October 31, 2005
Raleigh Bloggers Meetup, Tuesday November 1st
Join us for tomorrow's Raleigh bloggers meetup!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
I have it on good authority that Anton will be there. Will you?
In
Blogging
Posted at 07:03 PM | Permanent link
October 27, 2005
Intelligent Design theory of code
After much deep thought, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not very smart. I'm forced to write good code because I'm not smart enough to write bad code.
Trying to read bad code makes my head hurt to the point where I want to stick a fork in my eye. The 1000 line method bodies...the layers and layers of nested loops and branches...the non-locally declared variables...non-descriptive names... I marvel at the intellectual heft necessary to make it all work. Genius. If only I could be half as smart as those who write this kind of code.
Or have I made a jump in logic somewhere?
In
Technology and Software
Posted at 04:12 PM | Permanent link
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Comments (4)
October 26, 2005
Xanga gets their RSS House in Order
When I got home from work this evening, I noticed something odd about the Xanga feeds I'm subscribed to in my feedreader - they were all marked as unread.
A quick glance at some of the RSS Xanga is generating reveals what looks like RSS 2.0.
And indeed, FeedValidator confirms this as valid RSS 2.0 (well, with some warnings about relative URLs, but still valid).
After one full year of frustration, Xanga finally gets it right.
To continue supporting those who may be subscribed to Xanga feeds through my site, I've modified my Xanga Rss Fixer script so that it now simply passes through the valid RSS with some *very* slight modifications. It does still fix the relative URL warnings to make FeedValidator completely happy, but I think that at this point we can say that the fixer is pretty much obsolete. It had a good run.
In spite of now being one with the RSS 2.0 spec, Xanga continues to do some semi-brain-dead things with their feeds - like putting dates in the entry title fields. I've gotten some requests to replace this with an entry excerpt, so perhaps that will be my next trick (hello REXML, nice to meet ya).
For now - kudos, Xanga.
In
Projects, Technology and Software
Posted at 10:35 PM | Permanent link
October 18, 2005
Boston Photos and other Anecdotes
In a city of half a million people, you'd think I were lying if I told you that I ran into my friend Amy Chan at a random bar one night. But on Saturday after the conference this actually happened!
Completely unplanned!
Fate can be so sweet at times.
Here is a small subset of the photos I took while in Boston. More are available at my Flickr Boston photoset.
(Chowda!! It's sooo goood!)
Unfortunately the 100 most interesting sights that I saw occurred on Monday after the four year old lithium ion battery in my camera died prematurely. Thus - few pictures of Boston Common, the Boston Gardens, Fenway, MIT, and not one of the breathtaking view of the Boston skyline from the Mass Ave bridge.
Fate can similarly be cruel bitch at times... (!)
Ahh, but I so love Boston. Someday... someday...
In
Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 10:39 PM | Permanent link
Raleigh Bloggers Meetup, Tuesday October 18th
I'm back from Boston, and it's time to see what's happening in the Raleigh tech scene :)
Join us for today's Raleigh bloggers meetup!
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
I'll be there, although I may not be able to stay for long. Don't leave me hangin'!
In
Blogging
Posted at 08:57 AM | Permanent link
October 16, 2005
Startup School
For the first 24 hours of my being in the Boston, it rained...and rained...and rained. From the time I stepped off the plane until Startup School was over, the rain did not let up for an instant.
This made for some awfully soggy walks to and from the Harvard subway stop, but in this atmosphere, nothing can dampen my mood. This conference has been phenomenal. The speakers were fantastic. My voice is horse from meeting and talking with fellow startup schoolers over drinks late into the night - it's been a near religious experience.
I feel that I now have a lot of thinking, and soul searching to do.
"Why shouldn't you do significant things in this one life, however you define significant?"
-- R. Hamming (as quoted in Olin Shivers' talk)
In
Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 07:02 PM | Permanent link
October 14, 2005
Contentment
I wrote this a few hours ago:
I'm sitting in the airport now, waiting to catch my flight to Boston for the Startup School conference.
Right now I think that if my plane were to go down in flames, I'd die happy :)
(note: my plane didn't go down in flames, although it was delayed by an hour due to nasty weather in the Northeast)
In
General
Posted at 07:16 PM | Permanent link
October 10, 2005
Give!
To mirror dive into mark:
Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'...
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.'
And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Matthew 25
Please help the victims of the recent earthquake in Southern Asia.
In
General
Posted at 09:49 PM | Permanent link
Interesting People I met at Converge South
Dave (amongst others) on ConvergeSouth.
Here are some cool people I met during the conference:
I know I'm forgetting a lot of people so if we had an interesting conversation and you're not here, I'd love it if you'd let me know!
In
Blogging, Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 09:32 PM | Permanent link
October 08, 2005
Converge South
I woke up at 6am this morning and listened to the Gorillaz* all the way to Greensboro, where I'll be spending a day with the "weblogs will set us free" crowd at Converge South.
Just arrived...got wireless access... Got plenty of the "you work for IBM and you use a MAC!?" remarks.... need COFFEE....
* Seriously, I'm beginning to think that they somehow found a way to mix crack with their music. Should I be worried?
In
Blogging
Posted at 08:59 AM | Permanent link
October 07, 2005
The Gorillaz
I've been unable to stop listening to the Gorillaz ever since I grabbed their newest album, Demon Days.
Check out the music video for Feel Good Inc at AOL Music. Good stuff!
In
General
Posted at 02:11 AM | Permanent link
October 03, 2005
Raleigh Bloggers Meetup, Tuesday October 4th
Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 4th) for the first Raleigh/Cary Bloggers meetup of the month.
What: An open meeting to talk about blogging, podcasting & whatever's on your mind
When: Tues @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Cafe Cyclo, in Cameron Village
2020 Cameron St
Raleigh, NC 27605 (map)
(919) 829-3773
Who: Bloggers, Podcasters, or anyone who is interested in blogging-related conversation.
Well be talking about Converge South and travel amongst other things :)
In
Blogging
Posted at 08:36 PM | Permanent link
October 02, 2005
Eliza and Me
Me and my sis - 2004 (ish).
In
Matters that are otherwise worthwhile
Posted at 11:38 PM | Permanent link
October 01, 2005
Atom 1.0 Compliant!
Given that Atom 0.3 is now deprecated, I've finally gotten around to creating an Atom 1.0 feed for this blog.
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](/images/valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
Yay!
MovableType users might be interested in my Atom 1.0 template. Just replace "Josh Staiger" inside the rights element of the feed with your own name. Everything else should work automagically.
No need to worry if you're subscribed to my Atom 0.3 feed. I'll be serving both Atom 0.3 and Atom 1.0 (along with RSS, of course) for the foreseeable future.
In
Site News, Technology and Software
Posted at 11:37 PM | Permanent link
Planning a trip to Boston
I've been accepted for the Startup School conference at Harvard University, Oct 15 2005. Glancing at the speakers list makes me want to scream like a teenage girl at a Beatles concert (the mere idea of being in the same room as Wozniak does that to me).
So, I'm planning a trip to Boston for that weekend. I've already talked to Amy and Renee. If anyone else from the northeast would like to grab some chowdah while I'm in town, let me know!
Jeff and Jason will be flying in to attend as well.
In
Matters that are otherwise worthwhile, Technology and Software
Posted at 10:09 PM | Permanent link