West Coast Logic2009-11-22T11:30:08-08:00http://blog.westcoastlogic.com/Brian LeRouxbrian@westcoastlogic.comIntroducing Lawnchair2009-11-22T00:00:00-08:00http://blog.westcoastlogic.com/2009/11/22/introducing-lawnchair<h1>Introducing Lawnchair</h1>
<p>Finally got a plane ride to polish up and release a fun mini project I started in the summertime. If you’ve been looking for a lightweight <span class="caps">JSON</span> store for the client look no further!</p>
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<script src="http://gist.github.com/240674.js?file=simple-lawnchair.js"></script></p>
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<a href="http://brianleroux.github.com/lawnchair">You can download/fork away here.</a></p>
<p>Cheers!</p>About Me And About Westcoastlogic2009-08-04T00:00:00-07:00http://blog.westcoastlogic.com/2009/08/04/about-me-and-about-westcoastlogic<h1>About me</h1>
<p>I am an open source software developer though I am no zealot. Open source and its dirty hippy friend, Free Software are beautiful <em>practical</em> concepts and have changed my life <em>and yours</em> for the better. For me personally, technology is about solving problems rather than blind faith in any approach. Of course, in most cases the Open/Free software alternative technically kicks the ass of any proprietary solution.</p>
<p>It is very important to have strong opinions, sure, as long as they remain weakly held. Things change fast in technology and a person needs to be prepared to change their mind. Clinging to that favourite language, editor, platform, convention or design pattern might have been a best practice yesterday but the demons of depreciation creep into all aspects of our craft. The opposite is true too. Fashionable development is just as dangerous and amateurish as dated technique. Being on the bleeding edge is fun but jumping on the latest technology before its market proven is irresponsible. Its tempting because we like to fancy ourselves as passionate about our craft.</p>
<p>But software development is not about being a passionate developer. It is significantly more important to remain dispassionate. Judging solutions based on their merit for solving a problem from all perspectives requires a level head. Those perspectives can mean different facets of a project such as: time, cost, quality and measurability.</p>
<p>All this <em>really means</em> understanding audience for whom you build that technology. Keeping the goals for those whom will use the software you build aligned with the goals those whom are paying for the software to be built in the first place. And one more thing, the most important thing, you need to be happy too! You must learn to take joy in the creative science of writing software.</p>
<h2>About This Site</h2>
<p>I built this particular blog over a few hours using some rather kick ass technology. <a href="http://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/tree/master">Jekyll</a> is a gnarly Ruby gem that has too many dependencies but not so many that I’m going to try and roll my own solution.</p>
<p>This blog is being hosted on <a href="http://github.com">GitHub</a> via their sweet ass <a href="http://pages.github.com/">pages</a> feature and a clever <span class="caps">CNAME</span> file hides that fact behind my rather abused westcoastlogic domain in which I post irrelevant garbage that captures my attention on tumblr and elsewhere. Some people read tabloids, others still watch sitcom television: I, proudly, collect interesting and funny images found in temporal corners of the internet.</p>Hello World2009-08-03T00:00:00-07:00http://blog.westcoastlogic.com/2009/08/03/hello-world<h1>Welcome</h1>
<p>So it begins. <em>Again.</em> I’ve been blogging on and off since early 2000. More off than on.</p>
<p>This is a real technology blog. I have tonnes of good hackery to share and I don’t want to dilute it with crap. There will be no banner ads. No categories or tags. No fucking comments either. Straight up, honest, hard won and pragmatic information about software development.</p>
<p>Finding a quality technology blog these days is tough. The content today is weak because the premise is pageviews. I’m bringing it back to the way it used to be. I’m going to give you fucking shitloads of useful, timely, relevant and important information instead of advertising or cheesy hashtag laden top ten lists. Because … guess why? Because: <strong>fuck that</strong>.</p>
<p>Don’t agree with have to say? Good. Throw down with your own permalink and we’ll square off indexable styles. The way the web is meant to be.</p>