multi-monitor setup
I have something in common with Bill Gates and Larry Page: Larry Page: I have a weird setup in my office. I have one computer with three monitors: one flat-screen monitor and two regular ones. I have my browser on one screen, my schedule on another and my e-mail on
software development concepts
Anil Dash and I have the same job title: evangelist. I share Anil's reservations about his job title, too: You see, these days my business cards describe me as "Chief Evangelist". On the plus side, it's the first time in the history of the
gifts
As a technology enthusiast with a bad impulse purchase habit, I'm unrepentantly difficult to buy gifts for. The way I figure it, the only reason to grow up is so you can afford to buy yourself all the crap your parents wouldn't buy you when you
software development
I'm a Windows user, and I'm out to prove Wil Shipley wrong: Mac users love their machines; Windows users put up with their machines because they don't believe there's anything really better. I love the Mac user base because they tend to
technology trends
I have a great deal of respect for Apple's iPod juggernaut [http://daringfireball.net/2006/03/ipod_juggernaut]. They've almost single-handedly legitimized the market for downloadable music. The kind you pay for. The kind that, at least in theory, supports the artists who produce the music
user experience
In my opinion, the new Office 2007 user interface is one of the most innovative things to come out of Redmond in years. It's nothing less than the death of the main menu as a keystone GUI metaphor. This is a big deal. Historically, where Office goes, everyone
screencasting
If a picture is worth a thousand words, is a single screencast equal to a thousand word blog post? There's a lot to be said for lightweight, embedded screencasts. I'm particularly fond of animated GIF screencasts for small demonstrations. You can see examples in these posts:
history
I read Robert X Cringley's book Accidental Empires [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0887308554/codihorr-20] shortly after it was published in 1992. It's a gripping worm's eye view of Silicon Valley's formative years. It's also Doc Searls'
programming languages
Ian Landsman's 10 tips for moving from programmer to entrepreneur [https://web.archive.org/web/20070306071950/http://www.userscape.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/10_tips_for_moving_from_programmer_to_entrepreneur/] is excellent advice. Even if you have no intention of becoming an entrepreneur. > One
software development concepts
We have a tendency to fetishize audience metrics in the IT industry. Presenters stress out about about their feedback ratings and measure themselves by how many attendees they can attract for a presentation. Bloggers obsessively track their backlinks, pagerank, and traffic numbers. I see it a lot, and it'
agile
We've adopted Scrum for all of our software development at Vertigo. Although I'm totally in favor of Anything But Waterfall, Scrum is an unfortunate name: 1. It's two additional characters away from a term for male genitalia. 2. The term is derived from rugby,
storage
I recently upgraded my home system with one of the 750 gigabyte Seagate perpendicular drives [http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/recording_head/pr/PerpendicularAnimation.html] in order to consolidate a number of hard drives I had on my server. 750 gigabytes is a tremendous amount of storage space in