zackola

Build something slightly enterprisey but really simple. Make sure it uses lots of enterprise buzzwords like XML, LDAP, SOAP, and UML. You could make something pretty simple that an enterprise client might find useful, like some sort of process management tool, otherwise known as flowcharts. Generally the only difference between enterprise software and not is the price tag. Surely there are exceptions to this.

I'd also suggest that before you dedicate a significant part of your life to learning something because there is currently a high demand for it in your geographic area, you may want to consider reading the excellent:

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/cfcar2/the-passionate-program...

Check out the reviews on amazon - might also be helpful to look at reviews for the out of print My Job Went to India. The passionate programmer is the 2nd edition of this book I gather.

let's go shopping!

Could you maybe suggest a decent alternative? I picked up android a while ago and I definitely have not been happy with Eclipse, but haven't really found anything better either. Especially with all the instrumentation that google provides.

I like my Mirra at home better than the Aeron I have at work. I'd check them out. Also been meaning to try out some sort of balance ball part time.

StreetEasy.com is hiring Rubyists in NYC! We're looking for smart people who want to work with Ruby/Rails so drop us a line at jobs@streeteasy.com with your resume if you are interested.

I think you should have already built something else - at least a prototype - in your free time while staying gainfully employed and then quit later when you can at least guarantee yourself and any dependents a lifestyle full of roofs and ramen.

It is a good word. I'm not saying people shouldn't use it. It is an ugly, ugly word to me - I hate the sound of it, which is part of why it is my least favorite. It's one of those words that sound like what they mean to me. What is that called anyway? Not onomatopoeia.

I also tend to hate it because I can tell before even starting to fix the kludge, it's likely to involve an large overhaul instead of a small bug fix.

kludge synergy/synergistic/synergize proactive xml

Ah caching, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.

Wrong with iTunes: Slowness, Storage of metadata in proprietary format, Easier to detect/remove dupes.

What I want? Something as fast and responsive as the original versions of winamp, with the search, playlist, podcast and sync functionality of iTunes.

for those of us using dynamic languages like ruby, make a habit of hitting Ctrl+Shift+V (Validate Syntax in TextMate) or your editor's equivalent. That will catch the dumbest of all errors (missing parens, block terminators, string terminators, etc). alternatively you can add a validate_syntax step to your deployment strategy and just run something like >> ruby -c whatever.rb on files that are part of the most recent commit.

70% sadly sounds about right. end depression by making the screening process as quick as possible.

Maybe, but only if I could filter out content by source domain (ahem techcrunch).

A wise man once yelled at me after I badgered him with questions one too many times, "Use the source Luke". And that's what I'd recommend. Read as much Ruby source code as you can (ahem, github), make the effort to understand why the authors designed a piece of code the way the did. The Rails source continues to evolve into a great example of interesting to read Ruby - but you might want to start out with something a bit simpler like Sinatra :)

this is pretty topical for me, as this started happening to us the other day after implementing a lightbox gallery javascript. good writeup.

water. iced coffee

car or motorcycle mechanic

Make it as quick and painless as possible. They should be able to cancel via their account page/settings or contacting you. You should respond well within 24 hours with a generic, very positive note.

We're sorry to lose you as a member! Your account has been canceled (effective immediately|will remain active until the end of your billing cycle). If you'd like to renew at any time, blah blah blah. If you have any feedback for us about our service(s), we'd love to hear from you.

You will be surprised at how many responses you get back from an email like that from people who like your service, but maybe just don't have the need for it right now, and from others who will tell you exactly why your service doesn't meet their needs or expectations. Exit surveys are an incredible annoyance.

This is great! I only wish I had thought of it first :)

+1 for portfolio.

ajarr.com eatingmaps.com icanhasrock.com lifeninja.com regfx.com shitonfire.com verymeta.com sudobangbang.com

- keyboard shortcuts - best spam filter on planet (although it seems a few obvious ones have slipped through recently) - search

I'm sorry I have to extend this to hardware/environment issues. Four tech people in company (including a web designer). One guy managing the network remotely from some other office location. Only access to production servers off-site was through VPN, common enough right? Fine, but instead of figuring out how VPN passthrough/NAT/ports worked on the Cisco sitting in the closet, the sysadmin settled on getting everyone who needed access to the server their own static, external IP addresses. Not only were they paying extra for these on a monthly basis, but we had these poor early XP boxes sitting on direct connections to the internets. Firewalls are for jerks, eh? Oh, and to make matters even funnier, when you were connected to the VPN, you couldn't get email or go on the internet, because no one had ever figured out that the "use default gateway" option maybe meant something.

You thought you have the worst version control story? What's version control?! Seriously. All edits made locally and "tested" by direct upload to the production server. Different "commits" tested by file renaming. file.asp.old, file.asp.old.xx, file.asp.5.25.2002

"Hey Tony, are you working on blahblah.asp? Oh, no?, Great, let me just pull a copy, don't work on it until I say I'm done OK?"

I was fortunate enough at the time (circa 2002) shortly after my arrival to put svn into place. I gotta say though, once you now how to do something the completely wrong way, it's much easier to do it correctly. Ugh.

hm. a little bit of notice might have been nice :)

Does your future wife's company have a benefits plan you can be part of?

Same. I like my Mirra at home much better than the Aeron at work FWIW.

+1 for webfaction. they are the cat's pajamas. whatever that means.

Try to run 3-6 miles at least 3 times a week + http://hundredpushups.com/ Also try to stretch, but that doesn't always go so well. Yoga makes me crack up laughing.

who is going to be your boss/how many will you have.