Couple Grammes of Soma

Do this, plan that, play those, see them, go there…

MOVE OUT! of state???

I’ve been trying out Pidgin. I like it much better than the old Gaim interface. Icons make a big difference to me.

Is there really any reason even to bother worrying about stuff?

I’ve decided I will stop slacking. We’ll see what comes of that.

Today I was asked if I knew anything about Apache web server. Later it was revealed that in fact I knew nothing about using Apache to serve requests to a Tomcat cluster. Good to know. Poor guys got stuck with an app they didn’t build and can’t figure out how to deploy the thing. Frustrating no doubt.

I’m getting a lot more familiar with Drupal. I can see why some people would be frustrated trying to accomplish something with it under pressure and in a short time. Having a relaxed pace to get familiar with it has been nice. Lots of little things to figure out along the way as always. I must say it’s quite a bit more complicated than installing WordPress. That may only be because I was also configuring the server it was running on and setting up the database myself. That stuff makes a difference. PHP configurations and all that jazz I’ve never touched before. Good to know how.

Administering a server remotely through a shell is nice to know how to do. I cannot do anything complicated yet, but I did get a new user added and configured a virtual host for them with the help of a Linux pocket guide from Reilly’s, and the already configured virtual hosts above the new one.

Windows Vista is exactly like the Mac commercials make it out to be. Kinda funny.

I managed to sign up for activeCollab beta testing before they closed it out. I really hope I get to test it out. I have a feeling I’m going to redo a lot of the interface though. It’s not fluid…. though neither is this site. I think fluid layouts feel more friendly. Like they notice you and your window size. Not apathetically ignore you, as those kids in high school did when you walked by.

I’m dying to learn python. Dying. I can feel it’s power whiz by me, just out of my grasp, every time it’s mentioned. I need to start small and just learn it. Just learn it.

The same goes for PHP. If I could code my own PHP I could do ANYTHING I want. I keep reading about SOAP, LDAP, REST and all that stuff and I can not even write PHP! Well I can but just not very quickly. And I have no idea why the stuff I get to work works. The syntax is still elusive. Bleh.

That’s today for now.

I installed activeCollab today. I like it. The future seems bright with an API and timetracking on the way in the next version. Looks like they’ll even support importing Basecamp data.

So I’ve set a goal for the summer. While I cannot participate in the Google Summer of Code, I have decided to make every effort to design and submit a CSS Zen Garden style sheet. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but for me it’s quite the undertaking. Any ideas for a theme?

First I must:

• Finish Thomasmooremusic.net
• Finish Prudencewhittlesey.com

I also want to start making some icon sets. I have yet to find the tool of choice.

It seems I’ve got a great opportunity to start learning RSS and XML as well as bzr and PHP. By learning I mean actually make stuff that uses it. Tonight I fixed a broken section of code 1st try. Oh yeah.

Work has been a touch slow over the past few days. Today, that changed.

I’m am the creative and technical lead on a resource site that will support both internal and external members of the team for a large account. I’m very excited about it. It’s going to rock. (The site that is.)

At a debrief meeting today some new ideas were tossed around. One in particular that rung very true was the need to have a social network element added to the current intranet. The goal is to reduce barriers between different parts of the organization that stem from them being in a different part of the world. What seems to happen currently is people don’t connect as freely with each other if they are not in the same part of the world. The more people feel like they know each other, the more inclined they are to collaborate. Thus, better global implementation takes place as internal unity is strengthened. Cool idea, not my baby, yet.

Next, I was in a smaller meeting to do some catch up and planning on where things were with the Global website and what tasks we could tackle during the three week build out leading up to beta testing. Lots of things. I mentioned the workspace/information resource project already. Also I was assigned to research podcasting and wiki’s. A W E S O M E. I love this job. That’s what I was most excited about. I also got some other to-do’s with writing the style guide and outlining who needs to buy in on what before we proceed. Which we noted is kinda the backwards way to do it. Design the site and then figure out the style guide. But hey, they started before I got here.

So to the wiki drawing board. Elliot tells me about Socialtext. Again, awesome find. I also start getting these emails about the SNS (Social Networking Site) solution ELGG that has been suggested by someone who knows.

That was a post I started over a week ago. Obviously I got a little bit busy at work. heh.