Recent articles
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Current Projects
May 18, 2008
I started writing this about a month ago, and then was in a serious car accident. Fortunately it was more serious for the car than for me and my girlfriend, but the disruption to my life has been sufficient to delay this blog post. Apologies.
It's been a while since I've written anything here - I've been swamped in projects, and of course the project list has been changing from week to week - it's just how I operate.
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Current Projects for December 2007
Dec. 27, 2007
My current projects and how I feel about them:
Music
My band, my beloved band. I feel really good about the music, about the band - but still gigs elude. I had one almost lined up, but it didn't fit with our drummer's schedule. Here's hoping that '08 will bring many live shows and local success.
I'm also making a little ambient electronica on the side - haven't come up with a good name to release it under though.
Star Power
I recently made the happy discovery that some Radio Shack stores sell electronic parts from Parallax ...
continue reading Current Projects for December 2007 (2 comments)
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Pretty exception emails in Django
Nov. 28, 2007
I work on a high-traffic Django site at work, and desipite the rigorous testing and near-mathematical-perfection of my code, I occasionally receive exception notices. Usually the default Django exception email is enough to quickly track down the problem, but sometimes things are less clear. I find the Django 'debug mode' error pages extremely useful, given that they show context around the offending line and local variable values for every frame in the traceback. The standard exception email sent to site admins when running in production mode, however, is far, far less useful.
Fortunately, Django is pretty simple. There's not ...
continue reading Pretty exception emails in Django (4 comments)
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Pre-pre-preview of the next Neoglam
Nov. 19, 2007
I've been quiet in this space due to working extra hours finishing up the django rewrite of Revver.com, and songwriting and practicing with MA:46. Now that Revver's site has launched, I have a little more time to spend writing articles and playing classic video games (System Shock 2, respect). Another thing that's taking up some of my free time is a redesign of Neoglam.com - in fact more than just a redesign, a reimplementation.
Working with Django so intensely at my day job, I realized that it would be easier for me to write the ...
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Barcamp LA 4 recap
Nov. 5, 2007
I spent a day at Barcamp LA this past saturday, and it was in fact inspiring! Whether the talks I attended hit or missed, each one inspired in me a half dozen ideas for new things to do or make. I met several excellent folks, including Eliot Philips, who was kind enough to let me store my motorcycle helmet in his car, Dan Kaminsky, who gave his excellent speech (ppt) on DNS rebinding that made us all fear for our lives and livelihoods, and Tom Longson, who had brain-stimulating things to say about wearable technology. Eric Gradman, who gave a ...
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Missing Tokyo, Surviving Los Angeles
Oct. 7, 2007
A week ago this morning I landed at LAX, home safe from Tokyo thanks to Korean Airlines. It was the end of two weeks' vacation with my girlfriend, Zoe. I looked out at the 405 as the plane made its approach, and thought "I never want to drive anywhere again." I grew up in the country, where everything was miles and miles apart, and then to a dreary suburban city that was anti-pedestrian not by malice but by laziness. Then I moved to Los Angeles, the city of the car, with its overcrowded bus lines and train that doesn't ...
continue reading Missing Tokyo, Surviving Los Angeles (5 comments)
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A new set of tiles for OS X
Aug. 19, 2007
I believe that the Mac is well-suited to two types of people at nearly opposite ends of the user spectrum. First, the user who doesn't care to serve the computer nor optimize their use thereof (the "newbie" - a term used whether the user is new to computers or not). The second is the nearly hardcore power user - nearly hardcore because despite that they can handily fling text and files around without touching the mouse and spend considerable time typing commands into a shell (probably even programming), they for some reason cannot or do not wish to make the plunge ...
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my clutter
Aug. 6, 2007
my clutter
Originally uploaded by thedaniel
No updates on my various web presences, but that doesn't mean I'm not doing anything. On my radar:
- planning for my two-week trip to Japan
- running [tiling window managers](http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii) on OS X
- booking shows for my [awesome band](http://ma46.com)
- python and ruby programming
- motorcycle maintenance
- tax refunds
- cleaning up my filthy apartment (see attached image)
- beating Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- reviewing my 3-400 level Japanese texts from college
I'll write about some of this stuff soon, sure. In the meantime you ...
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ACTION JEANS 2007
July 13, 2007
Like a lot of folks who spend a little too much time with their computers, I enjoyed a chuckle at the advertisement for "Chuck Norris Action Jeans" scanned from a 70s issue of some kung fu magazine. The jeans were advertised with the promise "won't bind your legs" and included a "unique hidden gusset".
(Click for full size)
Even though I found the advertising amusing, like many martial artists (more accurately, I am an ex-martial artist) I have evaluated pants purchases based on whether I could kick in them. I don't ...
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Proposed neologism: "loginscreen project"
June 9, 2007
4:56 - (the daniel) but a good programming exercise and a cute conceit, to have your own robot butler 4:57 - (Brian Kerr) yeah, that's great, always fun to do something a little more ... algorithmic and a little less login screen 5:00 - (the daniel) (i like that as a euphemism for project with necessary web ui crap attached) 5:00 - (the daniel) loginscreen project
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random/recent
Missing Tokyo, Surviving Los Angeles
Oct. 7, 2007
A week ago this morning I landed at LAX, home safe from Tokyo thanks to Korean Airlines. It was the end of two weeks' vacation with my girlfriend, Zoe. I looked out at the 405 as the plane made its approach, and thought "I never want to drive anywhere again." I grew up in the country, where everything was miles and miles apart, and then to a dreary ...