Ruby on Rails - I’m Kind of Late to the Game

Recently I started a new side project. This one I’m going to finish all the way through. Like many people who enjoy programming as a profession and hobby, I tend to start a lot of projects where I learn something and move on. The project tends to serve its purpose and then I’m able to tackle something bigger or that is more interesting to me at the moment.

This idea is different. I want to use it on the regular. And I’m sure others will too. So naturally I was ready to roll instantly and hit the ground running. Normally I work on a project with another person, +Clint Shuman, but he hasn’t been as available lately since his wife recently gave birth to their son.

Initial Impressions of Light Table IDE

Light Table is a programming integrated development environment (IDE). But it’s a little different compared to what is currently out there. The author, +Chris Granger, has focused on what we are creating rather than getting to the creation. If that concept doesn’t quite make sense in your head, don’t worry. It’s visual. Think real-time flow of your program. If you want to watch how a value changes as it moves through your program you can see it in real-time. Bret Victor gave a great talk on the idea called Inventing on Principle. Light Table extends this concept and the roadmap for development has a lot of nifty fun features of programmers.

New Project - Active/Responsive Ambient Lighting

So, while browsing the wonderful web one day recently a friend of mine, Clint Shuman, sent me a link to an RGB LED grid that acted as a responsive ambient light for a TV. Awesome right? I love stuff like this. It’s simple, but it really adds an interesting touch to movie night. Naturally, we immediately set out to program our own version.