Blog of the designer/developer Zach Inglis.
Im currently about to release a butt-load of Rails applications onto my server but before I do, I have decided to evaluate the hosting solution I use.
I am currently on MediaTemple. Has anyone had experience using (mt)’s containers for production?
If I can’t use it decently, i’ll try one of these: (Reccomend them if you like ‘em)
aka Some Random Unordered Lists of My Common Habbits and Work Setup
After watching the ‘Design Workflows at Work’ panel, I thought I would give an explanation of how I work. I previously showed the way I design, although that has evolved a lot since then. The following article covers all aspects of the way I work.
My desk sadly is situated in the corner of my living room which can cause some problems when I want to lock myself away and work — though that doesn’t matter as I usually work while everyone is sleeping anyway. I’d rather spend 10 hours a day doing it this way than 6 hours of hard silent monotonous work.
I am a persistent note-taker, some of my best ideas are forgotten unless I scribble it down in one of my countless notepads or save it as a Cell Message Draft. Consequently, I always have my notepad behind my keyboard with a pen when I’m working to insure I won’t lose any ideas.
Unlike most people I advocate being interrupted occasionally. I keep my IM and Mail open for a reason. Frequently I have my best ideas and inspiration when I am not trying to thinking about it. Talking to people helps get my ideas out and gives me bursts of rest, keeping me refreshed for longer.
I also have my “sticky task wall”. Rather than putting Post-Its around my screen, I stick it up on the wall and when I need to take a break from what I am doing, I’ll complete a few. Whether it’s buying something or a small task such as create a favicon for my site.
I had the fantastic honour of watching Will Wright speak about Spore. I have uploaded it to Viddler.
After the panel, I managed to ask him a few questions regarding the space phase. In reply to my questions, he mentioned there WILL be Space Stations and such construction items. He also said that the reason you’d want to visit the supernovas are there’ll be wares that you can pick up.
It was fantastic. Click here for the Spore video
Unlike last year, I won’t update every day nor live blog. As I am here with Esther, this SXSW is more relaxed.
I finally arrived in Austin on Friday at 10.30. The flights were hell, stuck next to big American’s who found a love to jab me in the ribs with their elbows. I booked way too late and only just managed to find a hotel 6 miles away. Due to the distance, we can’t go back to our rooms as easily as I could last year being a few blocks away from the Convention Center though.
This year, the people count has doubled. Usually I can goto a panel and see someone I know, however this year so far has been quite the opposite. I have gone to atleast 2 panels where I didn’t know anybody.
I met everyone I was planning to meet that I hadn’t (Lea. Colin and Jina) and people I wasn’t expecting to see (Tim and Brain Benzinger).
A lot of the information has been reaffirmation of what I already know but I have also learnt a lot of stuff. One of my favourite panels, Influence of Art In Design mentions music changing the way you design. I knew this already but it has inspired me to listen to some techno next time I break out Photoshop.
A lot of the panels feel to be targeted more to people just starting out this year.
There’s still 2 days left and I plan on having a lot of fun.
If you’re about and want to meet up, email me.
I’ve started to archive the helpers that I use in Rails and thought i’d share them with the world.
You can find them here.
Although a small list, it’ll gradually get bigger.
Download them, use them in your work, modify them, share them, do whatever you want with them.
You are currently browsing the ZachInglis.com weblog archives for the month March, 2007.
