Patrick Filler

Are Tech Conferences Worth It?

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:07:47 -0400

The development team at Harvest has a relatively new blog called Tech Time. My first contribution is about the conferences I’ve been to in the last year and whether or not they are worth it.

I try to keep an open mind (especially when I haven’t given something a chance) and so I decided to attend a few events in the past year. I didn’t do it intentionally, but I was essentially the Goldilocks of conferences, attending four events of varying size and content.

The Giant Marionettes of Royal de Luxe

Sat, 12 May 2012 21:55:43 -0400

Check out this great collection of photos featuring the Royal de Luxe theater company’s massive marionettes. The biggest puppets are 40 feet tall (about 4 stories). Damn!

A giant old-school diver puppet. (Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images)

Mise en place

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:00:44 -0400

My coworker, Barry, is reading Kitchen Confidential and has drawn a connection between the tools of a developer and those of a chef. Mise en place is the “religion of all good line cooks” according to Anthony Bourdain — I don’t know many developers who would argue the principal.

One who has put her tools in place is likely of an organized and focused mind. She knows her tools, all within her reach. Right as they are needed.

Government Shutdown

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:11:35 -0400

I just tried to use the Social Security Administration’s online office locator only to find out they’re “closed.”

I know B&H camera shuts down for the Sabbath, but what possible reason could a US government site have for turning off features after certain hours? Maybe the hamsters that power the servers have mandatory sleep breaks legislated by congress.

Joe Posnanski Visits Olive Garden

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:18:39 -0400

If you spend any amount of time on the internet, you are probably aware of Marilyn Hagerty’s recent review of the Grand Forks Olive Garden. The earnestness with which she reviews a chain that has 730 locations globally is so stupefying that people can’t help but feel something about the article (though mostly, I think it just makes people crave those tasty breadsticks).

Something that has 25k+ Facebook “likes” isn’t really the kind of thing I feel compelled to share on my tiny little corner of the internet. Leave it to Poz to change my mind with his own Olive Garden review:

As soon as we sat down, a woman sitting in the booth across from us — as if she knew what we were doing and wanted to appear in both our columns — suggested that Tommy try the chicken. “It’s WONDERFUL,” she said in the most sincere voice imaginable, as if she was talking about the latest Josh Groban album or the traveling show of “Wicked” or Meryl Streep’s performance in her last movie. It would be easy to jab at that sort of euphoria over Olive Garden chicken, and it might be funny too — I sort of did in that follow up line, didn’t I?

But snark wasn’t how I felt. Instead, I felt happy.

Everyone should read the whole thing.

If you’re unfamiliar with the writings of Joe Posnanski and you are even a casual sports fan, you’re also going to want to set aside a few days to read through his blog, Joe Blogs. I was first introduced by my co-worker, Barry, and I’ve been reading with great interest ever since.

Meanwhile… in Bulgaria

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:52:41 -0400

Photographer Timothy Allen has posted a wonderful look at a monument to communism in Bulgaria. It is one of the most remarkable things you will see today and the story is equally as impressive.

Buzludha is Bulgaria’s largest ideological monument to Communism. Designed by architect Guéorguy Stoilov, more than 6000 workers were involved in its 7 year construction including 20 leading Bulgarian artists who worked for 18 months on the interior decoration. A small, universally expected donation from every citizen in the country formed a large portion of the funds required to build this impressive structure that was finally unveiled in 1981 on what was the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state.

Timothy Allen’s First View of the Buzludzha monument.

Just look at that mysterious fog monster! How could you not want to see more? I promise that the reveal will not be a letdown.

You'd Be Surprised How Far That Gets You.

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:10:49 -0500

The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.

I am Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ask Me Anything

(via Matt Haughey)

The Newest National Park

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:40:00 -0500

The National Park Service announced that the 397th national park will be in Patterson, NJ — a mere 30 miles from me! I had no idea that Patterson Great Falls even existed, but now I want to go to there.

Photo by eutrophication&hypoxia

Your Kindle Gets Heavier Each Time You Download a Book

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 11:27:00 -0500

The weight difference is unlikely to make much difference to holidaymakers’ baggage allowances, however, because each new tome is about as heavy as a single molecule of DNA.

Read the article for a full explanation.

(via Marginal Revolution)

W Knows Bo

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:50:07 -0400

From an old article about a White Sox / Rangers brawl:

George W. Bush, general partner of the Rangers, was in a box seat near the Texas dugout when the brawl broke out and said he considered for a second running onto the field.

“I thought about it, but then I saw Bo coming out and decided to stay where I was,” said Bush.

With quick thinking like that, is it any wonder he was such a fine president?

(via South Side Sox)

A Great Read on the S&P Situation

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 13:32:06 -0400

So this is an outrage — not because America is A-OK, but because these people are in no position to pass judgment.

Paul Krugman on the S&P’s big downgrade announcement.

(via @nbauman)

Heavy Stuff

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:01:05 -0400

A copy of The New Yorker should not weigh 500 MB. … Condé Nast would never ship the paper magazine in a box that weighs 50 pounds. But that’s exactly what their digital editions feel like.

— John Gruber on iPad magazines

Chosen

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:06:01 -0400

For most of my “web career”, I have been a definite taker of open source projects and not much of a giver. While I’ve always liked the idea of sharing work, I’ve always found an excuse to pass (not enough time, someone better than me should do that, baseball is on tv). Thankfully, Harvest asked me to spend some time working on a project we could share and no excuses were allowed.

