May 2008
3 posts
SentryPro XFC
Never, ever, EVER give your dog SentryPro XFC flea and tick control. It’s tantamount to poison, and I feel awful because I was stupid and didn’t do research before applying it. (She’s had a bath and is doing better now…)
“We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the...”
– Thomas Friedman’s Sunday NY Times Column. Sometimes his writing is insightful, other times it’s just pompous.This column fortunately falls into the former category.
My other blogs
Since this remains (for now) the first result on Google when one searches my name, I think it’s appropriate that I link to my other, actually updated blogs, which you’re probably looking for. Searched for Luigi Montanez to find Ruby, Rails, or Salesforce stuff? Try Salesforce on Rails. Searched for Luigi Montanez to find political stuff? Try Leftmost Bit. Searched for Luigi Montanez to...
April 2008
1 post
New Blogs
I’ve moved Leftmost Bit to leftmostbit.com. It’s now completely about the intersection of politics and technology. Check out luigimontanez.com for some more goodies, including links to my other blogs and my public profiles are the Tubes.
March 2008
4 posts
Redefining spam - Campaign Monitor Blog →
Tips for dealing with the problem of ‘Yes, I signed up for your emails, but now you’re annoying, so I’m marking you as spam.”
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss →
The natural state of a computer programmer is to work for him/herself.
12 Future Apps For Your iPhone - ReadWriteWeb →
What happens when we all have an always-online computer in our pockets? Some great ideas.
I want to work at 37Signals →
Posting here has been extremely light, and the planned rollout of my new blogs is put on hold. I’ve just been absolutely swamped with work lately, and reading this post has made me oh-so jealous.
February 2008
7 posts
Googlebomb John McCain →
I’m not sure these were ever effective (Google search engineers are much smarter than Chris Bowers), but interesting nonetheless.
Larry Lessig Announces Exploratory Committee →
Nerdgasm! I just made my first contribution of the cycle.
DFA: Let the Voters Decide →
Great timing. BTW, posting has been light as of late, but a whole new gaggle of stuff is coming soon, so stay tuned.
The Principles of Beautiful HTML Email →
The other day I got an email from Lousiana Republican Senate candidate John Kennedy (his site no longer hosted by Geocities), where the dude’s picture was completely distorted by some bad height= and width= tags in his HTML. He looked like an even longer-faced John Kerry. To make matters worse, the “Visit JohnKennedy.com” link at the bottom of the email actually went to...
The Politico on DFA Wireless →
The Politico’s right-wing slant is in full effect in this article. The opening paragraph is so absurd that I had to re-read it three times to make sure that I was understanding their contention: The existence of a cell phone service that shares profits with an advocacy organization is the number one example of how polarized as a nation we’ve become. Right.
January 2008
26 posts
Tracking "Ladder of Engagement" Organizing with... →
Steve Andersen of ONE/Northwest hits another one out of the park. BTW, my “ridiculously agile web development” idea that I mentioned below has a lot to do with Salesforce. I hope to get it launched this weekend.
Ridiculously Agile Web Development →
A full Ruby on Rails app developed in 3 days for $30,000! Okay, so there’s a 3 week spec phase prior to the 3 day sprint, but it’s impressive nonetheless. Look for me to focus more on ridiculously agile web development in the very near future.
TechCrunch Endorses Obama, McCain, Snubs Paul →
I love how Ron Paul won the Republican straw poll (obviously), but then gets the shaft from Arrington when it’s time for him to actually put his name (and the TechCrunch brand) behind a candidate. Arrington did personally endorse Obama. I’m just waiting for Scoble’s endorsement and then I’ll know how to vote (kidding).
A Tale of Two Op-Eds
In today’s New York Times, Caroline Kennedy writes an op-ed in favor of Obama, and Frank Rich writes a highly critical op-ed of “Billary”. Kennedy likens an Obama presidency to that of her father’s, and she makes a strong case that a President’s job is to first and foremost inspire, rather than run the tangled bureaucracy of the federal government. There’s...
Read/Write Web: A Primer on XMPP →
The possibilities of using an instant messaging protocol (XMPP is what GoogleTalk runs on) as a more generic protocol for communication on the Citizen Web are very interesting. I’m not sure the world is ready to support a new general protocol when HTTP is so ubiquitous, but it’s worth thinking about and experimenting with.
WSJ On the Ground Game in South Carolina →
For the Democrats, the first three primary states were all close and won on the ground. But in South Carolina, Obama’s opened up a 16 point lead. Will his campaign’s unorthodox strategy pay off? Well, his sizable lead proves it already has, but I would expect that when the votes are counted on Saturday his win will be under five points.
MacOS X Tools for Salesforce →
Native Apex Data Loader! Hat tip to gokubi.com.
Organizing matters: the lesson from Hillary's NV... →
Essential reading to understand how early state primaries (and most local and statewide competitive political campaigns) are actually won. Hint: It’s not because of watery eyes or because of a reference to Reagan.
Democratic Primaries Being Won on the Ground
As Chris Bowers notes, Clinton took Nevada today thanks to the superior ground organization that her AFSCME endorsement provided. So far, Iowa, NH, and Nevada have all been decided by less than 10 points, and in each case it came down to which campaign had the better ground game. That’s going to start changing come February 5th, but it’s nice to see campaigns being waged and won on the...
