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Comment on “Practical Metaprogramming” presentation from RubyConf XI by stevengharms.com » Blog Archive » Practical Metaprogramming Video Now Available

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:27:12 +0000

[…] mentioned previously, I gave a talk at Rubyconf XI in New Orleans a few months back. The video is now available. If you […]

Comment on Presentation from Lone Star Ruby Conf V by judy

judy — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 06:24:41 +0000

Dude! I didn’t know you were into language. I’m interested in it as a layperson because my friend’s getting his phd (he works a lot with dying languages, like Hupa!) so I hear about linguistics stuff all the time. I’m into Na’vi, so I was going to make something that conjugates Na’vi verbs (well, and also translates, and does spell checks so that I can make Na’vi scrabble, and also some kind of Na’vi “text editor” helper where you click on a word and get a bunch of options about tense and aspect and whether it’s the subject or object of your sentence and then applies the infixes/etc automatically……). I have no idea where to start. Soooo I’m going to look through your Latin stuff.

Other people have already written Na’vi parsers (such as http://dvi.clonk2c.ch/navi_translate.pl ) and Na’vi dictionary lookup utilities (such as http://dvi.clonk2c.ch/navi_dict.pl ), but that’s not gonna stop me from replicating their work (it’s in perl: http://forum.learnnavi.org/projects/eana-eltu-a-na%27vi-gtenglish-and-english-gtna%27vi-translator-and-dictionary/msg254608/#msg254608 … I don’t know perl so I’m unspoiled for my hypothetical Ruby port of it) anyway. haha. People on the learnnavi.org forum generate the dictionary database in tab-delineated format and update it frequently. (There are also mobile device apps that are functional dictionaries, but none of them have parsing/verb conjugation.)

I have one thousand project ideas and find it difficult to begin. haha

Comment on Finished Daniel Everett’s “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes” by isomorphismes

isomorphismes — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:43:55 +0000

Oh. And think, too, about David Graeber’s thesis: no money through a lot of history, just social conventions. Quantification is new.

Comment on Finished Daniel Everett’s “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes” by isomorphismes

isomorphismes — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:50:17 +0000

put <- contrast

Comment on Finished Daniel Everett’s “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes” by isomorphismes

isomorphismes — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:49:34 +0000

I really enjoyed this essay. Except the assumption that ennui and malaise drive northerners to Paxil, Reality TV, and church.

I think there is much, much more to be learned from the contrast of primitives to moderns than I have seen explored. It goes deeper than those critiques and their ilk. For example, put these observations about the Pirahã way of life with Keynes' and other philosophers' dreams of a more literate, skeptical, artistically aware society — which I think we have achieved.

Have you lived in a developing country? I stayed in Guatemala for about 2 months a few years ago. So I didn't really get to know what life is like there. But what I think I observed, is that fulfillment comes from work and human relationships, as well as wealth/comfort. I don't know about present vs futures mindedness.

Anyway there is quite a riddle here. Poor people are sometimes happy but most would prefer to be richer. So married are happiness and utility and preference in philosophy/economics that that sounds paradoxical.

And, is happiness really the goal? Seriously, there are alternatives.

Comment on Saw “Kung-Fu Panda 2” by the social bobcat

the social bobcat — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:12:59 +0000

don’t forget Jean Claude Van Damme’s crocodile kung-fu master!

Comment on Getting harrassed by BCR Credit Collection Agency by Dylan

Dylan — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:58:59 +0000

Great post Steven! Dealing with collection agencies can be a stressful thing, especially when they don't play by the rules. It's a good idea to understand what your rights are I found Business collection agencies a great resource when I was doing research on agencies.

Comment on I Won the Podio API Release Hackathon Competition by John Fan

John Fan — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 05:24:34 +0000

Thanks for mentioning us in your blog post! It was good to meet you.

Comment on Fear and Expectations and the Ruby Job Market by steven

steven — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:43:43 +0000

Kai,

Thanks to you and TrueCar for hosting the hack night the other night. It was a really great time and I really enjoyed the opportunity to get a read on the general awareness of some of the coolest features of Ruby around from the other attendees.

Thanks so much for your story! I hope that as people find this comment thread they'll see the example of TrueCar and realize that just because it may be hard to find a company out of the Ramen and Ping-Pong phase, they do exist and some of them are awesome!

Comment on Fear and Expectations and the Ruby Job Market by Christopher "Kai" Lichti

Christopher "Kai" Lichti — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:36:34 +0000

Hey, Steve, great topic!

Two years ago, I made the leap to a startup. I was the fourth one in, and there was a lot of risk it might not succeed as a business. But unlike RubyRazzle, we immediately provided great salaries, benefits, and options to ourselves and everyone we hired. We could’ve been cheap, but the little amount saved cutting back would not have substantively improved our chances. However, keeping the team focused, instead of distracted finding health care for their 30 autistic children, seemed like the way to go.

Today we’re profitable, pre-IPO, and still hiring with strong compensation, benefits, and stock options. I can’t say how common our story is, but I just wanted to throw out there that not all startup Ruby jobs are low-comp, risk piles wrapped in free food and ping pong tables.

Also, thanks for speaking at Hack night. It was a fun and engaging talk.

Cheers,
Kai