Brilliant Corners

I think I'm going to abandon trying to keep the art inspiration posts here on this weblog. It’s sometimes more time-consuming than I wanted it to be. So, I'm moving the inspiration posts to Tumblr. Now, you can get your wonderful and inspiring art at http://billturner.tumblr.com/.

I think I'll eventually roll those posts into the RSS feed here, but until then those art posts will live there, and there alone. Also, I'm really digging the Tumblr interface, so I'll probably have something more to say on that at a later date.

One of the first things I need to determine about THE PROJECT is what I'll build the application with. I'm positive I'll take advantage of one of the frameworks (like Ruby on Rails or CakePHP) to build the application, but I need to nail down which language I'll use. There are many many choices out there on what language to use, but for me there are only two I'll choose from: PHP or Ruby. But, which one? I've done quite a bit of work with both, although less with PHP. Let’s see the options:

Ruby

For the last three years, most of the work I've done has been with Ruby, either with Rails or, more recently, Merb. I grow more comfortable with Ruby every day and I still have fun learning new tricks. This had been pretty much restricted to Rails up until I gave Merb a try a few months ago. I rewrote this weblog with Merb and I had a good time teaching myself something new. Yes, there are many, many similarities between Rails and Merb, but I think there are some things that Merb does better (and easier). Rails, on the other hand, is a little more robust and has a larger community behind it. It could be easier to do what I want to (in the scope of this project) with Rails, as opposed to Merb.

PHP

In the last year, I've built a few web apps using the CakePHP framework, and I found it quite a nice change of pace to work with. Since I had a strong Rails background, CakePHP was easy to pick up since they certainly had Rails in mind when putting the framework together. However, if I went with PHP, I'm not sure I'd go with CakePHP. I've heard many good things about another framework, CodeIgniter, and I'm eager to try it. There’s nothing that particular bugged me about CakePHP, but CodeIgniter has a reputation as being a little faster, but it may not have a community as big as CakePHP’s backing it up, or as many places to look for code examples.

The Decision

So, what will it be? First of all, I think I can narrow it down to using Ruby instead of PHP. PHP is more widely supported (and easier to deploy, etc., etc.), but I think my day-to-day experience leans me more towards Ruby. I'm just more comfortable with Ruby than I am with PHP. I do want to use the CodeIgniter framework for something in the future (and I think I may already know what that is), but I just don’t think it’s quite right for this project.

That leaves me with the Ruby language, but which of the frameworks? Merb is just about to reach the big 1.0 milestone, but while Merb may be ready, I'm not sure I'm ready to build something big on the framework. It’s still young and with many fairly drastic changes in the API the last few months, there’s not a whole lot out there in the way of documentation and sample apps and code. In the few years I've been working with Ruby on Rails, the community has exploded with plugins for just about everything, tons of sample code, and a growing reference library (thanks to the Rails-related weblogs and numerous tutorials). I know Rails is up to the task, and that it can handle all that I'm wanting to do (and more).

In my mind, that settles it: I'll use Ruby on Rails.

I've had the idea for this web application for over a year now, but haven’t done much with it. Well, I take that back. I started and stopped it about three or four times, but I always stalled on some small detail or became distracted by something else. This time I'm going to do quite a bit more planning up front to avoid the traps I fell into in the past. I also thought I'd post about my progress here on the weblog. Hopefully, this exercise will help me organize my thoughts and ideas.

The last big web application project I built was Lists of Bests (archive of my version, current version), but it’s been two years since I sold the site to The Robot Co-op. I haven’t done anything of note since then. Well, I could mention the intranet app I work on for a small Dallas-based company, but no one outside of the company will ever see it, so that one doesn’t count (even though it is pretty awesome). It’s now well past time for me to start up something new, and the fact that I have the idea, that’s all for the better. I will say that the idea behind THE PROJECT isn’t an entirely new idea, but my plans are to make a good idea even better. We'll see if I can deliver on that!

I plan on covering much of the progress of the application while I'm working through it: technology used; layout decisions; administrivia; and everything else. However, I will keep the actual focus of the web application secret until I get a little further along in the process, although some clues may surface throughout the series of posts. The next couple of posts will cover more general ideas and questions, before I start writing any code at all. Then I'll get into the meat of building the full-on web application. So stay tuned!

As a final note, a bit of inspiration for putting this series together goes to Garrett Dimon and the blogging he’s been doing while building his app Sifter.

While I kind of agree with a few of Garrett Murray’s criticisms of music concerts, most of them leave me scratching my head.

His first couple of points on Ticketmaster (#1) and exorbitant fees on tickets (#2) is pretty spot on. Unless another big ticket vendor comes into the action, there’s not much we'll be able to do about the ridiculous fees that Ticketmaster (and sometimes even smaller ticket vendors) charge. Luckily, in many cases there are alternatives. Unless you're going to a show at a large arena, you may be able to buy your tickets at the venue in advance without having to pay fees. Some venues will have deals with local record shops where tickets can be purchased, but then you will likely pay a fee, but a fee much smaller than Ticketmaster charges.

He does have a bit of a point about credit cards (#3), but maybe from going to so many shows before debit cards were so common, I think it’s a habit to stop at an ATM before a show to make sure I have pocket money for drinks or the occasional tour t-shirt. And unless it says it’s an “All Ages Show” then I think it’s pretty safe to ignore the suggested show times on tickets (#4). Ticketmaster is more interested in making sure their fees are collected, than getting all the information on the ticket correct. If you really need to make sure, call the venue ahead of time and they will probably be able to tell you the correct time the bands start.

That’s about where he loses me with his arguments. I can’t imagine having every concert having assigned seating (#5). It’s certainly not essential, and depending on the band playing, almost inappropriate. In 21 years and over 125 concerts, there have been maybe a handful of exceptions where I wish I was sitting instead of standing. I can’t imagine a better way to see a show than standing among the other fans, being able to shift position around the floor while trying to find the best sound in the venue. You have the freedom to get close enough to have your ears sting or far enough away that you can still enjoy the music without it pounding your ears. Not having that freedom would drive me crazy if every venue and every concert had seating.

To add another point to the seating issue, if you've ever been on the other side (on stage, that is) having an audience that’s seated is a whole different ballgame than having a moving (even if they're just swaying) mass of people. In one case, you have to provide all the energy in the place, while with an active audience you can definitely feed off of their energy and emotions. It can really be a night and day difference when you're performing on stage. Having a standing and engaged audience right in front of you can turn a good show into a fantastic one.

And while I'm not much of a fan of the overeager concert-goer singing at the top of their lungs (#6), with a standing room only show, you can easily move somewhere else on the floor, not to be bothered. Same with the dancing (or moshing or whatever). If it bothers you that much, you can move back or to the side or wherever. More than likely, the sound in the club is loud enough, that no matter where you're standing, you'll be able to hear just fine. Now, if every single show had assigned seating—like Garrett proposes—what would you do then? You'd be stuck next to the super fan. ;–)

I don’t think that “we as concert goers have let it get this out of hand.” I'm pretty sure that shows have been going on like this since before the both of us were even born.

It was fun to read (and see) Christoph Niemann’s visual story on his kids' infatuation with the New York subway system, because my own kids got a huge kick out of riding the subway when we were in Rome this March. We weren’t there long enough, or rode the subway enough times, for Clara and Eliot to memorize the routes and stops, but they enjoyed it enough. My kids are so used to riding in cars that taking any kind of public transportation is a truly unusual treat.

Here’s Eliot demonstrating his subway pole holding technique from one of our rides on the Rome subway:

I think the best way to teach yourself a new web technology is to build yourself a weblog application. Well, I wanted to learn Merb, so that’s what I did. Kinda. Basically, I just took the same database layout that I had in the last incarnation (which was written in Ruby on Rails) and then just wrote a Merb application around it.

I'll probably have more on Merb as I've learned quite a bit, and I've become quite enamored of the little framework that could!

For those of you in feed readers, I apologize if you get all my posts in your reader again. Some URLs have changed, and the commenting doesn’t work as well as I want it to yet, but it’s passable for now.

Yes, I saved that much by visiting the local library today, and that’s not including tax! That’s what it would have cost if I went to the comic store and bought the five graphic novels that I checked out today.

Since I first got my library card I've checked out 56 items, most of which are graphic novels/comics. I don’t feel like adding the cost up from all of those, but I know it’s several hundred dollars. Now, I'm grateful to have saved all that money, but at the same time I'm sad I'm not contributing to the wallets of those certainly-deserving writers and artists. How can I resolve this quandary? Well, maybe my mind can be put a little at ease thanks to the cost of graphic novels. Something just seems wrong paying $20 for something that can be read in 15 minutes, great art or not. Still I feel a little bad about it, but that’s what libraries are for, right?

Well, maybe I can’t completely justify it, especially since I don’t plan on stopping my visits to the library to check out more books and comics. However, there have been many that I enjoyed so much that I do plan on buying and adding them to the bookshelf:

• The Arrival, by Shaun Tan

  Gorgeous art and a wordless, yet moving and powerful narrative. I had seen this mentioned on a couple of “best of the year” lists, but it just took a look inside to see the reason why.

• Skim, by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

  The story is great, but it’s Jillian Tamaki’s art that really grabs me. It reminds me a lot of Dave McKean’s Cages for some reason, which I loved tremendously.

• La Perdida, by Jessica Abel

  I had read the first issue or two of La Perdida many years ago, but thanks to the library carrying the collected comic, I've been able to read the entire story (almost in a single sitting).

• Persepolis 1 & 2, by Marjane Satrapi

  These are some of the first graphic novels I checked out from the library. I still haven’t seen the film, but if it is anywhere near as good as these then it should be fantastic.

• The entire Lone Wolf and Cub series, by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima

  A Zen-like assassin and his infant son travel from job to job, often without saying but just a few words. Yeah, it can be quite violent at times, but it isn’t overly graphic or gruesome. The beautiful art is what grabs me the most.

I really have enjoyed reading everything that I've checked out of the library, but those above are the ones that really stood out. I can also thank the library for getting me hooked on Iain M. Banks' sci-fi books. They had an old beat-up copy of Consider Phlebas which I loved. Sadly, many of his earlier SF books are still not yet available in the US (although they are being released, slowly) so I've had to resort to buying some from overseas in order to feed my Culture fix.