Julio Garcia

Where have you been, CodeIgniter? // March 9th, 2007

For the past several months I have have been trying to use several different web application frameworks. None of them were a right fit for me for several reasons, either they lacked in documentation, were slow, required other software libraries, or were built in other languages that would take took long to learn.

For example, I tried Ruby on Rails for a majority of the time. I had the books, checked the blogs, installed it on my development server, but it just didn’t work out. The lack of sufficient documentation is the primary reason I jumped from the Ruby on Rails bandwagon. I also didn’t appreciate the “don’t worry about the magic behind Rails” because I need to know how things work to debug errors. And sure enough when errors came, I spent most of my free time searching for the answers. It doesn’t live up the hype, like most fads.

I decided it would be best to stick with PHP, a language I’ve used since 1999 and take a closer look at the PHP frameworks. This crop wasn’t much better than Rails, each one of them lacked in one or more areas; immature code and or configuration, lacking in documentation, or requiring annoying PEAR libraries. All this caused me to lose interests in these, if not all, frameworks.

It was time to put up or shut up and I went to the drawing board with plans on creating my own framework for my own projects. Less than 24 hours later, as luck would have it, I came across Code Igniter, a fast open source PHP web application framework with more than enough documentation and no need for any PEAR libraries. Installation is quick and simple with the configuration requiring more time, about 3 minutes.

I had been using CodeIgniter for several days, creating simple scripts to get a hang of the system. Then on Sunday night I decided to jump right in a create my first project, a fully functional administration web site for my sister’s jewelry business. Here it is late Thursday night and I am about 80% complete, and that is with me traveling to southern California Monday morning and returning Wednesday evening.

CodeIgniter is the framework I have been looking for since this time last year. It is fast, simple to use, elegant, well documented, stands on its own, open source, and powerful. Now all the projects I had to clear off the table because developing other ones would take too long are back on.

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Radio Station Channel 104.9 Returns // February 28th, 2007

On December 31st 2005, San Jose “alternative” radio station Channel 104.9 held a New Year’s Eve/Listener party. By morning Channel 104.9 was gone, replaced with a spanish language format. On Tuesday at 5 p.m., nearly 14 months after that New Year’s Eve, Channel 104.9 returned.

In an interview with the San Jose Mercury New, program director Justin Wittmayer said “For a year we’ve been hearing that listeners want their station back. We just had to look at it. When something is slapping you in the face, you have to address it.”

This public outrage was due to 104.9 being the second casualty of corporate radio moving to spanish format, long-time Bay Area rock fixture KSJO was the first to go. My outrage was that they took away the only rock station that seemed to play the least amount of commercials, employed DJ’s that would shut up and play music, and had my favorite type of morning show: all music and no talk.

But a lot has changed since 104.9 went off the air. I realized I would rarely be able to hear music I enjoyed over the radio. I also started listening to my iPod during all my drives, no matter the distance. I downloaded an exponential amount of new songs. As a Christmas gift, I received a Bose SoundDock which allows me to listen to music I enjoy when & how I want (This is something all old media, not just radio, fail miserably to understand). And finally, I realized most new music out these days is just crap. I just tuned into 104.9 again for the first time and had to turn it off after 3 songs.

I don’t see how Channel 104.9 and radio in general can compete with my, or anyone else’s iPod. But they will try; “Wittmayer said the new format will include new and older alternative songs, and will draw heavily from listener requests, a way to keep it competitive with iPods and Internet music.” In theory that sounds great, but I already know who is going to be jamming the request channels and what type of bands and music they want to hear. That is something I can’t compete with nor do I want to. It is bad enough that same demographic destroyed music television.

When I first heard of this comeback, I thought it was a victory for the alternative rock format, but now I see it as only a win for the corporation. This wasn’t about the old 104.9 listeners and going back to them. The spanish station’s ratings were poor and the fastest, cheapest, and easiest way to improve ratings would be to switch back instead of trying to grow the listener base of the spanish format.

What is the result of all this? Simple, another group of avid listeners are screwed over when their station changes format and are left to find a new way to listen to music they enjoy. Where will they go? To another station only to worry if this happens again or rely on themselves for a better listening experience with the help of technology?

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Mac Acquired // February 6th, 2007

After some thinking, and MacWorld, I finally pulled the trigger and bought myself a MacBook Pro (17 inch) from Apple (excuse the lack of unboxing photos).

Using it these past few days, I see why people always respond with “Mac’s just work” when asked what is so great about these machines. Coming from 12 years of using Windows (not exclusively - I did work at Apple for a stretch, and I use Ubuntu as well) it seems like Microsoft is more concerned about the OEM’s & channels & VARs & corporate customer’s users first and then individual end user second. But Apple seem to care more about you, the individual user, first, right from the start. I believe that is why things “just work”. Remember the hassle of trying to install an application you downloaded from the web onto your PC? Well, on a Mac you just download the file, open the it up and drag the file icon into your Applications folder and you are done - it just works.

I had written some reasons why I purchased a Mac, but it was coming across more as a list of excuses. Let me just say that I am tired of Windows letting me down and I’m not going to spend more money to let Vista do the same (also, see the latest Mac vs. PC commercial - funny because it’s true). And for those that think it, I didn’t buy this to be cool(er). I wanted something new and reliable and stable, and it seems like I found it.

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Come On Feel The Noise // December 23rd, 2006

I just had to delete quite a few feeds from my Bloglines reader due to excessive noise (saying a lot but not saying anything of substance).

I know posting frequently on your blog is a great way to build traffic, but if your posts have little or no substance, you won’t be able to maintain that traffic. Please stop with the noise.

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What Would Be My Dream Job? // December 22nd, 2006

Since the holidays are coming up that means spending a lot of time with family members you haven’t talked to in a while. One topic that always comes up is my career and where it is going. George, a co-worker, pointed out that family members always think you can simply pick the company you should work for. “Why don’t you just go work at Google or Yahoo? Those are successful companies, you should work there” Right. Because getting a job at Google is as easy as calling 1-800-Google and telling them you want a job and you’ll start Monday.

One specific question people always ask me is “what is your dream job?” Even though this is an annoying question to ask (because you are already implying that I can’t have that job since it is a “dream” job), I normally stated it was a job where I made a lot of money doing very little. Well, that is certainly a dream, the loftiest of all dream jobs because it can’t happen. If you want to make money, you have to work. If you want to make a lot of money, you have to work a lot.

Having said that, I really don’t have a problem working a lot… on things that I enjoy. So now, I think my (realistic) dream job would be one where I would pull in a nice salary while creating web applications, web sites, web designs that I enjoy or will use. That sounds like working at a web development/design agency, but working for an agency wouldn’t be the same, because I would be working on other people’s ideas and not ones that I believe in.

So there it is. Basically my dream job would be to have a nice salary to work on my hobby of creating web sites. But be careful, this isn’t the same, nor will I accept it to be, as being hobbyist photographer and then working at a camera store, or a hobbyist musician working at Guitar Center. This would be doing the hobby for a living, and since my hobby is creating web sites for myself or friends or family, that is what I would want to do to earn a paycheck.

Too bad it isn’t that simple.

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