Super Ginormous

Blog

  • Good editors build great software.

    Jason Fried’s like the Buddha of Web 2.0.

    There, I said it.

    I am amazed by the logic that comes out of 37Signals. It’s simple. It’s smart. It makes plain sense. It’s not revolutionary, but then again… in a sense it is.

    Software should be simple. It shouldn’t force your users to figure out how to use it. It should just work. I’ve often thought about how we might apply this same logic to our own software. I think it’s easy to feel like you have to include this feature and that feature… but when it comes right down to it, your software doesn’t have to be all things to all people. Like JF said, “Great editors build great software.” Trim the fat. Remove the excess. Make your app work. Make it work well. Keep it simple.

  • Post Migration

    After several attempts, I was able to migrate all of my posts through Blogger into WordPress. I wish I could say it was easy, because it wasn’t… and I wish I could say it went off without a hitch, because it didn’t.

    Because the server I am on doesn’t have cURL enabled, I had a tough time migrating stuff. I tried setting up Blogger to generate an XML document with the full text of all of my posts, but it choked almost every time. I tried manual conversion – but that takes way too long. I finally was able to import my posts into WordPress.com, via its Blogger import (which uses cURL). I then saved the XML feed that contained all of my posts, and imported it into my WordPress install here on cdharrison.com. It timed out a couple of times because of the number of posts, but I was able to reinitiate the import and have it completely go through after a couple of attempts.

    So, now here we are… all posts are online. Comments, well, are gone. Which is disappointing… but it’s something I can live with, given the flexibility I now have with WordPress. It was a sacrafice I was willing to make.

    So, what’s next? A redesign, of course. A new design will be unveiled May 1, 2006 in conjunction with the Spring 2006 CSS Reboot.

  • Lost (and Found)

    Since yesterday afternoon, I’ve been freaking out because the office digital camera came up missing. I thought, perhaps, that I had simply misplaced it somewhere. I thoroughly checked my desk and my laptop bag – no dice. I went home, checked all of the usual locations that I tend to place items – no dice.

    Fast forward to this morning… I’m looking everywhere in the office for the camera. I’m looking under my desk, under papers, in drawers, on shelves. It’s nowhere to be found. Then, the unthinkable happens… my personal camera is missing as well.

    Coincidence? I dunno. Immediately, thoughts start racing through my head… ‘Am I this absent-minded that I have misplaced two cameras in such a short period of time?’, ‘Did someone steal them?’, ‘Did someone simply take them without asking?’ I start asking coworkers if they had seen either camera – no dice. They’re as astounded as I am. After a little bit of detective work, we determined that it’s highly likely that someone our office had been trying to help came into our office and took them.

    Am I mad? Not any more. Am I disappointed? Yeah. It’s only ‘stuff’, and it can (and was) replaced.

    After praying about it, I’ve discovered in myself, that I take for granted all that I have, and I leave it out in the open for all to see… That’s pretty much like inviting someone to permanently borrowsteal from you.

  • Home for Sale

    Well, it’s official. Our home went on the market today. The ranch-style home is in a great neighborhood close to “downtown” Evans GA, with convenient access to both Washington Road and Columbia Road. If you’re interested in checking it out, call Stephanie Kernaghan at (706) 868-1000 or toll-free at (800) 755-3632.

    UPDATE – On 3/5, we received an offer on our house for the full asking price… Can you believe it? The house was only on the market for four days. The couple that put the offer on the house, even liked the room I painted for Tyler enough to ask that we leave the two farm animal themed valances in the room.

    Glory be to God for working in our lives like this… I could never have imagined that our house would sell so quickly…

  • Graphic Artist/Website Coordinator Position Available

    MAU is looking to hire a Graphic Artist/Website Coordinator for one of their clients. If you’re interested, check out their website for more details or contact Stacey Williamson, Staffing Specialist, at 706-724-8367.

    In this position, the person hired would: develop project artwork, design logos, product artwork, digitizing and creating newsletters. Maintaining e-commerce store: load product, daily maintenance of site, create virtual samples.

  • Unexpected Benefit of Having a Newborn

    All your problems disappear as you come to realize there’s no time to deal with them anyway.

    How amazingly true. That little tidbit was the February 16th entry in my 365 Days of Being a Dad desk calendar. It’s funny how all of our problems go away once you realize that you’ve got a little one depending on you for their survival. Just thought I would share it with everyone… and save it on here, for me to remember for the years ahead.

  • Oh So Quiet

    Well, not really. See, I’ve been working on converting the site over to WordPress, and haven’t devoted time to posting new content. I’ve avoided checking my MeasureMap account for quite some time, and it appears that my hiatus has caused traffic to dip significantly. Rightfully so.

    I’ll be back soon. )

  • Qurbing Spam

    For the past 12 days, I have been evaluating a free trial of Computer Associates’ Qurb anti-spam, anti-phishing filter for Outlook/Outlook Express. The need for third-party software for handling spam was necessitated by the requirement (by SpamCop) that we disable challenge reponse on our mail server, or face prolonged blacklisting.

    Computer Associates' Qurb Logo
    There are a lot of options out there. I tested some free versions or open-source clients that managed spam locally, but none of them worked quite like I would have expected. Qurb, however, has been easy to use, easy to configure, and makes short work of dealing with spam.

    Qurb works much like a virus scanner. It puts suspected emails in a quarantine folder, and the user gets prompted from time to time to check the quarantine folder to review the messages. If every message is spam, you do nothing. If it catches some false positives, you click a checkbox and Qurb adds that sender to your whitelist, and click okay. That’s it. It works well. Even better than Outlook 2003’s built-in Junk Mail folder (which has to be disabled for Qurb to work most effectively).

    It’s definitely worth checking out imho. Well worth the $30 registration.

  • Moving to WordPress

    Well, I’m taking the leap, and moving away from Blogger.com. Hallelujah. WordPress is way more flexible. So far, the installation has gone without any major problems – unless you count the Blogger.com import I’ve been unable to do because cURL isn’t enabled on our server. (Not a big deal.) Other than that, things are peachy. I’ll be working on making this site more of my own over the next couple of weeks.

  • Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview Available

    I’m on my way out the door, but thought this was big enough news to share… The Beta 2 Preview of IE7 is now available for download. Snag it here.