Think for yourself - Home

I am the empire

2008-08-01T19:03:00Z

I was recently at product fair, a really cool event where you get to walk around, drink beer and see what all the different teams at Microsoft are up to. Despite having all sorts of technology devoted to discovering what's going on around the company, nothing quite beats the in person experience. While there, I met Ariel. She was giving away shirts to people who would post a link to her site. After finding out her site isn't spam or anything, I thought I'd get myself a shirt.

More importantly though, through doing this, I learned about a sweet shirt company called Onno that makes organic shirts blended with bamboo. I'm now in the process of getting a wholesale account hooked up so that I can print my shirts on them.

Office Nomads Open House

2008-05-28T03:01:00Z

I'm not going to be able to make it, but you should go to the Office Nomads open house. Jacob has been great providing us space to organize BarCamp. What is Office Nomads? Co-working. You pay them some money and you can come work in their space.

Mephisto : Truncate HTML

2008-05-23T08:05:00Z

A while back I noticed that some pages in my blog were displaying a bit funny. Looking into it I realized that the theme on my blog was truncating posts to a certain number of words, not closing the tags behind it. This was annoying. I made a mephisto plugin that does a reasonable

To install:

$ script/plugin install http://download.kevin.is-a-geek.net/mephisto_truncate_html

(from within your mephisto directory)

To use:

{{ article.body | truncate_html_words: 30, '..' }}

(from within your template)

Go to BarCamp Seattle!

2008-05-22T02:19:00Z

I'm helping (well, doing very little really) organize BarCamp here in Seattle. You should come.

More info.

Even better than coming, you should give us lots of money so that we can provide stuff that attendees want, like lunch. In return we'll promote the hell out of you. More info about this.

Going to RailsConf!

2008-05-22T01:52:00Z

I'm pretty excited. Office Labs, a team I get to work work with sometimes was able to sponsor my attendance.

In addition to learning a ton and hanging out with some friends I haven't seen in a long time, I'm going to try to talk to people about what they think of Microsoft. I'll have a video camera and try to capture some of what I'm sure will be very positive sentiments.

If you'll be there, and have a non-neutral opinion of the company I work for be sure to throw it down.

Finally got one (iPhone)

2007-07-19T09:10:00Z

AWESOME

It's a reminder that software is important - that great user experience can dramatically impact people's happiness. Watching people delight as they use a phone has been really a pleasure these past few days. The people at Apple should be really proud of themselves, they've created something really wonderful.

On corporate social responsibility

2007-02-16T09:29:00Z

I don’t deny that companies have a responsibility to their shareholders to maximize profits. I am a firm believer in the free market and minimal regulatory intervention. However, I disagree with the notion that companies should do everything within the law. Regulators aren’t omnipotent. They can’t foresee changes in technology or circumstances. As shareholders and customers are becoming increasingly aware of harm causing activities, their opinions will impact the business viability of such practices. In the mean time though, there should be a good faith effort to be a good citizen. When it’s “worth it” to poison the earth, or otherwise cause harm and pay the fine, it’s still probably a good idea to opt not to.

note: this and a few other things didn't really fit into something else I'm having trouble writing (research)

The opposite of terrorism

2007-01-10T04:20:00Z

Today Apple introduced the what I think may be the coolest thing that humans have ever produced. I haven't played with one, but I'm pretty confident that it will do alright.

What would you do with $100M?

2006-10-27T07:52:00Z

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia asked a mailing list the other day how someone with 100M could best spend it "freeing" copyrighted materials.

Keeping in mind that copyright covers the expressions of ideas. How would the world be best served? Is there tangible benefit that could be derived from such works?

Moving

2006-09-26T09:07:00Z

For the next little while this site will be up and down as I transfer it to a new mac mini and I move across the country.

I’ll be sure to post more often once I touch down in Seattle.

Update: A bit of an adventure getting down here after my visa application was initially rejected but I’m living in Redmond and started work last Thursday. Lots of stuff on the go.

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-07-02T10:47:00Z

A few friends and I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” this evening. A really solid film that everyone should see. A succinct look at the issue of global warming, and America’s role.

I was humored to see a link to some videos that try to market the viewpoint that CO2 emissions don’t affect global temperatures. My favorite was the “bonus” ad hominem production. It was somewhat confusing as they were contrasting his CO2 footprint with that of some other amount they called “People” and gave no real indication of units or anything. Further, if CO2 is “life” afterall, why should there be a problem with Al’s CO2 usage?

Veggie Ethics

2006-06-30T12:05:00Z

This morning listening to the this week in science podcast. They talked about some characters creating ‘meat’ (muscle tissue) from pig stem cells.

This is just in the research phase, so we won’t be seeing these ‘fillets de engineered meat’ at your local grocer’s anytime soon. However, it does raise some interesting questions..

If you’re a veggie for environmental or animal-treatment issues – would you eat this? Is it kind of creepy? Some people in the wine industry are having a tough time accepting plastic corks. How will culinary people handle this? What would the impact on prairie economies be if there was widespread adoption?

CBC redefines "in-depth"

2006-06-28T15:28:00Z

See this report for details.

Mistaken Identity

2006-06-27T11:18:00Z

This morning my friend informed me that there is an article on the Ottawa Sun about another Kevin Davis, age 24, from Ottawa who has just confessed to a murder.

While I’m really glad they arrested this guy I really wish he had a different name / age / city.

Effect.Poof

2006-04-19T20:15:00Z

I made a poof effect that extends script.aculo.us last night. I plan on over-using it in an upcoming project (Fishbowl).

Let me know if it works for you. If people like it I'll see if I can trick the guys into letting me contribute it to script.aculo.us.