Dru Nelson

What a difference another finger makes. Prior to 2005(?), almost all consumer touch-based UI systems used a single finger or pointing device. The multi-touch revolution is just starting. Very cool stuff.

Perceptive Pixel Demo

(credit to unmarshall for the link)

I was checking out this new web site by these guys called 280 North. Essentially, they built a web version of Keynote and they are calling it 280Slides. It looks really slick/nice and they did a great job with the UI.

Out of curiosity, I called up Firebug to see what Javascript framework was used. I was quite surprised to find a lot of requests for ‘.j’ files. It turns out that these guys loved Objective-C so much that they wrote their app in a form of Objective-C which I am assuming is translated to Javascript.

Very Cool!

Here is a sample of some of their ‘.j’ files:

http://280slides.com/Editor/1212695713/DocumentController.j

http://280slides.com/Editor/1212695713/main.j

Malapropism

I was reading an article about the economy, and they were discussing the current ‘speak’ from the top talking heads (the major banks and the fed). The writer brought in the old quote from Yogi Berra… “it ain’t over till it’s over’.

This reference led me to research Mr. Berra on Wikipedia. He is quite a figure, and still with us. They had his famous quotes on there, which are gems. For some reason, though, I thought he was more prolific, but there were only 5 or 6 ‘famous quotes’ listed.

So why malapropism? Well, it is because it was stated that Mr. Berra “has a tendency for malapropism.”

There you go.

Nice design

(which reminds me, I need to redo this site sometime soon)

About a week and a half ago, I had a bike commute issue. I got a flat tire on my rear tire before I arrived at the train. I didn’t have a spare. I didn’t have any tools. I had just enough time to walk the bike to the train.

After I was on my way, I started wondering about how much it would cost to fix the tire. I remembered that there was a bike shop at the station, but I was dreading going there. Typically, bike shops eat you alive with the service cost on a bike like mine. Most bike shops tend to get really snotty about commuters and their non-high end rides. A typical repair of a tire would cost $50. Compare this to the cost of my bike: $15. Compare this to the cost of fixing my Honda Pilot’s tire: $0.

Well, I walked into the shop when I arrived in San Francisco, and I was prepared for the worst. I had no other options.

Wow!

The guy showed me the rates. $10 to fix a flat AND I could leave the bike there and pick it up later! Why is it strange to be surprised about that? One of their products is bike storage, and I thought they might need a fee for that. None. IN FACT, they don’t charge for bike storage AT ALL (for 2 days of storage!!). I did a double take… I thought that was their business. This is no ordinary bike shop/facility!

Oh yeah, and they were nice people too! No issues or attitudes. I told them about the crowding on Caltrain in the bike car, and the guy was completely sympathetic. He told me that Caltrain is under a lot of stress and it is only getting worse. Very easy going.

Now imagine getting a flat in your car or breaking down on the highway and the Pro-Bono Towing Service came by and just helped you out for $10 instead of the normal $125 hit. (Imagine if Health Care in this country was this way… supported by a caring community!)

Anyways, I took the MUNI to work. I came back by around 6:00 PM. The bike was fixed. They adjusted the rear brake perfectly (bonus!). They capped some of my frayed, uncapped cables (bonus!). Wow!!

I was saved by Warm Planet Bikes at the 4th and King Caltrain Station. They rock, they are great, they are fantastic!

Also, I’m going to join the SF Bicycle Coalition. They helped make this happen, I want to support their efforts to help all bike riders.

He understands my old pain…

Real-life use case: let’s say you’re a programmer who writes in C++. You will, of course, spend most of your working day playing Solitaire and reading reddit, because C++ is too goddamned stupid to do anything but gigantic, slow batch compiles of the entire dependency universe.

Yegge on OS X – Focus Follow Mouse

JT Herman Plaza 3

Originally uploaded by drudru

Photo 3 – a portion of the Tibet protest, China support for the Olympic Torch

JT Herman Plaza 2

Originally uploaded by drudru

Photo 2 – a portion of the Tibet protest, China support for the Olympic Torch