Fall Cleaning

I finally switched my main browser from Firefox to Safari recently. Instead of dealing with lag and memory leak central, now I’m experiencing clean UI and a fast lightweight browsing experience. When I want to do web dev and design I’ll open up Firefox for the powerful Web Dev and Firebug tools, but when I’m not developing why deal with the hassle of Firefox? I don’t mind ads (I used to have adblocker), I get quick search capabilities with keywurl, and I won’t mind missing bookmark syncing for now; but I’m pretty sure the are other options which works as well as the Google Browser Sync.

Since I moved browsers so easily, it also got me thinking that I should switch my RSS reader (which is a big step because check my RSS feeds so frequently). I used to use bloglines which was web-based and clunky, but I preferred it over Google Reader. So finally taking a suggestion from Holland I’ve since then switched to the fantastic NetNewsWire. I used to have qualms about a desktop RSS reader, but now I can’t go back. Not only is NNW fast and featuriffic, it syncs with the free iphone version of NNW and the online newsgator feed reader so I’m connected to my precious feeds wherever I go.

Now what’s left? The more technological services you subscribe to, the easier it is to become disorganized and tangled up mess. So hopefully I can continue my crusade to finally organize my tech life:

• Consolidate my e-mail. Currently I have gmail, yahoo, UCR, and CS@UCR e-mail accounts that I just need to all check under one address instead of stupidly checking each one individually.
• Setup a media and backup server. I have a desktop sitting right next to my LCD HDTV which I could either hook up directly to the tv, or setup a media share with my xbox360 to play my media files on my tv instead of my 15″ Macbook Pro because of laziness. I also need to either setup a RAID1 server or buy Time Capsule to make sure I never cry over important lost data ever again. Perhaps even setup a script to automate backups to online servers for the *really* important stuff.
• Put my website back up. I have xtine.net and plenty of ideas to implement it in Django, but I never just sat down and did it. However now I’m also waiting on Django to become a complete supported container through MediaTemple before I transfer my main web presence there. Then once I have my website up I can finally put up a portfolio, along with confidence to work on other online projects I have kicking around.
• I need to organize and sort all my photographs (which is easy to do), and start archiving on backup server that I mentioned above, and uploading a lot of onto flickr once I upgrade my account. Then no more pains of losing photos forever, and finally getting around to regularly updating an online photo journal.

Which now leads me to wondering if I can even get this all done by the end of the year given all the potential mountains of data movement hassle?

SXSWi, here I come!

I’ve envied people that got to rub shoulders and schmooze with most of the web 2.0 community — the designers, developers, bloggers, basically internet geek celebrities. I’ve wanted to attend SXSW for years and now is the year I finally go and I’m anticipating it like mad. Got registration confirmed, put in days off from work, booked the flight. Time to rock out in Austin, March 7-11.

MF Re-Write

Still trying to find the time and right state of mind to write my new site and attached blog under Django. Maybe then I’d actually blog more?

Haven’t lost the touch

I decided to redesign the ACMServer site in the morning at around 10am, and in between classes and after the ACM meeting, I successfully completed the overall design, back coding, and page content by 3am. Granted it’s a very small and simple site, it was a relief getting back into web stuff. The skills were in dormancy, and I’ve finally awoken them for the time being.

Rails, I hardly knew you

Move over Rails, I may be moving over to Django.

This most likely means the end of WordPress once I actually get rolling on Kuriero (migrating MaximumFerocity into the blog section), which is most undoubtedly a good thing. WP is an easy solution for a blog, but just a blog. The time you spend hacking to extend features beyond blogging, is better spent on your own framework.

Late to the ‘casting call

So after all these years, I finally got around to actually downloading and listening to podcasts. I don’t even know why I never even tried it before, there was just never a compelling reason enough I suppose. But now that I’m actually finally aboard the (late) bandwagon, it’s pretty cool. I found this “old” technology, and I’m experiencing like it’s something brand new.

Listening to podcasts is pretty nifty to do while I’m playing Tetris or leaving it on while I putter around my apartment. It’s like talk radio, except in subjects I’m actually interested in. Imagine that. I think I had the same revelation when I figured out that I could just listen to my favorite radio stations online in better quality, as well as showing you information about the song that’s being played. Sometimes I’m just late to the game like that, which is interesting as music and tech savvy as I lead myself to be.

All Aboard Rails

I recently started up a Ruby On Rails project with Jeff, and it’s been an interesting learning process. RoR really makes web development easier and fast to prototype, but there are many little nuances in understanding how Ruby works with Rails.
The MVC (model view controller) scheme makes it easy to separate work between the backend and frontend, and scaffolding (instant creation of basic html template wrapper) is just so awesome.
The most frustrating thing has been dealing with the lack of good documentation. Sometimes docs are really difficult to understand, are incomplete, or even missing (blank pages or missing links). Despite doc annoyances, it is really an innovative and impressive framework. There is less code to type though more to understand.

There’s Hope Yet

After being a bit inspired by a few “pro-bloggers” (read kottke and dooce), hopefully I’ll be bitten by the design bug soon enough. Although it is one of my dream goals to be able to to produce cynical, rational, yet witty banter on a semi-regular basis, I’m not sure if that is something I can obtain just by reading someone else’s ‘yet witty’ banter and hoping I can somehow pretend to do so in my own blog.

Here’s to hoping I set a new motion into gear. The gear being a new fresh design, and that semi-regular witty blogging thing.

On Campus Booksale

Today UCR had a booksale going on next to the bookstore, so I looked around and found some great deals.

Web Programming CD Bookshelf for only $17, Web Databases Application book for $7 (though first edition), and Web Pages That Suck for a buck. Not bad, I was quite pleased with the haul.

Perl vs. Python vs. Ruby digg quote

Perl is fastest.
Perl has the largest archive of prefab libraries.
Perl has a more intuitive grammar (for C and Unix programmers at least).
Perl is not _constricted_ by the OO paradigm.
Perl makes you feel like a big man once you understand its arcane subtlies.
Perl is wine (nuanced and aged).

Python is beer (a workin’ man’s language). If you want a job, Python is probably best to learn.

Ruby is… I don’t know. A martini. Hip. Expensive (computationally). Exclusive. Sexy.

– Ganked from this Digg article.