Cheers to MIT! Their free online education fits perfectly into the evolving world of higher education. I can start my high schooler (in 8 years) on a MIT education to give him a taste of what it would be like before he makes massive time and financial commitments. I cannot wait to see what other disruptive education transformations will come about in the next decade.
Code Camp 2011 Contest Results
The company I work for, OveractDev, co-founded and sponsored an event in the fall of 2010 called Code Camp. It was a software application contest open to anybody in Southern Utah — students, professionals, and hobbyists alike.
For the 2011 event, I was privileged to act as the chair of the Code Camp board. I was able to gather dozens of ideas and suggestions from the 2010 event participants to drive more people to the event, create greater awareness within the community and promote entrepreneurship among a talented group of developers in the community.
The 2011 Code Camp was a huge success. We had a 300% increase in the number of participants and teams. The contest showcased a collection of Southern Utah’s brightest minds in the field of software development. Sponsored by tech and tech-minded companies and organizations, Code Camp enabled 65 participants to compete across 17 teams for the top prize.
Three engineers that I manage at OveractDev (Daniel Evans, DJ Holt and Daniel Gubler), along with Curtis Larsen, a professor at Dixie State, comprised the team that took first place. Their winning app was an iPad app that allows players of the game Clue to make highly predictable winning solutions. You can read an excellent writeup of the event by Jill Elliss here on the Utah Pulse website.
Managing Static Content in a Ruby on Rails Application
Static content lives in no-man’s land. Marketers and site owners want to change copy at a moment’s notice, but giving them access to the source code or relying on a developer to update and deploy is fraught. Content management systems (CMSs) are the ideal platform for copy editors, but how do you effectively integrate CMS pages into a Rails application without duplicating logic across the Rails app and the CMS platform? I have come to favor one of two approaches, each involving the usage of a CMS.
Using WordPress for Content Pages
On some projects where there is a clear differentiation between the content-heavy public site and the application-centric logged-in site, I set up a WordPress app for the public site. The theory behind this separation is that there is no better platform out there for building a [more-or-less] static website {opinion}. I approach this separation knowing full well that the WordPress layout will be different in form and function from the Rails application layout. Colors, styles, and overall look and feel will be consistent, but headers, footers, logo placement, etc. has the freedom to best meet the needs of the role each app is playing. (Example: play around on mint.com’s public pages and then log into the site to see who vastly different the two experiences are.)
The WordPress app lives on a totally different server and assumes the default domain (eg. example.com or www.example.com). The Rails app lives at a logical subdomain, which begins with the sign-in/registration pages (eg. https://app.example.com/signin). To keep the deployment process simple, we typically leverage WordPress-specific hosting platforms such as WP Engine.
Using a Rails CMS for Content Pages
Now that Rails Engines are full-fledge citizens, there is an opportunity to leverage feature-rich CMSs in a new or existing Rails app without much of a struggle. At present, there are two Rails Engine-based CMSs that are worth considering: Refinery and Comfortable Mexican Sofa (note the CMS acronym of the latter ;-). I have used both and have an opinion on which one I recommend.
Refinery is maturing quickly and becoming a favorite of the Rails community. It is feature rich and is definitely a contender for becoming the de facto CMS for Rails apps that need a heavy-weight solution. Ironically, this is the exact reason I am not as attracted to Refinery. If I want a CMS that is trying to compete with WordPress in capabilities, then I am going to use WordPress. I can imagine one of the site owners wanting to add plugins or features that are commonplace in WordPress, but that would require custom implementation in Refinery.
If I’m not going to use WordPress, it’s because I want something more tactical and light-weight. Enter Comfortable Mexican Sofa. I have fallen in love with the ease of use, flexibility and out-of-the-way nature of CMS. If you are used to having some kind of static controller in your Rails apps to serve static/content pages, you’ll love the ability to continue to use the static controller, yet easily delegate to CMS when a static page doesn’t exist. (CMS will rescue from a template not found error and attempt to serve a CMS page matching the request).
