I may keep this blog for other stuff though.
baldur.snitchmedia.com
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Why Grubsnitch.com
This blog thing still feels a bit odd to me, too narcissistic, but then again no one else is writing about me so I may as well do it myself. I have always had an urge to make stuff irrespective of talent. If I there was one thing education left me with it was a desire to have a creative career.
I had always been pretty good with computers so I figured one way of working in the field of literature, the subject I majored in, was to become a designer of books. I never quite made it on that front, had a series of production jobs but that was it. All my design opportunities actually derived from my aptitude in computers, designing websites required technical skill as well as a good eye for design. I then adjusted my goal and aimed at becoming a web designer and finally, after some struggle, landed a job as a web designer.
Design never came naturally to me, I was good telling the computer to make a box orange but I was never sure if orange was the right color for that box and in most cases it wasn't. But luckily for me web design is more dynamic than that, sometimes the inappropriate colored orange box needed to move around, fade away, turn into a circle or simply puff away. That's how I started scripting and eventually found my way in to web development. I eventually got introduced to server-side scripting, databases and shell scripting and to me this has redefined my ambition to have a creative career.
One of the things I love about web development is the possibility of enabling others to be creative. There are so many people bursting with content who are willing to contribute, but sadly there are more things in the world that stifles creativity than encourages it. Biggest one is inertia which is fueled with everything from fear of mockery to lack of time. The web has changed that somewhat and caused an creative atom bomb, because it's has made it fun to make stuff and it has crushed the inertia, so much that now we have certainly reached an era where more things are published on the web than is ever consumed.
Many fear that this is a bad thing but it doesn't have to be a bad thing. There is no harm in having more content on a particular subject because it increases the chance of someone finding the information they are looking for. But it does require more of people, critical faculty is more important now than it ever. Yeah I hate to say it but what you read isn't necessarily true! a notion that many struggle with.
In the spirit of making something which has a chance of never being consumed. I started building something I hope can be helpful to someone, grubsnitch.com. I live in Park Slope Brooklyn and I love to eat out. Park Slope is filled with restaurants. But how do you know which ones are good? The only way to really know is to ask people who have been there, if you don't know anyone that has been there check grubsnitch.com! That's how I think about it. I trust people that live in my neighborhood and who are willing to share their restaurant experiences on a community website. So that's my goal to give people opportunity to express their experiences in a restaurant and log them. Let's make it easy to find the hidden little secrets in each neighborhoods and easy to stay away from the over-hyped ones.
I had always been pretty good with computers so I figured one way of working in the field of literature, the subject I majored in, was to become a designer of books. I never quite made it on that front, had a series of production jobs but that was it. All my design opportunities actually derived from my aptitude in computers, designing websites required technical skill as well as a good eye for design. I then adjusted my goal and aimed at becoming a web designer and finally, after some struggle, landed a job as a web designer.
Design never came naturally to me, I was good telling the computer to make a box orange but I was never sure if orange was the right color for that box and in most cases it wasn't. But luckily for me web design is more dynamic than that, sometimes the inappropriate colored orange box needed to move around, fade away, turn into a circle or simply puff away. That's how I started scripting and eventually found my way in to web development. I eventually got introduced to server-side scripting, databases and shell scripting and to me this has redefined my ambition to have a creative career.
One of the things I love about web development is the possibility of enabling others to be creative. There are so many people bursting with content who are willing to contribute, but sadly there are more things in the world that stifles creativity than encourages it. Biggest one is inertia which is fueled with everything from fear of mockery to lack of time. The web has changed that somewhat and caused an creative atom bomb, because it's has made it fun to make stuff and it has crushed the inertia, so much that now we have certainly reached an era where more things are published on the web than is ever consumed.
Many fear that this is a bad thing but it doesn't have to be a bad thing. There is no harm in having more content on a particular subject because it increases the chance of someone finding the information they are looking for. But it does require more of people, critical faculty is more important now than it ever. Yeah I hate to say it but what you read isn't necessarily true! a notion that many struggle with.
