by: Curtis

What’s more exciting than that?

A small project I’m working needed a name. I came up with ‘girls kissing girls’. It just sounds so fucking exciting. As soon as I started working that shit and typed ‘module GirlsKissingGirls’, I finally caught on to what Cypher was saying in the matrix about what he sees when looking at the screens because looking at this code I now see ‘Sasha Gray and Faye Reagan’.

But more serious I first caught wind of ‘cool computer shit’ way back when I was a kid. Sometime between the early to mid 90s, the Ontario Science Center got a bunch of SGI Indy† machines in their technology department (right around where they had those break reaction testing machines with the steering wheels). We used to goto the Science Center all the time because lets face it that place is shit-packed with everything science. Science is the shit.

What stuck out about Indy machines aside from the fact that they ran Unix was the actual design of the machine. The average computer in those days looked like complete shit (yeah some of those macs too).

What blew me away and completely mind fucked me was that these computers were soooo fucking cool. Giant screens, colorful cases, optical mice, a crazy OS, floptical shit, blazing fast, etc. Mind you these things costed tens of thousands of dollars. I think the first time I saw the internet in the capacity its in today was on those Indy machines. Had a lasting effect. Before that we saw the internet as text based shit (ftp, newsgroups, etc) through a BBS gateway. Now I’m seeing shit in full color with graphics on this fucking epic computer. SHEEEEEEEEIT. We were going there every weekend to fuck with those computers.

This is why I like cool ass computer related shit. Brings me back to those days. Just giving this project a cool name has just about reframed everything. This isn’t just some ruby code thats going to run on some random linux server. This shit is fucking girls kissing girls. This shit is paying back to those days.

So yeah… Make your computer shit cool. Fifteen years from now people gunna be blogging bout that shit about how it inspired them.

TL;DR: Make cool shit. Cool name shit. Make epic shit.

† They had SGI Indigo²s and a bunch of other SGI shit too IIRC

Posted by Curtis on Saturday January 29 2011 | permalink

by: Curtis

Earlier today I saw this online: DAAAAAAAMN.

I clicked get the PDF. I’ve just started reading and I think buying the paperback is 100% in order. Authors who do this sort of thing are epic by my definition. Epic in general. Superstars.

Wait what? I get to get smarter, improve my craft, and all this with just a click? YES I WILL GIVE YOU MONEY!

Get reading!

Posted by Curtis on Tuesday January 25 2011 | permalink

by: Curtis

Here is a quick view of the admin section of this website (click to enlarge):

Thats all there is. You can add, delete, and edit. No bells, whistles, or any of that juicy shit. Well actually there is JQuery for editing but its under the hood.

Here is a quick view of the main section of this website (click to enlarge):

One of my issues with being a computer person is this crazy assumption I some times have that ‘people use interfaces the same way I do’.

A little while back a friend of mine had to use my computer to check out a website. When she looked at the keyboard she saw this (what Im currently typing on):

Two Z’s, two Y’s, two R’s, etc = “Uh why are there duplicate keys? Which one do I press? How do I do this?”

I post the above because when it really really really comes to interfaces, my view is a tad distorted. As a programmer I figure if I get it, people are going to get it. Yeah right.

People do all sorts of unintended things. You setup something with a flow of sorts thinking that the user is going to follow it or whatever. Thereafter trying to figure why people don’t get it.

These days people are accessing the internet with all kinds of shit that wasn’t around too long ago be it mobile phones, kiosks, gps things inside cars, tablets, those things on the back of airplane seats etc. And you have all that other non-human robot computer shit like spiders, scrapers, unknown kinda bots, etc all checking out your site.

If we keep our interfaces simple and on point, it won’t matter.

So the next time you’re making an interface, try to think a bit outside of the box. Think about all the different ways people are going to interact with your site. Factor this shit in. Think about the different types of people. The different devices. Think about the places people are going to be checking stuff out. Everywhere. From waiting behind someone at the bank to the library.

Everyone isn’t a programmer.

Posted by Curtis on Thursday January 13 2011 | permalink

by: Curtis

A true story from my childhood:

Here’s one for you. I’ll tell you how I learned about windows 3.1 way way back.

My first computer was a mac color classic. Got it back in the early 90s. Games were like $50 at the store and whatever and I didn’t have any so I was thinking fuck this computer. My friend told me 386s were good. I picked up the fucking yellow pages and called computer stores seeing if I could trade my mac for a 386. I found one! I traded it in for a 386sx 20 w/ 4mb of ram.

