tag: technology

28 Oct 2014
A Thing I Made: Vitae
For the bulk of 2013, I worked with a talented Viget team to develop Vitae for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Think of it as LinkedIn for people in higher ed. Here’s a screenshot of my favorite …
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02 Feb 2013
Another Thing I Made: WorldWildlife.org
Last year, I had the priviledge of working with a talented team at Viget to build and launch a new site for the North American branch of the World Wildlife Fund This was the first major project at …
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08 Jul 2011
A Thing I Made: PUMA.com
I’ve been working for PUMA (the shoe company) at Viget for about the last year and a half, developing a content management system (CMS) to drive several of their category marketing sites (including …
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26 Aug 2010
The Gift & the Curse
Last week, my sister and I took a road trip across the American southwest, moving her from her temporary home in Burbank, CA to College Station, TX for grad school. It was a great time — visiting …
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20 May 2010
Around "Hello World" in 30 Days
Last weekend, I flew out to Chicago to coordinate DevNation Chicago and present my findings from my month of new technology. In hindsight, I probably bit off more than I could chew trying to do both; …
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11 Apr 2010
My Month of New Technology
Last week, I was talking with a friend, a fellow programmer, about what it takes to stay on top in the technology industry. We’re both Ruby guys, working with reasonably cutting-edge technology …
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29 Aug 2009
TheCoffeeLog, My Rails Rumble App
Last weekend, I participated in the Rails Rumble, a 48-hour web application creation competition (and thus ends the rhyming portion of today’s entry) for the second year in a row. This year, my teammates …
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16 Jul 2009
Viget Extend Posts
I know things are slow on this site, but it’s not as if I’ve given up writing online entirely. These days, I put my technical posts at Viget Extend, our development team blog. Here are a few …
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01 Jun 2009
RubyNation PresenTation
I’m taking my Optimizing Perceived Performance show on the road for the RubyNation conference, June 12-13 in Reston, VA, alongside three of my fellow Vigeteers. I’ve been busy revising the …
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14 Mar 2009
Durham Developer Day
One week from today, I’ll be speaking at Durham Developer Day, a small web tech conference being put on by Relevance and Viget Labs. My talk, “Optimizing Perceived Performance,” is about …
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07 Dec 2007
Refresh the Triangle: Web Application Security
At last night’s Refresh the Triangle meeting, Clinton Nixon (who should totally get together with Harrison Ford and have a presidential name-off) gave a great talk on web application security. He …
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05 Nov 2007
Sweet Cards from MOO.com
My MOO.com order showed up today. These guys take photos from your Flickr stream and turn them into calling cards, stickers, postcards, or notecards — you pick the images and customize the text …
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16 Aug 2007
Custom Quicksilver Actions in Ruby
And now, a neat trick I picked up at the Ruby Hoedown last weekend, combining my favorite language with my favorite app launcher/file appender/iTunes controller/ninja throwing star, Quicksilver. By placing …
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25 Jul 2007
Textpattern Article & Link Feed
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been struggling to combine the articles and links from this site into a unified feed. I thought I’d found a solution using FeedBlendr to combine the two feeds …
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24 Jul 2007
Blend'd & Burnt
One of my biggest gripes about this site design is that it doesn’t handle short posts very gracefully. With that in mind, I decided to add a Quick Links section, using the Textpattern link-management …
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28 Jun 2007
So Much Cool Technology
… and so little time. My top five technologies calling out for a project: 5. Tumblr Create your own tumblelog in minutes — really slick stuff. Version 2.0 looks even cooler. 4. Haskell From …
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16 May 2007
Django First Impressions
I’ve spent a fair bit of time playing with the Django web framework over the last few weeks. It’s been interesting to compare and contrast it with my current favorite, Ruby on Rails. Both …
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20 Apr 2007
I Can't Believe I Do This for a Living
Mary asked me to help write a small script to take an email address and append it to a text file. I know PHP has a lot of built-in functionality for working with files, but for simplicity’s sake …
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12 Mar 2007
Fun with Logo Design
Some logo ideas for the website I’m working on: “Chatterbox” is just a working title, but still, fun stuff. My favorite’s the blue one; what do you think?
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07 Mar 2007
Updates from Azeroth
Figures this would be my last post before a two-month silence on this site. Warcraft is a hell of a drug, I tell you what. Still a lot of fun on my third go-round; leveling this character has been a markedly …
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24 Jan 2007
Back on that Pogo Stick
Saturday night, while waiting for our movie1 to start, Mary and I strolled into an EB Games, to be confronted by a life-sized cutout of a fearsome-looking Blood Elf. One serious discussion later, we …
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30 Dec 2006
Call Confirmation
While trying to make plans with some friends this evening, I accidentally dialed an acquaintance from college with whom I haven’t spoken in at least two years. I think I was able to hang up in time …
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07 Dec 2006
My Ultimate MP3 Player
I’ve been looking for a new MP3 player for a while now, with little success. I’m not really interested in picking up the latest iPod offering, only to have Steve Jobs release a new one that’s …
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21 Nov 2006
Documents, Links, and To-Dos
Like most people who sit in front of a computer for the better portion the day, I go through way more information than my feeble brain can hold. I’m always looking for good ways to store and process …
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27 Sep 2006
Rails Principles in PHP
I was recently contracted to develop a CRUD web application for a local non-profit. After spending the last few months developing with Ruby on Rails at work, imagine my dismay when the project specifications …
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21 Aug 2006
Getting Started with Ubuntu
This past weekend, I finally took the plunge and installed Ubuntu Linux on my PC. Installation couldn’t have been simpler — you honestly don’t need to have a tech background to get this …
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20 Jun 2006
A Fresh Start
I’ve decided it’s time to step back into the ring and create a new personal site—I’ve been away too long, too long. Since last we spoke, hrm … I graduated from college …
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About Me

I’m the Development Director at Viget in Durham, North Carolina. I’m also an avid reader, traveler, cyclist, musician, coffee fiend, and friend of birds.