CMS also allows the developer to explicitly render a CMS page directly from within any controller in the application. Suppose you had a controller that served up a gallery of pictures from a user’s account. If the user’s gallery did not have any pictures, the controller could be configured to render CMS page instead. This would allow an admin or copy editor to constantly change the content of the “empty gallery” page without changes to the codebase.
Another developer-friendly feature of CMS is the ability to inherit from the application’s layouts. In the simplest scenario, you need a CMS page, but the layout should exactly match the application layout. Easy-peasy. Just state that the layout should inherit from application.html.erb. If you have commonality between your CMS pages and your Rails app, but UI aspects such as navs and footers are different, you can nest your Rails layouts appropriately and inherit from the appropriate Rails layout inside of CMS.
What About Copycopter?
Copycopter is a neat service provided by Thoughtbot. Copycopter allows copy editors to edit snippets of code on the page via a web application owned and operated by Thoughtbot. In a nutshell, all I18N copy gets pushed to Copycopter where a copy editor can change the copy of any of the registered snippets. The drawback is that Copycopter becomes the source of truth for your application’s content (or at least the portion that resides in the snippets that CC is maintaining). This could present a concern to app owners and could have implications if the Copycopter service (either the admin console or the service provding the current content) became unreachable to your application.
Mexican Sofa to the rescue, again. CMS provides a handy feature called snippets. There is a DSL for using snippets directly in your CMS pages using a curly brace notation (eg. {{ cms:snippet:copyright }}). There is also a powerful feature that allows developers to use CMS snippets in any template or layout (eg. cms_snippet_content(:copyright). Using the same example from above where a user does not have any pictures in a gallery, rather than using an entire CMS page, the developer could wrap the message in a snippet. This would keep the bulk of the logic in the Rails app and give the copy editor just the right amount of flexibility to customize the message.
And the Winner Is?
If the project calls for a highly customizable CMS, I recommend delegating to WordPress, in all it’s PHP glory. If, on the other hand, you need a more tactical approach, using either fully-driven CMS pages or small-to-complex snippets, Comfortable Mexican Sofa offers the perfect blend of features, customization and libery without getting in your way. Huge props to the folks at TWG for open sourcing CMS!
Most Interesting Thing You’ll Do With a Marshmallow All Year
If you do nothing else with a marshmallow the rest of your life, at least do the marshmallow challenge. I recently ran the challenge for a group of 44 techies, entrepreneurs, lawyers and college professors. If you are looking for a team-building, design-inspiring or outright humiliating way to entertain a group, give this a try.
As a member of the Dixie Technical Association’s Steering Committee, I suggested the activity as a way to mascarade a networking event at our monthly meeting. In place of listening to a guest speaker, attendees were randomly placed into teams of four. Each group was given a packet containing 20 pieces of dry spaghetti, one yard of masking tape, one yard of string and a jumbo marshmallow. The rules were simple: in 18 minutes, build the tallest tower possible where the entire marshmallow is sitting on top.
Of the 11 teams participating, only three had a self-standing tower at the end of 18 minutes! The winning tower was 31.5 inches off the table, with the loosing tower drooping down a depressing 14 inches off the side of the table. Here is the clip from The Spectrum, which covered the event.
The Spectrum 09/03/2011, Page A01
Networking over noodles
Members of technology community collaborate on design project
By Scott Kerbs
skerbs@thespectrum.com
ST. GEORGE — Representatives from Washington County’s technology sector said they are working together in an effort to strengthen their industry by gathering for monthly networking meetings in St. George.
Sponsored by USTAR and SEED Dixie, the monthly Dixie Technical Association, or Dixie Techs, events were created about three years ago to provide local technology companies with access to new ideas, connections and information, said Jill Elliss, USTAR’s southern region technology outreach director.
“What we’re trying to really do is engage the technology community for collaboration, connections and opportunities,” said Elliss, who also serves as the director of SEED Dixie. “It’s very important to be able to share ideas, especially within the technology community.”
