Posted by Richard Thu, Jun 29 2006 18:42
I ran across this handy monitoring program tonight. It is called monit. It says you can have it up and running in 15 minutes. It took me about 30 minutes, but most of that was me reading trying to decide if I wanted to install it or not.
Posted by Richard Sun, Jun 25 2006 18:36
Some people have too much time on their hands and I am glad they do. I enjoy seeing the funny ideas they come up with.
Posted by Richard Mon, Jun 12 2006 02:28
In Andy Hunt's presentation at NFJS, he mentioned the benefits of having a "dual monitor" setup. According to this NY Times article, you can be 20-30% more productive. The reason being is you are not context switching (not directly in the article more in the presentation). By switching programs or hunting for the one you are looking for on a small screen, it can reduce productive drastically - this is context switching. Context switching isn't just finding programs on the screen. It is answering the IM or the email you just received. It removes your concentration from what you were currently working on and this really hurts productivity.
Now, if I can just convince my wife I need a pair of 30" displays.
Posted by Richard Sat, Jun 10 2006 16:41
Yesterday at NFJS, I went to a talk on Testing Strategies for Web Applications by Ramnivas Laddad. It was a good talk, but the main point I retained from it was using Selenium for user interface testing. I had heard and read a little about the tool, but I had not really looked at it (thinking it would be difficult to setup). After seeing the demo, I was really kicking myself for not looking at it sooner.
Read more...Posted by Richard Fri, Jun 09 2006 03:30
Last night was the largest Raleigh Ruby Brigade meeting I have been to (of course, I have only been going since February). Each time I have gone, I have come away with a little something. Most of the time, it is not directly Ruby related - although there is usually a tip or package discussed (after last night, I want to look at RSpec).
Read more...Posted by Richard Sun, Jun 04 2006 21:09
Now, I don't get to do this often and probably will get in trouble for it, but it was fun. Tonight I cooked dinner (grilled chicken, rice and salad) and ate it in the living room while watching the race.
You guessed it! The rest of the family wasn't home (other than Tucker, but he didn't mind). I am also glad I didn't spill anything that I wasn't able to clean up. Turned out to be a great race with Matt Kenseth beating out Jamie McMurray. Good food and good race!
Posted by Richard Sat, Jun 03 2006 12:49
You may have seen this on digg (or here), but it was so cool I had to write about it. View Bob Hoover pouring tea while doing a barrel roll in what looks like his "Shrike Commander". I have gotten to see Bob Hoover perform at an airshow and he was very impressive. This was just another example of his piloting skills.
Posted by Richard Fri, Jun 02 2006 06:20
If you haven’t noticed, there is a new look to the website. I had been toying with updating the site for a while now - mainly upgrading the version of Typo. Last night, I broke my old installation of Typo so I had to do something. It might not be completely functioning as it used to, but it should be close.
I was running a very old version of Typo that I had customized. Putting those customizations back in was a challenge, but they were actually easier this time (many of the improvements to Typo helped). Also, it might look a little funny if you are using Internet Explorer, but I will probably get around to fixing that.
Enjoy!
