If you’re using the popular http_authentication plugin from DHH and getting a NoMethod error “protected method `render’ called for <SomeController>”, the problem is that in Rails 2.x controller.render is now protected. This was a pain to figure out, but it can be easily solved using an updated plugin from Matthew Rudy at http://github.com/matthewrudy/http_authentication/tree/master. Google wasn’t much help, so I’m hoping this post will save someone with this issue some time. Just run
Mapstraction - map abstraction API for Javascript - Hackszine.com
Mapstraction is an abstracted Javascript mapping API that can make use of Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps and Mapquest. Instead of deciding on a particular mapping provider, you can build your web application with Mapstraction and easily switch to a different service by changing a single line of code.
Not so interested in the app itself, but in the fact that clear, published, open API’s make it so easy to add value around a great service.
When Distraction is Good - O’Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies
Distraction is getting a bad name. This past month, I’ve been heads down on a few projects and noticing something I’d not been very conscious of before now. When I get “stuck” or when I reach a natural break point on a piece of work, the menu of potential distractions includes everything from email and telephone calls to getting food, socializing and more.I did an informal audit. Sometimes I would check email. Other times, I would pace, get a glass of iced-tea, or walk outside for a few minutes. When I did the latter — any activity that was quiet, reflective and receptive, I would feel refreshed. I was open to receiving an insight and to being in the moment. When I returned to the project that had momentarily stumped me, I would enjoy new energy. I started calling this receptive distraction. Receptive distraction is any sort of distraction that creates mental space.
When I went to email, however, I would “spin out.” That is, I would completely lose track of what I had been working on and get immersed in all sorts of other issues. I started calling this deceptive distraction. I thought I could take a short break and crank out a few emails, but it took longer to do the emails than I thought, and longer to get back into my project afterward.
I’ve been using Jott now for a few weeks and it’s super useful. You set up a (free) account, give it your e-mail address and phone number, and (optionally) any other friends e-mail addresses who you may want to Jott. Once set up, you just dial Jott (a toll-free 866 number) and the automated system asks who you want to Jott and what your message is. You can Jott “myself” or any friends name that you already set up on the web site. A few minutes later, the recipient gets an e-mail with a text transcription of your message. The voice to text translation works really well in my experience.
I use this all the time driving to or from work - anything I’m trying to remember, especially to do lists - I just Jott them and then I have a nice list waiting in my inbox when I get there. Highly recommended.
Gnip » The WHAT of Gnip: Changing APIs from pull to push
Connects Data Consumers to Data Publishers in a low-latency, highly-scalable standards-based way. Data can be pushed or pulled into Gnip (via XMPP, Atom, RSS, REST) and it can be pushed or pulled out of Gnip (currently only via REST, rest to follow).
(tags: post:tzetzefly)
New TLD Fun - ongoing
Can you think of a good use for your own top-level domain? Rumor is you can get one for the low six figures next year. What would be a good use for one?
BMW’s fascinating GINA Light Visionary Model design study - Signal vs. Noise
BMW presents GINA, a new take on car design, materials, and flexibility. The GINA replaces the traditional metal/plastic skin with a textile fabric skin that’s pulled taut around a frame of metal and carbon fiber wires. Even the shape of the car can change. Fascinating and creative design study.
The video is absolutely nuts.
I was just having a conversation with my wife this morning about how anxious I was - anxious to be productive, feeling like I should be building stuff - instead of just enjoying my time off for a few weeks. Then I saw this amazing quote that Om Malik referenced this morning - he attributes it to Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron:
“After Sysiphus’ boulder fell down the mountain, during his descent to get it again, his time was free for the beautiful things instead.”
Wow - let’s see if I can keep that in mind the next few weeks.
Organizes desk-bound cords - Cool Tools
For sheer bang-for-the-buck, these cord management cards are tough to beat. They’re cheap polyethylene sheets you either stick or screw to the edge of your desk and then snap the cables coming from your computer and peripherals into the recesses.
Finding the natural size for your company - Signal vs. Noise
Popular perception holds that companies must always be growing or they’re dying. There’s either up or down, win or lose, success or failure. I think that’s a harmful dichotomy that leads to the death of perfectly viable companies in their quest for constant growth.
NDA == fail - Rethink - Home In today’s world, an idea is nearly worthless. What really matters is execution, implementation, and details. It’s possible to take a bad idea and make it work with proper execution, but the opposite is not true. A good idea without flawless execution will always fail.
