Spoken

Marketing time: A contractor that prides himself on finishing every single job on the day it’s due, regardless of what it takes, is telling a powerful story, doing marketing that’s actually cheaper and more effective than advertising ever could be. [So true! Further, it ensures that you do not accept projects that you won’t care enough about to ensure that they are complete on time. There will always be issues around resources, scoping, less than clearly defined goals etc. So if you wish to live by this story, you have to be prepared to dig deep on each project. It is the sort of constraint that increases joy.]
Source: Seth’s Blog

Flex:Open Source - Adobe Labs: On April 26, Adobe announced strategic plans to move the development of Flex to an open source model. [A zig? Or a zag?]

Joel: stick with Windows XP: It is extremely frustrating how much you have to run in place just to keep where you were before with Microsoft’s products, where every recent release requires hacks, workarounds, and patches just to get to where you were before. I have started recommending to my friends that they stick with Windows XP, even on new computers, because the few new features on Vista just don’t justify the compatibility problems. [Join the crowd…]
Source: Joel on Software

Hackety Hack: An Amazing Ruby Environment for Beginners: Why The Lucky Stiff is set to guarantee himself a place in the Programming Hall of Fame with his new project, Hackety Hack, an uber-simple programming environment for kids, beginners, and amateur coders. It attempts to resolve a problem brought up in an old article of why’s, “The Little Coder’s Predicament”, which lamented the ability for kids to quickly get coding on modern platforms, unlike in the Commodore 64 days. [Lovely.]
Source: Ruby Inside

Thoughts about large Cocoa projects: I call it the Research Barrier, when an app is big enough that the developer sometimes has to do research to figure things out. (“Research” just means reading the code and following some paths of execution, sometimes running in the debugger.) [ Some interesting thoughts. I certainly agree with the notes on listeners… I came across it just yesterday.]
Source: inessential.com

Capistrano 2.0 Preview 1:

Capistrano 2.0 Preview 1 is now available for installing and testing:

gem install -s http://gems.rubyonrails.com capistrano

(It’ll show up as version 1.99.0; the 1.99.x series will be used as the preview releases for 2.0)

Note, though, that it is not entirely backwards compatible with Capistrano 1.x, so you may need to massage your recipes a little to make them work smoothly under the new version. In order to make the upgrade process as smooth as possible, I’ve begun compiling a few documents to point out new features, gotchas, and upgrade paths:

http://www.capify.org/upgrade

Like Capistrano 2.0, the new www.capify.org website is still a bit rough in spots, and will see more documentation appearing over the next few weeks. If you have any feedback for either Capistrano 2.0 or the website, please join us on the Capistrano mailing list and make your voice heard!

[Nice.]
Source: Riding Rails

Apple: A Romance - Buzz Andersen: As a recent article about commuting in The New Yorker put it: “There’s a simple rule of thumb: Every ten minutes of commuting results in ten per cent fewer social connections. Commuting is connected to social isolation, which causes unhappiness.”

[and the always popular]

“Second, I kept thinking back to Steve Jobs’ inspirational 2005 Stanford commencement address, and in particular the part where he talks about how he decides whether his life is on the right course: When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

[There’s plenty of opportunity for social connection on the trains if you care to try. I admit a lot of people are sleeping or walled off, but it’s not a requirement, and some have quite a bit of fun. Car commuting can be bad though. The second quote from Jobs is a great one… but my interpretation is that I try and uphold the values which are dear to me every day. And if I’m doing something that causes me to compromise on those values too many days in a row… then I need to change something. Great stuff.]