brian ballantine's work, etc.brian ballantine's work, etc.<c:if test="${fn:length(sales) > 0}">
<table>
<tr><th colspan="2">${title}</th></tr>
<c:forEach var="sale" items="${sales}">
<ggm:sale-view sale="${sale}">
<tr>
<td><a href="${saleDetailUrl}" >${image}</a></td>
<td>
<div><a href="${saleDetailUrl}">${name}</a></div>
<div>Ends ${endDatetime}</div>
</td>
<td>
</tr>
</ggm:sale-view>
</c:forEach>
</table>
</c:if>
Currently in the middle of a swirling mass of information like the Pacific’s hundred mile swirling mass of plastic. I am learning iPad development. It’s good because I’ve had all of this extra energy which I’ve been spending at undirected dabbling. It’s the type of thing that never seems productive because it rarely ever leads to some sort of satisfactory end. But the opportunities in mobile dev are plentiful. I have found one and I hope to find more. I will go where they take me.
For some reason I think Scheme is the most beautiful language. I’ve been distracted by reading about and messing around with Scheme (and Lisp). I’m still rooting around for a good little project so I can make some use of the language.
PLTScheme and DrScheme are ugly to me, actually. And, I’m disappointed that Schemers and Lispers are such emacs fans. I just cannot bring myself to learn another editor. I love vim for the simple stuff and I love Eclipse for the complex stuff.
So, my current set-up is Chicken Scheme + Slime.vim, but I’m about to try some Eclpse plugin stuff and see where it takes me.
I had a lot of trouble with Android layout techniques. I think it’s just the typical beginner’s woes. In the process, though, I decided to toss out everything and start ZenGarden anew… Then I decided NOT to do that.
The problem is ZenGarden isn’t so compelling on it’s own. So, before I move forward, I need a clear vision of what I want. Why do I scrutinize and why don’t I just get ‘er done?
My current idea is to go back to the tile-based layout and include a little animation of a man raking the garden. The ultimate goal is for it to feel old-school and 8-bit. I’m still digesting this idea, though. In the end, I just need to get to work.
Not being a good drawer is holding me back. I draw slowly and my lines are ugly. I am thinking about this because Zen Garden needs good art and I don’t think I’m equipped to really even see it right in my head. How should it look? My goal is to make it feel very 8-bit, but still look beautiful. Perhaps I need to play Super Mario Bros 3 for a while for inspiration. But, in the meantime, I’m practicing drawing. Usually I try to draw Jacque, but she doesn’t sit still. I also want to get good at drawing plants and rocks (things for the garden). I think this practice will translate into improving my software projects.
During the shortest month of the year, my wife and I have decided to eliminate un-savories from our diet. This means, among other things, no meat, poultry, or booze. We are also trying to limit the sugar, dairy, white four, and fried food in our diet. This is not the first time we’ve done this.
It’s been a couple weeks, this round, and the benefits are noticeable. We both feel more energetic. Jacque has noticed (and so have I) that the diet has improved her skin (more glowey). No more food coma or stomach aches. Most of all, I’ve felt more productive, motivated, and smarter.
The unerring austerity of purity month might not become a permanent fixture in our lives, but the lessons we’re learning certainly will. I expect to moderate much more and to make healthier choices from here to the end…
As a few cats from my company head to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, I’m reminded of the inherent conflict between the Marketing type and the Engineering type. This conflict is typically manifested in a bunch of frenetic last-minute marketing requests around the promotion of projects engineers have spent months on. My reaction is usually the same. “We have been thinking about this project for a long long time, why are you just now deciding you desperately NEED thing X?” I genuinely feel that the average digital-age marketer does jack most of the time and thinks only in small, shallow bursts.
The marketing team is on shaky ground to start when dealing with engineers. Engineers often feel they do the hard work—the anti-social mind-crushing problem solving followed by heavy duty sustained shoveling—only to see the marketer give it an annoying catchy name, put on a smile, get free drinks and pats on the ass, and act like (S)HE has all the answers. Then come the interruptions and last-minute requests. Paul Graham (who himself is essentially an engineer turned marketer) writes about the maker’s schedule vs. the manager’s schedule. This is a great essay for illustrating my point or sharing with a boss… and I’ll leave this little rant here.
I’m confident the work my engineering colleagues have put together for MWC will stand on it’s own. It’s annoying we need to hire a marketing team to go to the free drinks events and use the latest lingo to describe what we make. But I understand that this is how it works. In the end the investment in marketing provides returns that help provide my paycheck, and I certainly appreciate getting paid.
Finally, I enjoy coding as much as I enjoy getting paid, which is why my personal projects tend to be weird and have no commercial (or really any type of) relevance. But if I’m not getting paid, then it’s my time. To quote Mikey from Goonies “…But right now, they got to do what’s right for them. Because it’s their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it’s our time. It’s our time down here.”
Updating my “web presence”. Which means I began to put my projects on-line (on github, etc) and provide links from my home page, http://brianballantine.com
It also entails writing something here, which is where I expect to talk about my software development efforts. I’m using http://labratinlab9.tumblr.com as my “junk/art blog” which means that’s where I’ll put the random junk I create when I’m not focusing on real projects.
A quick note on labratinlab9 - “Lab Rat in Lab Nine” are the letters of my first and last name, Brian Ballantine, re-arranged.
Right now I’ve only put up Proclipsing and Zen Garden, as those are the major projects I’m currently working on, but I expect to put some more things on brianballantine.com. Next is probably the global warming movie generator, which I think I will publish on github.
