Mike Clark

The Little Things

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 02:43:00 GMT

I've always been fascinated by macro photography, but had never ventured into that small world for fear of getting sucked in. Then I remembered that I'm taking pictures simply because it's fun (and presents a good challenge). Why not try macro!

So last week I finally broke down and bought a macro lens (the Canon EF 100mm F2.8) which arrived today. Now, the first thing you're supposed to do with a macro lens is shoot a big hairy insect. Trust me, I'll get there. But bugs don't just stand still, which is unfortunate when you're trying to practice with a new lens. And it snowed overnight here, which means the springtime bugs aren't out yet (but the ones that are definitely stand still!).

So instead of stalking insects, I thought I'd try a close-up of a fairly old comic book. I know, you're supposed to shoot macro straight at the subject, but flat pages aren't very interesting. I like the way the pixels give it texture. Many thanks to Duncan for help with the color correction in Lightroom. That's a whole different challenge in itself, though equally enjoyable.

All the photography books say this, and they're absolutely right: You need a tripod to do this. When you get dialed in on the details, you feel every little vibration. I've also been using a shutter release cable to bump my odds of getting tack-sharp shots. (Yeah, the mirror lock trick comes next.) In this case, I switched over to manual focus because auto-focus was squirrelly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Comments in Flickr are always appreciated!

Deploying Rails Applications on Leopard: Part III

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:07:00 GMT

Part III of my three-part Apple Developer Connection series on Rails has been posted. It's titled Deploying Rails Applications on Mac OS X Leopard because it picks up where we left off in Part II by deploying the application to Leopard Server using Capistrano.

I had a lot of fun writing this piece in particular because I got to play around with the new features in Leopard Server. It comes pre-installed with lots of Rails deployment goodies to streamline the process: Apache 2.2, mod_proxy_balancer, MySQL, Mongrel, Capistrano, and so on. As well, Apple created an enhanced version of mongrel_rails that, among other things, registers your Mongrel processes with Bonjour. The upshot is you can configure your Rails-powered web site right from Server Admin.

Enjoy!

Easter Iris

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:03:00 GMT

For today's photo project, I played with pushing light around. It's surprisingly fun and easy. In this case, the background happens to be my cinema display turned off with white paper reflecting natural light from a window.

Happy Easter!

Developing Rails Applications on Leopard: Part II

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Part II of my three-part Apple Developer Connection series on Rails has been posted. It's titled Customizing Rails Applications on Mac OS X Leopard because it picks up where we left off in Part I by working with views and web forms, adding AJAX support, and supporting an iPhone interface.

Coincidentally, we're offering another back-to-back Studio combo in June:

Test-Driven Development with Rails: June 9-11 in Denver, CO
Advanced Rails: June 12-14 in Denver, CO

Enjoy!

Double-Header Advanced Studios

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:21:00 GMT

Take a double-header (literally) with two back-to-back advanced Studios in one week. In May, we're offering an Advanced Rails Studio immediately followed by an Advanced Ruby Studio. Sign up for both and save yourself the time and expense of two trips!

Advanced Rails: May 5-7 in Reston, VA
Advanced Ruby: May 8-10 in Reston, VA

Thanks for your continued support. We hope to see you this spring!

Developing Rails Applications on Leopard: Part I

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:20:00 GMT

My latest Apple Developer Connection article, titled Developing Rails Applications on Mac OS X Leopard, is the first in a three-part series on Rails. It takes you through how to build a basic RESTful app using Rails 2.0.2 and XCode.

Parts II and III go beyond the basics to customize the application and deploy it on Leopard Server. They've already been written, and they should be available soon.

This series has been a long time in the making, and I'm delighted that it's finally available. It's a major update to the Tiger version of the article. Leopard comes with a bunch of pre-installed goodies to help you start building (and deploying!) Rails applications without a lot of fuss. And although I still use TextMate, it's great to see Rails support making its way into XCode 3.0. Even if you're a Rails pro, you may want to follow this series to see what Leopard brings to the party.

Advanced Rails Recipes: Final Recipes

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:23:00 GMT

Advanced Rails Recipes is recipe-complete! I snuck four more into the fourth beta revision that was released today, for a final total of 84 recipes. That's a good round number, and this puppy needs to go to print soon, so the kitchen is officially closed. :-)

Here's what's new:

Send Lightweight Messages (using Starling)
Nest Resources to Scope Access
Automate Periodic Tasks
Encrypt Sensitive Data

Thanks for submitting errata! We worked the list down for this beta revision, and added a few new things here and there to the existing recipes based on your input. For example, we expanded the Solr recipe to include more information on the solr-ruby library. We also addressed a few corner cases in the multi-model form recipe. Finally, we thought nested routes deserved their own recipe. So we expanded nested routes into a new recipe in this revision, and added a :member example to the recipe on adding custom RESTful routes to keep it focused on non-nested routes.

