decause's blog

/me dug up his old and busted myspace, or my|_______| as it is called now. After a bit of a facelift (+.5 for having a decent javascript-y UI) I checked out their "Open" Developer community and RESTful API. *Almost* signed up for an API key, but quickly rescinded when I got to that pesky Proprietary Rights Section of the Developer Addendum... Pasted here for your amusement:

"""
MySpace retains all right, title and interest, including without limitation, all intellectual property rights, in and to (i) the MySpace Services, including, without limitation, the MySpace Apps Developer Platform, including, without limitation, any and all content, look and feel, user interfaces, data and metrics in connection therewith, and any derivative works and/or compilations thereof or relating thereto; (ii) User Information; and (iii) any feedback you may provide to MySpace in connection with the MySpace Apps Developer Service (collectively, “MySpace Property”).
"""

Typically, politics on your average college campus looks alot like a Mock Debate where the Blues, Reds, and Greens all get up on stage and trash-talk eachothers' candidates like Mike Tyson at weigh-ins before stepping into Madison Square Garden.

Election night here in the innovation center was not your typical college politics event. The atmosphere looked more like NASA mission control and CSPAN had a 40 foot wide HD love child.

"A programmer will eventually tell you to use Mac OSX or Linux. If the programmer likes fonts and typography they’ll tell you to get a Mac OSX computer. If they like control and have a huge beard then they’ll tell you to install Linux."

http://learnpythonthehardway.org/index

Out across the empire plaza, a man in a white hat and three piece strides along between the reflecting pools toward The Egg. In train, a sharply clad trio of women, each toting their satchels full to the brim with equipment, computers and ambition. Amongst the towers, amphitheatres, and marble goliaths, their eyes were wide with experiencing the Capitol for the first time, but in too much of a hurry to take much in.

In our campaign, we do as much as we can with whatever we are afforded, and then give all the code away for Free regardless. Affording sponsorship to developers, and opening those kind of positive feedback loops, is a vision too few share.

As Resident Hacktivist at Rochester Institute of Technology (http://www.rit.edu), on behalf of the FOSS@RIT Campaign (http://foss.rit.edu), I would like to know, from the journalists' perspective, how we can mold the tools of our CIVX platform (http://civx.us) to best meet the needs of the Media, and how our students, fellows, and faculty, can bridge the gap for an industry in the midst of major paradigm shift.

Here is the link to the on-line press release. I've attached a .pdf version to this post as well.

Saving_The_World(RemyD):

A Proper Hackfest.
Finally.
16 hour days.
At least 16.
Breaking only to eat and maybe grab a cig here and there.

Deep. Real deep.

Like, all the way down to the bottem of the stack. Opening up SQLAlchemy source, DBSessions, engines, metadata... super low-level Database/Datamodel hacking. Halfway through, Lewk and I looked at eachother and thought:

Did we dive too deep?
Can we really build DynamicDataObjects on-the-fly?
Are the Polymorphic Tables really supposed to be (ab)used in this way?

Just arrived at PDF Bootcamp! So excited for the next 5 hours of campaign and advocacy mentoring with leading non-profits and tech orgs. I already made my rounds at the old homestead, SFLC, and my favorite morning breakfast sandwich cart on 68th. Boy, it is good to be back in NYC.