Feed - Bricolage

Apps After Agents 🔗

The Bitter Lesson Has Limits For seventy years, hand-crafted AI approaches lost to scaling. Chess programs with elaborate opening books lost… [...]

The Rise of Protocols 🔗

Here’s a quick sketch about why I think protocols are so important and why I think protocol design is a practical skill for many of us to… [...]

Announcing a new Vite Plugin for integrating Capsizecss & Radix-ui 🔗

I really enjoy typography — which causes pain when developing for the web. Because the web makes it hard to deeply control text layout. This… [...]

LocalFirst.fm Podcast with Johannes Schickling 🔗

Johannes invited me on his LocalFirst.fm podcast and we had a great chat talking about all things Sync Engine / LocalFirst. I thought the… [...]

Build Notes: Where I add an email newsletter with an ElectricSQL admin app 🔗

I’ve been avoiding adding a newsletter to my blog for months now. It’s an obvious thing to do and people ask for it now and then but it just… [...]

Build Notes: Where is my time spent when building two micro-apps? 🔗

In the past week I built and deployed two micro-apps. I was curious what exactly would take the most time so took fairly detailed notes as I… [...]

Flying Drones in Latent Space 🔗

Venkatesh Rao has been on a tear recently with some really insightful posts on AI - if you haven’t subscribed to his substack, Ribbonfarm… [...]

Build Notes: Creating a Local-First, AI-powered YouTube Summarizer 🔗

My wife and I have been working on a side project for a while — an AI-powered tool that summarizes YouTube videos. This tool was highly… [...]

Build Notes: Creating a Local First Vite/React/ElectricSQL Starter 🔗

I was thinking last night about the new starter I released — that in the past, I’d do a short Twitter thread dumping out the various… [...]

Announcing trpc-crdt 🔗

Since my last blog post on local-first and CRDTs two months ago, I’ve continued to explore the possibilities around systems that colocate… [...]

Building a "per-user database" SaaS app with Turso 🔗

Turso is a SQLite-in-the-cloud startup with automatic backup and multi-region leader-follower replication across dozens of regions. Last… [...]

Some notes on Local-First Development 🔗

A few months ago in June, I attended a local-first meetup in Berlin organized by Johannes Schickling, formerly the founder of Prisma. An… [...]

LLM Test Runners for Content 🔗

I wrote, maintained, and thought a lot about documentation for Gatsby. One thing that always bothered me is we couldn’t write tests for our… [...]

A Social Protocols OS 🔗

My wife and I often talk about the difficulty of making friends as adults. There’s lots of articles online about this so I won’t rehash them… [...]

Situated Software for Hyper-local, Hyper-yummy Ice Cream 🔗

My wife and I are working on a fun side project to create a micro-business to make and sell homemade ice cream to our neighbors. We’ve been… [...]

Do you actually want your own open source project? 🔗

Open source is great! It’s an amazing way to grow as a developer, influence our craft, make friends, build your online resume, and help… [...]

Building a Slack bot to help handle large numbers of PRs 🔗

Gatsby gets a lot of PRs. We’ve been averaging ~100 / week for the past few months. And even with the great OSS team we’ve built, this is a… [...]

New blog design 🔗

I last redesigned my blog around three years ago — before I started on the rewrite of Gatsby that became Gatsby v1. Which is a long time… [...]

Hope and the Atonement 🔗

I gave the following at the local LDS church church I attend. Our church doesn’t have paid ministry meaning everyone who attends… [...]

Typefaces: The easiest way to self-host open-source fonts 🔗

Once upon a time, I thought self-hosting web fonts was intimidating. It seemed nice but the complexities were too much. I needed to create a… [...]

Working full-time on Gatsby 🔗

After several years of working on a startup, I’ve recently quit. The reasons are quite boring—poor product traction and we ran out of money… [...]

Tools to help administer your Facebook Groups 🔗

I’m an administrator for an active Facebook group. There’s about a 100 or so of us that regularly post and discuss various issues. As most… [...]