Please keep the errata coming. The book will go into production (copyedit, indexing, layout, etc.) in a week, and I'd really appreciate a good scrub of all the recipes. If you only have time to read through a couple, please go straight for the shiny new ones.

Thanks again for your continued support!

Advanced Rails Recipes +14

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:52:00 GMT

That's 14 more get 'er done recipes, for a total of 81 in the third beta revision of Advanced Rails Recipes. Yeah, I know I promised 72 recipes. Sorry 'bout that. Y'all just kept sending me more, and they were so good I simply couldn't resist. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the extras.

Here's what's new:

Process Recurring Credit Card Payments
Support An iPhone Interface
Send E-mail via Gmail
Segregate Page Cache Storage with Nginx
Build a Sitemap
Full-Text Search with Sphinx
Customize Error Messages
Load Balance Around Your Mongrels' Health
Quick & Dirty Search
Use Fixtures For Canned Datasets
Cheap & Easy Caching (requires Edge Rails)
Drive a Feature with Integration Tests
Write Domain-Specific RSpec Matchers
Use DTrace for Profiling

Current recipe contributors include: Aaron Batalion, Adam Keys, Andre Lewis, Andrew Kappen, Ben Smith, Chris Bernard, Chris Haupt, Chris Wanstrath, Cody Fauser, Dan Benjamin, Dan Manges, Daniel Fischer, David Chelimsky, Erik Hatcher, Ezra Zygmuntowicz, Geoffrey Grosenbach, Giles Bowkett, Greg Hansen, Gregg Pollack, Hemant Kumar, Hugh Bien, Jamie Orchard-Hays, Jared Haworth, Jarkko Laine, Jason LaPier, Jay Fields, John Dewey, Jonathan Dahl, Josep Blanquer, Josh Stephenson, Josh Susser, Kevin Clark, Luke Francl, Mark Bates, Marty Haught, Matthew Bass, Michael Slater, Mike Hagedorn, Mike Mangino, Mike Naberezny, Mike Subelsky, Nathaniel Talbott, PJ Hyett, Patrick Reagan, Peter Marklund, Pierre-Alexandre Meyer, Ryan Bates, Scott Barron, Sean Mountcastle, Tony Primerano, and Warren Konkel.

Now, don't tell my editor (Hi, Dave!), but I may end up sneaking a couple more juicy recipes into the final revision. They're already in progress, but not quite ready for the beta.

The book will go into production (copyedit, layout, etc.) very soon, so if you notice any problems and things that could use a bit more clarification, I'd really appreciate it if you'd file errata. I'll work 'em all off for the final revision.

Thanks to all the contributors for their fantastic work!

TED Talks

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:57:00 GMT

I hope one day to attend a TED conference. It's highly unlikely given that attendance is by invitation only, but a guy can dream. In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoy watching the TED talk videos.

What I like most about watching the videos is that they aren't all focused on software or technology. For that matter, they aren't all focused on any one thing. TED brings together the world's greatest thinkers and doers to give inspiring talks on various themes: art, biology, climatology, design, economics, invention, poverty, religion, technology, and so on.

Here's the interesting thing: It's a single-track conference. Everyone sees the same talk at the same time. This seems inefficient because we're used to conferences with sharp focus—the software geeks go one way, the climate change experts go another, and consequently the folks trying to solve global poverty issues don't immediately benefit from the advances made in software and climatology.

But TED is in the idea-spreading business. And to efficiently spread ideas on a grand scale, you need a wide-angle view. All this stuff is changing and, more to the point, at some level it's all interconnected. So if you're looking for inspiration, I highly recommend a steady intake of TED talks. Here are a few of my favorites:

(You can also subscribe to the videos via iTunes.)

Enjoy!

Newb Catch-up Day

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:19:00 GMT

I'm a newb. No doubt, I'm still wet behind the ears when it comes to photography. I've heard some of the jargon, but I'd make a fool of myself at a photographer's party. I read blogs and articles, but I'm not even ready to participate in the comments. I own some respectable gear, but I still only use a fraction of the features. I enjoy taking pictures, but I rely on simple principles rather than intuition. I'm always looking for "the shot", but I often miss it.

Yes indeed, I'm a humble newb. It's a perspective that is teaching me more than photography. I'm learning how important it is to always be a passionate newb at something. It's fun to learn new things. At the same time, always being a newb in a community helps you appreciate the challenges faced by newbs trying to participate in communities in which you're no longer the newb. When does the newb get a chance to come up to speed with the jargon and gear? How do they equip themselves to transition from a consumer of the community's efforts to a producer of value in the community?

So I was delighted to see that today is Newb Catch-up Day over at Strobist. Now using off-camera flash for more effective lighting is advanced stuff, and if you start by reading a typical day's post on Strobist, you'll soon feel unworthy. But today is special! Today they've posted a great video that walks aspiring strobists through the basic terminology and gear. And to help you navigate the growing knowledge base on this topic, they also have a collection of posts called Lighting 101.

Kudos to Strobist for understanding the need for a newb catch-up day and executing on it. It's clever—everybody wins!