First experience with the Wave
I had my first experience with Google Wave today. A colleague and I used it for brainstorming, for which we found it very well suited. Once we’d wrapped up, we migrated what we had to our internal wiki, making it…
Dave Cassel
Complementary Jobs
Early in my career, I decided I was going to build a web site to compete with one that I used, but had some problems with. It seemed like something I could pull off part time, while continuing with my…
Interview projects
I’m in the process of changing jobs. After 5+ years working with Lockheed Martin, I’m moving to Mark Logic. The process of finding a new company gave me a topic to discuss here. I interviewed with two companies, and both…
Adjacent Sibling Selectors and IE
I came across an interesting little gotcha today while working with CSS’ adjacent sibling selectors. First, a quick intro, in case you’re not familiar with them. <div class=”content”> <h1>Big News</h1> <p>Intro paragraph.</p> <p>Meaningless drivel</p> </div> Sibling selectors let you apply…
Technical Choices Matter
When you start a project, one of the early choices you need to make is what technologies to use. You use tools that will support your efforts, not get in your way. For Trovz.com, I went with PHP on the…
Get Your Core Users Early
Trovz.com taught me that it’s important to get some core users early. But how do you get them, and how do you make use of them? First things first: what does a core group of early users do for you?…
Geek Haiku
While I’m preparing my next post, here’s a little something to chew on: Scripting languages allow much obfuscation but the job gets done. Haiku is easy: 5-7-5 syllables. Let’s see yours in the comments.
User Interface Design isn’t for everyone
I’ve always known that the visual aspect of software is important, but most of my software development career has been building behind-the-scenes components that no user ever saw. I knew good user interface design was important, I just didn’t know…
Productivity = Skill * Commitment * Tools
It’s very difficult to start up a company part time. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it’s tough. This simple equation popped into my head earlier: Productivity = Skill * Commitment * Tools Early in our effort, we…
Beginning with an End
In April 2007, I started work on what became Trovz.com, a site to help people lend, rent, and buy stuff. On August 19th, 2009, I threw in the towel. I think my first lesson came even before I got started…