I released version 0.1.3 of Construct today. It incorporates a few bugfixes for nested schemas, and should be fit for general use.
I got tired of writing configuration classes for everything I do, and packaged it all up in a tiny gem: Construct.
Highlights
OpenStruct-style access to key-value pairs. <cr:code lang=“ruby”>config.offices = [‘Sydney’, ‘Tacoma’]</cr:code>
My life recently has been an object lesson in extreme deviations from the norm. I got my teeth knocked out in broomball, but also landed an outstanding job in an arguably abominable economy where most of my peers have been struggling to find work and make ends meet. I’m now a software engineer at Vodpod, a web site oriented towards video aggregation and publishing. I love what I do, but how I got the job in the first place is also an interesting story.
Carleton College just started this new program called Engagement Wanted. As a graduating senior, you write a short “elevator speech” and post it on their web site. Here’s mine, in its entirety:
Looking for a year-long job while I apply to physics grad school. Physics research would be great, but I also have six years experience in IT, ops, and web development. Photographer, graphic designer, *nix admin, network guy, and open source software developer. If you know anyone who's hiring (especially using Ruby), I'd love to hear from you!
Here’s what I did to get the Macbook Pro (rev 3,1) running smoothly under Ubuntu 9.04.
Turn on the nvidia drivers with jockey-gtk (the hardware drivers manager).
Add the keys for the mactel PPA: cr:code sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x8db7f87a2b97b7b8 </cr:code>
I recently got a MacBook for work, and thought, “Hey, here’s a chance to finally stop mucking about with all the inconvenient things about Linux! Flash won’t be broken half the time, I can use things like VMWare Fusion and Adobe Lightroom… it’ll be great!” So I installed 10.4, and started trying to get some work done. Here’s my thoughts for that day.
Bad stuff
Spaces is a total joke. Every time you open an application it switches workspaces to wherever the application was last. You can enter spaces to drag apps around, but that means that if you want, say, a new firefox window on the current workspace, you need to switch to another workspace, fire up a new window, enter spaces, drag the new window back to the space you want, and exit spaces to the new workspace. It’s completely broken.
I just finished my last undergrad assignment—Hector’s E&M test. Got an A in the course, actually, which really surprised me. I’m now done with Carleton, and graduate in a week. I’ll be living in Madison for a few weeks, and then moving out to San Francisco for my new job. Should be exciting!
Also, I ported Cortex Reaver to Innate and Sequel 3.0.0. It works, but things are a bit shaky still.
If you haven’t seen the 2019 video, you should definitely take a look at Microsoft’s ideas about where we might be headed with computer interface design. It’s bold, slick, and leaves out a really big question.
Watch the video, and ask yourself: “how much work are people getting done?”
Two things of note this week: I received distinction on my Comps, and submitted the first draft of Character in the Dark, my new book, to Blurb. If the copy I get back looks good, I’ll put it up for sale.
I originally intended to work with Engage Print like I did for Sampling Error, but I’m running into logistical constraints. First, it’s not really practical for me to bind more than 6 copies by hand, and I’d like to make the book available to a wider audience. Second, Engage’s Indigo printer can only run up to 12x18", which is slightly too small to really give the images good space on the page.
Hence, I’m sacrificing the pleasure of hand-making the book, and having good control over color/paper, for the convenience of Blurb’s automated print-on-demand system. I’m guessing price will be somewhere around $60; details when I finish the final version.
I recently wrote some quick and dirty Ruby bindings for the Vodpod API. They’re pretty rough right now, but usable.
The Hidden Spaces project is going really well, and is responsible for the slew of new photos this week. I’m immersed in Carleton lore right now, digging through tunnels and Caucus to try and piece together a story about this campus and all the weird things behind the scenes. It’s an incredible experience.
My comps is done.
I just finished writing version three—the final release, as it were—of my senior thesis, or “comps”, for Carleton. It’s an introduction to the Casimir effect, integrating aspects of quantum electrodynamics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, numerical modeling, material science, history of science, and a sampling of experimental literature. There is no original research here (save correcting a typo in the parallel-plates derivation which I suspect everybody knew about). It’s just an exercise in figuring things out, and explaining them to others.
I wrote the paper from books, papers, and discussions with my advisors and peers over the last six months. Last term, I also delivered a 70 minute general-audiences talk, which went pretty well. Since then I’ve been integrating feedback from faculty and peer advisors over two rounds of review. Since the beginning their feeling has been positive, but I have finally (I hope) addressed all remaining concerns with the paper. This version may be tagged “stable”.