05/22 Bill Gates is starting to look like Woody Allen?? —

05/21 [GEEKY] Devise Gem – current favorite for authentication of Rails Applications — How to build authentication into Rails applications? Well, at least at RailsConf 2011, the buzz was around a new Authentication gem called Devise. I played with it a little (here in the airport) at it seems quite nice and straightforward. Check it out if you were looking for something like that. #railsconf

05/20 [GEEKY] Magic Rails Applications with Hobo — Another tidbit I came across at RailsConf is Hobo. I haven’t tried it myself but did just go through the screencast and tutorial. I think it’s worth a closer look. > “Hobo is a plugin for Ruby on Rails that brings a number of extensions—some small some large—t...

05/19 [GEEKY] Yes, Virginia, Rails DOES scale — Why doesn’t every one love Rails? I am surprised when I run into someone (Pat?) who’s not so sure about Rails. Usually it’s about scalability. [I warned you this is a geeky post] When I am designing or building a system and am questioned about whether **writing it in Ruby or Rails is a good id...

05/13 Word of the day: Witholding or Withholding — One or two H’s? Don’t look it up!

05/12 People forgot about iPhone 1.0 — Funny to read this: > “The story started in 2007, with the release of the first iPhone. Led by its enigmatic leader Steve Jobs, Apple gave developers their first real taste of independence from the carrier oligarchy. The iPhone’s [beauty was manifold, but first and foremost, it allowed developers...

05/12 MSFT and Skype, my angle — Check this post Why Microsoft bought Skype from I, Cringely: > There is so much to write about but I’ll begin with Microsoft buying Skype for $8.5 billion. The pundits are debating whether this move by M...

05/09 Mac Mystery — Just reaching out you mac experts. I used to think I was one, but this one has me stumped. Using Safari, every so often, while I am doing something (what?) shrinks the fonts of the page being displayed. In other words, does the equivalent of a Command/- or Command/+. It seems to have something to do with dragging the mouse while doing something else. I know that a command-0 restores things normally. I also know that control-double-fingered-drag will enlarge the whole screen, that is, zoom in on the pixels. This is something else. I can’t figure it out and neither can google. Do you know?

05/05 Quotidian Quotidian Quotidian — This word “QUOTIDIAN” seems to have become popular suddenly. Did you notice? Or is it just me that is noticing it more because up to a minute ago I didn’t know what it meant? It’s so simple, once you know 🙂

04/11 Thoughtful advice — No need to paraphrase or editorialize. Just read the whole thing, will ya? Lots of good advice that I wish I had gotten years ago. **[How to steal like an artist (and 9 other things nobody told me)](http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/...

04/08 Why don’t they ask you for identification before letting you vote? — Every time there’s an election it seems like someone brings up the odd fact that you are not asked for ID here in Massachusetts before being allowed to cast your ballot. It seems to me that this is especially surprising to people from other countries. Here’s a good [article that explores some of the...

04/06 Passover, Curaçao style — Here’s how we make Garoza (Charoset) in Curaçao. Trust me, add a little horseradish, a couple of matzah, delicious!

03/31 Losing Our Way — This New York Times Op-Ed piece by Bob Herbert really hits home: > “The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.” (from Losing Our Way) It’s called  “Losing Our Way”. You should read it.

03/31 Christopher Hitchens — A really excellent interview/review of Christopher Hitchens and his memoir, “Hitch-22”: > “He could never have guessed how prescient those words would be. In June last year, while on a tou...

03/23 Startup vs. Company — “Oh yeah, I’ve started 6 companies, and right now I have 3 startups going. I just love starting companies. I don’t know what’s wrong with me….” Have you ever heard statements like that? I hear them, fairly often, and I am never sure what to make of them. My immediate impulse is to call “Bullsh...

03/19 Case Study of User Experience Design and Lean Methodology — A good read if you are interested in fast iteration in user experience design and redesign: > “By the end of the iterations and tests, every single one of the users liked the new version better than the old, and we had a very good idea why.” (from Case Study: UX Design and Food on The Table)

03/16 Mint.com no longer supports Bank of America — It’s hard to believe, but here is what I got from Mint.com when I asked why my Bank of America info was not updating on Mint: > Hi Pito, Thank you for contacting Mint.com. According to our engineers, we can’t support Bank of America due to unsupported authentication and/or challenge que...

03/14 Fareed Zakaria: “Are Americas Best Days Behind Us”? — I know it’s a provocative title, and sadly I suspect that many of the ‘intended audience’ will agree with much of what he says, but then also feel like there’s nothing that can be done about it. I am a waning fan of the Sunday TV news shows. Nowadays it is so easy if you are inclined to kee...

03/11 Charitable Mutual Funds (updated) — [Note: don’t assume you know what a Charitable Mutual Fund is. It’s an evocative but really misleading name but I don’t have a better handle for it yet. This is not an investment vehicle, it does not return any money. It is way to allow a donor to donate to one or more causes that match certain ...

03/07 Interesting search engines — Qwiki seems to create multi-media presentations on any topic at all. I picked an odd topic, like “BlogBridge”, and it did a half decent job. I don’t know how automatic or human-driven it is, but it’s interesting. Another interesting find is Fotopedia, “The First Collaborative Photo Encyclopedia”. It’s interesting but it suffers from an unclear mission. I think it’s trying to be wikipedia meets flickr, but I am not sure. As you can see from this link, there’s some actual connection to Flickr. Are they using Flickr to prime their pump?