6
Aug/09
0

Finding the blogging groove

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted. I’ve been trying to keep myself busy lately, so there hasn’t been much to say. I’m doing user experience documentation for my real job, and working on learning Objective-C at night. Since the first one is irrelevant to anyone but my company, and the second hasn’t progressed too far yet, I don’t have a lot of comment about it yet. Rest assured, I’ll be putting plenty of stuff up here as I find the time.

1
Aug/09
0

AWS Developer Garage + iPhone Dev Camp Satellite @ Cohabitat Dallas

Whew. That’s a long title for a long day! I got out early this morning to catch the Amazon Web Services Developer Garage and the iPhone Dev Camp Satellite at Cohabitat here in Dallas. It’s a great amount of crossover for me. I’ve developed web sites applications before and have often considered developing  my own applications for market. Now that I’m in a position that is more creative and less monotonous, I have a lot more mental energy to pursue these. So, Amazon Web Services is a great way of rolling out applications. In addition, my new role at work actually involves Macs, and my new department is responsible for developing iPhone applications. The day seemed like the perfect way of getting involved with the community and getting some new knowledge in the bargain.

30
Jul/09
1

Are You Lucky To Have A Job?

Having worked for mostly large companies in a variety of tasks, it is not uncommon that I hear a mid-level or upper manager spout the dreaded words, “You’re lucky to have a job”. Even before the economy turned south, this was the Sword of Dionysus hanging over your working man Damocles whenever a worker had a concern or complaint regarding their working conditions or company policy. While I can see the point of being thankful for a job in our weakened economy, is this response actually beneficial for a business?

29
Jul/09
0

Getting the iPhone Dev bug

I haven’t developed for it, so it’s an entirely new set of tools for me. I haven’t programmed C in years, so I’ll need to brush up on Objective C before I get started. I’m really excited about it, and really think the platform is here for the long haul. It’s been a while since I’ve picked up something really new and fresh.

I had really meant to wait until after I’d finished some current projects to get into the iPhone. Unfortunately, the folks at Cohabitat decided to throw an iPhone Dev Garage, and so I had to finally download and install the SDK. Drat it all.

Anyone have some recommendations for the best resources to get started? Web sites, blogs, communities, books?

27
Jul/09
4

A Question of Semantics

I’ve read a few articles through blogs lately regarding Linked Data and the Semantic Web. Ross Bates, Paul Miller, Ian Davis, and Semantics Incorporated have all explored the ideas of Linked Data and Web 3.0/Semantic Web. This got me thinking a bit about the Semantic web, and the direction of the efforts to reform web data to a more ‘object-oriented’ model. There are a number of resources out there that cover it beyond the items I linked. In the end, it boils down to a way of structuring data on the web in a way that allows machines to understand context and thus manipulate data in the same way that humans do, through reasoning. While this is a noble effort, and promises to restructure the way the web operates, I have to wonder if the entire approach isn’t slightly backwards.