Alex Aguilar

Will I finally learn Rails?

It's pretty embarrassing to see that I initially posted about Ruby on Rails six years ago and to this day I haven't written an app or completed one project with Rails. Despite the fact that I purchased the first two editions of Agile Web Development with Rails, Simply Rails 2nd Ed. and even the Rails Way 1st Ed. Heck if you view my Delicious bookmarks my top 10 tag is 'Rails'. So what's different this time around? Will 2011 finally be the year I make the switch from php to ruby?

Wikipedia Rules

Wire has an interesting article on Wikipedia.  I have to admit I tend to use Wikipedia as my main reference these days.

VW Golf / Gene Kelly Commercial

VW Golf GTI

I think it's pretty sweet even though it looks like his face had been injected with a gallon of botox in several frames.

Ruby on Rails

Been meaning to read up on Ruby on Rails since I found out that Basecamp is built on it. Today O'Reilly posted an article on how to get started Rolling with Rails on a Windows environment.

Picasa 2 Released

Picasa 2.0 has been released. So far I've been pretty impressed with the 1.6 version. Most simply call it an iPhoto clone (which has new version 5 release this Friday) and it's hard not to notice the similarities.  I'll check back in with a review of both but it seems they're both improving basic image editing and photo sharing.

update I played with Picasa 2 a bit. The built-in photo editing actually works really well. The I'm Feeling Lucky button works great; it'll automatically try to fix contrast and lighting in an image while trying not affect the color. They also have an align horizon feature which was one of the neat things from last weeks Keynote speech regarding iPhoto5. eWeek has a good review of Picasa 2.

Terrific Tuesday

Tomorrow is going to be interesting:

• Resident Evil 4 is getting awesome reviews
  • completely revamped 3D engine and control scheme
• will the headless Mac rumor turn out to be true?
  
  • say hello to the Mac Mini
• Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
  • a brand new 'old-school' Zelda adventure

Catan Online

MSN Zone has launched Catan Online which is the first officially licensed English version of my favorite boardgame.   It's the 4 player version and strictly Settlers rules (ie no ships/islands from the Seafarers expansion). There's a trial and full ($29) version.  FYI, Teuber's latest installment to the Catan series is Candamir (not available in English yet).

MSNBC Pictures of the Year

I really enjoy MSNBC's This Week in Pictures.
They've now posted This Year in Pictures.

2004 Google Zeitgeist

Check out the most popular Google searches of 2004

This will make Scoble happy: #1 Popular Computer Goods - tablet pc
The ipod was the top Consumer Product.

I'm still holding out on both. Tablet PC too underpowered and expensive for my needs.  ipods are way cool but the new iRiver H10 with color screen and built-in FM tuner looks like a contender.  It'll depend on how well the H10's interface works.

Reboot your Sidekick II

I've had my T-Moblie/Danger Sidekick II since launch in early October (I really like it though it is pretty high in the geek factor).  So far it's worked really well for both voice and data (it's still too slow for comfortable web browsing but I do run searches pretty quickly using Google SMS). But it recently started having problems checking email - Network Service Unavailable.