Alan Gutierrez

I came across this resource months ago. I forgot about it until I recently discovered an email that I sent to the author expressing my awe. It is a translation of the Perl Cookbook into Groovy.

In an IM exchange with Matt Hampel of ArborWiki, we discussed how I’m using the ArborWiki theme to create a new, database driven implementation of the List of New Orleans Bloggers. I asked Matt about forms and he pointed me toward work that he’d done at Ann Arbor’s Community High School, specifically the form guidelines for the school’s website. Moreover, he sent a link to a blog called Functioning Form where I found a post called Web Form Design Best Practices which has a presentation in PDF that is a great start in understanding form design.

I removed a hack that I’d thrown in to implement asides. Think New Orleans has been slow. It is now performs acceptably. I’d not feel like posting much lately, since I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to read a website that took 30 seconds to load.

I was reading Christopher Johnston today and he linked to this very lovely story Expert networking techniques from a playground-savvy 9-year old.

Michael Arrington publishes an email from a college student distraught because his Facebook account was revoked. He then goes on to say. “And frankly, I don’t care all that much, ’cause the last thing I want is for everyone with a Facebook customer service issue to start emailing me.” That whiff of self-importance was too pungent. He made an article of this kid’s email, but then has to make a backhanded statement. Honestly, who really needs to read TechCrunch anyway? Update: Same post at TechCrunch; what a bunch of idiot comments. Both Arrington and his readers miss the point entirely.

Last Friday I went to see Betty Harris at the Old Point Bar in Algiers. DJ Lingerie sent me a text message that she and a friend were in Algiers and that I should join them. I rode my bicycle through the Treme and French Quarter to cross the Mississippi with the ferry. On the ferry I heard that Betty Harris was playing at the Old Point Bar. I understood why I was headed there. We stood with our toes touching the stage. One of the backup vocalists was close enough to knock me while swaying. I was embarrassed for having disrupted her with my presence, yet she smiled and apologized. “Cry To Me” was haunting. Strange New Orleans evening which begins reluctantly and unfolds into unforgettable.

New Orleans taught me: When someone asks: What do you do? Take aback. Say: Tsk. That is such a personal question. Ask me something else.