Luke Wroblewski’s critique of touch-screen GUIs for apps for toddlers reminds us that children do not react to interfaces as adults would. Most adults (well, not me) have at least some patience with computer interfaces. Modal dialogs are tolerable. Buttons are generally understood to require only one action (ie. click or tap) before they respond.
We use SVN at work. I use git-svn to manage my commits and give me faster local access to changes. I suppose I may be guilty of some of the lies Paul Stadig speaks of in his article.
I use git add -p to cherry pick changes, git stash to set aside incomplete changes, and … Read more
I am a big fan of simple coding tests to pre-screen applicants for developer positions. With search and forums, coding tests, if not written correctly, will simply test an applicant’s ability to search. I tend to write simple questions which will likely yield a sub-optimal answer through search, but a more optimal answer based on … Read more
This article by Annalee Newitz echoes some of my thoughts on the supposed coming singularity. Like it or not, the future is driven by business. Now, I believe in the benefits of The Market—it’s given us some great things—but let’s not fool ourselves. The same people who will make the nanobots which will keep our … Read more
BFG is based on WSGI and is from the same guys who brought you worked on the Repoze project. BFG only provides URL mapping, templating and security; the rest is up to you.
What I like about BFG (after a few minutes of perusal): views as callables (meaning you can define a view class), built-in … Read more
Maciej Fijalkowski made JSON parsing in PyPy (pure Python) faster than in CPython. Here’s how he did it, with lessons which can be applied to other optimizations.
Server crashes mean so much more than lost data; it’s lost income, loss of reputation and lost time spent cleaning up the mess. Availability is crucial. But not all availabilities are equal. Should a loss of a data store mean goods can’t be sold?
Dan Pritchard argues that in the absence of data, replies … Read more
At my previous job I dabbled in critiquing wireframes and designs of others—mostly basic questions such as “What does this do?” or “Why is this here?”. This list of questions to ask when reviewing a design is a lot more exhaustive and could be useful for those looking to tighten up their designs.
While I generally feel that log parsing is the least sophisticated mechanism for monitoring an application, often no other option exists. Logstash is an open source tool for parsing and displaying information in logs. It could be a free replacement for some functionality provided by commercial tools such as Splunk.
Tileabl.es is a growing collection of tiling textures for backgrounds.