Being Dave To

Almost 31, me. March 30th, 2007

I’m turning 31 in just a few days. I’d like to say that I don’t care and it’s just a number but for some reason, it’s depressing this time around. Have I gotten to where I’ve wanted to be? no. Am I going in the direction that I’d like to be going? Hard to say. Have I made the most of my 31 years on this planet? most likely not. I know there’re a lot of things that I should be thankful for and things could always be a lot worse but I’m finding it particularly tough to shake this doldrum. I’m pre-middle-aged. Is it almost time for a crisis yet?

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An insider look at Hockey Fights March 27th, 2007

Nothing much to blog about these days so i figure I’d just link to random stuff on the web. Check out this clip of what’s actually being said on the ice when two enforcers decide to go at it. When you see the fight, they’re not holding back anything. It’s interesting how they see it though. Quite different than how we see it on TV.

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Ankle = Sore but functional March 26th, 2007

Played my first game of volleyball today since spraining my ankle 3 weeks ago. I’ve got a heavy-duty aircast brace on it and I’ve been doing lots of strength training in that area so it wasn’t too bad. Just a little sore afterwards. It’s actually the other parts of my body that are really sore now from the lack of use since the injury.

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Sweating the little things March 25th, 2007

I’ve found that while working on my projects, I often get sidetracked on really time-consuming and ultimately worthless tasks that don’t contribute directly to the end goal. For instance, I’ve just spent the last 2 hours trying to install ActiveCollab on the Booksprouts server. I’ve done it before where it was simple but this time, it’s asking for InnoDB support on mySQL. I’ve no idea why because I’m running mySQL 5, i think. Anyways, my point is that configuration sucks and can be a huge time killer. Perhaps I should be more selective in picking my battles. In other news, happy 1 year birthday Tehya! Thanks for the killer party.

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Workspace - A place to focus and be productive March 23rd, 2007

Looks like our Booksprouts team has expanded to 3 core members now and one Remote Project Manager. Our latest addition is a Ruby on Rails guy with a J2EE background. Booksprouts is re-gaining some good momentum these days. I have a good feeling about the current team. This time the project is going to complete and it’s going to be freakin awesome.

We met in Gastown at a place called Workspace. It’s a very impressive, open workspace. Lots of light, exposed brick, mini-meeting rooms, coffee bar, fiber connection with wireless, nice view. I bought a membership there for 6 months to try it out. I think it’ll boost my productivity being in that sort of a work environment, as opposed to the many distractions I face when at home, like TV, TV, TV! Hope this works.

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Ex-Coworkers in a small IT World March 22nd, 2007

Vancouver is a big city these days. 578,041 ppl in 2006 according to Statscan to be exact. Yet the IT community seems fairly tight-knit. In my new office building, I’ve already ran into two ex-coworkers from an old job that was across town in trendy yaletown.

Today I had coffee with one of them and I had an opportunity to discuss my websites with him. He had some great insights that got me thinking about how I could change the business model of Unbi.as. The site’s just not gaining traffic these days and I know a big (ok huge) part of the reason is my lackadaisical approach to marketing. I’d like to share these ideas with you but for now, I’ll jot them down and mull them over a bit more. The point of all this is that talking about your projects with people is a good thing. It keeps it alive in not only your head but that of others. Also, It’s good, but, painful sometimes to have others vet your ideas and although the feedback can be critical sometimes, it will more often than not lead to better solutions and better products in the end.

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Laying Floor March 20th, 2007

Been a few days since my last post. That’s partly because I’ve spent a lot of time helping Ally lay laminate in her investment condo. If you’ve never laid down flooring, let me tell you, it’s a bitch. Especially when the laminate that you have cracks and chips easily and doesn’t always fit right. Kneepads only help for the first hour or so. Back pain is inevitable. Nevertheless, there’s a feeling of satisfaction when you put it all together like some big jigsaw puzzle. We’re almost done, just a few more pieces to go and the moulding around the edges. Then it’s celebratory dinner time (Rodney’s oysters, mm).

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Web 2.0 in a Can March 17th, 2007

What is Web 2.0? This term has been around for awhile now to the point where I almost don’t feel weird like I’m speaking techno-babble when I use it. Almost. To me it’s community-building on the web. Voice of the masses over that of the individual, crowd participation, and all that kool-aid. Unbias is built on that foundation along with a whole lot of digg-clones.

One thing that I’ve discovered about this approach is that at the beginning, it’s the proverbial chicken and egg. How can you get good content without users? How do you get users without content? The obvious answer is bootstrapping in some way or another. I’ve tried to create my own content and also scouring the web for material. It’s time-consuming and tedious work. So I think my next move is to buy content. I ain’t proud of it, because ideally you want organic, user-generated content. But if this is what it’s gonna take, then so be it.

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Coronas taste like pee without lime March 16th, 2007

Why do I say this? I just finished off the last of the coronas that Ally’s AWOL, bat-shit insane former tenant left in the fridge of her apartment before she bolted to Calgary. She still owes 2 months of rent, all her bills that go back a ways, damage to the carpet, and an apology for all the hassle and harassment. At least she’s out of there now. We’ve torn out the carpet. This weekend we throw down the laminate. If there’re a couple of lessons from this experience that I’ve learned through watching Ally, they are this:

1. Some people suck bad. It can be hard to tell sometimes too, like everything’s cool on the surface when just underneath, they’re psycho.

2. Government workers by and large suck bad too. They are paper pushers that have settled into lifer jobs with a fat pension at the end. Don’t go to the RTO (residential tenancy office) if you want customer service.

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Anyone know Ruby on Rails? March 15th, 2007

We’re looking for a Ruby on Rails developer to join the Booksprouts team. Apparently, Vancouver is a hotbed for ROR devs but they’re probably already working on projects of their own or doing full-time paid gigs for places like Raincity Studios. But heck you never know. For now, I’ll troll on Craigslist and see what I can get. Here’s the ad text:

ROR Enthusiasts - Looking for part-time Partners

Join a talented team bent on creating a Community-Driven site that will make a name for itself. This is NOT a paid position. Repeat, NOT a paid position. Instead, you will be a part-owner in this project and will get a share in the profits ad infinitum. This is PART-TIME, as in you tell us how much time you can devote and we’ll work it out. Skills we’re looking for: Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Ajax.

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