Category: work
11/30/06 10:01 - ID#37397
may you code in interesting times
Naturally I was dying of curiosity as to what constitutes creative differences these days. Answer: Zack believes 'content is king' while George is enamored with bells and whistles . Whereas the visual signal-to-noise ratio of their current site is about 60:40, the SNR of their new site [due out by the end of the year] bottoms out at around 35:65 - and that is past a critical threshold. With our better content and his better site, he believes we can rule the universe. I tend to agree.
Of course, their timing couldn't be better - we've been focusing strongly on our website lately, and we have a number of huge changes planned. Thus far, my greatest concern is one of staffing. I am the web department, and thus far any requests for more staff have been met with suggestions to hire part-time unpaid interns. This is where it gets funny: while I don't think I'll ever get actual funding for the actual website, I will bet that we can get as much funding as we need to drive certain people crazy. And if the most efficient way of getting things done right is to play personalities off each other, well - I'm not above doing that.
We shall see. We code in interesting times.
- Z
Permalink: may_you_code_in_interesting_times.html
Words: 294
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: xmas
11/24/06 04:01 - ID#37396
somewhat out of control
OK, you think, sounds (fun|lame), whatever. But you need to understand that my family is both extremely creative and extremely competitive. Entries include a 2' diameter replica of an Oreo [with the correct number of serrations], a large toucan in a cage on a stand, a foam-core laptop computer with functional cd-eject mechanism, and a replica of a meat counter at the Broadway Market -- and none of these were winners. Eventually we felt it wasn't challenging enough, so we began restricting entries to a theme - in 2004 it was "Broadway" [most entries were related to various Broadway shows, but there was also a replica of an N-R subway car as well as aforementioned meat market], and last year it was "The Pantry" [somewhat disastrous, as many people leaned on the pan-tree pun]. Dammit, (e:dragonlady7) - I thought you had photos of this stuff online.
This is the competition's ninth consecutive year running, and it was decided once again to make it more difficult. Since our festivities are being held in San Diego this year and TSA does not take kindly to unusually-disguised secrets, we will be bringing our gifts unwrapped [or having them shipped] and assembling our wrapping, Iron Chef style, in two hours on Dec 28, with only certain provided elements. The theme is "Fun & Games," but the competition will be nothing short of Intense.
And, lest you think I'm joking around, I just got finished putting the finishing touches on this year's revision of the SQL-backed gift registry web application that we use. Yes, it is strictly necessary. [We had done it by hand before, but we had to wait until everyone's list was in before we could send them out, and we ended up having to make two separate gift lists, one for each exchange.]
- Z
Permalink: somewhat_out_of_control.html
Words: 353
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: fish
11/23/06 10:04 - ID#37395
sucker and the pescado non grata
On Monday, my coworker said hey, does anyone have a fish tank? I said yeah, and she said do you want a couple fish? Just a goldfish and a catfish, not too big. They need to get off the dining room table before Thanksgiving. Sure, why not? We dubbed them the Pescado Non Grata.
I got them home yesterday, and the goldfish is as pretty as a koi but has the manners and more importantly, the size and appetite of a carp. Truly, honestly ... I have eaten fish smaller than this goldfish.
The plecostamus catfish, however, is awesome. He's kind of cute, and totally antisocial. He can swim pretty good, but mostly he just schlorps around the tank with his lips. I'll get a picture of him up soon, but here's one I found on the Internet of a similar pleco totally chowing on a vacation food brick. I guess they really like zucchini as well.
- Z
Permalink: sucker_and_the_pescado_non_grata.html
Words: 200
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: work
11/22/06 03:52 - ID#37394
marketing
Very succinct, and it sure beats all these pretentious 'The Art Of Thinking' and 'Welcome to the 21st Century' bumper stickers we've got slapped on every available surface around here.
- Z
Permalink: marketing.html
Words: 44
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: geeky
11/20/06 04:37 - 32ºF - ID#37393
nobody asked
If anybody can think of any real use for it, I'll fix it up real nice and officially put it on the site; otherwise, I'll just leave it around as a curiosity.
Also, you can get notified of our events by RSS now; there are feeds for each calendar, category, and venue in the database. I think this would be an excellent application for the wireless web, but sad to say, I've got other stuff that needs to get done first.
- Z
Permalink: nobody_asked.html
Words: 121
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: drugs
11/17/06 08:00 - 40ºF - ID#37392
foiled again
And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling legislators.
- Z
Permalink: foiled_again.html
Words: 89
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: potpourri
11/10/06 04:57 - 49ºF - ID#37391
he gets results
He gets results.
- Z
Permalink: he_gets_results.html
Words: 54
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: booze
11/08/06 11:23 - 54ºF - ID#37390
why i am proud to be latvian
Permalink: why_i_am_proud_to_be_latvian.html
Words: 9
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: geeky
11/02/06 08:04 - 33ºF - ID#37389
great minds, right?
I've been playing around with Django a lot. It's a very young framework, but as long as the developers retain tight control over the architecture, I think it's got staying power. Not very long ago I started reading up on J2EE and Jakarta Struts, and it seemed to me to be such a brilliant idea, but like anything Java, it was just way, way more complicated than it needed to be. As I read more about it I kept saying, yeah, if this were done in Python instead we could just cut that out, ... and that ... and wow, you'd actually be able to use it. Django is gunning for everything in J2EE and Struts that is useful, without all that other bullshit that's only there to circumvent Java's fascist static typing. I get the impression that Django is a lot like Ruby on Rails - except that I know Python.
Today I started poking around at the Yahoo Flash Maps API. I like it. I know this is going to offend certain people, but let's face it- AJAX+DHTML is an egregious hack based on a misbegotten API [XMLHttpRequest I'm looking at you]. I think using Flash instead is a much more elegant solution to map service in particular, and Flash's HTTP library, while a little weird, at least suggests to me that someone thought it over before they released it. Also, Yahoo offers the Boring-old-image API to their maps, which I intend to use on our fledgling mobile website. Feature request: you should be able to dump a pile of markers onto the map and ask the map to make sure they all fit. Yahoo's agreement says Non-Commercial Use Only, but as long as (e:ajay) doesn't blow me in, I think we're cool.
- Z
Permalink: great_minds_right_.html
Words: 319
Location: Buffalo, NY
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I'm all about local media, and I hope we get more of it since publishing on the internet is cheaper than paper. poor WNYmedia.net got left on the dust when Brising came out. and i definitely dig the artvoice redesign, easy to use and find content. Happy trails
Those SNR's are pretty low: 1.8dB and -2.7dB respectively.
You could not use that shit in radar applications
It look so bad when people leave error reporting on, on a production server.