November 20th, 2007

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This is my newest tech gadget. The new Apple Aluminum Keyboard. I have to say, its not only “elegant” as advertised, but its extremely soft on your fingers. A rather powerful, ergonomic device. Five stars.

Posted in: Gadgets | 1 Comment »

November 8th, 2007

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I will be doing two presentations the second week of January. The first one will be Jan. 9th in El Segundo for the Los Angeles Java User Group (LAJUG) and the second one will be Jan 11th in Irvine for the Orange County Java User Group (OCJUG). Both presentations will be on the topic of Groovy and Grails and the experience of using emerging technologies in a “Web 2.0″ Startup.

Posted in: Grails, Groovy, Java, Scalability & Infrastructure, Startups | No Comments »

November 4th, 2007

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Well, After a lot of traveling I am finally back at home. Rather busy with work at the moment, but I wanted to share the souvenir/gift I received while in New York. I happened to be in the city at the same time as the Ice Cream Man, and he stopped by the conference I was attending to give away free ice cream and to drop off some goodies for me that he had found in the city. I think these two pieces of memorabilia were meant to describe the yin and yang of my work life. Either way, great artwork from the 80’s and much cooler than a miniature “Brian” bicycle license plate.

Posted in: Personal | 3 Comments »

October 19th, 2007

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This next week will be a double-header. I’ll be in lovely New York City tomorrow preparing for Sun’s Startup Camp2NYC Conference beginning Monday (Ironically its actually the third conference, but the second in NY). Also, technically its not a conference, its an unconference — if you aren’t familiar with the term its worth researching about. Essentially, the people who attend the conference determine the outcome — who presents, at what time, in which conference room. I may be giving a brief 45 minute presentation on grails, but haven’t quite decided yet. Anyway, like I said the unconference is a unique as you don’t know whats going to happen until you arrive, and its got some amazing guidelines such as “whatever happens is meant to happen,” “if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time… go elsewhere.” I attended the same startup focused “unconference” in May up in San Francisco and it was very informative. Ironically SF is the what makes next week a double-header. I’ll be heading up to the city by the bay after my return from New York. Wish me luck on either sleeping through the flight or watching a Law and Order marathon on JetBlue.

Posted in: Grails, Startups | No Comments »

October 12th, 2007

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Paul, thanks for the shout out on newstoday.com. If you don’t know Paul “D5ive” Drohan you’ve seen his work on the web. He’s one of the most amazing Creative Director’s I know. Also, if you live in the San Diego area don’t miss his next art show — his print pieces are unreal.   Lastly, check out Paul’s posters for the band Transfer.

Posted in: Sites & Inspiration | No Comments »

October 8th, 2007

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As a follow up to my previous post, I now have a definition for “Hard Launch.” A hard launch is what happens when water from a planter box leaks (or in this case floods) your central fire alarm box. In my case this shorted the alarm system and set off the 120 decibel fire alarm at 6am for about a half-hour.

Now of course I was awake due to a scheduled 5am conference call. However, the fire department would not turn off the alarm because then they would be responsible if a real fire were to occur. I’ll end this by saying its nice I live downtown, in a typical neighborhood there would have been some very unhappy campers.

Posted in: Personal | No Comments »

October 2nd, 2007

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Either I have lost my ability to navigate the Internet, or the Wikipedia is missing an worthwhile entry. Within the “Industry” the term “Soft Launch” generally means that you are attempting to launch a website or campaign prematurely. This is usually caused by scope or feature creep, lack of resources, a shift in deadlines, or mismanaged stakeholder expectations.

If I missed the boat, please drop a link to the Wikipedia’s definition of a soft launch.

Posted in: Interactive Advertising | 3 Comments »

September 10th, 2007

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Yes indeed its true, and I’m not talking about any recent work with Boost Mobile. Johan Bakken of www.styleboost.com has decided the new site is worthy of a listing of his gallery. If you aren’t familiar with the site its been showcasing websites since 2001. If you are familiar with the site you’ll recall the old upside-down mountain layout which was always one of my favorites. Regardless, its a great honor for the mention.

Posted in: Sites & Inspiration | 2 Comments »

September 5th, 2007

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So, It’s not the greatest source of information in the world, but its definitely a resource. If you are or have been working on a highly scalable project as I have I’d suggest a visit to HighScalability.com. There are some real world examples of web/server architectures for large commonly known sites such as Amazon, Digg, YouTube and so forth. It’s hard to say how accurate the information is, but its always nice to know what others are up too. I’m from the school of each problem has its own solution, but if you are in the field visit the site, read a few pages and share your thoughts.

Posted in: Scalability & Infrastructure | No Comments »

August 31st, 2007

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So, its official — self proclaimed Greg “Papa G” Huntoon announced the arrival of baby Zuri (which means Beautiful in Swahili) at 3:34am this morning. She’s 6lbs, 8oz and shares a birthday with my Grandfather (#2). Of course I reveal I was birthday #3, and brianjeremy.com makes #4.

Cheers.

Posted in: Personal | 1 Comment »