Oddly Zen

Chrome just Changed the Game

Mark Coates — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:15:52 +0000

Whether you’re up on ‘em or think they are sign of the Coming Apocalypse, you may have heard…

Google just changed the game for the delivery of software applications.

They released Chrome: less browser, more application delivery platform. JITted Javascript — for fast DOM wizardry and Ajax yumminess. It’s own application space and full-stack OS hooks through Gears. Your app can effectively leap into the cloud. (more…)

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New York: Media, not Finance!

Austin Smith — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:37:04 +0000

Paul Graham doesn’t understand the appeal of New York City to web nerds. He says “Cambridge… feels like a town whose main industry is ideas, while New York’s is finance and Silicon Valley’s is startups.” Not so! New York, for me, is media. And I’m not alone.

I’ll take this point to introduce myself to this blog, Oddly Zen, as this is my first post, and my story informs my defense of New York against Cambridge and Silicon Valley. I do live in New York, and I work in media. I work for Observer Media Group as the technical team leader (head nerd), where I run Observer.com and Politicker.com.

I’m certainly not in New York for the money, and I’m not that envious of those who have more than me. I’m in New York because of the pace and excitement of my niche in software development. The problems in computing for news media are enormous for many reasons; managing web content in a clean and useful way is so much harder than most developers know (if you scoff at that claim, I’ll trade jobs with you for a day).

Anyhow, the bulk of the CMS-needing media companies of the world are in New York, and many of them employ nerds like me to whip their CMS into shape. And as media becomes more interactive and more (gasp) social, startups bubble up around the fringe. There are many such startups in New York City; in fact this is probably true for other industries, like advertising, textiles, and public relations. I just don’t know anything about these domains. The result is that there are a ton of software developers here. And most of us aren’t working in finance. (more…)

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Print is dead. Long Live Print.

Mark Coates — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:57:28 +0000

On Wednesday, New York Times Co. (NYT) reported disappointing second-quarter earnings, and on Thursday the stock continued in its steep descent.

At the end of trading it stood at 12.48, or virtually half the price it commanded one year ago.

This part of the story is unsurprising, given how the Street is slamming any newspaper stock.

What’s startling is something else: If you back out much of the rest of the company’s portfolio, you arrive at a surprisingly teeny valuation for the vaunted New York Times itself, despite all the respect the brand commands.

How Can The New York Times Be Worth So Little?

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Hooking Up Online: The State of MySpace, Facebook, and Other Horrors

Mark Coates — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:30:23 +0000

It’s 11pm on a Saturday night and you are on Facebook MySpace Adult Friend Finder. Again.

The urge strikes to browse users. Hmm. Female. 27-32. Within 20 miles. Must like spicy Thai food, Apple tattoos, and recursive jokes… glasses are good. (click!)

You know you’ve done it.

(more…)

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Geeks Wanted

Mark Coates — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:47:23 +0000

Calling all geeks!

It’s time to band together and drop the funk.

Geek is the new hip, haven’t you heard? Geek tattoos are chic. Librarian glasses are sexy. Weird is in. And you can be, too.

Oddly Zen is seeking collaborators and guest-bloggers for full-time, part-time, or one-off content contributions in the areas of:

Ajax (tips, tricks, tutorials, or opinion)
Apple
Blogging (the business, the practice, or general coverage)
Books (ebooks, free chapters, or book reviews)
Business
CMS (reviews, open-source projects, WordPress, etc.)
Community (open source, Ruby or Rails, social media, etc.)
CSS (tips, tricks, tutorials, or opinion)
Design (UI, HCI, UX, etc.)
Graphics (Photoshop or Fireworks tips, tricks, tutorials, or opinion)
Humor (geek is funny)
Linux
Marketing
Microsoft
Open source software
Pimp that App (case studies, tips, tricks, tutorials, or opinion)
Politics (active and apathetic)
Programming (mainly Ruby & Co. — possibly C#, Lisp, Erlang, etc.)
Stranger than Fiction (truth be told, geeky situations are weird and funny)
WordPress (development, customization, plug-ins, etc.)
Your Ideas (if it’s geek, or plain good, we’ll post it)

Increase your reach. Enhance your image. Be flagrantly geeky.

And get some link-backs all from the comfort of your cube.

Note: Think of this as an open-source blog. Contribution should make you feel good.

Also, I’m looking for someone (preferably one other person) to build a Rails application with. It will be a gift to the community as well — and if it makes any cheese, we’ll donate it.

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3 Ways to Pimp Your Web Application

Mark Coates — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:01:16 +0000

Guess who’s back, back again…?

Is your application a hooptie? Could it stand a ghetto-fabulous makeover of MTV-sized proportions? Chances are, even if it is washed and waxed, it could probably move on up to the big time by following a few nuggets of kind reflection.

I’ve been kicking around some thoughts and observations of various social media sites and APIs. And guess what? My eyes have seen the glory of the pimping of your app. That’s right — just follow these golden rules and you, too, can go from limp to pimp.
(more…)

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As Seen In Pradipta’s Rolodex

Mark Coates — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:52:18 +0000

Well, tonight I was part of the magic, inevitable train-wreck that was Pradipta’s Rolodex. As one of the fated 416 Rails developers, I feel honored. I was highly entertained with the community response and the interesting social experiment that flowed naturally from the snafu. (Even a Twitter meme popped up — #pradipta.)

Thursday night never rocked so hard.

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Ruby on Rails ≠ Content Mangement System

Mark Coates — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:41:57 +0000

I visited one of my favorite sites today — A List Apart. I was excited to see an article entitled “Getting Started with Ruby on Rails.” Like the name suggests, it is a solid introduction to Ruby on Rails and programming with the framework. Through Rails has already won many converts, it is still just being picked up by scads of developers… those who thought it best to wait until it was more supported or more mature.

I began experimenting with Rails fairly early due to a coworker’s suggestion. Then I dove in head-first when I started working for a firm specializing in Ruby on Rails development. And I’ve loved every minute of this wild ride. It is more fulfilling than previous frameworks I’ve used — ASP.NET, in particular. This feeling is due in heavy measure to the eloquence of Ruby the language, it’s natural feel, but also to the design considerations of the Rails framework. It is true that constraint can spawn creativity… ask anyone who has written a Sonnet and followed the appropriate conventions including Iambic Pentameter and the rhyme scheme. In this way, Rails allows me greater creativity and flexibility through its constraints. (more…)

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New ASP.NET MVC Framework Preview Available

Mark Coates — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:35:53 +0000

I wrote about the ASP.NET MVC Framework previously — and since then, had a chance to take a look at the source code and provide some feedback of my own. In my opinion, it has a long way to go, but it is a great step in the right direction from Microsoft. Not only are they moving toward public involvement in releases and a more acceptable release schedule, but a better overall philosophy of community involvement and adherence to de facto web application code design standards. It seems MS got the hint from the success of Open-source frameworks and felt the need to compete. Who says Open-source competition for developers hearts and minds is not a good thing? (more…)

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Image Management for TinyMCE using Ruby on Rails

Mark Coates — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:42:43 +0000

I recently created a plug-in for TinyMCE, the rich text editor, to handle image uploads, creation of thumbnails, and a gallery for insertion into the TinyMCE editor. I am super-busy — working full-time, writing a book (due out soon!), and juggling life, family, and everything-else-under-the-sun — but I am committed to writing a tutorial on how I accomplished this magical feat. (At least I’m impressed. :-)) Anyway, check back for updates. If I’m feeling especially magnanimous, I might even package it up for release…

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