Category Archives: Tech Opinion

JavaScript is a Language You Need to Learn

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It’s been a while since my last post, the reason being is that I have been rather busy.  Between conferences, work, and family my “free time” has been rather limited.  When I have found some free time I spend it immersing my self in JavaScript.  Yes, JavaScript!  I have spent the past few years working with Flex and more specifically ActionScript, and only working with JavaScript when I needed too.

Many years ago I spent a great deal of time learning and developing with JavaScript.  I always found it to be frustrating, not because of the language itself but rather the browser environment.  Over the past couple of years some great libraries have been created to work past the issues found in various browsers, and browsers have improved their JavaScript engines quite a bit.

So why am I going back to JavaScript after all these years?  There are a few reasons. Continue reading →

My Ruby and Rails Journey – Part 1

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DISCLAIMER –  I want to clarify the title that I will be using for this series of posts.  I know what Ruby on Rails is, but I am taking a different approach.  I am learning Ruby, the language, while also working with Rails, the framework.  So I am digging through the famous Pickaxe book to learn about the language of Ruby and I am also working through Rails3 in Action. This is the story of my journey.

Most of my “career” as a developer has been focused on the frontend (e.g. JavaScript, CSS, HTML, ActionScript and Flex).  But I have also been working with many different backend technologies (e.g. Coldfusion, PHP, Java, Groovy/Grails).  The reason I am always looking at backend technologies is to improve my efficiency in proving out frontend solutions.  After all, a UI with no backend is about as useful as a Powerpoint or Photoshop file, which makes it hard to drive technical change with decision makers.  Trust me, if you are a frontend developer or designer, and all you ever do is create pictures and never implement; no one will care about your technical opinion.  You will fail.  Time to get on with the post..

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Passion and Drive = Codebass Radio

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Here is my Doogie Howser moment.  I recently had a conversation with a few friends regarding “passion for what you do” and I couldn’t help but think about Codebassradio.net, in particular the founder Vicky Ryder.  Codebassradio.net is an online radio station that has grown from once a day hourly windows to pretty much jamming all the time, every day.  Their official vision statement is:

CodeBass serves to showcase the fine folks among the Adobe community who share in a love of music. It’s all about getting to know YOU and what you have to offer. CodeBass loves to promote community awareness and serves as a conduit for connecting kindred souls, especially across platforms that do not typically interact.

But I don’t think this really tells the whole story.  So let me elaborate based on my perspective…

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