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October 31, 2005
October 16, 2005
Juliana's 4th Birthday Intro Video
Every year for Juliana and Ava's birthdays we put together a little video to show at the birthday party. I want to put up the intros that we have made for each one here. For now, I have one ready.
View the introduction to Juliana's 4th Birthday video (1.7 megabyte MP4 file).
October 15, 2005
Ava and Daddy After The Movie
Ava and Daddy After The Movie
Cousins going To The movies
Cousins going To The movies
October 14, 2005
Comcast, stop being such a scaredy-cat
Tracey and I love the shows on HBO. I don't really watch much on tv past what is on basic cable, so we tried to get the ala carte HBO from comcast. Sounds good, right? Not so fast.
Apparently, Comcast has moved HBO only to digital cable. Let's examine this equation. Traditional cable is the scary wild west, where paying customers can copy content by simply connecting cables between devices. Digital cable is a brave new world, where normal cable controls don't apply. By switching hardware, the provider can control what you can and can't see even more than they could before.
So. We ordered the service, and the comcast rep was not very clear with us. When i came home today after the comcast installer was out, i found that he had completely bypassed my tivo. I realize now that this is because the box they gave us was a digital cable box where the RF will simply not work with my tivo. He didn't even say, "I am not connecting this to your tivo because it won't work with this." He just skipped it and left cables draping across the front of our tv shelf. I do NOT want to use the IR blaster crap with the tivo just for HBO.
So. I asked for a single channel and what i get is: a half hour wasted connecting my tivo and troubleshooting, followed by a 20 minute phone conversation where i needed to spend 15 of those minutes justifying to the rep why i felt my installation fee (only $16) should be refunded.
I have used comcast for my internet for 4 and a half years and love it. I have had virtually no problems. We ditched our directv so we could use a real series 2 tivo with basic cable and we suddenly have to fight with them to get straight answers and simple things like, "A channel."
Comcast: Stop being afraid of your customers. I pay your bills. The least you can do is sell what i want, not what you want me to want.
Now, if you will pardon me, i am off to find a torrent of last week's curb your enthusiasm. Thanks comcast!
October 11, 2005
Catalyst Vs. Ruby On Rails
I have constantly been on the hunt for a great framework for building web applications. My motivation is that writing web applications is 90% boring bullshit.
I have read a lot about Ruby On Rails, Django and Catalyst and have been experimenting with them all with varying degrees of interest and success.
Django is nice and has the advantage of being written in Python. I feel like it is too wrapped up in the style of the applications that birthed it as a framework, though. This fact has pushed Django off to the back for the time being. I am still keeping an eye on it, but my lazy eye is on that job.
Rails has the advantage of being awesome, but the disadvantage of being THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER, DHH 4 EVA. The hype bothers me, even if it is (partially) justified. I finished my first application with Rails this week and i like it a lot. I like ActiveRecord the most, but the whole framework is pretty nice.
Catalyst seems really scrappy to me, but is nice, if a bit rough around the edges. I am working on converting a couple of small mason applications over to it to see what works and what doesn't. The catalyst project could definitely use more tutorials and documentation. To that end, I am presenting an introduction to Catalyst at this month's Chicago.pm meeting. John W. Long of the Chicago Ruby user's group will be presenting on Rails.
Having a task and a deadline has really helped me to learn more about both frameworks and actually solve problems with them, rather than just dicking around with tutorials.
Once the presentations happen, I will post slides up and sample applications.
Anyone interested in attending the presentation can get more information on times and places for the meeting.