Threads for owenversteeg

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    owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 8 years ago | link | on: Why I quit OS X

    Just an FYI, this is not by “the” Woz, just some dude with the last name Wozniak.

    Also, the post now 404s. Strange.

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      owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 9 years ago | link | on: An API to generate image previews and metadata for almost any kind of file

      Huh, looks cool. I don’t have a use for it but I can imagine that there are plenty out there. Side note: it chokes on Javascript files.

      However, I love the logo. It’s extremely simple and clever. Kudos to the designers.

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        jpadilla avatar jpadilla 9 years ago | link

        Thanks! Will take a look on what might be happening with js files. One thing we might actually do in the future is provide highlighted previews of source code files.

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        owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 9 years ago | link | on: Middle Initials Make You Seem Smarter; Simple Names More Trustworthy

        Direct paper link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2026/abstract

        I wonder if there’s any research on usernames.

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          owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg edited 9 years ago | link | on: Why I don't care about your project

          Although I agree with the overall point of the piece, I have some issues with it:

          • If you pluralize the word code, my level of respect for your piece/talk/site/blog drops about 40% instantly. The only people I’ve seen do this are programmers in a satirical context and technologically illiterate people, of which the author is neither. The same goes for saying “a code”.

          • Some people find it difficult to code, believe it or not, and many projects aren’t easy even if you can. For example, I can code and have for several years, but if I wanted to develop a device with a microcontroller I’d hire a professional programmer that specializes in low-level languages because my specialty is CSS, and if I had to write in a very low-level language the code would be horrible.

          • 3 users marked this as spam, probably because there’s a giant advertisement for “outstanding” courses in Javascript that takes up half of my screen.

          • Bolding every other word makes you sound ridiculous.

          • So does underlining half of your text.

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            pashields avatar pashields 9 years ago | link

            Use of the word “codes” is more common in fields with programming that aren’t computer science (physics, chemistry, mathematics, etc.). You may find it particularly common amongst older programmers/scientists who came up through these alternate disciplines because computer science was not a codified major or department.

            Weirded me out too, but since it was mostly Yale faculty and research scientists who I noticed using it, I assumed it was more me than them.

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              bct avatar bct 9 years ago | link

              If you pluralize the word code, my level of respect for your piece/talk/site/blog drops about 40% instantly.

              I suspect in this case English is not his first language.

              3 users marked this as spam…

              It doesn’t help that @davidb583 only submits links to his blog.

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              owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 9 years ago | link | on: What are you working on this week?

              I’m going to be working on my extremely tiny CSS framework, Min - it’s 995 bytes. http://minfwk.com

              Also, I’m deciding whether or not to do anything with a website I made that helps people keep track of their goals: http://goalcalendar.com - please comment with any feedback you have.

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                owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 9 years ago | link | on: We spent a week making Trello boards load extremely fast. Here’s how we did it.

                I have to say, I love the new increase in performance. I use Trello daily and it’s come quite a long way.

                I think the approach of “10% per day” is a really good idea. I’ll have to try it with some of my projects.

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                  owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 9 years ago | link | on: Ask Lobsters: Are we a community?

                  1) I think there should be a bit more discussion in the comments. It’s kind of disappointing to see that most articles on the front page have either one or no comments, and three or four upvotes. I think that anywhere from five to ten comments on each article would be a great goal. I have no idea how many members this would take.

                  2) Pretty closely. I encourage new members to use the Filters page.

                  3) I think I feel pretty comfortable here. Most people are quite friendly, and the “explain-your-downvotes” feature is absolutely excellent.

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                    moses avatar moses 9 years ago | link

                    1) Be the change you want to see in the world!

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                    owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 9 years ago | link | on: Dogecoin and the Appeal of Small Numbers

                    I have to say, I absolutely love Dogecoin. In the Bitcoin community, scams are rampant and those that are scammed never get their money back. In the Dogecoin community, there is exactly the opposite. I ran a website called EasyDoge (http://easydoge.com) that was designed as an online wallet service.

                    Unfortunately, it was hacked and quite a bit of money was stolen. I compensated everyone out of my own pocket for the losses. This isn’t a rare occurrence: the victims of two major hacks are being compensated by the SaveDogemas effort.

                    I think the sense of community that’s there is just as (or more) effective than the appeal of large numbers.

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                      owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 9 years ago | link | on: A Slight Obsession Over Page Speed

                      A problem I see often is many articles discussing minification techniques, headers, etc. to use but completely ignoring the ten-ton gorilla in the room: Bootstrap. Including its monstrous JS and requirement for jQuery, it’s an absolutely massive library that reaches into the hundreds of kilobytes. Foundation isn’t much better (at 150 kilobytes.)

                      This is why I think people should use Min. Min (http://minfwk.com) is a tiny CSS framework that’s only 995 bytes, and I use it in every website I make. It covers almost every use case that Bootstrap has, and it even has a Bootstrap -> Min conversion page (http://minfwk.com/bootstrapconverter.html.)

                      It’s ridiculous to talk about saving 20 kilobytes using gzip, strange new minification techniques, image smooshing, etc. when Bootstrap takes up over 200 kilobytes right there.

                      Disclaimer: I created Min.

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                        owenversteeg avatar owenversteeg 9 years ago | link | on: What are you working on this week?

                        I’m going to be improving my CSS library Min, which is currently only 995 bytes. http://minfwk.com

                        I encourage anyone reading this to vote in Min’s button design thread: https://github.com/OwenVersteeg/min/issues/6

                        I’m also dealing with burnout over a small project I started (http://goalcalendar.com) - especially after seeing how few people liked it, I’m not sure if I should continue working on it. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.