Adrian Meyer, an unemployed computer programmer who recently moved to St. George, said he attended his first Dix ie Techs meeting Friday in an effort to meet potential employers. “It’s a good way to network,” Meyer said Friday after participating in an unorthodox team-building and design exercise.
While most monthly meetings include presentations from featured speakers, event coordinators decided to change the formula for Friday’s meeting, said Jeff Poulton, a member of the Dixie Techs Steering Committee.
TOP: Seth Baker, Jonathan Walker and Ben Abrams, from left, work on constructing a tower out of spaghetti, tape, string and a marshmallow during the Dixie Technical Association’s monthly networking meeting on the campus of Dixie State College. BOTTOM: Jamie Lords, Curtis Larsen and Bret Berger, from left, work on the exercise. PHOTOS BY JUD BURKETT / THE SPECTRUM
Rather than presenting a speaker, Friday’s event tasked attendees with creating towers from uncooked spaghetti, string, tape and a marshmallow.
Participants were split into small groups and asked to collaborate while attempting to build the largest tower within 18 minutes, promoting networking while underscoring the importance of developing a product through prototypes, Poulton said.
“First and foremost, we’re forcing them to work and interact with people who they may not work with ordinarily,” he said.
He said the exercise also teaches participants about design strategies, as many teams spend too much time thinking about their strategy rather th an testing the strength of their structures.
“This will be the most fascinating thing you’ll do with a marshmallow this year,” Poulton said to participants shortly before the activity began.
As participants began to construct their pasta towers, Joshua Aikens, a founding member of Dixie Techs and chairman of the group’s steering committee, said the monthly networking meetings were designed to foster growth within the industry by providing a venue for members of the technology community to connect with one another.
“Our goal is to lift the tech industry in St. George,” he said.
Justin Steele, owner and general manager of InfoSiftr, a St. Georgebased company dedicated to information management, said networking often plays a vital role in the development of growing technology companies.
“There is so much you can get from networking and being involved,” he said. “This is how Silicon Valley got started.”
How to Build a Standing Desk
After several years of wishful thinking and outright hinting, my employer bought me a Herman Miller Aeron chair (this was 2 years ago). I sat on an Aeron for about 5 years with Accenture and was convinced it was the sitting apparatus that every overly-dedicated software engineer should use. I was wrong.
Long story short, I spent a few weeks researching to find the most optimal working position that would fend off future back, joint and muscle injuries caused by sitting for long periods of time. The two most frequently cited solutions were exercise balls and standing desks.
Easy enough. I bought a burst-resistant ball and cobbled together a standing desk (see resource list below). There are numerous standing desk solutions, but they are either in the form of extremely expensive geek desks or inadequate laptop tray solutions. I started with a cheap prototype (placed the monitor on an upside-down garbage can and put my keyboard on a Jimmy John’s box podium!) and worked up to a hand-made monitor stand and the same old exotic Jimmy John’s box podium.
The monitor stand consists of a 1 1/4″ galvanized steel pipe and floor flange that I bought at Home Depot. I then bolted the floor flange to my Ikea desk, screwed the pipe into the flange and mounted the monitor clamp to my 22″ Dell monitor. Done. (see resource list below)
Resources List:
burst-resistant ball
monitor pole clamp
1 1/4″ x 48″ iron pipe, floor flange, and hardware
elbow grease
The Native App & HTML5 Hybrid
I like the perspective that Sean Ryan, Facebook’s director of games partnerships, gives to the native app vs. HTML5 debate. Most people tend to place bets on one end of the spectrum or the other when it comes to the future of mobile apps. Ryan sees a more hybrid approach:
“In fact, if anything what we’ve done on our apps is a combination of the two — so native app download, HTML5 backend. Because we change our platform so often, and our apps so often, that we can’t keep asking you to download a new app every two weeks — which is about as frequent as we change it, so I think it’s a hybrid world no matter what.”
