Its always fun to look over someone’s shoulder and see how certain technology is used so I thought I’d share my setup. In this case, I’m talking about the home screen of my iPhone since it where I keep the most trafficked applications.

Here is a break down of my home screen (left to right, top to bottom):

• OmniFocus - Inspired by the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, this is the best app to implement David’s teachings perfectly via software. This app is heavily used (hence being in the first position). Sync’s perfectly with the desktop and truly is my digital brain. Well done OmniGroup!
• Groundwork - At one point I tried to do accomplish all professional work within OmniFocus (and still do when I’m the solely responsible). The only problem is that OmniFocus is for single use and doesn’t work well in a team/collaborative setting. This is why it is handy to have Groundwork around to sync with your Basecamp setup. Perfect for checking status and not loosing ideas while on the go.
• Nezumi - Almost all my Ruby on Rails apps are running on Heroku. This is a handy app for managing your apps while from the road. It is limited in function but having log, reboot, and console access is a nice backup plan.
• Ego - Sounds bad but is actually quite useful when it comes to tracking Google Analytic, Feed Burner, and Twitter stats for various my Ruby on Rails applications.
• Messages - Default iPhone app, sometimes useful. I don’t really use SMS much but keep it around since others like to communicate that way. Personally, I think SMS should die much like email.
• Tweetie - Another app that makes managing multiple Twitter accounts easy. I use Tweetie on both the iPhone and desktop.
• Skype - My favorite instant chat client. I use no other. Obviously, very handy to have on the phone. Also, a great way to save on SMS text costs.
• Calendar - Default iPhone app. What can’t be done (or doesn’t make sense to do) in OmniFocus, is done here. Syncs perfectly with my desktop app. No complaints.
• Maps - Default iPhone app. Always handy and now on the 3GS version of the phone, it does a pretty good job of keeping track of where you are in real-time.
• 1Password - So passwords suck and just about every web site and application known to man does it their own special way. The only way to deal with the chaos is to use 1Password. I love having this on the iPhone because it syncs with my desktop client and allows me to easily cut and paste complicated 20-character or more passwords into my local iPhone app configurations or web pages. BTW, as you might have guessed, this didn’t truly become useful until Apple enabled cut and paste support.
• Dropbox - While some people might like Evernote, I still find files and folders extremely handy. This app does all the heavy lifting of keeping my files and folders synced between all machines. Plus they give you up to 3GB of space for free. Brilliant.
• Billings - When I was running my own consulting company (actually, I still do), this app was used a lot. I keep it around now because I like track my open source and personal project work. I’m mostly curious as to how much time I spend on things and like to know whether my speed is increasing over time.
• AccuWeather - So far the best weather app for my tastes. Since I live in the mountains and ride a metal steed, it is wise to know what is brewing. Especially in the dead of winter.
• Clock - It’s what gets me up in the morning. Also handy for when you are in the kitchen.
• Calculator - For those calculations that would take too much brain power to compute.
• Convertbot - For unit conversion calculations. Handy when cooking or in the garage. It’s also an elegantly designed application and worth looking into if nothing else to help inspire your own designs.
• Phone - While I don’t use the phone much, it does give me access to my contacts.
• Mail - Used often with Inbox Zero discipline. What can’t get processed immediately gets scheduled via OmniFocus.
• Safari - Used mostly for info lookup. Always handy in a pinch and for testing your own sites, of course.
• iPod - Besides, the OmniFocus app, this is probably the secondly most used app for constant learning. Audiobooks and educational podcasts are heavily consumed.

For a list of the apps mentioned above and other iPhone related news, check out my iPhone page for more info.

© Trinity Brewing Company

Today is the last day working for my current client. Its been an interesting experience and I plan to write more about the banking industry soon but, for now, I’m looking forward to moving on and getting back to doing what I really enjoy, which is working with the Ruby language.

So where am I headed? Well, I’ve been hired, full time, to work at Pactimo - a high-end bicycling apparel shop. All of their software is written in Ruby using the Rails web framework. Development will be on the MacOS and Linux systems. As for me, I’ve been bestowed the title of “Director of Software Development”. In essence, I AM the software team. Yeah, yeah, I know. Oooh, fancy title. No, not really. It means that I’m looking at some long days and sleepless nights for a while but…for those who know me…I wouldn’t have it any other way. Its an awesome opportunity and I’m honored to take the helm.

