The SXSW Panel Picker is finally up, and y’all can go vote for our panel proposal! It’s called Career Transitions: From DIY to Working for the Man and will be a discussion about moving between different jobs, and coping mechanisms for making those transitions – from big company to small, to startup, to government and anywhere in between. If it gets accepted, you’ll get to see Jason Garber, Cindy Li, Thomas Vander Wal and me live and in person… which will be a treat.\
Go vote now or Jesus will be sad!
Author: Kevin Lawver
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SxSW Panel Pickin’ Time!
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Canadian Music Day
I’ve decided that today is my personal Canadian Music Day. I started this morning with the CBC Radio 3 Podcast, and have now moved on to The Arcade Fire. I’ll probably finish up the day with The Constantines and James’ mix cd from SxSW ’05 (not all Canadian music, but since it was compiled by a Canadian, I’m declaring it OK).\
Update: Thanks to James’ aforementioned mix cd, I’ve found some more music to fill Canadian Music Day. This afternoon will be composed of (none of which I’ve listened to yet):- Rheostatics – Night of the Shooting Stars
- The Magnetic Fields – i (oops, they’re not Canadian, but James put them on the CD!)
- Martin Tielli – We Didn’t Even Suspect He Was the Poppy Salesman
- The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema\
Yes, record companies, this is what happens when you let people play music on the internet – we buy more music. I never would have purchased any of this music if not for the internet, if not for mix cd’s. Give away a little, and people will return the favor by buying a lot.
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BarCampDC: The Kid Comes Along
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by Kelly Gifford(that’s Dr. Joe talking to Max)\
Max and I went to BarCampDC this Saturday. BarCamp is an “un-conference” (no set schedule, everyone participates), and they’re held all over the world. This one was organized by Jason Garber, Jackson Wilkinson and Justin Thorp. They did a great job, and were cool with Max coming and participating.\
I spoke on Rails, did the live coding demo I’ve done at other unconferences, and helped out in the portable social networking session.\
Here are some links related to those sessions:- Ficlets, Rails and OpenID – I used this presentation during the intro to show off some of what Rails can do (also has some good OpenID info).
- Tapping the Portable Social Network – Explains some of the concepts behind the prototype I put together, and
- Portable Social Networks – The blog post that explains the prototype and presents the flow (and has a link to download the app).
- Brian Oberkirch’s Portable Social Networking Post
- Jeremy Kieth on Portable Social Networks – The post that started me thinking about how to solve it.
- The International Day of Awesomeness – Because I “sponsored” (on accident, I swear), I got to speak before one of the sessions. Of course, I spoke about The International Day of Awesomeness.\
Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Max! When I originally asked Max if he wanted to go to BarCamp with me, I wasn’t sure he’d want to go. We talked about it a couple times on the way to summer camp and the more he found out about it, the more excited he got. I was excited for him to see me give a presentation and see what it is that I do when I travel. He had a great time. Everyone was really great with him. He was so excited to talk about Scratch and Hackety Hack and to learn from everyone. He was by far the youngest attendee there (I mean, Jason only looks 15). He was insanely well-behaved, and other than him clicking markers together a couple times or tearing paper, he was as well-behaved as any of the adults. He zoned out a little bit in the afternoon, but I think most people did.\
On the way home, we talked a lot about what he thought of the day. Even after almost twelve hours of non-stop geekdom (we left the house at 7:30AM and this was at about 7PM), he was asking when the next BarCamp was going to be (in the last twenty-four hours, he’s asked me when the next one is about ten times), and asking me if I’d help him do a presentation on animation and using Hackety Hack.\
Thank you to everyone who sponsored BarCamp, helped organize things, presented, and talked to Max during the day. I can’t tell you how cool it was to watch him talking to people and share his passion. It was great to share that with him, and to see him get out there. He said afterwards that he was a little shy in the morning, but that everyone was really nice. Max is an interesting kid, and I love seeing him learn and discover new things – and I love being able to share the things I’m passionate about with him.
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The National Day of Awesomeness
These things always start as a joke. Fortunately, I am someone who always takes the joke too far. So, here we are, with The National Day of Awesomeness. You’ll have to go to the site to read up on the holiday, what it is, when, and why you should join the probably three or four other people who will celebrate this special day (for which I’m sure someone will produce greeting cards in the very near future) early next year.\
This is no longer a joke. This is serious. Well, as serious as a day dedicated to being awesome can be, that happens to occur on Chuck Norris’ birthday, and organized by a complete idiot… Yeah, it’s that serious. -
Art in Social Networking Video
After our Art in Social Networks session at Mashup Camp, someone asked if Greg and I to recap the session. There is a lot more info on the wiki, and Myk O’Leary recorded the whole thing and posted it as well if you’re interested.
