Posts from October 2009

  • "A Collection of iPhone Home Screens." I found this a while back but couldn't remember the name or how to get back to it because the keywords are saturated. My Google-fu was hot today, and I'm bookmarking for future reference.
  • This Java class is full of helpful functions for escaping and unescaping strings, and it can be used within ColdFusion (if you're into that).
  • "Cultivating a Late 19th-Century Style at Home." This seems to be an IRL manifestation of that thing.
  • Aha! This answers a question I didn't even know I had, but I've been unconsciously wondering. I thought this "look" came from the image-collecting Tumblr crowd. But apparently it's a thing IRL.

1800

1800

St. Johns Trees

St. Johns Trees
  • Getting the Google IDs of liking users is interesting, but I didn't know about "Reader's view of a feed", also interesting. [via kottke]
  • "To help you understand how Web Caches will treat a Web page, the Cacheability Engine will look at a URL (and optionally any images or objects associated with it), giving both specific cache-related data about it, and a general commentary on how cacheable the object is."

Corvallis Fall Colors

Cloverland Trees Harrison Trees Roasting in the Rain Madison Building

My Favorite Ignite Talks

Ignite Corvallis is going to have its second event on November 5th. The basic idea is that several speakers will each have 5 minutes to give a presentation with 20 slides which advance every 15 seconds. That's pressure.

I'm helping choose the talks that will be included this time around, so I thought it'd be good to revisit some of my favorite Ignite Talks and collect them in one place for easy viewing. I've been to several Ignite events now, and what I love about them is hearing a wide range of ideas in a short amount of time. Half of the fun is that the format forces speakers to stay on task, and most of the time the presenters aren't pros. I've always found the audience is pulling for the speakers.

So here are some of the five minute talks from Ignite events that have stuck with me. I was at the first Ignite Portland in 2007 and this year I was in San Jose at Ignite Etech. But most of these I've just seen online.

How to Buy a New Car by Rob Gruhl (Ignite Seattle 2007)


How to Work a Crowd by Alexis Bauer (Ignite Sebastopol 2009)


A Series of Tubes by Molly Wright Steenson (Ignite Etech 2009)


How Chickens Will Save Your Life by Sarah Gilbert (Ignite Portland 2007)
You can't see the slides in this one, but they're on slideshare. So you might open them in a new window as you watch: How Keeping Chickens Will Save Your Life. I'm going to build that chicken coop in my backyard one of these days. (I say wistfully.)

The Secret History of Fonts by Bram Pitoyo (Ignite Portland 2009)


Great Designers Steal by Jeff Veen (Ignite San Francisco 2009)


How the Hell Did Matt Get People to Dance With Him? by Matt Harding (Ignite Gnomedex 2008)


Why and How to Give an Ignite Talk by Scott Berkun (Ignite Seattle 2009)


If you have an Ignite event in your area you should check it out. It's a fun way to learn about and from people in your community. I'm looking forward to hearing what folks in Corvallis are thinking about in a few weeks.
  • "The good advice is obvious, the rest doesn’t work." Derek on SEO. In summary, hire a good designer not a self-proclaimed Search Engine Optimizer and design for humans not algorithms. Couldn't agree more.

Peppers

Peppers

Acorn Squash

Acorn Squash

Coffee

Coffee