I’m no longer really using this space; I’ve put all of my online accounts together and merged them under a new domain: ballpointcarrot.net. The project (which currently does not work with GNOME3, I know, I’m working on it), as always, can be found at Google Code.

Thank you to everyone who has used and appreciated this plugin in the past; I’m working on getting it functioning again soon.

I’ve been looking for work in new locations.  I am happy with my current job, in the fact that the people I work with are very skilled at what they do, and their attitude towards things is wonderful. Unfortunately, the actual work I am slated to do has put me in a lower tier than my peers: as an implementations role, I don’t end up writing as much code as I would like.

If anyone has any suggestions as this thing gets more used, I would like to hear them.  My current markets I am looking towards are in Seattle, WA, and the surrounding area; Boston, MA and the surrounding area; and the research triangle of VA/NC. Those locations seem to have a much better sense of what is being sought after for developers, and seems to have a greater market for the types of positions that I would like to have.

I guess I need to get myself sold to the world more, and maybe the world would in turn be more open to buying me.

I’m giving myself a challenge, and having my blog (Corner of Seven, for those of you reading this via Facebook) become the record of my success or failure of this challenge.

Starting today, my goal is to write *at least* 50 (fifty) lines of code per day.

This idea came about through the previously mentioned “Don’t Break the Chain” post on this blog (which worked oh so very well…),  and a recent experience that I had at work.

Most of my work duties are currently system configuration and setup, and less actual development on said systems.  With that, my ability to get code written has diminished.  I was asked recently to create a component in our software that renamed a file going out, based off of metadata contained within that file.  After sitting blankly at the computer screen, with my brain screaming, “I know what to do!!!!” and my hands frozen, unable to regain the muscle memory of the common actions of Java, I looked inside, and realized this had to change.

In a sense of betterment, I want to complete at least a small project daily.  Maybe it’s a coding kata. Maybe I work on stuff in Android.  Maybe I continue work on RBEQ.  Maybe I add new things to Corner of Seven.  Maybe it’s something I haven’t even thought of yet. All I know is that new code needs to come out of me, before I can’t do it any more.

Fortunately, I have tools at my disposal.  The afforementioned projects can keep me busy for a while, but what do I have to show the work that I’ve put in? Enter the Gist system at GitHub. This allows you to put small snippets of code out, configurable by language; it gets your code available on the internet, and embedded into a blog or webpage.

So there you have it.  Look to see some Gists from me shortly.

Cheers!

Note: This project is still in progress. Please travel to the Google Code Project for more.

Hello all -

A new version of RBEQ, the Rhythmbox Equalizer plugin that I’ve been hacking away at, is out for public availability.  Of course, this means that I have to go update all of my previous links to point to the new download.  For ease of accessibility, you can find it at http://rbeq.googlecode.com, as the featured download. Installation instructions are the same: download the file, open a terminal, and type:

tar -xvzf rbeq-1.3.tar.gz -C ~/.gnome2

New in this release:

• The ability to save and load presets.  This has been a big request, and I finally found a decent way of handling it.
• Layout cleanup and arranging to add in the new preset functions.
• Backend code cleanup, so that it behaves more python-y.  I’m not a python programmer, so this has been a neat experiment in trying it out.

Thanks to all out there who have used and enjoy the past versions of this plugin.  Hope that the new one is to your liking.

I put my resume up for availability as I’m not quite certain how much longer I can stay at my current job.  I’ll be looking around for things to work on in the Dubuque area, so if anyone knows of any open positions, please let me know.

The resume itself can be found here, or just use the link at the top of the page.

Basically, as described on the link above, the idea is that you keep a daily calendar of all the specific goals you want to accomplish.  Every time you do something related to a goal,  mark off the day on the calendar.  Once you have a few days consecutively, that is a chain.  The object of this motivational strategy: Don’t Break the Chain. Seems like a simple enough thing.

In the spirit of bringing in new ideas in order to make things work, I’m going to use a modified schedule, but the chain still takes effect.  Different days for me will be devoted to different goals/tasks.  Mondays and Thursdays I tackle some Ruby code, so I can stay fresh and learn about some of the newer developments that I’ve missed, having been out of the Ruby loop for a while.  Tuesdays and Saturdays are devoted to Corner of Seven.  That’s right, you might actually see more blog posts. In addition, I’m looking at building new and experimental pieces onto the domain, including rails and Java webapps, and playing around with php and python, so I can apply these to the blog, and keep the site as a form of digital portfolio.  All of my things will be up here, so it makes it more centralized.

Motorola Droid

Finally, the big hurdle in my calendar, and what is to be the biggest chain – Android.  I’ve been looking at the mobile phone operating system for a while now, but haven’t had the drive to fully enter in and create things for it.  That is, until I saw (and afterwards, held) one of these.So, starting today, once a day I will try to do something new in terms of Android development, in an effort to increase my skill and knowledge in the mobile OS.  Hopefully we’ll get to see some neat little apps come out of this “Don’t break the chain” mentality.  Hope you’re along for the ride – I guess we’ll see come every Tuesday and Sunday.

Cheers for now.