In the spirit of making something which has a chance of never being consumed. I started building something I hope can be helpful to someone, grubsnitch.com. I live in Park Slope Brooklyn and I love to eat out. Park Slope is filled with restaurants. But how do you know which ones are good? The only way to really know is to ask people who have been there, if you don't know anyone that has been there check grubsnitch.com! That's how I think about it. I trust people that live in my neighborhood and who are willing to share their restaurant experiences on a community website. So that's my goal to give people opportunity to express their experiences in a restaurant and log them. Let's make it easy to find the hidden little secrets in each neighborhoods and easy to stay away from the over-hyped ones.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Open source isn't free—you just don't have to pay for it.
I lose sleep if I am doing something that I suspect is wrong. There was a time when my virtual toolbox was filled with pirated software such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Word, and I always had serious angst about using them. I was comforted by the fact that at least I was using them legally at work (assuming that the companies I worked for had their licensing in order). At home in my spare time, however, it was a different story. I was making a few extra bucks on freelance work, but not enough bucks to afford the tools I was using. And I was losing sleep over it.
But for 2 years now I have been using software that is freely distributed. I use Linux (ubuntu) as my operating system, Open Office for what I used to use Microsoft Office for, Inkscape for Illustrator, Scribus for InDesign/Quark, Gimp for Photoshop, Blender for 3d rendering software, Quanta instead of Dreamweaver, GnuCash replaces Quicken-the list goes on and on.
It would be foolish to claim that all of these applications are an exact replacement for their proprietary counterparts, but there is no harm in trying; especially if the alternative is stealing! Some open source applications are better than others. Personally, I miss Illustrator and InDesign the most. If development on Inkscape and Scribus continues, though, it's not inconceivable that they'll mature to become viable alternatives to Illustrator or InDesign.
I almost never user illegal copies of software anymore, but my conscience is wondering: can this be? Is this really free? And if so, how? How does this community thrive, and who is paying for it? What is driving it? Am I a part of this community as a user of this free stuff, and what are my responsibilities? And it hits me... I am not doing as much as I should to give back to the community. There it comes: now I feel bad about myself again. But this time I know I can do something about it, and this is how:
But for 2 years now I have been using software that is freely distributed. I use Linux (ubuntu) as my operating system, Open Office for what I used to use Microsoft Office for, Inkscape for Illustrator, Scribus for InDesign/Quark, Gimp for Photoshop, Blender for 3d rendering software, Quanta instead of Dreamweaver, GnuCash replaces Quicken-the list goes on and on.
It would be foolish to claim that all of these applications are an exact replacement for their proprietary counterparts, but there is no harm in trying; especially if the alternative is stealing! Some open source applications are better than others. Personally, I miss Illustrator and InDesign the most. If development on Inkscape and Scribus continues, though, it's not inconceivable that they'll mature to become viable alternatives to Illustrator or InDesign.
I almost never user illegal copies of software anymore, but my conscience is wondering: can this be? Is this really free? And if so, how? How does this community thrive, and who is paying for it? What is driving it? Am I a part of this community as a user of this free stuff, and what are my responsibilities? And it hits me... I am not doing as much as I should to give back to the community. There it comes: now I feel bad about myself again. But this time I know I can do something about it, and this is how:
- Evangelize to my friends about the benefits of open source software.
- Try to get the company I work for to embrace the concept of open source-not only by using it, which they are beginning to understand, but also by contributing back to the community. Take google as an example google is definitely the industry leader there, supporting several open source projects.
- Helping others when they have problems I have experienced. There are a lot of people documenting their experiences, and almost all known issues are well documented, alongside with a solution to them. My personal favorite is this wiki which lists just about anything you may want to do with ubuntu.
- Write banal posts such as this one until I reach a skill-level where I can contribute code, which to me is the ultimate goal.
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