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circaVie
It looks like we’re on to something here… first, we launched ficlets. Now, Dave McVicar and crew have launched circaVie. It’s a cool site for building timelines of pretty much anything. There was a bit of overlap in the ficlets and circaVie crew. Jason Garber did most of the markup before he scampered off to join his startup. Jenna Marino, who designed the gorgeous ficlets logo, did UI design for circaVie. Ari Kushimoto, who did a lot of ficlets’ UI, was circaVie’s art director.\
I love seeing things launch, especially stuff as beautiful as circaVie. It’s an amazing piece of design and engineering. The site is gorgeous (I would say “lickable”, but that’s gotten me in trouble before – not doing it, just saying it, so I’m not saying it). The Flash stuff feels perfectly integrated and the interaction is really smooth. Jayna Wallace was the visual designer and did an amazing job. Corey Lucier did the flash work. Kelly Gifford jumped in and took over the markup when Jason left. Plus, it’s all on Rails!\
Update: AUGH! Dan reminded me in the comments that I left him out, and I certainly shouldn’t have. Dan Bradley is the operations guy for both ficlets and circaVie, and I’ve worked with him for at least the last five years (probably closer to seven), and he’s one of the best there is. He helped a ton getting ficlets out the door, and I’m sure he’s done the same for circaVie.\
You really should go check it out. The team worked really hard on it, and it shows.\
See also: Kelly’s blog post, Mashable and Somewhat Frank. -
Portable Social Networks at Mashup Camp
I’m doing a presentation today at Mashup University that I’ve titled Tapping the Portable Social Network that’s a code tour of how to create a social network that uses existing social connections and public data to make the sign up process for web sites easier. Of course, this whole idea came from Jeremy Keith.\
It’s a very simple Rails app (that you can download) that only deals with the login/signup process using both OpenID and AOL’s OpenAuth.\
Here are the basics…\
If you log in with OpenID, it:- grabs the identity URL, and looks for some microformats
- looks for an hcard and pre-fllls the profile
- looks for XFN-encoded links and searches the site for existing users with that homepage and gives you the option to add them as contacts when you sign up.\
If you log in with OpenAuth, it: - pre-fills your profile with URLs and data we think we know based on your screen name.
- grabs your buddy list and looks for folks who logged in with those screennames on the site and gives you the option to add them as contacts.\
It’s dead simple and poorly documented, but works well so far, and I think the flow makes sense and has possibilities. You’re welcome to take it, the concept, the code, and do whatever you want with it.\
The next step is to see what other open reliable sources of social data are out there that would make sense to look for during the sign up process.\
UPDATE: Read the README file! There are several things you need to change in both the configuration, and one line in profile.js. The README documents all of the required changes and where to find them.
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A Happy Post About Rock n’ Roll
I listen to music almost all day every day during work. If I’m at my desk, I’ve got my headphones on, and I’m listening to something. My pared down library (I backed up a bunch of stuff I never listen to) in iTunes is over twenty-five gigabytes.\
I’m no music critic, but I know what I like, and I like a lot of different weird stuff. I go on binges, listening to a band’s entire catalog for a week, a month, sometimes longer (my Massive Attack and Morphine binges lasted years). Right now, I’m in love with The Constantines. It’s funny, I’ve been gobbling up Canadian alternative rock since discovering the CBC Radio3 podcast. The Constantines are only the latest victim in my Canuck buying binge (I like to think of them as Morphine on 78 with a guitar player instead of a saxophone – the bass is that good).\
When you hear the band for the first time, it’s easy to get lost in the feedback, gravel-voiced garage rock of it all. But, after a couple listens, the layers start coming out. Their lyrics, even on the balls-out rockers, are intricate poems of love, loss and depression. The bass player is amazing (and it sounds fantastic through headphones). Sometimes, I listen just to pick out the bass line.\
If you’d like a sample of their stuff, I highly recommend:- St. You, Soon Enough and On to You: Their slower stuff is gorgeous. The guitar is still there, but the lyrics and melody are awe-inspiring.
- Working Full-Time: This song kicks all the asses in Canada – at the same time. I love how the intro builds on the simple snare and guitar riff into a smashing crescendo of ass-kicking rock goodness. And then when the bass comes in… you’ll get chills.
- Poison: Fantastic bass line in this song. Your head will bob along like hula doll on a gravel road. Not a barn burner, but that bass line keeps me coming back for more.
- The Long Distance Four: There’s a lovely harmony between the guitar and bass in this song that shows up in several other numbers, but I really like this one (Justice is another good one).\
I need to get back to work, but I’ve posted too many consecutive bummer posts… so I had to post something resembling happy – and music certainly makes me happy.
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Not Working? Let’s Change the Name!
The White House is going to retool the Iraq mission. If you read the article carefully, they’re not actually going to change anything except they’re going to rebrand it.\
Yes, people, this is what we’ve come to. June was the bloodiest month in Iraq since the beginning of the war, the Iraqi government and military have met none of their benchmarks, and the White House is embarking on a rebranding effort. It only proves they have no idea what they’re doing.\
We’re not going to buy it, Mr. Bush. We don’t believe you or anyone who works for you anymore. You’ve proven yourself to be a liar, and by association, everyone who works for you is tainted by your dishonesty (or, hired by you because of their talents for dishonesty). You’ve failed every test put before you as Commander in Chief. Why the hell should we trust you now?\
It’s time for Congress to do their jobs and get us out of this thing. Senator Webb’s amendment to force the military to keep active duty soldiers at home for at least as long as their deployment is a good start in actually supporting our troops (three times as long for guard and reserve troops), but it’s time to do more. The surge isn’t work and isn’t going to – not because there’s anything wrong with the troops or even with the military other than they’re being stretched too thing. It’s not working because the orders from the civilian leadership in the White House are wrong, have always been wrong, and show no signs of improving. -
The 4th of July for a Slave
I read this yesterday and it’s one of the most eloquent and damning speeches I’ve ever read. I can only imagine what it would have been like to hear Frederick Douglass give it in person. You should read the whole thing, but here’s my favorite paragraph:\
bq. What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour.