Sitting and Standing at Work

Sitting and Standing at Work:

Ergonomic experts at Cornell don’t recommend standing desks, instead:

Sit to do computer work. Sit using a height-adjustable, downward
titling keyboard tray for the best work posture, then every 20
minutes stand for 2 minutes AND MOVE. The absolute time isn’t
critical but about every 20-30 minutes take a posture break and
move for a couple of minutes. Simply standing is insufficient.

[A big problem at work, we talk and work on these skills quite a bit. We’ve sat on exercise balls, we’ve changed positions, we stand. We’ll keep trying to make this healthier for ourselves.]
Source: Daring Fireball

upgrading pie from rails 3.0 to 3.1

upgrading pie from rails 3.0 to 3.1: Whenever I upgrade Rails, I always start with “rails new” so that I get all the new config file goodness — I want to start fresh with whatever the new defaults are and then only make the modifications that I really want in my app. Here’s the process I went through upgrading the pie “bakery” (a relative simple Rails 3.0 app) to Rails 3.1. [ok]
Source: the evolving ultrasaurus

A Pattern Language

"When I was a child, I thought
God was disappointed
whenever some distraction interrupted...
Now I know that God expects such interruptions,
for He knows our frailty.
It is completion that surprises Him."

--From the God Whispers of Han Qing-jao

Noah loves playing with patterns. Colors, shapes, letters, lego pieces, alternation, similarity… the whole gamut.

But he also gets upset when for one reason or another he can’t complete a pattern the way he’d like. Lack of resources, lack of concentration. What have you. He likes a nice tidy world from that perspective (although not from many others…)

There’s much yet to teach.

On Pacifism (Part of what I wrote on 9/14/2001)

A moment form my personal Wayback Machine: On Pacifism: “I hate war. I hate destruction. I cry my way through the reports of those who cannot yet release the hope that their loved ones will return despite what they have seen. You can feel the disturbance in the City. Not just in the quiet, or the change in rhythm, but in the disruption of lives. Those “lost” are present, infused with the anguish of those they left behind.”

There’s some more with emergency information and quotes and pictures lost in the transition from one bit of software to another. The release of anxiety I felt when all the first responder folks I know had checked in with their families. But I can still feel the changes from back then if I care to.

We avoided the coverage this weekend as the 10th anniversary passed. I didn’t want to relive those moments. But I did the love the story of Camp America, which now closed it doors, its goal accomplished, and of the flag that has been mended and patched by folks all over… and then part of me wondered what I wrote…

Anyway…

I pray for peace.

The New BostonGlobe.com

The New BostonGlobe.com:

I’m beyond impressed with the new Boston Globe web site. It’s the best I’ve ever seen. Congrats to @beep and the rest of the designer/developer team. As +Craig Hockenberry said on Twitter, other newspapers are going to look at it and either realize they need to imitate it, or they’ll keep dying.

If you have a big monitor, resize your browser window from very narrow through to full screen. Go very slowly, and watch as the layout adapts to the new size, every step of the way. The images resize, the number of columns will change from 1 to 2 to 3, each column’s width changes… it’s brilliant.

(What I’ve mentioned here is just the first-glance stuff. Look around, the attention to usability and detail is intense.)

[Impressive work.]
Source: Truer Words – A Journal

Interview: Fast Boy Cycles

Interview: Fast Boy Cycles: I danced professionally for a few years, and then taught for almost ten. For a lot of that time I had a company and was making work. I went to art school (university of the arts in Philadelphia). I thought I was going to study industrial design. I was pretty disenchanted when I realized that the industrial designers weren’t that involved in the engineering side of making stuff (or really the MAKING side of making stuff). Mostly just how it looked. How it felt. So there was a lot of CAD work, and some molding of models out of plastic. Someone dared me to take a dance class one night. I did. It seemed like much more fun than the visual arts core classes I was taking, so I switched majors the next day (“you want to switch majors!?” “Yes, if that’s possible.” “have you ever danced before!!?” “Yeah… I took a class last night.”). I stopped to catch my breath almost 15 years later and realized that I sort of hated dance. When I finally ran away screaming, building bikes seemed like a safe harbor. Can’t remember how I connected THOSE dots. [Go read the whole thing. Ezra Caldwell takes great photos, builds beautiful bikes, and continues to beat cancer. In a world where “awesome” is overused…]
Source: Cycle EXIF Update

Patagonia and Ebay

Patagonia and Ebay:

Good ol’ Yvon Chouinard. A couple of days ago, Patagonia announced a partnership with Ebay, urging consumers to buy and sell their used Patagonia garments and refrain from purchasing the new stuff. The whole thing is part of the longstanding Common Threads Initiative, and in order to be part of the buying and selling bonanza, you have to make a pledge to Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle and Reimagine. No argument here.

Sorta makes any “We made this garment with the most eco-friendly this and that” greenwashing statements a little less powerful, eh? Because really, what’s more eco-friendly than telling people to buy used gear?

[Yvon & Co. Really push the limits huh? Awesome.]
Source: Cold Splinters

Michael S. Hart, Founder of Project Gutenberg, Dies at Age 64

Michael S. Hart, Founder of Project Gutenberg, Dies at Age 64:

From his obituary at Project Gutenberg:

Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or
eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one
of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects. He
often told this story of how he had the idea for eBooks. He had
been granted access to significant computing power at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On July 4 1971, after
being inspired by a free printed copy of the U.S. Declaration of
Independence, he decided to type the text into a computer, and to
transmit it to other users on the computer network. From this
beginning, the digitization and distribution of literature was to
be Hart’s life’s work, spanning over 40 years.

A true pioneer, who made the world a better place.

[Considering where I work, this is especially notable.]
Source: Daring Fireball