"New Plan" written by Jim on estrip.org

Category: work

10/29/07 02:09 - 50ºF - ID#41861

New Plan

So, this is what I'm discovering I should do: if my clients don't buy a support contract, then they don't get support.

Right now I get called all the time and people expect me to drop everything for them, but I can't handle half a dozen clients needing fixes every week and still get my new projects done which pay my bills. Plus there's 3 or 4 days a week that I can't do anything at all for them during the day (on-site work somewhere else), so I have to sacrifice my evenings for free.

I should have got an MBA instead of learning how to program, because all the business stuff is hard to manage then the coding. Or maybe I just need a secretary, an accountant, a sales team, and a designer. And as I was telling Paul, a Xanax prescription.

Permalink: New_Plan.html
Words: 141
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: estrip

10/28/07 07:49 - 46ºF - ID#41850

Party

So, I really am craving pumpkin seeds after last night. I need to find more pumpkins to ~~carve~~ gut out. I had a great time otherwise too! It was good to see all of you :) I forgot to bring my camera though, so I have nothing much to post.

I'll be setting up a November (e:strip) dinner or some such thing in a couple weeks, trying to get it earlier in the month so as not to be too close to Thanksgiving. How would you all feel about a pot-luck at 24 Linwood? If the boys there would be willing, that is. Not such a drunken all night affair as last night, but dinner and conversation and slightly less scandal.

carolinian writes at 09:59:56 10/28/07 - Comment #27105: My birthday's on the 17th, if some random excuse for a party is needed.

mrmike writes at 09:42:44 10/28/07 - Comment #27102: Jim, I'd be down with that

drew writes at 09:11:47 10/28/07 - Comment #27096: I have already sung the praises of Google's set of stuff, including presentations.

tinypliny writes at 09:08:38 10/28/07 - Comment #27095: I admit I have correction fluid OCD. That phrase should read: MS wields its POWER to hold you at gunPOINT

tinypliny writes at 09:05:59 10/28/07 - Comment #27094: It drives me crazy that macsters have such cool options, and yet converting to mac is like facing a desert with a few oases of software development.

Powerpoint is more like MS wields it POWER to hold you are gunPOINT. :/ It's detestably clunky, only its newest versions have soft shadows, its animations don't work across different versions. It's hideously out-of-sync with OpenOffice Impress.

I need to give so many presentations in the future, I don't think I deserve this constant wrestling in the mud with clunky monolithic software. So as I was telling you, I am trying to move to Dave Raggett's Slidy :::link:::(1) or perhaps, Operashow, since Opera is my favourite browser. :::link:::

But I fear that my presentation venues might not even have heard of Opera and using HTML for slides might be perceived as uncool. I don't know. I am confused. I don't have the means or the willpower to become a macster overnight, but I don't want to continue with the tyranny of Gunpoint. :(

drew writes at 08:46:04 10/28/07 - Comment #27086: (e:janelle) and I love potluck

jenks writes at 08:40:18 10/28/07 - Comment #27084: I will come only if there is promise of MORE scandal, not less. I needs me some new drama!

jim writes at 08:16:37 10/28/07 - Comment #27078: I've been thinking about your question last night, and unfortunately haven't come up with anything. I have used Keynote just a couple times, and Powerpoint never. I really don't give many presentations. I wish I could help you escape from Powerpoint!

tinypliny writes at 08:14:56 10/28/07 - Comment #27077: Oh, and since even stalkers need to apologize at times, I need to apologize for hounding you with arcane questions when I could clearly see that you were tired! Sorry!! I didn't mean to be so pesky! I just thought the knowledge might be transferred to me via osmosis rather than speech. ;)

james writes at 08:13:49 10/28/07 - Comment #27076: oh, I will bring a dish to the potluck. But I am also bringing a scandal casserole!

tinypliny writes at 08:10:33 10/28/07 - Comment #27074: I missed the pumpkin seeds. :(( Don't you have any left for your No. #1 stalker??!

