Route 19 Logbook

Hacking Users Brains

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:13:00 -0500

Asking questions is a good start but it’s not enough. Human recall about behavior is not great. We often forget or over report behaviors that make us look good –even in anonymous surveys.
What people say they do and what they do are two different things. Questions can gather information about opinions but not behaviours.
To learn about actual behaviors, you have to go where your customers are and observe them.

Thermostat

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:55:16 -0500

There are no good thermostats available out there. At least by
my standards. Nest looks cool (nest.com) but it’s expensive, scarce, and overkill.

The perfect thermostat for me (I live in Eastern Canada) would have 3 settings: Off, 15°C, and 20°C. Not sure if it’s a single dial with those 3 options, or a dial with the 2 temperatures and a discrete on/off switch on the side. My preference would be a single 2 position dial that’s also a push button.

I just want to set it low when the room won’t be used for an extended period (e.g. at night or when we’re away) and high otherwise. When it’s warm out I’ll turn it off.

I don’t want to be able to fine tune the temperature, program a schedule, have it connect to the internet, or do motion sensing. 100% manual and “dumb”.

Make that thermostat and I’ll buy 5.

devthenet/voyeur - GitHub

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 02:18:56 -0500

devthenet/voyeur - GitHub

Prevent Chrome from closing tabs with Command-W

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:44:00 -0500

I’m experimenting with running Google Chrome as my default browser, full screen in Mac OS X Lion. I use a couple of different windows to separate tasks, like mail, project management and general web surfing. Getting annoyed with accidental tab and window closing (closing the last tab closes the window) I searched for an extension to prevent it, with no luck.

My hackish solution was to remap the Command-W close window command to Option-Command-W so it’s not so automatic to close tabs by accident or habit.

System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Application Shortcuts:

Click the plus sign (+) to add an application shortcut, select Google Chrome, enter Close Window as the Menu Title and enter your new mapping. Done. No more accidental keyboard shortcut induced window/tab closures.

Now I just have to click the “x” in the tab title area when I really want it closed.

flexxCOACH Learning Center

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:49:17 -0500

flexxCOACH Learning Center:

Hockey coaching info.

"You escape the madness by seeing it as a thing you do, not a thing you make. You’re not making one..."

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:45:04 -0400

“You escape the madness by seeing it as a thing you do, not a thing you make. You’re not making one pot, you are a potter.”

- The one shot world – a case for career entrepreneurship and casual experimentation | blog.thestartuptoolkit.com | Readability

Idea: Projected Scoreboard

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:56:42 -0400

Problem:

Your rink/arena/court has a small budget and an aging scoreboard. It’s going to cost upwards of $10,000 to replace it.

Solution:

A projector connected to a small-form PC running a custom Linux setup – it recovers from power failures and other issues automatically. Maybe a small UPS for short power failures.

The PC connects to your arena’s wifi (or runs it’s own wireless network). It has a web server running a single web application that displays a scoreboard, with protected access to manage the scoreboard.

Any device on the same network with a modern web browser could connect to the web server to view the scoreboard and sign in to manage it. For example, the timekeeper could have a laptop, tablet or smart-phone and control the scoreboard.

The scoreboard display would be crisp and clear, with customizable styles and colours. Could connect to the PA system for horn and other audio. Could be used to display banner or video ads during intermissions. Internet-connected units could publish scores on webpages via a widget or API.

Need a no-hassle installation, equipment that runs a long time without issues, and a simple and intuitive interface for setup, sign in and management.

Hurdles:

Humidity, temperature, and dust in the arena could be a problem for the equipment.
Will the projection be visible enough in well lit arenas? How many lumens do we need? Do we need a screen or just a white wall?
Protecting the ceiling-mounted equipment from pucks/balls/etc.
Installation position, projection area, bulb life, screen burn.

Costs:

Projector: $500-$2500
PC: $200

Steps:

Test a projector in an arena.
Source and cost equipment.

Sinatra Recipes

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:03:47 -0400

Sinatra Recipes:

Sinatra example code.

Textmate, Rails, Bundler and vendor/bundle

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:24:00 -0400

I use Textmate for working on Rails projects and recently started vendoring the app’s gems into vendor/bundle. As a result Textmate got slower when searching and the Go To File command (Command-T) brought up dozens of extra files from the vendored gems.

To exclude those gems Textmate allows you to add a pattern to Folder References (Preferences > Advanced > Folder References) like so:

!.*/(\.[^/]*|vendor/bundle|CVS|...

If you’d prefer to do it on a per-project basis you can open your project and select the root directory, then click the “i” icon in the drawer to bring up the Folder Information dialog. There’s a Folder Pattern item there that will let you make changes specific to that project.

I’m pretty sure I had to quit and re-open Textmate after making the update.

http://ryanbigg.com/

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:04 -0400

http://ryanbigg.com/

Pow web server and static templates

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:13:00 -0400

I run the Pow web server (http://pow.cx/) for local development of Ruby web apps. But I also like to prototype sites as static html templates early on in development. Fortunately Pow can handle this as it will serve up html (etc.) from a site’s /public directory.

So create your Pow site as usual but be sure to put the static html in a /public subdirectory, e.g.:

  mkdir -p ~/Sites/prototypename/public
  cd ~/.pow
  ln -s ~/Sites/prototypename

Now you can access your site via http://prototypename.dev/ and it will serve up your ~/Sites/prototypename/public/index.html file.

Generate a 'share with facebook' link that embed summary, title, images but without OG Data | We Also Do Cookies

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:04:25 -0400

Generate a 'share with facebook' link that embed summary, title, images but without OG Data | We Also Do Cookies:

Rails helper to create Share on Facebook link.

ryanb/letter_opener - GitHub

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:59:23 -0400

ryanb/letter_opener - GitHub:

Intercept sent mail in Rails development. Opens messages in new browser window with Launchy.

Flat, simple icons for interface design - Owltastic — writing about web design by Meagan Fisher

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:53:58 -0400

Flat, simple icons for interface design - Owltastic — writing about web design by Meagan Fisher:

Collection of flat style icon libraries.

GBH/letmein - GitHub

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 04:20:27 -0400

GBH/letmein - GitHub:

Minimalistic authentication plugin for Rails 3 apps

"You can learn much more from closely studying actual failures than from theorizing about superior..."

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:28:44 -0400

“You can learn much more from closely studying actual failures than from theorizing about superior strategies.”

- The Architecture of Open Source Applications: Graphite

Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - IE App Compat VHD

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:17:32 -0400

Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - IE App Compat VHD:

Windows Virtual PC VHDs for testing websites with different Internet Explorer versions

"The easiest way to gain happiness is to want the things you already have."

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:05:23 -0400

“The easiest way to gain happiness is to want the things you already have.”

- A Guide to the Good Life, by William Irvine

Writing Software not Code with Cucumber

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 02:36:23 -0400

Writing Software not Code with Cucumber:

Presentation walking through DBB with Rspec and Cucumber.

spin.js

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:58:18 -0400

spin.js:

JS loading spinners. No images or external CSS required. Small footprint.