ve had no time (yet) to give it a test drive, so this is nothing more than a pointer: if it sounds interesting, give it a look.

Since I’m thinking about ActionScript, this is as good a time as any to revisit the venerable ActionScript Jabberwocky. Enjoy.

The ActionScript Jabberwocky, from http://www.turdhead.com/2004/08/16/the-actionscript-jabberwocky/

The ActionScript Jabberwocky, from http://www.turdhead.com/2004/08/16/the-actionscript-jabberwocky/

Startlingly Obvious Truism Becomes Revealed As More True Than Previously Thought

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on July 18, 2008
in Code
.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with Rails for a good three weeks straight, now. Not just evenings and “spare time”, like I might have before, but actually all day. Most of that has been front-end work, views and the like, but enough of that is tied to other parts of Rails that you definitely start to get a better picture of how it all fits together.

Hence the title, as I realize anew what everyone already knows, that you learn more by doing something than by reading about it.
Continue reading ‘Startlingly Obvious Truism Becomes Revealed As More True Than Previously Thought’

Joyent has JRuby

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on July 13, 2008
in Asides
.

So, Joyent has JRuby support. That is all.

Long Sign-Up Forms Considered Harmful

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on June 24, 2008
in www
.

Considered useless, maybe, would be a better title.

Of all the various trends that have accompanied the wide range of the “web 2.0″ school of applications, the one feature that sticks out, that I really like, is the minimalist sign-up form. Whether they call it signing up, registering, creating an account, the trend has been:

  • To ask you for less
  • To make it quicker
  • To give you options (login with OpenID, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo ID, etc.)
  • To make any further information optional

It used to be that any time you “signed up” on a new website, it seemed that you had to go through a long form, including your address (what?), telephone number (you’re calling me?), username, first name, last name, email address, password (twice), favorite color, inseam measurements, and so forth. And for awhile, because that was the norm, I think people online simply accepted that.

No more, thank God. New web applications, if they don’t accept OpenID or an existing ID from a different service, generally just ask for an email address and a password. There’s no particular reason you can’t use an email address as a User ID for many applications, so why make it another field? If you want to have the option (for privacy reasons… not a bad idea), you can always allow people to set a username after signing up. Make it simple.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but as a result, my tolerance for old school, long, multiple page, sign up forms has dipped below zero. If I visit a new service and click “sign up”, chances are I’m just considering checking it out. If click “next”, and see Yet More Fields to fill out before I’m able to get into the application/web site… I’m liable to just close that tab and forget it.

Schroedinger’s Glass

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on June 21, 2008
in Asides
.

What if we put a glass of water with water in it at exactly 0.5 ratio to the size of the glass. If we also put a person in the box and give that person a drug with a random 50% chance of turning the person into either a pessimist or an optimist, and close the box before we know the effect of the drug on the person, the I suppose the glass is both half-full and half-empty.

Yet another example of why people who don’t really study physics probably shouldn’t be allowed to talk about it.

It’s Never The Right Time To Start

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on June 20, 2008
in Startups
.

I’m about to start freelancing and contracting full-time. Or, to start bootstrapping a consulting business. Whichever way you want to look at it, it’s starting now.

I always used to say I wanted to do something like this, but was waiting for “the right time”. Does that mean this is the Right Time? I guess since I’m doing it, by default the assumption is that, Yes, it is. Still, considering the big picture, if I were inclined to be pessimistic or risk-averse, I would still probably say it’s not quite the Right Time. More credit card debt should be paid off, more money should be socked away, I should have already invested in a newer laptop for a development machine, etc., etc.

What I’m seeing now (I know this is not an original thought, bear with me), is that if I were to think in those terms just described, the “Right Time” would effectively become never.

Am I advocating throwing caution to the wind and suggesting that you can quit your job on a dime and just go start? No, I’m actually not. What I’m thinking is that the Right Time to start — your business, your startup, your freelancing — is precisely When You Can.

That seems to resolve it right there. “When You Can” leaves it completely up to you. If you are (and stay) extremely risk averse, then “when you can” may well really be “never”. If you can calculate how much risk you can handle and create some contingency plans, then “when you can” might just be closer than you think.

Just some thoughts.

Shiftspace for Firefox 3.0

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on June 17, 2008
in Code
.

I’ve been lamenting the loss of Shiftspace silently and sullenly ever since I upgraded to the beta versions of Firefox 3 last year. I really didn’t want to downgrade and wait, though, since I was experiencing a few unhappy issues with Firefox 2 on Mac OS which happily disappeared with version 3. So, I did without Shiftspace, cool though it may be.

No longer: there is a version of Shiftspace available which works with Firefox 3.0… you can find it here; you will want to click on the “release userscript” in the bottom right-ish corner.

Should I add you’ll need Greasemonkey, first? Well, I guess I have, now.

While searching for this, I happened upon an app called Lily, which is a visual programming environment written in Javascript:

Lily is a browser-based, visual programming environment that lets people create programs graphically, without writing code, by drawing connections between data, images, sounds, text and graphics. Lily’s cross-platform, free, open source and is written in JavaScript. Did we mention it’s fun?

What does it all mean? I don’t know! Isn’t “it’s fun” enough for you?

Gems On Ubuntu

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on June 12, 2008
in Asides
.

I was forewarned. Rubygems does require a slight bit of configuration on Ubuntu, it seems. That is, it worked fine once installed… but installed gems were not on the default path.

Resolving this is fairly simple; create or edit .bashrc like so:

export PATH=$PATH:/var/lib/gems/1.8/bin

Ok, you’re done. Leave your shell and log back in, or source /etc/profile.

OpenSuse 11.0 Is Coming

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on June 11, 2008
in Linux
.

OpenSuse LogoYou can preorder OpenSuse 11.0 now, but it doesn’t seem to be available for download on opensuse.org.

I would guess that the latest development version is close to what 11.0 will be, but I could be wrong.

Deleting Spam In Gmail

Published
by
Phil Crissman
on June 11, 2008
in Asides
.

Gmail: Is the alert dialog asking “Are you sure?” really necessary when I decide to delete everything in the spam folder?

Regardless that it’s full of messages from people who only seem to want to talk about my penis, difficult as it may be to believe, yes I am really sure.

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