Blog from the Loft

Check out the NYTimes article on WilsonDailyPrep. We at Imperial Consulting did the application, using Django and Python. It is a great service and a lot of fun to work on (my own vocab and grammar has gotten better, the Math quizzes are too easy). I am glad it is getting the big time publicity [...]

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True story, metaphorically speaking:
Client: Our customers expect us to meet them in San Francisco to run a in person workshop with all of us in a week.
Me: Great. I looked and found a great cheap flight for all of us. Let’s work on what gear to bring and get there one day before to [...]

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OpenID is a great implementation of a great idea. Vendor agnostic single sign-on with multiple persona may finally happen. For a good intro, watch Django’s Simon Wilson’s presentation here:

 
I am planning to add openID support to all my projects, www.kindneighbor.com and www.geardesk.com soon. Currently there are few sites that support it. But today I had [...]

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From the book Organized for Success : Top Executives and CEOs Reveal the Organizing Principles That Helped Them Reach the Top:

Top Priorities — time-based must do tasks

Medium Priorities

High-payoff priorities — task’s outcome is uncertain, but if successful, can result in major gain

negative Priorities — negative consequences result if you do not finish these tasks

I Love [...]

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This is a funny and true post about software Framework. I have built them, I have used them, and it is hard to find a set of tools/framework that does the job and not get in the way. A good framework has to balance between the learning curve, flexibility, depth of services, and productivity.
I Love [...]

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Mort, Elvis or Einstein, there types of programmer. Useful classification of programmer (that’s programmer with a small “p”). Read the references below for more info (yes this is just a meta post):

Wesner Moise’s thoughts,

Roger Jennings’ thoughts,

The original idea from Nikhil Kothari

And an interesting analysis by Rockford Lhotka

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Hiring a web designer is difficult. Hiring a good one is down right near impossible. What exactly is a good “web designer”?
A lot of companies incorrectly lump several very different roles together and pin it on the “web guy/gal”. What kind of work do you expect this “web person” to do?

redesign the web site/web application’s [...]

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I use basecamp. I like basecamp. I like the 37Signal designs. I read their blog. They are certainly pioneer in the newly revitalized ASP + Web2.0 biz.
But I also find basecamp inadequate, as a paid user. Specifically:

While it is nice that the include their writeboard function in basecamp, it is not integrated. If you want [...]

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Inc. Magazine has an article on Time Management. It talks about corporate rythm(s). Some companies are monochronic, 9-5 M-F, some are polychronic. My company is very much a polychronic company. There are multiple rhythms in different periodicies. Time zones differences between our international offices dictates the daily rhythm. Different holiday schedules between countries dictates the [...]

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Wiki is open source information. That is my definition. When applied to the business world, I say wiki is open source documentation. Wiki is invented at the Portland Pattern Repository, a website and database for software design patterns. You can read its full history there. In general wiki is a web site for simple, [...]

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