My Chumby transit widget

In writing my bio for Portland on Fire, I mentioned that I’d hidden my first name upside down in the “Read Me” file icon used on Macintosh during the late 1980’s: millions of people clicked on this icon to get help, and as far as I know, none of them noticed my name. The Wikipedia page for TeachText (the application I’d written which provides this icon) doesn’t mention this trivia (nor that I wrote it!). After several years, TeachText was repl... more

The Portland International Film Festival is finally over, and though I’m exhausted from the arduous schedule I kept (I saw every film I could - 70 features and 4 collections of shorts), I had a great time — even better than last year, largely because of the wonderful collection of people I met during the festival. One of the best perks of Silver Screen membership at the Northwest Film Center (which puts on PIFF) is the ability to attend the press screenings that begin... more

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’d been working on a film festival scheduling site, FestivalFanatic.com. Though it went live then, it really hasn’t been useful without any festivals configured. As of this morning, though, it now has the Portland International Film Festival schedule in it, and nearly everything I wanted in the first release is working — the notable exception being automatic scheduling, which I hope to finish in a day or two. It’s been hard to find time t... more

Gina and I went to Ignite Portland 2 tonight, a collection of 5-minute presentations where the slides advance automatically every 20 seconds. That misses the essence, though: there were a huge variety of subjects, amazingly good (and passionate!) presenters, and a wonderful community feel (even with the Bagdad Theater packed with 700+ people). You can watch the videos, and whet your appetite for next time (I’m ready already!).... more