Hosting static sites with Docker and Nginx 🔗

For most of its life, this blog has run on Drupal. But as I no longer do Drupal development, maintaining (and even using) Drupal feels like… [...]

New Beginnings 🔗

Quick announcement post. First I’m leaving Pantheon, the startup I’ve been working at the past two years. It’s been a fantastic run and I’ve… [...]

Humility and judgement 🔗

Ran across a lovely quote tonight. It expresses well a basic tenet of mine, that people and groups do everything they do for a reason that… [...]

Building your own tools 🔗

I was explaining to someone in IRC earlier this week about why I was building my own project management software and said it was basically… [...]

Chatroom Feature for Drupal 6.x built with Node.js and Backbone.js 🔗

Recently, for fun and learning, I built a group chatroom feature for Drupal 6.x. I’ve been learning and using Node.js and Backbone.js the… [...]

SimpleGTD 🔗

I’m starting work soon on building a new open source Getting Things Done web app that I’m tentatively calling SimpleGTD. I’ve tried a good… [...]

It is the learners who inherit the future 🔗

The central task of education is to implant a will and a facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly… [...]

Developing faith in God 🔗

The following is a talk I recently gave at the local LDS church I attend. Our church doesn’t have paid ministry meaning everyone who attends… [...]

How to create a résumé using Latex 🔗

Since recent changes in my life have forced me to look for new employment, I’ve had to relearn the long-forgotten art of writing a résumé… [...]

Becoming unhinged from reality—and fixing that 🔗

This is from a most excellent biography of a most interesting person, John Boyd. The danger is that if our mental processes become focused… [...]

The True Executive 🔗

From the most excellent book, ”The Organization Man“: Of all organization men, the true executive is the one who remains most suspicious of… [...]

New Drupal-Mixpanel integration module released to track event-based analytics 🔗

As part of my work with my (now defunct) startup Eduglu, I wrote a Drupal module that integrates with the popular analytics service Mixpanel… [...]

Eduglu enters the deadpool 🔗

I just posted this on the Eduglu community site. Reposted here without further comment: It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I’m… [...]

A loose assortment of thoughts 🔗

I was recently introduced to a new phrase which I rather like, “existential musing”. It nicely describes what I’ve been doing a lot of… [...]

Richard Hamming on Luck 🔗

From Richard Hamming’s classic and must-read talk, ”You and Your Research“. There is indeed an element of luck, and no, there isn’t. The… [...]

Stockdale paradox 🔗

You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most… [...]

Creating a CCK Field module with an "invisible" widget 🔗

Most CCK Field modules have a widget where the user adds information upon creating a node which is then saved with the node. For the recent… [...]

Eduglu, Roadmaps, platforms, and killer apps 🔗

Killer platforms need killer apps. A great platform by itself isn’t that interesting or useful. It takes killer apps to attract customers… [...]

Eduglu Alpha 6 released 🔗

Time for another Eduglu release! Download Alpha 6 at eduglu.com There’s been lots of progress made since Alpha 5. Along with the usual… [...]

Veracity is the heart of morality 🔗

In an ideal University, as I conceive it, a man should be able to obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge, and discipline in the use of… [...]

First beta release for Drupal-native mailinglist module 🔗

Today I rolled out the first beta for my Drupal module, OG Mailinglist, which provides native mailinglist functionality to Drupal similar to… [...]

Three worldwide education trends behind Eduglu 🔗

Later this week, I’ll be presenting on my company Eduglu and product Eduglu at Launchup, a local entrepreneurship event. In preparing for my… [...]

The problem of too general tools 🔗

There was a nugget of a comment today on the Lean Startup Circle from William Pietri: However, having made the mistake of building too… [...]

Second release of Eduglu 🔗

New release of Eduglu I’m pleased to announce the second release of Eduglu! Eduglu is a Drupal distribution designed to support social… [...]

Conversation 🔗

From British political philosopher Michael Oakeshott: Conversation is not … a contest where a winner gets a prize, … it is an endless… [...]

