Technical Thoughts
Hello World
Writng my first post from WordPress iPhone app.
The internet has evolved once more.
I lost… Fare & Square
This is one of these moments…
A bitter taste and a hard time getting through.
I was just beaten, Fare & Square, on the finish line, building a small web app.
Here is how it started.
Like many I was first confused when I heard about Twitter, a few months ago.
Some kind of broadcasted one-way IM, 140 characters limited.
I didn’t [...]
New Wordpress Is Great
The previous post was the first since Wordpress 2.5 upgrade.
It’s really cool. The work on the admin part is huge.
I particularly love the shift-return to make a new <p />, the embedded tag management, and all the DHTML nifty effects.
Cool !
We Want PHP!
Google App Engine will be big.
Lots of people are talking about it. There was this thing about HuddleChat, the rip-off of 37’s CampFire…
But beyond all that, it doesn’t take much foresight to guess it’s gonna be big.
They said it at launch, it will be language independant, but for now it’s Python only.
Here is a petition to make it [...]
Getting apache2 to serve eRuby files on MacOSX 10.5
Like many web developer, I heard of Ruby via Rails.
Rails make wonders. That’s true.
But it fits a really particular type of development. Application-oriented developments.
So Rails is not really for me (yet), but what of Ruby ?
Digging a little, reading about a lot, using prototype (rubyesque JS library), Ruby seems a really good choice for web [...]
Obviously bigger
I like how the new proto theme for Firefox Mac makes the back button much bigger than the Forward one.
Obvioulsy the Back button is used so many times more…
Certainly nothing new here.
But the point is this :
There are so many things we don’t question any more…
Always challenge established concepts !
- Why did you do it [...]
Dot Fruux
One of the creators defines it as social and sync.
You can sync your Mac Adress Book (OK, but what else ?), and it will be able to keep your contacts up to date, provided your contacts aslo use it.
More info on that feature here.
It’s still in Beta (beta like in not ready to ship, not like in google’s beta) so it lacks most of the features, but it surely is promising.
I’m curently beta testing. It does one thing for now : syncing. But it does it well and that’s all I’m asking - for now.
Simple ? Make it simpler.
I love my new microwave oven.
You just can’t make any simpler.
2 rotating knobs. That’s all !
One for power setting, the other for timing.
Nothing else, not even a start button.
And that’s the beauty. Once you set the timer, it goes off by itself, 1 second later.
The same goes for every thnig designed.
Be it a graphic design, [...]
That’s a lot of NO
NO external drive,
NO FireWire,
NO Ethernet,
NO PC Card.
That’s the price of AIR.
(That and $1799…)
That’s a lot of NOs comapred to what we’re used to, compared to what we expect (plenty of yes and more).
BUT (that’s one big but !) as any Apple product : wait to hold one in your hands before you judge,
AND try [...]
No more excuses
What was a tedious concept is now an easy-to-configure device
We said it again and again and again:
BACK UP YOUR DATA !
How can you justify loosing 4 years of photo in a snap ?…
Photos of Xmas, photos of the kid’s bday, photos of the other kid’s graduation…
I, for myself, couldn’t live with that (or should I [...]
The Problem With Social Networks (As If There Was Only One…)
The Problem With Social Networks:
Multiple personalities.
All of us - as human beings - have many aspects. We come in many flavors. That’s what makes human interactions so complex and interesting.
There is a Working-You, a Family-You, a Friendly-You…
More than that, for each one of these You there are different versions.
At work, you don’t behave the same [...]
Why you wanna make great products
The other day I remembered I wanted to buy an album.
I usually use one of two sites : Amazon and Fnac.com (La Fnac is a big french store chain).
“Great” I think to myself, “I have a few minutes, let’s pop Safari up”.
And then came THE CHOICE.
The fragment of second where you decide who you’re gonna [...]
Mr Anybody’s Computer
Let me introduce you to the Anybodys.
Mr and Mrs Anybody are just that : anybody.
They live in a random so-called modern country, have a decent monthly revenue but not more, and they pass through life influenced mostly by media and assimilated.
(And they are not to be confused with my mother).
Of course, Mr. Anybody has a [...]
One TLD to rule them all…
(TLD : Top-Domain Level as in .com, .fr or .org)
If you have to buy a domain name in the future, don’t waste any time wondering, you want a .com.
First, when was the last time you typed http:// ?
Yep, that long…
Then, try and get rid of the www..
If you spend just a few minutes a day [...]
Second Thoughts
Since my post The best of both world a few things happened.
First, time went by… A lot of it.
Also, I read 2.5 books on Ruby and Rails.
But then I stopped.
The fact is, I can’t practice enough.
Web development is still a “hobby+” and I can only devote so much time to it. But further than [...]
The best of both worlds
Though I don't see myself as a programer, I still do program and learn programing a lot.
I evolve in the LAMP sphere (or should I say MAMP…), and I really dig PHP. It's simple, has a really wide community (even became mainstream according to O'Reilly) and allow quick-and-dirty scripting as well as well-planned-and-thorough coding. I [...]
The Thing with Apple
Ironic: we’re getting used to being amazed by Apple technologies and designs.
But everybody seems to miss one of the true genius part of their designs : Evolution.
Every time they upgrade a product, the previous one seems ugly and old, and the new one sexy.
They change very little things, but it changes everything.
If - as I [...]
My mother should be able to do it
I’m not a software developer. I’m not even what one can call a web developer.
But I use softwares a lot. And I’ve been using them for 20 years now.
So far, you’ll tell me, nothing remarkable.
But for the past 10 years, as an IT manager, I’ve been helping and watching average people using computers.
And that is [...]
A few facts about this site
So, let’s introduce ourselves.
I’m young weblog –just a little over a year.
I’m hosted at Media Temple, a cosy-techy condo, not the cheapest, but as usual, you only get what you pay for…
The engine under the hood is WordPress. There’s nothing better right now. Myriads of plug-in, tons of themes…
The theme I use (as of the [...]