Today, we officially released the first open source project I’ve been a significant contributor to. Chosen is a jQuery/Prototype plug-in for enhancing select boxes and I’m damn proud of it.

Chosen aims to solve a lot of the user experience issues presented by select boxes with way too many elements. It also aims to keep things easier for developers by relying on semantic markup and progressive enhancement. Double win.

After going through the experience of releasing an open source project, I’m disappointed it didn’t happen sooner. I used new tools and techniques (hello, CoffeeScript) through the process and the learning experience more than justified the time expenditure. I will definitely be going down this road again.

You can read more about Chosen on its project page or on the Harvest Blog.

How Much is Hogwarts Tuition?

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:32:00 -0400

The economics department at Lehigh University took a stab at answering that very question:

On page 51 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry receives a letter detailing the equipment that he is required to purchase for Hogwarts. The letter is reproduced here. Centives went to Amazon.co.uk to estimate how much each of the items would cost.

[snip]

One Pair of Protective Gloves (Dragon Hide or Similar)

Would Spirafil Synthetic Insulation and GORE-TEX waterproofing technology qualify as ‘similar’ to Dragon Hide? If so then they’ll cost you about £76.

Their conclusion is that a year at Hogwarts will cost you about the same as a year at a private American college (like Lehigh). If they’re right, it’s easy to understand why the Weasley’s are so poor. Putting 7 kids through 7 years of Hogwarts would set them back about 2 million bucks. Tough to do on one government salary!

(via Marginal Revolution)

Really Long YouTube Videos

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:17:00 -0400

Kottke linked to a handful of 10 hour videos the other day and it continues to boggle my mind that YouTube can handle them. I imagine the file size for such a crazy length of video is fairly large.

It seems that almost all of the 10 hour are computer generated, so their creation time isn’t anywhere near as long as the time it takes to watch them start to finish. I did stumble across one that, as far as I can tell, was filmed in real time: Jon Counts to 1,000,000.

The final 3 hours of counting to 1,000,000 come in part 2 of the video. Combined, they add up to whopping 77+ hours. It’s truly an insane act of video making.

Fun With Lions at the Zoo

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:52:00 -0400

This is a video of a 400 pound lioness trying to eat a small child at the zoo. Even though there are several inches of glass between the lion and child, there’s still something very disconcerting about watching a lion “attack” a helpless child.

After watching that video, it’s not hard to imagine what would happen if you wandered into the enclosure, right? You’d have to be nuts to wander into the den of a caged lion or tiger or…

Apparently, the people Buenos Aires disagree. Just give the Lujan Zoo $50 and sign their waiver acknowledging the animal might eat you and you can spend some time with adult lions, tigers and bears.

If you’re lucky, you might even get a giant tiger to roll over on its back like my chocolate lab. If you’re unlucky, well, you probably had it coming.

Dig This: Heavy Equipment Playground

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:39:00 -0400

Sand Shovel by Ben Bunch

For the right price in Las Vegas, you can live out any number of boyhood fantasies (easy buddy, we’re gonna keep this clean). You can drive Ferraris, Indy Cars and Dune Buggies, pilot Fighter Jets or play basketball with Michael Jordan. A new company called Dig This has created my favorite adolescent adventure yet: construction equipment playground.

I’ve transcribed their terrible, flash-laden website so you don’t have to:

Under the watchful eye of our experienced instructors you will be successfully operating one of these yellow giants in less than 10 minutes through a course that will take you through a series of at least 3 activities where you will move mountains, stack monster rocks, dig huge holes, and so much more.

Who’s up for a Vegas weekend? I can’t wait to get back to my glory days in the sandbox. I mean, how much different can a 3 ton Caterpillar excavator be from the 3 pound Tonka version?

Peanutweeter

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:20:03 -0400

Peanutweeter matches kinda random Twitter posts with somewhat less than random Peanuts® comic strips by Charles Schulz.

This might be my new favorite Tumblr.

Delivereads

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:45:06 -0400

Dave Pell (the self-titled “Internet Superhero”) recently launched Delivereads, a service that sends a handful of curated articles straight to your Kindle each week. It’s a wonderful idea with excellent execution. Here’s the sign-up process:

Let Amazon know Delivereads is going to send content to your Kindle
Give Delivereads your Kindle’s email address
Read

I’ve been subscribed for a couple of weeks and the article selections have been great. It’s fun digging in after a new delivery has downloaded to my Kindle — having a random collection of content chosen for me reminds me of those paper things that I used to get sent to my house. What were they called again?

Have a Kindle? Go sign up.

Lockitron

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:01:00 -0400

For around 300 bucks, Lockitron lets you turn regular doors into awesome doors from the future that can be opened via smartphone or text message. Never again will your keys poke you in the leg when you’re jammed into a full subway car.

I was tempted to ignore the obvious security issues and order this bad boy until I read this:

The Lockitron is currently a “beta” product and as such certain aspects of its operation might, at times, not perform as expected. Some things that we would like to note include wireless range issues, problems working with non-standard or damaged doors and latencies that might occur while unlocking your door.

Turns out the future isn’t here just yet.

(via Matt Haughey)