Aaron Gerdes

Defensive Design: Gmail’s “Did you mean to attach files?”

Aaron Gerdes — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:46:46 +0000

Defensive Design: Did you mean to attach files?

Help getting started with Rails 3

Aaron Gerdes — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:53:14 +0000

Got started with Rails 3 today, with help from the brilliant Ben Wiseley. He referred me to the following script to help generate a test app and make sure it runs.

If you’re getting started with Rails 3, check out this script by Kierian P: http://gist.github.com/293298 (link is to wiseleyb’s fork that worked for me on Mac)

After installing the following gems, it was up and running for me:

sudo gem uninstall bundler
sudo gem install bundler –pre
sudo gem install i18n
sudo gem install tzinfo
sudo gem install memcache-client

YMMV. Rails 3, here we come!

PS – Hint. It’s “script/rails server”.

Reminder: Back up your blog

Aaron Gerdes — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Looks like the host of my blog lost a drive, and backing up was something I’d overlooked. Here’s to a fresh start.

UPDATE: I was able to recover many of my previous posts, but lost all of your wonderful comments. Really hate to have only half the conversation here, but now I’ll be backing both comments and posts up.

When Google Wave was the right tool for the job

Aaron Gerdes — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:11:00 +0000

I had my first useful experience with Google Wave recently. A team of five people needed to collectively find a solution that fit our disparate interests. IM wasn’t going to work with this many people. Group chat would make finding the log a pain and tracking the threads difficult. A wiki or forum didn’t move fast enough when we had momentum.

Wave let us shift between real-time and asynchronous communication. Finding the information we created is as easy as finding something in Gmail. We could have threaded discussions and maintain a group-editable post with a summary.

Besides of having us all in one location with a whiteboard, Wave was a good option.

Wanted: A better way to think and communicate visually in Wave.

PS: Need a Wave invite? Direct message me on Twitter, I still have a few.

Flex trace output broken in Snow Leopard?

Aaron Gerdes — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:37:00 +0000

Like me, you probably forgot that to get trace output, you need to be using a debug-version of the Flash player. Snow Leopard overwrites whatever Flash player you had installed with an older, non-debug version.

You can get the debug versions of players here.

Forgot how you got all this setup in the first place? Here’s the Flex docs.

What is GNAX & NetDepot customer service like?

Aaron Gerdes — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:31:00 +0000

Here’s a glimpse. I had only submitted one ticket mentioning there was connectivity trouble.

There’s an example of how not to respond when your customer’s connections are down.

HTML vs XHTML vs HTML 5: What on earth is going on?

Aaron Gerdes — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:18:00 +0000

If you’re confused about the recent news that the XHTML working group is shutting down at the end of the year, take a look at this explanation from Brad Colbow at Smashing Magazine.

By far the best explanation I’ve read. And the most calm by far!

Problems running big_sitemap Rails gem with Sphinx

Aaron Gerdes — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:24:00 +0000

Seems like there’s a problem running the big_sitemap Rails gem with Sphinx. I noticed I could still create files via console though, using the code from the example rake tasks. The amazing Ben Wiseley confirmed that it worked via script/runner, too.

So if you’re struggling to get big_sitemap working as a rake task, considering putting it on a cron and running it via script/runner. That’s our plan.

Aaron Gerdes — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:40:00 +0000

Well you’re in your little room

and you’re working on something good

but if it’s really good

you’re gonna need a bigger room

and when you’re in the bigger room

you might not know what to do

you might have to think of

how you got started

sitting in your little room

The White Stripes

Hello new SXSW friends!

Aaron Gerdes — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:16:00 +0000

Hi there! If you’re coming across this site in the next few days, you probably got a hold of one of my handmade business cards at South by Southwest Interactive.

In case our meeting is fuzzy, here’s a recap: I’m Aaron Gerdes, and I lead a small web team based in Seattle. We design, build, and market user-centered web applications and tools. Also, I had a memorable pair of shoes.

Lately, we’ve worked extensively in the online gaming market. It has been a blast getting to know a very tight industry and our great clients in it. Our work has taken us into the strategy, UX, and technology of video-on-demand, community building, and affiliate marketing.

You can reach me best at the conference via http://www.twitter.com/aarongerdes.