Author Archives: Bryan Woods

New Birdcage Project: Hyperlocal Music, Petty Vandalism, 2D Barcodes, and Bridging My Two Worlds

I’ve been playing around with QR Codes a lot lately, and the more I use them, the more I’m beginning to see their value as a way of bridging the “real” (physical/”analog”) world with the digital world.
And so it dawned on me that I could use them as the medium to get people exploring the [...]

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Microapp - SnackEyes: Because Drinking Games Don’t Need Embedded Java (TM)

It seems like every time I start playing with Sinatra, an hour later I’ve built a microapp I wouldn’t have built without it.
I suppose this one’s pretty self-explanatory.

http://snackeyes.com

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Rails Rumble 2009, Engine Yard Flex, Potion, Navicon Torture Technologies, and This Blog

Rails Rumble 2009 is right around the corner and I’m chomping at the bit to register.
Last year I had just started to toy with installing Rails and learning this crazy new thing called computer programming. I really wanted to participate but was short on skills.
This year will be different. I got together with 3 other [...]

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Graphing With Light

I got to spend almost all of last Saturday playing with my Arduino and hooking it up to Processing.
I think it’s missing a strobe light most of all.
Video link: Crazy Visuals, bro from Bryan Woods on Vimeo.

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♬ Everybody’s Workin’ for the Weekend ♬

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Attachment Fu vs Paperclip: S3 Death Match

This is a screenshot from our New Relic RPM performance analysis.
The CoversController uses Paperclip for file attachments, while the ImagesController uses Attachment-Fu.
While these results don’t strike me as particularly surprising, they’re certainly compelling.
Switching to Paperclip was a decision I made for Covers due to some slightly unusual requirements, but I decided to leave Attachment-Fu in [...]

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Q: Can a connection be made between a person’s web browser choice and their personal politics? A: Let’s find out.

Recently I came across an interesting post on Daring Fireball linking to an intriguing comic:
Remember Sean Tevis, the information architect who decided to run for the state legislature in Kansas with an xkcd-style web comic promoting his campaign? He lost, but it was close, and he’s raising money in a similar fashion again. He is [...]

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Getting to the Root of the Problem

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for winter to be over.
I’m usually not so bad, but this winter I’ve had at least three, maybe four full-blown colds, which is unusual (I’m pretty consistent with my one cold a year, thank you very much).
I’m definitely in a different place in my life [...]

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Being a Zen Master

It’s easily one of the most recognizable cliches of Martial Arts films: the Wise Old Zen Master, living alone in a picturesque dojo, who waits patiently for the as-legend-has-it warrior to climb the miles of staircase to begin receiving his own as-legend-has-it martial arts training.
The master is always portrayed as an absolutely brutal figure, unforgiving [...]

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Ruby Processing

Ruby Processing Hack
Inspired by the visual art of Seldon Hunt.

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