GigaOM Interview: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos - GigaOM Om asks Bezos about why their going in the cloud computing direction, how that fits into a book retailing business, and gets some really interesting answers.
I’ll Never Get on a Plane Again - How to Change the World This is ridiculous - check out the video. Telepresence holographics (yeah - no kidding).
Today’s my last day here at eNeighborhoods. An interesting thing happened today that I think sums up the whole five years here pretty well.
In January of 2003, I arrived on the fourth floor of the building - where we had about one third of the floor rented - went into our little conference room, and had my first meeting here. We had one product at the time - the eNeighborhoods desktop product - which made it easy to create neighborhood reports and maps from a CD installed Windows app. The goal of the meeting was to figure out what functionality we could add to the product to increase sales and usage, and we pretty much decided that day that we would add MLS connectivity, CMA, and Buyer Tour.
Today, I went into our beautiful executive conference room, one of the three conference rooms we have here, where we now occupy the entire fifth floor. I sat with half a dozen people from a great team with tons of industry experience. We now have over a dozen products, and the topic of today’s meeting was the release date for the Realogy project, wherein we are providing IDX listing search and lead capture for all of their brands. This is similar to the RE/Max project, wherein we host remax.com and provide IDX, lead capture, lead management, and broker web sites for the second most trafficked real estate site on the net.
From the one product with a couple of features to many products, including enterprise level web sites, in five years. It went so fast…
Great quote for the industry… - Welcome to Vendor Alley
Chandler Barton (president and CEO of CB when purchased by HFS) once said, “People have this business backwards. You need to cut expenses when the market is good because don’t need to spend the money, and you grow market share when the market is bad. So when the cycle turns, which it inevitably will, you’ve got a larger share”.
DimP - A Direct Manipulation Video Player - TechCrunch DimP, a direct manipulation video player, lets users drag items on the video screen to move forward and back instead of just via a scroll bar on the bottom of the video.
Holy smokes people are smart. This is sooooooooo cool - how the heck did they figure that out.
Drop.io: Simple Private Exchange
Drop.io enables you to create simple private exchange points called “drops.” The service has no email signup and no “accounts.” Each drop is private, and only as accessible as you choose to deliberately make it.
(tags: fileshare)
The news is out - Greg and I are leaving eNeighborhoods at the end of May. Stu and Dave left at the end of last week. There’s a great group of people here who I will definitely miss working with. My team of 55 employees on the technical side of the building has never been stronger - that makes it hard to leave because things are going so well, but it also makes it easier knowing that things are in good hands and those good people now have an opportunity to step up a level.
My desire is to create and innovate, and it’s tough to do that in a big company with so many huge projects going on. I like to say that my skill is to build products, teams, and equity. I like building Inc. 500 companies - Iris was #192 in 2000 and eNeighborhoods was #84 in 2005 - but I lose my desire once it grows too large. Now that eNeighborhoods is a mature company with enterprise level clients, it’s time to pass it off to operational managers who can nurture it to it’s next level. Big companies are like playing baseball - lot’s of statistics and standing around waiting. I want to play hockey - to hit, score, hustle back on D, forecheck in the corners, and sweat a lot.
All day today, people in the industry have reached out with calls and e-mails. Your support and kind words are very appreciated. I look forward to keeping in touch with all of you, and even working together again in the future. I have a lot of anxiety about the near future, but with your support and the support of my family, I’m looking forward to creating and innovating again with Greg. It’s time for me to go build another Inc. 500 company.
Future of MLS Features 2008 - Matt’s Real Estate Technology Blog
The purpose of this paper is to generate discussion on possible MLS system future features by providing a big picture view of the changing relationship of real estate professionals with each other and with consumers, the changing relationship of local and regional MLSs with each other, and to illustrate, at least at a high level, how these changes may be either enabled or reflected technically in the MLS system of the future.
My thinking lately is matching several of Matt’s ideas.
Mosso Launches CloudFS Storage Service - GigaOM
Mosso, an on demand hosting start-up is embracing Cloud Computing with open arms, and today launched the beta of CloudFS, a new web-based storage offering that will compete with Amazon’s S3. Mosso plans to charge $0.15 per gigabyte, and will remain in beta till end of third quarter.
Competition is good for Amazon and it’s S3 customers.
I wish I could build software as great as Radiohead makes music. Only thing I’ve ever made as beautiful is my two daughters. It’s a high bar, but it’s great inspiration. Radiohead kicked off their US tour last night at Cruzan Amphitheatre and I was lucky to see it. Here’s some photos from Flickr.