Notes from "The Future of Teaching & Learning" conference — Tools and Technology Models 🔗

Two questions from moderator: What will the next generation of learning tools look like? What do Universities need to do to prepare? Marko… [...]

Notes from "The Future of Teaching & Learning" conference — Howard Rheingold's keynote 🔗

First Keynote from Howard Rheingold. Started teaching a digital journalism class then moved on to teaching digital literacy. When first… [...]

My social learning Drupal distribution Eduglu is out for testing 🔗

The first alpha of Eduglu is out and ready for testing. Download it at http://community.eduglu.org/release-announcement/node/8 What I hope… [...]

Looking for Alpha Testers for Eduglu, a new Drupal Install Profile for Higher Education 🔗

I’ve been working on a social learning site based on Drupal for the past two years as a student at Brigham Young University and am now… [...]

An Education Syllogism 🔗

Schools exist to prepare students to thrive in the environment where they live. The environment we live in has changed significantly in the… [...]

McLuhan predicts newspaper's demise in 1965. 🔗

Reading through ”Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man” by Marshall McLuhan, I came across this gem of a quote: The classified ads (and… [...]

Three adoption patterns for educational social software 🔗

I’ve been reading and thinking a lot lately about how to drive more adoption of the social learning platform I’m building here at BYU, https… [...]

Marshall McLuhan on education 🔗

I’ve started reading ”Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man” by Marshall McLuhan and am greatly enjoying it. It’s an incredibly dense… [...]

How we ran a micro-lab course 🔗

This is the second part of a (most likely) three-part series of posts I’m harvesting from a journal article Tim Olsen and I wrote earlier… [...]

Organizing University Learning: Moving Beyond the Course to Micro-labs 🔗

University learning is centered on the course. A pattern for learning familiar to any current or past student. Students and teacher meet 1-… [...]

Learning in the open 🔗

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the power of transparent learning or learning in the open. With blogs, twitter, wikis, and other… [...]

How to create custom ical exports by category using Drupal and the Views and Calendar modules 🔗

Lately I’ve been helping out a web development team at BYU develop a new calendaring system in Drupal to replace our existing all-in-one… [...]

When in Doubt, Make it Public 🔗

I recently (re)read a great post on Coding Horror which pointed me towards an article by Jason Kottke who noted that many successful web2.… [...]

Deploying Social Software in Universities: Go Broad then Deep 🔗

Michael Idinopolus wrote an intriguing post over on his excellent blog yesterday titled ”Enterprise 2.0: Skip the Pilot.” I thought I’d… [...]

Reflections on OpenEd09 🔗

Wow, what a great conference. And talk about intimidation. I had a mild to strong case at different times of Chris Lott’s imposter syndrome… [...]

Presentation from OpenEd 2009 🔗

I presented at the OpenEd Conference this year in Vancouver BC. Great fun. Video My section starts ~20 minutes in. Slides Resources listed… [...]

Startup Chronicles #1 🔗

Running a startup is an interesting experience — alternatively terrifying and thrilling. Today I read an article that made me burst out… [...]

Video and slides from my presentation at Druplacon DC 2009 🔗

I had the amazing opportunity to present this past March at Drupalcon DC 2009 on my research and work on https://island.byu.edu It was by… [...]

Video and pictures from my presentation at Ignite 🔗

Video from Ignite SLC 2 was posted earlier this week. You can watch all the videos at the Ignite SLC website. I’ve embedded below the video… [...]

Ignite Salt Lake 2 Presentation 🔗

I had a great time speaking last night at Ignite Salt Lake 2 on what we’re doing down at BYU with social networking in the classroom. Thanks… [...]

How to design a social networking site using social objects 🔗

This is the second in a series of articles I’m writing to help me prep for my session next week at Drupalcon. The first article was my… [...]

What are Social Objects? 🔗

In preparation for my upcoming session at Drupalcon, I’m writing a short series of articles on social networking and learning theory. First… [...]

In social media there's not one right answer 🔗

Great blog post that explores the advantages and disadvantages of different social media structures. He explores when you want to follow… [...]