One day I’m sitting at home infront of a dos prompt bored as hell. I decide I’ll think of every word I know and type it in. This is how I learned of random comands I still use to day like ‘set’. This wasn’t bearing any fruit so I decide I’ll type a word and then the opposite. I first type the word ‘lose’ and then type the word ‘win’. Like fucking fireworks my computer exploded and that was the first time I saw windows 3.1.

I sat infront of that shit all fucking night clicking on everything.

Posted by Curtis on Wednesday January 12 2011 | permalink

by: Curtis

So I started working on another project. This time around I’m thinking less code, less features, less everything. Minimal as possible. All these bells, whistles, and shiny shit are starting to remind me of that car that Homer Simpson built to put ‘Ol Herb out of business. It just seems like a never end stream of MORE MORE MORE.

Whats the point of trying to do everything?!?

Image if /bin, /usr/bin, or for that matter your entire PATH was all jammed into one command that just did everything. Im sure you could make money selling this. Tons of money. Man page the size of the library of congress * 500.

Make smaller code. Refactor. Make smaller. Refactor. Make smaller.

Eh stick to your vision. Average cars these days got all that shit. Got all kinda bells and whistles. Ferrari Enzo doesn’t. But then again you can’t really “buy” an Enzo.

Posted by Curtis on Sunday January 09 2011 | permalink

by: Curtis

What the fuck?

I read some shocking statistics today and I’m confused as to why we’re not a part of it in some capacity.

We as a crew what the fuck are we focusing on? Where are our minds? If we work together we all win. If we don’t we stay divided and fragmented. And for what?

This doesn’t make sense to me at all. I can’t make heads or tails of any of it.

People say “yeah lets get money” but I’m figuring they don’t actually wanna get money. They say it sure “yeah lets get money” but and I’m guessing here maybe on some level its just one of those “it would be nice if we got money” kinda things.

Something is seriously fucked. Low barriers to entry. Virtually no overhead. A giant fucking pool of talent. The fuck are we missing? And it can’t be vision. No way.

Why are we not a fucking part of this shit!?

Posted by Curtis on Friday October 29 2010 | permalink

by: Curtis

Earlier today I was talking to my friend over msn. I told him about the project I was working on I think. Beach house.

This has got me really excited about working on new projects. Its got me excited because since we built it we really trust it. Its not merely an issue of using something because someone says use it – “use mysql”. Its more of we’re using this because its the best and if we change our minds we can just switch out whatever for whatever. Because of this we trust it. Everything is built the way we want it. Its like painting but using technology instead of a brush.

Its helped improve the hacking and getting back that thirst for knowledge.

I think we as a team have to start using and building things because its in hour best interest vs. being told what to use. This is not to say just disregard advice.

Haute couture software vs ready to wear shit you cop off the rack that everyone else and their mother who shops at target wears.

GET.

Posted by Curtis on Friday October 29 2010 | permalink

by: Curtis

I prefer taking an idea and building on it. Stepping it up. I find sometimes its impossible to see an idea to the end unless building starts. Talking is great but action is better.

Simplicity too. All this complex shit is silly. Simple better for sure. May not seem like it but it is.

Maybe why space-cadet keyboards didn’t take off.

Posted by Curtis on Thursday October 28 2010 | permalink

by: Curtis

Its both sexy and functional. It runs OpenBSD gwapo 4.7 GENERIC#258 sparc64.

Its not the fastest thing in the world but some things are not about speed or better. I’m serious.

Posted by Curtis on Wednesday October 27 2010 | permalink

by: Curtis

This is the start of something beautiful. My friend called me up a few weeks ago and told me to get crackin on some stuff. Inspired me! Now we’re inspired to start making some stuff. The awesome kinda stuff. The stuff we wanna make.

Its a good feeling man. From here to the future.

And shout out to my man d-money too!

Posted by Curtis on Tuesday October 26 2010 | permalink

by: Curtis

This is Beach House. Its a work in progress by Curtis Gwapo.

What is Beach House you ask? Its a stack of technologies + rails all wrapped into one single package. What does it contain?

• Rails 3.0.1
• Mongo 1.6.2
• Nginx 0.8.53

What about gems you ask?

• Compass (haml/sass)
• Mongoid
• Mongoid-slug
• Mongoid-search
• Mongoid_taggable
• Marku
• Devise
• Blueprint CSS

Its berry berry fast.

Our current features are as follows

• Its simple.
• Built in blogger thinger.
• Built in CMS thinger.

Posted by Curtis on Tuesday October 26 2010 | permalink