Brilliantspark

My desktop became a little more cluttered, and dare I say ugly, today.  Thank you VMWare Fusion for helping me bridge the gap, but damn you VMWare Fusion for bridging the gap.  The windows plague has struck again!

I started a new job this week with an incredible company; not a sponsored message. The company is Barefoot, Inc; read more on the site if interested.I am a Senior Application Developer and will be working mainly in Ruby on Rails (ROR)… finally! So life is good, enjoying the experience, meeting new people, happy!Oh, almost forgot! Our team at Barefoot was privy to training given by Chris Wanstrath, see errtheblog.com. He provided information relating to scale of architecture, git repository use/hosting, ruby style syntax, and a list of tools related to the rails environment. I am likely missing something, but suffice to say the experience was thorough and enjoyable.And then there ws cofollow…I’ve been spending time revamping more on the cofollow site. A list of included changes are below:

• added gravatar.com images to posts
• upgraded to rails 2.0.2 (ya what was I waiting for???)
• implemented mine type and erb support in views
• slimmed down the controllers
• assorted bug fixes
• implemented the concept of regions (subdomain in the url)
• implemented restriction code so feeds are only a part of one domain (this may change in the future)
• created columbus.thedownbeat.org url
• created cleveland.thedownbeat.org url
• added a list of new feeds in both the columbus and cleveland regions

I was also able to participate in fun on Friday with the The Beer Wench and the weekly crew. If you have interest please come to the event, it was a great time!

More later!

So recently I have been interested the blogging community in Ohio, specifically my city of Columbus. Bloggers are posting topics related to Music, the Arts, Food, Events, local interests, and more. I started a project, Cofollow, dedicated to capturing information from said sources and organizing the information for cross pollination interests. I find the concept to be exciting with all the information and traffic flowing around the local Columbus interweb.

Given my interest in the local community, it only makes sense to reach out to the community for help. Earlier this week, I did just that. The project has now gained to members and is getting ready to start another stage of research.

More on the team, thoughts, and our next steps soon!

testing the aggregator code added to production today

Most people in the Columbus area are familiar with Kevin Kurgis. If not, they probably do not own a television. Mr Kurgis’s intensely funny, not sure it was meant to create that effect, has owned the visual wave ads for some years. For those who have not seen his ad, I have provide a link for review. It has a comical grace that likely could not have been scripted better.Apparently there are a few people in the Columbus area who also feel the same way, as they have spoofed the video in their own light. Have a peek at these links that show off the “intensity” Mr Kurgis offers in his original.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siUAfXq3gsQ&NR=1
• http://www.youtube.com/v/zhvMWqGB6Qg&rel=1 my favorite!

I was reading the interweb yesterday and came across a music event taking place this month in cities around the world. It is titled Unsilent Night. The concept was put together by Phil Kline in 1992 as an “outdor ambient music piece for an infinite number of boomboxes.” Being a music enthusiast, the details of it all drew me in. That and Phil is a native of Ohio, which I felt was worry of a blog post. =)

The idea is the event happens in multiple cities around the world. In each location, people participate by bringing a boombox, CD, cassette, or MP3 which was a funny note, and each play their respective music machines acting as a “voice”; all joining together as a single musical piece. Although it is last minute notice, I am considering what it would take to see Columbus participate. It is likely just a thought, but who knows!

I spent a little time this weekend giving the aggregator a simple facelift (e.g.- colors).  The overall UI hasn’t changed, hopefully soon, but a few styles have been modified and added.  This makes it a little more readable, imho, and provides a place to start on the UI.

Also had hot pot on Sunday.  Kathy and Eddie were kind enough to invite me over to the house, with the SHuangs prepping and cooking up the goodness.  We had an assortment of fish balls, fish stomach (in place of tripe for texture), chicken feet without the bones, quail eggs, chinese vegetables, and other items mixed together in a soy/sesame/cilantro/chives mixture for flavoring.  It is quickly becoming one of my favorite things.

I am rather excited about my latest code adventure, it is an aggregator. Why should this excite me you say? Well, I noticed there is not a unifying source for technology information in the city. It is hard to believe given all the people located in Columbus with their far reaching ties.

So this project is about accomplishing that task. The aggregator retrieves information in the form of feeds and collects it. The information is then listed in a feed like fashion sequentially on the site. This offers anyone reading a singular location for lookup and *hopefully* a daily review.

Yay!

This weekend consisted of the resume chore. Not sure if most enjoy cleanup related to one’s resume, but it can be difficult for me. I enjoy the process of remembrance and all details found along the way, as it helps me see paths followed. Of times though, I find it needs a jump start; something of a push. My push this weekend was one of opportunities to be found required more detail of my life.

Here is the latest and greatest.

I recently found the series Californication after adding Showtime to the cable bill. This came about due to a desire to see the new episodes of Dexter, which is quite a great show in itself. The lead character, Michael C. Hall, has been a part of the award winning HBO series Six Feet Under, where he played the gay brother in the family who has a romance with the local policeman.

But I digress…

Californication is set in Los Angeles where David Duchovny, cast as Hank Moody the lead, is a writer who has issues with is art; mainly he has not written since moving to LA. He finds himself all too taken with many newly found friends (ladies) from nights of booze and trouble. The rest of the story includes his daughter, ex, her new boyfriend, and a short list of others I don’t want to give away any more details, it’s too good.