Enterprise 2.0 Slides 🔗

Presentation from one of my classes in Information Systems. [...]

Some words of wisdom 🔗

The slenderest knowledge that may be obtained of higher things is more desirable than the most certain knowledge that may be obtained of… [...]

Process is an embedded reaction to prior stupidity 🔗

Since I read this quote by Clay Shirky, ”process is an embedded reaction to prior stupidity” it’s been at the top of my very long Shirky… [...]

Love is the fountain for all creativity 🔗

At a recent education conference, I attended a session on creativity. The teachers were reporting on their experiences in teaching a course… [...]

Knight News Challenge application to improve Memetracker and Content Recommendation Engine modules 🔗

I just submitted my application to the Knight News Challenge. My application is for money to bring the Memetracker and Content… [...]

Proposal for Open Studies (Un)course 🔗

[This is the proposal I’m making for the creation of a new course at BYU.] Students have many different needs, one size does not fit all. In… [...]

Internet reduces need for experts. Where does this leave professors? 🔗

[I wrote this originally on Island, the student learning website I’m building at BYU.] Clay Shirky writes: [Credentialed] experts the world… [...]

Content Recommendation 🔗

New Note 66 Each one of us wakes up everyday with a problem. A problem we must solve in order to have a successful day. The problem is… [...]

It's the culture, some insights on organizational learning 🔗

Here’s a great quote from a journal article I’m reading for class. The article nails the problem with most social media / knowledge… [...]

Memetracker module gets some press 🔗

The Memetracker module I worked on this past summer for Google Summer of Code saw some press today. Web Dev News wrote: One of the most… [...]

My educational philosophy 🔗

A book I read recently helped me finger out why school can be so irritating at times. The book is entitled Weird Ideas that Work: 11 1/… [...]

What is the key metric to measure Learning2.0? 🔗

This was a comment I left on Jon Mott’s blog post, Getting From Here to There. Jon is an Academic Technology Strategist here at BYU who… [...]

A unit testing success story 🔗

This summer I was accepted to Google Summer of Code to build a memetracker application for Drupal. I want the Memetracker module to… [...]

Announcing the first alpha release of the Drupal Memetracker module 🔗

I recently made my first alpha release of the Drupal Memetracker module. You can download it from the project page on the Drupal community… [...]

Ubuntu meta-packages website 🔗

I watched the recent introduction of ubuntu-studio recently with great interest. Anyone who wants to have an audio/graphic/video Linux… [...]

How to become an expert 🔗

I’m a big fan of Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and of th freakonomics blog so when I made a connection today… [...]

school and learning 🔗

I care a lot about learning. And I’ve thought a lot about it. Why I want to learn, how I learn best, and why it seems I often don’t learn… [...]

I deleted /bin 🔗

I was stupid tonight. I recently converted an old computer of mine into a Linux server. A file / web / whatever server. I picked up a 250 GB… [...]

My beef with the chief 🔗

The above is meant to be a slightly snapier introduction to my rant today about hierarchies. [...]

Excellence, creativity, innovation 🔗

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about excellency. What it means to be excellent and how to get there. I haven’t come to any firm conclusions… [...]

Never update your resume again (just your blog) 🔗

I’ve written before how your blog can replace your resume but I enjoyed reading another blogger’s experience. I haven’t had the chance yet… [...]

I've been accepted to Google Summer of Code 🔗

I’m very excited to announce that I’ve been accepted to participate in the Google Summer of Code program. I will be writing memetracking… [...]

Assorted Links 🔗

I think I’m going to start doing “link posts” more often. I run into content I think I should write about here but then never have time to… [...]

Drupal Memetracker Module — My Google Summer of Code Application 🔗

Executive Summary I propose to write two modules for Drupal as part of Google Summer of Code. One called memetracker and the other called… [...]

How to use web analytics on social learning or elearning websites 🔗

My current job is researching the best use of web2.0 technologies and principles in the classroom. I and the other researchers use web… [...]