The State of the Salesforce Platform →
Great summary of new developer features for Force.com. Can’t wait ‘til the Tour de Force hits Atlanta and/or DC.
Ron Paul Supporters Pathetically Attempt to Fund...
Ron Paul lost badly in New Hampshire. He even came behind Rudy Giuliani. Man that’s embarrasing. So Ron Paul supporters cry “Conspiracy!” and raise funds via PayPal to commission a recount from the NH Secretary of State, despite Ron Paul himself telling them that they’re silly. As Ron Paul Supporters try to take out the money they’ve raised, PayPal suspends the...
WatchA nice explanation of Data Portability.
Two Articles on Attention Profiling
I suggest reading the posts in the same order I did: First, start with a description of how Attention Profiling can be used for music recommendation engines. Then, read a very thorough overview of the technology. I’m really liking the idea of the Attention Profile: a document which describes your likes and dislikes to share with web services. In the world of online politics, entries into my...
Law of MAN Holding Strong →
Not to gloat or anything…
Going to acts_as_conference
I’ll be attending the Ruby on Rails conference acts_as_conference later on in February. Should be a good time.
Conservative Technologists Blame Everyone But...
If you follow the topic of politics on the Tubes, you probably heard of RedState’s hilarious appeal for $25,000 to build a new website. Erick Erickson blamed the liberals for this: If we’d been a liberal website, we would have been able to fix the problem quickly and relatively cheaply. The online left loves [the content management system] Scoop. Unfortunately, there weren’t...
Salesforce.com Spring '08 Features →
And now for some non-political coverage (and the first Force.com post in a long while), the big news is that Apex Code is coming to Enterprise Edition! This release looks to be deployed in mid-February. UPDATE: Looks like Apex Code was snuck into Enterprise Edition last week. I just used it today and it was wonderful.
The Evolution of Barack Obama’s Campaign Website →
Interesting look at how the Obama site has changed over the past year. I definitely agree that the newest iteration is absolutely gorgeous aesthetically, and well-designed functionally. The use of the big O logo is especially nice.
Ron Paul Supporters Left Scratching Their Heads →
The bigger question is: how exactly does the campaign plan to spend the nearly $20 million they hauled in last quarter?
What if Obama is right?
In the weeks leading up to Obama’s Iowa victory last night, many prominent bloggers on the left, including Jerome Armstrong, Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller, Digby, Atrios, and Taylor Marsh, all openly questioned Obama’s seeming naivete when it came to how he could govern as a uniter. NY Times columnist Paul Krugman devoted several columns to Obama’s possibly unrealistic views of how...
Ron Paul Supporters Plan New Moneybomb for Martin... →
Because as we all know, Ron Paul is a modern-day Martin Luther King, Jr.
Don't Kid Yourself - The MAN is Going to Win
With votes finally about to be cast for the 2008 presidential primaries, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that the end of this silliest of seasons is within sight. But before a single vote is tallied, let me make this simple observation: The MAN is going to win. The MAN always wins, and until something earth-shattering happens in American politics, the MAN will always win. Call it the Law of...
Typo 5.0.x Released
Happy New Year! After what seems like a year of inactivity (though they claim just seven months), the Typo team has released a brand-spanking-new version of the original open-source Rails blogging app (now at 5.0.1). When I first started getting into Rails, Typo was the blogging app to use, but Mephisto quickly gained marketshare, and is now used by everybody and their mother. In fact, I only...
December 2007
16 posts
User Centric design and identity with Beacon →
A great description of how APML can work for both the consumer and advertiser.
Firefox 3 is FAST!
For no particular reason, I decided to try out the Firefox 3 Beta 2 for Mac OS X. I immediately noticed how insanely fast web pages now render. Firefox is now really, really fast. I mean shockingly, noticeably fast. You need to experience it to believe it. According to the release notes, the speed gains have been realized thanks to the new Gecko 1.9 rendering engine. Other enhancements that I...
Citizen Garden: A Podcast on the Citizen Web →
Chris Messina seems to have coined the term “Citizen Web”, which I think is a terrific moniker for the portable/distributed social networking technologies that are bubbling up. Much better than the “Open Web”, it really emphasizes the focus on empowering the individual. I hope that Netroots.com will be one of the first Citizen Web applications. I’ve also given up on...
Merry Christmas, Ruby 1.9 is Released
As promised, the new Ruby 1.9.0 was released this Christmas Day. It’s still a development release, as 1.9.1 will be the stable release. I can only surmise that Ruby 1.9.1. is coming before the New Year, along with Rails 2.1.0.
Facebook Account Cancellation is AOL-like →
The hits just keep coming with Facebook. It seems like they care less and less about their user experience the more their supposed valuation goes up.
At least we got a downpour today
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution documents the myriad of government failures that led to Atlanta’s current drought. The most interesting tidbit is that then-Governor Roy Barnes (D) declared that 2003 would be the “Year of Water”, a comprehensive plan to strengthen the Georgia’s water supply. Of course, Barnes failed to win re-election in 2002 and his plans were shelved by...
10 Ruby On Rails Plugins You Should Be Using →
I use half of ‘em. Yes, I’m just that hip.
The Flex Plan →
Only tangentially related to progressive politics (you’ll read why), ESPN’s Page 2 once again comes up with a winner of an idea. I have to say, the complete absence of college football this past weekend was tough. The Flex Plan (mandating the eight team playoff) would have given this season a fitting conclusion.