Would the potluck be a weekday or a weekend? If its a weekend, maybe I can cook on the premises <tiny>(and make another attempt at taking over the gorgeous kitchen)</tiny>. Hehehe

paul writes at 07:53:06 10/28/07 - Comment #27072: That sounds good to us.

Permalink: Party.html
Words: 120
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/27/07 06:02 - 54ºF - ID#41841

Traffic

This is the graph of the traffic for my Ruby blog. It's headed in a gratifying direction :) It makes writing for it a lot of fun knowing that I'm helping other people.

Permalink: Traffic.html
Words: 34
Location: Buffalo, NY

10/26/07 11:49 - 56ºF - ID#41826

E:Strip Chat Client

Only in Mac OS X Leopard.

Permalink: E_Strip_Chat_Client.html
Words: 8
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: ruby

10/25/07 04:57 - 60ºF - ID#41800

WNY Ruby User Group

So, I've agreed to help plan the WNY Ruby meet-ups. This will be in addition to the monthly estrip night outs that I've been setting up, and the monthly photo meet-ups that I run.

I just need to find a way to either: combine them all into one event, or start a social event planning business :)

Anyone out there who's interested in Ruby let me know if you want to join up with the user group.

Permalink: WNY_Ruby_User_Group.html
Words: 76
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: estrip

10/25/07 03:11 - 58ºF - ID#41798

HAAALLLOWWEEEN

Hey, if you're coming at 8pm (instead of being fashionably late) to the (e:strip) party and want to carve pumpkins with Matthew and I, bring one if you can, but if not let me know and I'll snag a few extra that night otherwise.

I'll pick up some lights to use in them, so don't worry about candles or the like.

Permalink: HAAALLLOWWEEEN.html
Words: 62
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: me

10/23/07 07:44 - 50ºF - ID#41766

40,000 Views

Do I get balloons?

Permalink: 40_000_Views.html
Words: 4
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: programming

10/22/07 11:48 - 66ºF - ID#41757

RSpec with Autotest

(You can totally skip reading this journal, I am writing this for me and my happiness.)

This is the best thing ever. I am so glad that I took the time to look at this a few weeks ago after sort of putting it off for the last six months. I won't bore you all with the details (that's what (e:james) is around for), but I found a super awesome new tool for testing programs, I can't believe I didn't check it out six months ago when I first heard about it. (rspec)

Basically, instead of unit tests you write a live spec, that is continuously run as you code that notifies you of the status of all your tests open each save of a file. So now I don't even have to run my tests anymore, the freakin computer does it for me, and pops up a discrete message in the corner of the screen letting me know what's going on.

Happy tests:

Sad tests:

And writing tests with the new tool is also so much cleaner and nicer.

Old way (just random made up examples):

def test_something
  File.open("/tmp/file", 'W') do |f|
    f << test_data
  end 
  assert_equal "/tmp/file", Retrieve.file, "Should have found it!"
end

New way:

it "should find file path" do
  Retrieve.file.should equal("/tmp/file")
end

But, that is a bad example because it doesn't show all the mocking, like:

Retrieve.file("config") # => can not find
Retrieve.stub!(:file).expects("config").and_returns("/tmp/file")
Retrieve.file("config") # => "/tmp/file"

So that you can completely decouple all your tested classes from each other and external output, thus only testing very specific pieces of logic, and making testing ten times easier because you never have to set up infrastructure for it to work.

You can also just have empty tests, which act like a todo list - they show up when the tests run as pending, so it also acts like a roadmap.

Permalink: RSpec_with_Autotest.html
Words: 350
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: halloween

10/21/07 08:41 - 69ºF - ID#41739

Pumpkins

I love Halloween, mostly for the pumpkins, the pumkin carving, and the pumpkin-seed eating. (e:James) and I went and bought pumpkins today, yay!!!

Also I think I will be dressing up for the Halloween party as either a leopard (in honor of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) or else Speed Racer. I'll have to see which I can scramble to put together this week.

Finding a blue helmet might be harder then finding spots.