I’ll have more to say about Pactimo in the future, for sure. As for today, I just want to mention that some of the crew and I will be hanging out for happy hour (5pm) at the following location to celebrate. Swing by, if you are around:

Trinity Brewing Company
1466 Garden of the Gods
Colorado Springs, CO 80907

To new beginnings!

Fall is probably my favorite season of the year. The change of colors, the piles of leaves, pulling the snowboard out of hibernation, etc. It’s also the celebration of several personal holidays as well as kicking off an entire end-of-year holiday season starting with Halloween.

This year Halloween falls on a Saturday and we are throwing a Zombie Party! Here are the details:

• Location: Our House (Kate and Brooke)
• Date: October 31st (Saturday)
• Time: 7pm to whenever
• Beverages: A special punch - drink at your own risk. Feel free to BYOB as well.
• Food: Various snacks that, while quite tasty, are sure to make your stomach churn while looking at them.
• Activities - We’ll have games, some prizes perhaps, and two movies playing in the background. We’re thinking “Shaun of the Dead” on the LoFi while “28 Days Later” plays in the HiFi theatre.

The only real requirement is that you arrive to the party as a zombie. The scarier the better. Kate has made sure to send out an evite to the event but this is reminder and a notice to some who might not have gotten the evite to come join us. Leave a comment here or email me directly.

It’s going to be one hell of a good time. Hope you can make it!

Today is the Eco Festival which, for Kate and I at Local Dish, is the final culmination of the work we have been putting into Local Food Week. It has been a lot of effort with software development, marketing, news announcements, sponsorship, gathering of recipe ingredients, contestant judging, etc. All worth it, of course, now that we can announce the winners of the recipe contest.

So if you are in the city today and have time to swing by Rock Ledge Ranch (at the base of Garden of the Gods), please do. Kate and I will be on stage between 12pm-1pm announcing the recipe contest winners as well as cooking and providing free samples of the two top recipes (because the results were very close). Just look for us, wearing these shirts:

See you at the Eco Festival today!

We named him, “Ein”, after the data dog of the same name from the Cowboy Bebob series (one of my favorite anime). Hey, it all relates to tech in one form or another. He’s learning fast and already can tackle the stairs with those short legs. The bathroom training…well…that’s going to take some time still.

I have released a new gem called Number to Fraction that is a compliment to the already existing Ruby on Rails NumberHelper methods. This gem allows you to use the following method in your views:

number_to_fraction 3.75

Which will yield the following string output:

3 3/4

There are limitations to this gem at the moment as you can only generate fractions less than 1/10ths. Yeah, I know, this is lame but can be handy for small fractions. If you need an example of how this gem is being used in a production environment, check out the ingredients for this recipe on the Local Dish web site.

If there is a math wizard in the audience that could help me flesh this gem out fully then let me know. This happened to solve my immediate problem so it might work for others as well. There is definitely room for improvement.

© Brian Chu

We are hosting a BBQ this upcoming Memorial Day Weekend and you are invited.

Drop by for some much needed fun, sun and barbecued food any time between 2 p.m. until whenever on May 23rd. We’ll provide delicious skewered meats and a few sides. A growler or two from Trinity might be on hand as well, although feel free to BYOB. Music, company, card/video/board games upon request. Please RSVP by May 15 by emailing me directly or commenting to this post.

See you there!

sudo gem install heroku

I got back this error on the command line:

ERROR: Error installing heroku:
invalid gem format for /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/cache/rest-client-0.8.2.gem

While opening up the rest-client-0.8.2.gem file in TextMate, I discovered it was completely blank. After I deleted the bogus rest-client-0.8.2.gem file and tried again, both the heroku and dependent rest-client gems were installed properly. My guess as to why this happened is because I typed in the system password (i.e. sudo command) incorrectly on my first attempt at installing the gem. Silly me for using complex passwords.