Six principles for making new things 🔗

I love it when someone writes what I’m thinking about writing. Saves me time. Paul Graham posted a new essay today entitled ”Six Principles… [...]

Power Law Graphs from classroom community website 🔗

Researchers have shown that the distribution of many natural and social phenomenons follow what’s called the power law. Power laws are known… [...]

New elearning website 🔗

I’ve been putting some final touches on a website I built for a class running at BYU this semester on web analytics. You can visit the site… [...]

A dozen papers on enterprise2.0 🔗

A great list of articles/papers on enterprise2.0 from Jim McGee. [...]

10 Ways to Grow your Network 🔗

From Jack Ricchiuto: Get to know the strengths and passions of people in your first and second circles. Make your strengths and passions… [...]

Enterprise 2.0 Case Studies 🔗

Some links to Enterprise 2.0 case studies: A collection of case studies from 2007 at Portals and KM Case study on installation of wiki… [...]

What I've been up to lately 🔗

I’ve gotten involved in a number of new projects in the past 6-7 months so thought I’d update y’all in what I’m doing. School: After a… [...]

I really liked these insights 🔗

From the Economist: At some point in the decade after he moved from the farm in Nebraska where he grew up to the innovation hub that is the… [...]

Why I blog—Part 2 🔗

A year ago in just my second blog post, I explained why I write a blog. My answer then (and now) is I keep a blog as an intellectual journal… [...]

Two's Company, Three's a crowd: Why better social software is needed to support (small) group interactions 🔗

For my research job at BYU, I’m reading quite a bit about social software, which is, as defined by Clay Shirky, software that supports group… [...]

A new focus for my blog 🔗

This summer I’ve been hired on part-time by the eBusiness center at BYU to do research into social software. Specifically, I and the… [...]

The stories activists tell and believe 🔗

From John Gardner, former secretary of health, education, and welfare under Lyndon B. Johnson. He pinpoints what’s wrong with virtually… [...]

Purple Cow Erratum 🔗

I’ve been reading “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin lately and am loving it. I read one of the case studies in the book today and found it quite… [...]

Get a Wiki: Why Your Organization needs a Wiki 🔗

Everyone can participate Wikis flatten rigid hierachies and ease the flow of information. Bright ideas can come from anywhere within your… [...]

Ubuntu Tutorial: How to launch a GUI from cron in Ubuntu 🔗

On Sunday, I spent a good half-hour with Google learning how to launch a GUI application in Ubuntu using cron. I wanted to write a brief… [...]

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Basics 🔗

A website’s goal is to convert as many visitors as possible The number of conversions depend on two factors: number of visitors % of total… [...]

Enterprise 2.0 — A Summary Post 🔗

I have long been fascinated by the new technologies, blogs, wikis, and so forth, that collectively make up what is known as enterprise2.0. I… [...]

Writing and The Power of Stories 🔗

I’ve been thinking lately about stories. The stories we tell others, the stories we tell ourselves, and the stories we find in books and on… [...]

Take Risks to Open Options 🔗

I was reading a blog post earlier by Ross Mayfield. He was asked what were his best decision and worst mistake as an entrepreneur. All his… [...]

A Good Test 🔗

I recently finished up a semester at BYU. The end of another semester brings with it that joyful tradition, finals. Going through six finals… [...]

Ubuntu 6.10—Edgy Eft—thoughts on upgrading from Dapper 🔗

Updated my dapper installation on my laptop to Edgy a while ago. It went well. I jotted down my impressions and installation steps: faster… [...]

The fall of the civilization of Rome—and the fragility of our own 🔗

Tyler Cowen over at Marginal Revolution pointed me recently to a fascinating and very well-written book entitled ”The Fall of Rome and the… [...]

Why I blog—Part 1 🔗

I’d been thinking about blogging for a long time but what finally pushed me over the edge was this post. The author, Scott McLemee, wrote… [...]

First Post 🔗

A small confession on my part, I love reading blogs. I’ve been reading blogs for quite a while now, five years I’d suppose. It has been my… [...]