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gr366

1,270 karma · joined February 5, 2009

Designer & developer for Incredibly Lifelike (http://incrediblylifelike.com/) living the digital nomad lifestyle: Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Scotland, Holland, England. Previously worked as a development manager and "utility infielder" for EarthLink and Los Angeles Times / Tribune.
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gr366··on Ask HN: If Django's admin is so awesome, why hasn't it been ported to Rails?
Isn't that what Streamlined was trying to do? It looks like it was EOL'd a few months ago. Their site now mentions looking at ActiveScaffold as an alternative http://activescaffold.com/

Not to say they are trying to replicate Django's admin, but rather to present a semi-automated way of surfacing CRUD actions on your Rails models.

To go all the way to a Django-like admin, a Rails plugin might have to do things like tie into authentication, which is not standardized in Rails, and either create some of its own models or require the addition of attributes on existing models (e.g. for things like modification history).

It may be a combination of possibilities:

1. Rails devs create a bare-bones / scaffolded admin as needed

2. Rails apps that really need CMS/admin functionality build something highly customized to their app and haven't seen the value in generalizing it for the community (or it isn't easy to do)

3. Developers that need out-of-the-box admin haven't found a barrier to entry that prevents them from using Django instead of Rails

I don't know the answer, but I think game2studios makes a great argument that the 2 frameworks arose out of different needs.

gr366··on Dear Every Site That Paginates Articles
Great point. Pagination in harmony with the content (splitting across sections or chapters of a longer article) is valuable to a user. It's easier to bookmark or remember I was on page 4 of that Ars Technica review, or to send a specific URL of a relevant page in a long-form article to a friend.

The problem is with arbitrarily introduced page breaks, where it is doing a disservice to the user in favor of inflating page views.

gr366··on Poll: What's your level of educational attainment
Who feels like they got the most out of their particular level of educational attainment? With years of hindsight now, I believe I could have made a lot more of my educational career — delving in to things that really interested me rather than simply completing homework assignments and beating the curve on tests. The amount of available time you have as a full-time student is massively underappreciated.
gr366··on Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.
"The Mezzanine" by Nicholson Baker

and

"White Noise" by Don DeLillo

gr366··on Ask HN: Do people care about flags when selecting a site language?
While mooism2 is correct and flags don't mean languages, I think it's a common enough pattern on web sites that you can just choose one or the other (USA or UK) for English. But you should then be consistent with spelling.

It depends on how you want the site to be perceived. As an American, if I see the British flag next to an English language selection, I'm not offended, but I do feel like the site is targeted more toward European users.

gr366··on Every project is a startup
Great post. Having worked in large companies, it's difficult to imagine organizations used to massive death march projects adopting this mentality, even if there's a better chance of coming away with viable shipping products.

And in a similar vein, organizations used to large-scale upfront requirements probably aren't even well-positioned to adapt to a new idea that comes out of a failed project. (Think Twitter being born while working on Odeo).

I'd be really interested to hear about examples of large companies that take this approach.

gr366··on Google App Engine gets Cron
Nevertheless, it's encouraging to see Google officially support what many consider an essential tool in running modern web applications. It's also helpful to have cron integrated with the GAE dashboard, so I can see everything scheduled to run and the result of the last run.

The release came at the perfect time for me, the day after I launched an app that requires regular update tasks to run in the background. It was a boon to simply add a yaml file to my app and not have to hack the functionality in.

gr366··on What happened to the Gig board at 37signals?
Judging by the few comments on Twitter http://search.twitter.com/search?q=37signals+gig+board, there weren't enough gigs being offered to make it a viable product.

Looks like they were caught somewhere between their Getting Real "Blank Slate" case and having enough entries for it to appear fresh and relevant.

gr366··on If newspapers are dying, what will replace them?
I think you're right that "what is the future of local news?" is the real question, rather than "what will replace newspapers?"

Working at a newspaper (online dept.), I think these organizations still haven't come to the realization that print isn't going to rebound (very much a "buggy whip" situation, as leed25d suggested). We see reports that show that newspapers' customer base is literally dying off. The younger generations don't have the same place in their lives for dead-tree news.

The economic downturn and advertising nosedive will decrease the available time window for newspapers to evolve. I think many will not make it. This could be a good thing. If there is a need for their services, something will appear to take their place (and eventually something with a viable business model). Startups will lead the way in innovation, and the smart newspapers that survived will learn to rapidly adopt what works (and hopefully cultivate a spirit of innovation themselves).

To be fair, I know a number of "traditional" journalists that have made the leap to Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc and have embraced these new forms to build flow, readership and conversation. I expect these folks to adapt and provide the professional expertise required for in-depth investigative journalism.

gr366··on Kogi Korean BBQ, a taco truck brought to you by Twitter
I think using a Twitter account to generate what amounts to a flashmob of customers for your mobile restaurant could be considered a tech-savvy business maneuver. I've driven by @kogibbq when it was in full swing, and the crowds are big.
gr366··on Ask HN: Would you pay $5/yr for HN?
I'm reading this thread while drinking a latte that cost nearly $5. Yes, I would pay $5 for a year of HN... even if there were still trolls.
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