For those of you who have been following along, I have talked about our Elopement and plans for a Wedding Party…well, I finally completed work on a little Ruby on Rails site hosted by Heroku. The site is live and running now. So check out the site, learn more about what is happening, and R.S.V.P. today!

It’s going to be a fun time so don’t let this pass you by.

(click to view)

The first clue that this e-mail is fake is that the sending address has “Inc” in the “support@PayPal.Inc.com” e-mail address. Secondly, if you choose to click on the “dispute transaction” link from the e-mail, you’ll see an address like this in your browser:

http://81.21.68.248/www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr=cmd=p/index.php

Which yields the following web site:

There are many things wrong with the site such as funky characters showing up, etc. Lets hope that most people will not fall prey to this Trojan horse attack. Here is the official Paypal link to report phishing attacks like this one.

For those of you joining us for our wedding party, we have started mailing out our “Save the Date” cards and I suspect that most of you will be getting these in the mail by the end of the week. Hopefully, everyone can make it as we would love to see everyone come out. The party is going to hosted at our house with catered food and an assortment of things to drink. I am currently working on a Ruby on Rails site that will allow you all to R.S.V.P. to the party (more details on that in a future post). Of course, you can comment to this post here if you like as well.

Additional party details about our elopement and wedding plans can be found on the Elopement page.

Mark your calendar and stay tuned for further updates!

Yep, Kate and I have decided to elope. We are still reserving September 6th of this year for the grand ring exchange but it will just be the two of us and…well…the motorcycle, of course!

Despite this change of events, we are still having a party. It will be held at our place, in the Springs, which should make it easier on all of you. I admit that I had grand schemes of holding the event in a remote location in the mountains but I know that not everyone shares my love of the road so we believe this is best for everyone involved. Here are the details:

• Date: September 27th, 2008
• Time: All day but food will most likely be served in the afternoon.
• Location: Our Place (if you don’t know where it is by now then e-mail me and I’ll set you straight)

Kate has written up additional details on the Elopement page. If you have questions, leave comments here or just contact me directly. Otherwise, see you on September 27th!

While attending EclipseCon 2008 this week a discussion came up about the various video and audio podcasts that people subscribe to. Here are the syndicated feeds of my favorite podcasts in case anyone wants to add more to their repertoire:

• Freelance Radio - News and information related to freelancing. I have written about Freelance Radio before.
• Grape Radio - For those who love wine.
• Play Digital - Short and entertaining video podcast for gamers.
• 1UP - A video podcast that usually reviews three games in 30 minutes.
• TWIP - A podcast and video feed dedicated to learning more about photography. I have written about TWIP before.
• Blogging Pro - News and information related to WordPress.
• The Java Posse - A panel that discusses Java news each week (sometimes more). If you are a Java developer, this is one feed you don’t want to miss out on.
• Software Engineering Radio - Excellent podcast discussing design patterns, programming languages, etc. There have also been some very interesting interviews with Dave Thomas (founder of OTI), Erich Gamma, and other former OTIers.
• Podcasting Underground - Tips, tricks, equipment suggestions, etc. for podcasting.
• Hansel Minutes - Another technology podcast. Howerver, as of late, it has been talking more about Microsoft technology.
• Railscast - Video podcasts demonstrating Ruby on Rails code.
• Rails Envy - Another Ruby on Rails podcast.
• Linux Reality - Discusses tips and tricks related to Linux as well as learning about and setting up new software on the Linux platform.
• The Mac Attack - MacOS news and info.
• TWiT - Reviews technology news for the week with a random panel of people hosted by Leo Laporte.
• MacBreak Weekly - Reviews Apple news with a radom panel of people hosted by Leo Laporte.
• GigaVox Media - Random technological news and information hosted by some very bright minds. This is one feed you don’t want to miss out on.
• DL.TV - Technology news and review. Usually involving gadgets and gear.
• Unwired - Another tech review, usually around gadgets and gear.
• NPR (Fresh Air) - Random intimate interviews with actors, artists, singers, writers, etc.
• NPR (It’s All Politics) - Two guys discussing and analyzing the current state of American politics.
• NPR (Intelligence Squared) - Philosophical debates, sometimes on long tail issues.
• Political Lunch - A short (usually 5 mins) video review of daily American political news.
• Discus - An entertaining review of obscure movies (usually).
• Astronomy Cast - Teaches about the science related to astronomy and all things that make up our universe.