Many of our clients come to us asking what’s the best platform to start out on. The reality, is, all of them. Device owners want to feel like they have made the best decision with the selection of their smartphone. Ryan tends to agree:
“At the end of the day, you don’t care if your friend is playing Words with Friends on his phone or computer — you just want to play with him. That type of engagement should be easy for users, and easy for developers to build.”
HTML5 is going to play a major role as the common thread between the wide array of devices, OSs and form factors. As cool as it is to be fully native, we’re keeping our eye on eye on platforms such as JO and PhoneGap that offer great compromises to companies with small budgets or whose products don’t warrant full-fledge native apps.
Red Mountain Trail
After searching unsuccessfully online for a complete route description of the Red Mountain Trail above Snow Canyon, I decided it was time to figure it out for myself. I took five teenagers and another adult on the backpacking trip.
The plan was to start at the Red Mountain Trail trailhead north of Diamond Valley and to exit in Ivins at the Gunsight trailhead. Although a double track can be followed for the first 6-8 miles, we vered off the track at around 5 miles and hiked along the white sandstone along the western rim of Snow Canyon.
This route paid off in dividends. One of the boys noticed a massive depression right on the edge of the 1,000 foot cliff. As we approached, the morning sun was beaming off of a beautiful alpine-like lake, surrounded by brilliant white sandstone.
The hike across the mesa was much more undulated that I anticipated, which made for slow, but enjoyable progress. From about a mile away, we noticed a flag blowing between what we can only imagine is the namesake Gunsight. The descent from the summit was slow and dangerous. Fortunately, all the hikers were in great shape and had confidence in their descending skills.
If anybody is interested, here is a link to my GPS route of the trip. I cannot verify that this is the actual route, and I would heavily advise scouting out the descent from the Gunsight trailhead prior to making the trek. It is steep and treacherous and you would not want to find yourself at the top after a long day of hiking, unable to get down.
Here is a video highlighting some of the fabulous scenery we trekked across.
Sell Your Soul or Wear Out Your Soles, Your Choice
Yuri Milner, CEO of DST Global (Reuters)
Whether for good or bad, I stumbled upon an interview with with Milner where he made the following statement:
“In the past few years I simply do not have time for hobbies. I am even starting to forget what I was fond of. Such as in the past it was reading of literature not related to work.”
Being at a time in my life when I’m striving for balance in a multitude of areas, I find this quote to be highly revealing of one’s soul. How much money would one have to pay me to give up my hobbies? Could I give them up for so long a period that I forgot what hobbies I was fond of?
Daniel Pink’s wildly popular book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us outlines showcases the three elements that motivate us: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. For me, motivation takes on different guises at different parts of the day, week, month and year. I am constantly being driven by a wealth of interests, hobbies and passions. The thought of letting them fade in pursuit of the mighty dollar is paramount with selling my soul.
Thoreau’s essay on Walking provides a perfect counter balance to the seemingly excessive weight Milner places on work. While spending upwards of 4-8 hours a day walking, Thoreau made this observation regarding the art of walking,
“No wealth can buy the requisite leisure, freedom, and independence which are the capital in this profession. It comes only by the grace of God. It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker.”
One might judge themselves by studying these two men, their careers, their professions, and their ultimate outcomes. Do you favor the success of one man vs. the other? If given the chance to live one of these two lives, which would you pick?
When a traveler asked Wordsworth’s servant to show him her master’s study, she answered, “Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.”
To keep myself from overworking and to provide adequate motivation to use my body the way is was intended, as opposed to developing a hunchback from sitting at a computer all day, I reflect upon these poinient works of Thoreau,
When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them—as if the legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon—I think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago.
A short bit on me…
First and foremost, I am a husband to the most incredible woman alive, a father of four amazing children and in general, I love being alive.
After that, I am a passionate Ruby on Rails developer, a {biking|climbing|hiking|swimming} enthusiast, a paleo chef (ahem…in my own kitchen), an avid reader, and a huge fan of tech startups.
My current role is software engineering manager at OveractDev Technology Partners in St. George, UT. We build custom web applications with pride and craftsmanship.
