iBrasten

Nagilum Reborn

December 29, 2005 @ 05:53 AM

A while back I picked up a domain name for a company I intended to start called Nagilum Group. I’ve used that name for several projects I’ve done over the last couple of years, but I never really did anything major with it. However, as I’ve been complaining over the last few weeks that I’d love to get into Ruby development, or any kind of contracting in general, I’ve been thinking about revamping Nagilum Group for that purpose. So I’ve spent the last few days throwing together a new web design for the site. I threw together a "coming soon" version of the new design, which you can all see at www.nagilum.com. I’m working on Railsifying it right now (for some dynamic content and such) while my hoster gets Ruby on Rails set up. I’m hoping to have it all up shortly.

Once that’s completed, I’ll be looking for Ruby/Rails work. I keep hearing it’s out there, so… I’ll keep you all informed!

Relevant Links
Nagilum Group – As of today, just an under construction notice! Check back soon though.

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Happy Holidays!

December 21, 2005 @ 08:56 AM

Well, this will probably be my one post during the holiday season, so Happy Holidays everyone! I will be celebrating Christmas, personally, but whatever holiday you feel like observing this time of year, go for it!

I apologize for not writing more. I have had much to say recently. Over the last several months, everything’s changed…(getting engaged, moving, changing jobs)... and now… everything’s stopped changing.

The New Year
In the spirit of the new year, let me blabber for a moment about my desires for the future:

Recently, I have begun to feel that desire to move to Portland again. Long-time readers of my blog know that I fell in love with that city about a year ago. Unfortunately I haven’t even been able to visit lately. Ever since visiting that first time though, I’ve wanted to live there. Jessica and I have been talking about that a little bit lately. She also would be willing to move there for a time. Maybe after we get married we’ll seriously consider it.

I would also like to get into the contracting/consulting arena. That’s a desire that has been created by my recent discovering of Ruby on Rails. Programming is a lot of fun again. My personal productivity is a lot higher on it. The thought of doing Java contracting was not so exciting to me, but Ruby I’d do in a heartbeat.

I would also like to buy a new car. Something more reflective of my situation. I’ve been thinking like a 2002-2004 BMW 325. Black. Manual tranny. All of my free money is going to the wedding at the moment, but once that’s done, I see no reason not to. I think I deserve it. Unless of course I decide to jump into contracting. I do quite well, financially, as a Java developer for a well-off corporation. I have no idea how well Ruby contracting pays relative to Java employee. I may not be able to afford the BMW if I decide to go independent.

Anyway, I have a splitting headache, and I’m just rambling. So I’ll wrap it up now. Just to leave you with a humorous photo… this is what happens when your car’s full of boxes but you decide to buy that little christmas twig of a tree:

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GreenExpo

December 08, 2005 @ 09:42 AM

My favorite part of Ruby on Rails is that it drastically lowers the amount of work it requires to start a project, to the point where it feels like I’m throwing together little concept ideas every week. But I’m working on one now that I think is very interesting. It’s kind of ~~- or will be -~~ a combination of a bug tracker, wiki, blog, SVN browser, etc… I know, I know… not ANOTHER one… well, yeah.

My particular twist is to make the interface as simple as possible, and also I want to support some concepts used in Agile development that currently aren’t supposed well in other products. I haven’t come up with an exhaustive list yet of what that means. But, I did put together a proof-of-concept for one particular idea. I call the idea "Paperwall". It comes from a practice I learned a while ago for brainstorming software ideas. Essentially the team blurts out the actors of your software project while someone writes them down on post-it notes. You can end up with something like this:

Paperwall essentially allows you to do the same thing, except the information is saved and can be viewed or edited later. You’ll also be able to link bugs, blogs, and wiki posts to these "post-its", and vise versa. Anyway, I’m DEFINITEY open to suggestions, especially from people involved in agile development. I will have a live version of the concept up and running shortly. Here’s a screenshot:

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Where's Brasten?!?

December 01, 2005 @ 09:03 AM

I know, I know… it’s been awhile. Sorry about that. This is going to be another one of those all-in-one updates, so hold on tight.

Weather
Firstly, it’s SNOWING! It’s not sticking, sadly… but it’s coming down pretty hard! As is usually the case, it’s just a little too wet and a little too warm to get any serious accumulation. I love it though.

The New Place
Moving into the new apartment has been an interesting experience for me. So far it’s been exactly what I was hoping for. It’s pretty quite, yet the feel of the city is right outside. Opening my window at night, I get to hear the chitter-chatter of people at the Starbucks next door, cars driving by… the light from the buildings all around glows (but not TOO obnoxiously, I’m still able to sleep!). Yet, being indoor entry, it has that community feel. Running in to people in the hallways and such. It’s been great!

I’ve been having a lot of those "oh yeah" moments related to getting married. For example, when setting up the second bedroom in the apartment as an office, I asked Jessica where she will want to put her bookshelf. She answered with, ‘why don’t I just put my books with your books?’... ‘Oh yeah..’

Rails-Talk
AJ and I are getting close to finishing our first Ruby on Rails project. It’s been a blast, and I can’t wait to start my next one. I still haven’t quite figured out if I could sneak Ruby into my workplace. We have some interesting restrictions that make it more difficult than it would otherwise be. I would love to start doing Ruby professionally, either at work for via contract work. I’ve been thinking about how to go about doing that.

The MARKET!
My investments in the stock market are kicking ass right now. I’ll most a graph later to prove it, but in the last month my stock account has increased by about 750%. Yes, 7.5 times. It’s been fun. :)

Anyway, that’s it. Log numbers were great this month too. 650 unique visitors or so…

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iBrasten

Nagilum Reborn

Happy Holidays!

GreenExpo

Where's Brasten?!?

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