• An Inconvenient Truth - Hopefully, by now, you have watched the DVD and seen what Al Gore has been up to (ultimately winning him a Nobel Peace Prize). Otherwise, add it to your rental queue, its worth seeing.
• The Story of Stuff - A 20 minute video that will cause you to think about (or remind you of) the side effects of producing consumer goods.
• Buy CFLs:
  WPvideo 1.10

(click to buy)

Dr. Moira Gunn recently interviewed John Kao about his book “Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back”. Good discussion topics brought up during the course of the interview:

• American Youth - They seem to have lost the meaning of “hard work” and feel they are entitled to everything.
• Melting Pot - America is no longer being perceived as a the melting pot of ideas, cultures, foreign influence etc.
• Talent Stickiness - Top talent is no longer staying but moving elsewhere.
• Legal Madness - The country is overrun by lawyers.

I recommend listing to the podcast (32:36 minutes) as found on the IT Conversations network. The book is probably worth checking out as well.

• Syndicated Feeds (RSS) - This year showed an increase in the use of syndicated feeds both in terms of corporate and personal use. I continue to promote this technology every chance I get.
• WordCamp - Traveled to WordCamp to learn more about WordPress (what is used to power this site).
• Enterprise of One - Changed my thinking from a single individual to one of a single enterprise.
• Consulting Work - Started working as a consultant.
• Switched to Mac - Switched from Windows to the MacOS platform. Still happy with the switch.
• Refresh Denver - Joined the Refresh Denver group to stay in tune with the latest in local technologies and trends.
• Aeonscope Site Updates - Continue to update the various pages on this site with detailed info on the various things I am following. This is a huge benefit for myself but hopefully it proves useful for others as well.

Visit the site archives for additional details.

• What: A Pre-New Year’s Eve Poker Tournament
• When: Saturday, December 29 at 7 p.m.
• Where: Brooke and Kate’s Place

Bring your poker face to this Texas Hold ‘Em tourney and enjoy some homemade pizza. Some beverages will be provided but you might want to bring something tasty to sip as well. Buy in with $10, and 2nd and 3rd place are in the money with the winner taking most. Fun prizes will also be awarded to those all-in-and-all-out early, who can then take advantage of the TV for movies and/or video games — or a second-round tourney.

RVSP by commenting below or via e-mail by December 27 (Thursday).

Not familiar with Texas Hold ‘Em? Check out these handy links:

• Texas Hold ‘Em Set up and Play
• Video instructions
• How to Deal and Play Texas Hold ‘Em

(click to view)

Kate and I have put the finishing touches on a DVD that chronicles the adventures of the past year that we hope close friends and family will enjoy. Much of the content of the DVD can already be viewed within the Adventures category on this site but the DVD supports much higher resolution and comes complete with a stereo soundtrack.

We had a lot of fun putting together this DVD and hope you will enjoy watching it. If anyone has issues with the disk or we have forgotten someone, let us know. All disks should be arriving in the mail by end of week. Otherwise, feel free to comment below.

• Unwired - Mostly about gear and gadgets. Hosted by Wil Harris who is also driving force behind the Channel Flip network.
• Discus - A movie review site that is always entertaining to watch. Make sure to watch for the piggy-piggy-snack-snack segment at the end.
• Play:Digital - A great way to get quick highlights about current games on multiple platforms. One of my favorite sources of game news now.

Josh and Suzanne are having a house warming party this coming weekend for those who would like to attend. Here are the details:

• Date: August 18th, 2007 (Saturday).
• Time: 2pm, food will be ready around 4pm.
• Location: Details can be found here.
• Food & Beverage: There will be chicken, brauts, cole slaw, chips and dip, pasta salad, beans, watermellon, various beverages, etc. Feel free to bring what you want as well.

Be prepared to get wet as there will be some water games in the pool. Hope you can make it, if you are in the Phoenix area, that is.