Facebook Observation #1
According to Facebook, my wife and I got married 24 minutes after becoming friends. I’m a little unsure of how that comes off to others.
Posted by ryan on July 12, 2008
Scoreboard update
I few of you sent me emails letting me know that Scoreboard was not working this year. I think the problem is fixed so you can download a working version here. Thanks for letting me know it was broken.
Posted by ryan on April 7, 2008
Working for money
I got a job! I started last Wednesday as a programmer for MumboJumbo. MumboJumbo is a casual games developer/publisher in Dallas. Everyone there is great and I am really excited. I will still accept anyone’s money but you’ll probably have to be employed at MumboJumbo if you want to pay me for actual work.
Posted by ryan on March 21, 2008
Holy Crap I’m Freaking Graduated!!! / Will work for money
I meant to write this post the day after I graduated but I was just so busy doing nothing. That’s right. Nothing. I hadn’t done that for a while. I went on a cruise with my family, played some video games and mostly just wasted time. It was nice. I’m sure those of you who are still left are wondering what else I’ve been up to. Thanks Mom. Actually, I’m fairly certain even my mom has stopped checking this site. Well, I’ve been busy not being graduated. I’ve been taking classes, programming and generally learning computery things that I don’t want to talk about with anyone because I want them to think I am interesting. Actually, that’s not true. I will talk about computery things to anyone who will listen and most people who won’t, yet I still want them to think I’m interesting. Apparently they don’t teach common sense in school. I’m a little sad that I can no longer use Lebron’s excuse of “I’m sorry, I never finished college” when I do or say something stupid. I’ll have to come up with something better. Maybe “I’m sorry, I’m pregnant.” Too much?
Posted by ryan on January 18, 2008
Scoreboard
There is a new version of Scoreboard. The only change is I fixed the bug causing the score to scroll even when only one team is selected.
Posted by ryan on April 5, 2006
I’m too busy to come up with a good title, so I’m just going to make it long, because even though quality is better than quantity, quantity is better than nothing. Right?
As you can tell, I’ve been really busy lately so I haven’t had a chance to post much. Or maybe you haven’t noticed because you didn’t think I ever posted much. Or maybe you just didn’t care because you didn’t think my thoughts were very interesting. Either way you are probably right. But blogging is obviously not about being interesting, so I post anyway.
What have been doing lately, you ask? If you didn’t ask, just humor me, ok? I’ve been…
- doing math and computer science homework and projects. Although lately it seems like I signed up for four math classes instead of two of each. I’ve even managed to bore my wife, who is a math teacher, talking about it.
- Figuring out how I can replace iPhoto with Adobe Bridge because Adobe Bridge doesn’t choke and then pee on itself when I ask it to open alot of files. (Although, I do have to make Adobe Bridge pancakes sometimes.)
- Coverting my friends to Apple. (Which seems to be increasingly less difficult. Can I even say “increasingly less?” Oh well, I just did.
- Drooling over the demo videos for Aperture. The only problem is that if I got it, I would have to buy a new computer and a real camera to really make it worth it.
That’s a brief summary. See you next month!
Posted by ryan on October 29, 2005
NFL MVP voting
I’ve been deliberating about my MVP vote for hours now. My problem really comes down to what I think most valuable player really means. Does it means the best player? Does being the best player in the league on a losing team disqualify that player? I mean, his team still would have lost without him, right? This question is fundamental in a man’s MVP voting decision.
After a few hours of soul searching, I have decided that most valuable does indeed assume that a player’s team has been successful because of his play. So, it is with great sadness that I have to look past the best football player in the NFL when I cast my vote. Neil Rackers, I’m sorry. I know LaDanian only has eight touchdowns and you have the equivalent of that plus a safety. I also know that TO has 504 yards and you have 633 yards of three point goodness. Finally, I know that last year’s MVP, Peyton Manning, is averaging 16 fantasy points and you are average 15. Yes, averaging a mere point less that last year’s MVP is an admirable feat, but unfortunately, your team is 1-3 so I can’t vote for you for MVP. Maybe next year.
Posted by ryan on October 3, 2005
What’s so intuitive about the mouse?
Dan wood posted about a “bug” in Tiger and that really got me thinking about our concept of what is intuitive. I often observe the feeling by “experts” that if you can’t take an object or piece of software and “just know” what to do with it, then it is poorly designed. I would agree to a certain extent. If I get in a car and can’t figure out how to turn on the stereo, the dashboard probably needs some work. In this case, the technology is common. Cars have been around for a hundred years now and stereos have been in the cars for as long as I can remember so people are generally familiar with the idea of getting into a car and blasting some tunes. A precedence has been set for the location of the stereo and even the location of power button is usually the same. At this point, if someone puts a stereo under the seat or puts the power button on the bottom left, I would agree that they probably didn’t think very hard about usability.
I do not agree that new technologies have to have this same level of intuitiveness, especially if even the purpose of the new technology represents a new way of doing things. Take the mouse for example. Arguably, it is one of the most usable pieces of technology in existence. Now. But imagine you are living 1963 and you walk into Douglas Engelbart’s office and see a wooden block on his desk with a button on it. He sits you down at his desk and says, “tell me what this does.” What if his computer is off? There is nothing inherently intuitive about a mouse. Once you are shown how it works, you find out that using it really is easy, but the technology was so new at one time that people didn’t just know what to do with it. We have to allow for at least a small learning curve when trying out new technology or we will never advance.
Posted by ryan on August 19, 2005
The natives are getting restless
It has been brought to my attention this blog is not being updated regularly. Some readers have expressed concern that my once thought provoking blog has become stagnant…that my in depth analysis of subjects such as Google’s quirkiness, my computer’s desire to become more culturally aware and cool new advertising tactics have been replaced by the occasional link to something linked to by a million other blogs.
To those people I say, you have been reading my blog, right? I know that my readers crave my earth shatteringly profound commentaries on how inept I am at writing (or thinking for that matter), but sometimes it takes awhile for an idea to gel. I don’t want to post just anything here. If I write too often or if I am too interesting, then I will begin to gain new readers. If I gain new readers I will have pressure to write more often and be more interesting and funnier. No, I prefer to provide my readers with what they have come to expect. Nothing. That way, they are happy. I don’t have to come up with thoughts very often, and the world is generally a better place.
Now, if you really want to see something that get’s updated more often. I do regularly update my photos. I like to think they actually are somewhat original. Uhh…It seems I don’t know how to end posts very well, so…it’s been real, yo.
Posted by ryan on August 1, 2005
Whoa! The moon is made of cheese!!!
Check it out! (You’ll have to zoom in)
Posted by ryan on July 23, 2005