XTRem Thinking

Astonishing Rails !
I must admit that I was a bit sckeptical about jumping to Rails 3 (I'm working, no the right word is "flirting and enjoying", with rails 2.1 and recently rails 2.3) which is also, let's remember Merb 2 as the two frameworks are merged to give the best of'em in a single framework.
'til I saw this post at http://railscast.com , explaining the new ActiveRecord query interface, and this showing the new way routes are handled.
Awesome and greater than I expected !!
Congrats to all those who worked so hard and gave their talents to make our lives better everyday !

The new 37signals business book is now available as paper book and pdf, great news ! I'm so impatient to have one in may hands (even it's a pdf :)), as I saw their book "Getting real" opened my eyes and continues to inpire me in my every day eploration. You can have a taste here as a pdf preview.

I think it will bring fresh inspirations and ideas to both us who think different, enjoy it !

And here’s the copy from the inside flap of the book, also a good primer on what you’ll find:

"Most business books give you the same old advice: Write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, yadda yadda. If you’re looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.

REWORK shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you’ll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don’t need outside investors, and why you’re better off ignoring the competition.

The truth is you need less than you think. You don’t need to be a workaholic. You don’t need to staff up. You don’t need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don’t even need an office. Those are all just excuses.

What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You’ll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.

With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, REWORK is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of “downsizing,” and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages."

Are you fan of music at work ?
Some says it's bad some see it funny, and I'm one of those lasts. I don't really know in other sectors but we in our company (building websites and webapps) everyone has his headphone, so we can play music while working, isn't it cool ? yes its izzz !
Some favorites of mine ? Daft Punk and Modjo, I see funky house has something very close to programming, I don't really know why, but I just feel it in the air. The way instruments are arranged seems to me like a lines of harmonic code written by a very smart programmer, it's beautifull, concise, simple and understandable. So enjoy it !

Very simple, usefull and beautifull !!

The truth to be told, I really enjoy vicious jokes; I think it's very cool, relaxing, makes you innovate in something new that can make some else laught and lets stress going away, removes barriers in our everyday social interaction. I really love talking with people who like adding some spices in the talk. So just tell me why not if it can add fun in your life, after all we're here to be happy !!

When a great economist (Milton Friedman) explains to us the way we spend money

• You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.
• You can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.
• I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch!
• I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get.

And you ?
via signal vs noise and Josh Kaufman

Ahh, everybody feel it, see it's not good at all, but live it everyday ! I don't know you but I'm ready to bet about the fact that in the first time you open a browser, facebook figures at 95% of the time in the three first URLs you type. Don't really know why, but your thoughts are welcome about this fact, why you like Facebook so much (talk with friend, funny stuffs etc ?)

I'm not used to be itched physically everyday, but I felt the urgency to scratch something those last days.
As I work as a web application developer, we needed to manage many things at the same time (refactor a class, change a view etc...) and manage interruptions (Hey Francky, come here, there's something you have to elucidate to me in your logic... very frustrating when you're coding with fun!), a lot of post-it reminders glued in a board (see it on yahoo campus, it's exactly like that), boring hein ? Yes it is !
So, As I couldn't pay for a ready web app (see at 37signals.com) for project management and team collaboration (I'm living in Madagascar, a quite pretty country !! :) , I started to build my own app. And it brings fun everyday! Though it's not already fully complete, I use it while I build it step by step as my needs grow, so for now it includes notes, tasks management and project management.
The coolest of all ? In addition of the fact that I use it in our intenal projects, I use it also for planning it's own development (who said that self-logic is wrong ?), AND IT WORKS VERY WELL.
I'm very excited to share it on the cloud at a near future, but time is for deep thoughts and funny inspirations now, see you next ahh, I've fallen to forget, a gallery will come to show its' interface and how it works

Intelligent, smart, young. What else ? I admire all those guys for what they do:

• David Heinemeier Hansson : the original Ruby On Rails creator, a vey smart guy, thanks god who gave him to us see his blog here and his company's blog signal vs noise a perfect mix of a great artist and a technologist
  
• Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto (MATZ) : The original Ruby creator. Waow, what this man smoked to build a so perfect thing ? recently I read this book and realized how deep was his thoughts, give the world just ten of this man and we will see one leaves his footprints on Mars in the next 3 years ! A great scientist.
  
• Aza Raskin : the son of the original designer of the Mac, Jef Raskin a human-machine interaction thinker, Aza works on Mozilla labs now working on what we should use tomorrow . Sometimes I think cleverness is genetic :)

The list risks to be long, so long, and I hate too long things, so it's your turn to fill it with smart wen and women you admire