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I thought that it might be time to give an update.  I have been very busy over with the agile evangelists at Integrum Technologies and have been loving every minute of all the things I’ve managed to absorb in the past few months.  My conversion to Rails has been drastically better than my past experience of learning other languages.  Within weeks I felt confident enough to start my own side projects and dive head-first into things that I used to wait months to fully understand how to do with previous conversions.

I have come to gain a very solid appreciation of AJAX, as long as it is done unobtrusively. I’ve also come to love the purpose and structure that a good MVC framework can provide.  I’ve come to swear by TextMate.  I can’t imagine managing a web project again without it.  I’ve found that pair programming provides amazing benefits that can never be guessed at until you’ve tried it yourself. I’ve found that my errors and refactoring due to pair programming have been exponentially improved and that my development style in general has become more efficent, more detailed, and more well-thought than in the past (in much less time).  I’ve also found that agile methodology as a method of software development just makes sense (for me at least).  Software (especially web based applications or sites) are constantly changing in their requirements, goals, needs, and acceptence criteria.  Agile methodology ties in perfectly with this dynamic lifestyle of software growth.

As to the other things that I’ve been up to, well I’ve started at least three side-projects Read the rest of this entry »

I just posted the following as a comment on a blog as to why I already purchased the iPhone 3G. I thought it might be appropriate to share on my blog as well. Enjoy.

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I’ll try to keep this short and simple, but don’t be surprised if you get a short novel. I am a little offended that the beginning of this post [original blog linked above] begins with such bias as to say that if Steve Jobs branded a sandwich with the Apple logo a line would form to buy it. Give most Apple “fanboys” a little more credit than that.

I personally have an Apple logo tattoo (for the letter A in my wife’s name as she converted me to Apple). I also have a Burton tattoo on my foot. Why are both of my tattoos commercial companies? Read the rest of this entry »

I have a ton of stuff to blog about still, but no time right now. My wishlist: iPhone 3G, new Mac Book Pros, otherwise I’m sure I’ll love whatever I get ;) So here’s the link to the live WWDC keynote coverage I’ll be watching as much as possible (within work limitations):

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/09/steve-jobs-keynote-live-from-wwdc-2008/

And the end result that most matters:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=MTE2NTQ

Here’s a list of Mac Applications I use frequently (for the most part), and the ones I use less frequently are ones that I’ve found fit my target niche or some need perfectly:

Graphic design apps: Pixelmator, VectorDesigner, Photoshop, Digital Color Meter (available by default in utilities, few know of it)
Web development apps: TextMate Read the rest of this entry »

We all know that Windows can be a _slow_ operating system to run. Especially if you have kids who love to download music, files, videos, and possibly stuff you as a parent may not even want to know about. Well sometimes you find out in other ways.

One way you discover you have a problem is that Windows has become sluggish in comparison to how it used to run. it takes twice as lomg to run something than it used to and you have no idea why. Or perhaps random popups have taken over your system. These kinds of symptoms often point to one to three things: Viruses, Malware, or Spyware. All of these things are intruders on your computer looking to violate your privacy. So how do you get rid of them? Read the rest of this entry »