Livin’ On The Edge

Posted on February 24th, 2006 in Technology by minter

I’m working on a new Rails project for ISCABBS, and had the occasion to need to use the Rails RJS templates, as described in the Rails Recipes beta book. Of course, RJS templates aren’t in Rails 1.0, so I had to run a “rake freeze_edge” to get the Edge Rails stuff. Once I did that, the RJS stuff was on. I’m impressed with it so far – it looks like an easy way to render multiple JavaScript events from a single controller.

The project itself is going well – I managed to bang out most of it last weekend. It’s probably about 80% feature complete, but pretty slow, so I need to go in and find where the slowdown is. I’m rendering a couple of partial templates and, according to the debugging information found in script/server, rendering the page is taking up nearly all of the processing time. I probably need to look into some sort of fragment caching to help that.

Still, it’s been a fun project to work on. Rails has really helped me get useful stuff running quickly.

Good Show, Old Bean

Posted on February 18th, 2006 in Improv by minter

Just got back from DSI playing a little ComedySportz.

The show, while probably not textbook “good improv,” was some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time. That’s because the players up on stage keyed in on three of the most important parts of a ComedySportz show – three parts that can fall through the cracks if you don’t pay attention – keeping the energy high, playing off the crowd, and having fun.

One moment in particular still has me grinning – Kit and Amanda were doing a Styles Replay, and one of the styles was “The Cosby Show.” In one of those great improv moments where everyone is on the same page, I (up in the booth as Mr. Voice) hit the Cosby Show theme music as soon as their replay scene started, and they wordlessly danced through the scene like the intro to The Cosby Show. Amazing.

Corey and Zach’s Hip Hop Movie Reviews were also quality – just the two of them in character playing off of each other. And Ross managed a hot (and weird) crowd – keeping their enthusiasm high while defusing some of the craziness.

Great show, great times.

Falling Apart At The Seams

Posted on February 16th, 2006 in General by minter

For the second time in probably six months, I felt this weird spot on my neck today, checked it out, and found that a stitch had worked its way to the surface of my skin. I had my last neck surgery in December 1998, so this thing has taken over seven years to pop out.

I wonder what else I’ll find in the coming years. Holly noted that if a doctor’s watch comes out of my neck, I should sell it.

Ruby Dee

Posted on February 16th, 2006 in Technology by minter

Since I’ve been doing some playing with Rails, I figured I might as well start learning the language that backs it up – Ruby. So over the course of the past couple of days, I’ve ported my Net::ISCABBS Perl module over to Ruby.

It’s pretty much done, functionality-wise, now I need to document it properly in rdoc, build a gem, and find something useful to do with it. But I’ve been impressed with the language so far. The syntax is very clean, and I feel like I’ve done pretty well with the object orientation. So it was fun to do, which is always good for a language.

I don’t think Ruby’s got the same level of module support that CPAN provides for Perl, but it might be worth me checking out for projects that might otherwise go to Perl by default.

A Mighty Rant Is Blowing

Posted on February 14th, 2006 in Politics by minter

James Robinson has written up an accurate and insightful rant on the demise of NC WISE. Check it out to find out more of the real story behind the project.

I’m debating on whether or not to write my own from-the-inside rant about how state government ran the project into the ground. There’s enough to fill a book, let me tell you.

It Doesn’t Take Long

Posted on February 14th, 2006 in General by minter

So, as I said over the weekend, we were rear-ended in a car accident on Sunday. Nothing interesting yesterday, but I came home today to find that this stack of mail had arrived:

Nearly 20 solicitations from landsharks, including a couple who sent three identical solicitations – one each to me, Holly, and the child. One even helpfully included a copy of the accident report.

It sends a shudder down my spine.

That’s It

Posted on February 12th, 2006 in General by minter

I believe the 5-minute-long flurry that just popped up will be the only snow we see this year.

Trying Day So Far

Posted on February 11th, 2006 in General by minter

We had a showing on the house today, so we piled in the car to ride around to look at neighborhoods. We were on our way back home, on Six Forks Rd., when some kid in a Toyota rear-ended us at a stoplight. Bah. His car got the worst end of it, but our minivan suffered some bumper and hatchback damage. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but waiting out in the rain for a half-hour for the cops to show up and do their thing wasn’t fun.

Then we come home to find out that, not only did the 10:30 appointment no-show, but there was another appointment at 12:30 that also no-showed.

I think it’s a sign that I need to go back to bed.

Ouch

Posted on February 8th, 2006 in Politics by minter

IBM Contract For Centralized N.C. Education System Terminated

My old project has been taken out back and shot, and the primary cause of death is government mismanagement. Sad.

Update: More info from the News and Observer.

Howard Lee, chairman of the state board, said he is confident that the state can complete the project on its own. The state would subcontract with the current software developer already involved with the project, along with such firms as SAS and Oracle.

Good luck with that.

Bankruptcy

Posted on February 7th, 2006 in General by minter

Chapter 11 of Holly’s Harry Potter fanfic is online, in which many tears are shed.

Read up!

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