the { buckblogs :here }

A few weeks ago I started a new side project (a string-figure catalog, not yet ready for an audience, sadly), and I figured it would be a good opportunity to dabble in the new goodies in Rails 3. It’s been a fun experience, for the most part, but I’ll save my “wins and fails”...
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This is the fourth (and final) article in a series titled “There is no magic, there is only awesome.” The first article introduced the four cardinal rules of awesomeness, the second was about knowing thy tools, and the third encouraged you to know thy languages .

First off, I apologize for dragging...
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This is the third article in a series titled “There is no magic, there is only awesome.” The first article introduced the “four cardinal rules of awesomeness”. The second article discussed knowing your tools.

Opening A.—Pass index finger of right hand distal to the little-finger loop, and passing round the ulnar side of...
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This is the second article in a series titled “There is no magic, there is only awesome.” The first article introduced the “four cardinal rules of awesomeness”.

If you’ve ever watched someone make string figures, it’s pretty obvious that the tool set includes a loop of string, and your...
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The following is the first of a series of articles that I will be posting in the coming weeks, based on the keynote address I gave at the 2009 Ruby Hoedown in Nashville, entitled “There is no magic, there is only awesome.” I originally intended to publish the entire series of articles as a...
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Dmitry Belitsky sent an email to prominent Rubyists with several different questions around the theme of “How to become a successful Rubyist”. He then posted their answers in interview form on his blog. I was a bit late to get my answers submitted, but they’re there now. Essentially, my advice is to participate...
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So, I’ve now been using BucketWise for almost two months, and it’s been fantastic. Admittedly, as the author of the application, I’m willing to overlook a lot of the warts and inconsistencies, but I can honestly say I’ve felt more control over my finances these last two months than I’ve felt in the last...
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BucketWise is now available! It’s far from “done”, but I’m labelling it “1.0.0” because giving code pre-1.0 version numbers is a coward’s game. (ha!)

At any rate, fork it on GitHub, see what you think, and contribute back if you feel so inclined. The TODO includes a list of unresolved issues and...
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“Buckets” is now “BucketWise”. The name was more unique, easier to identify as an application, and just felt better than “Buckets”.

To celebrate the new name, I’ve also made another screencast, this one demonstrating BucketWise’s anti-debt features. It’s a bit more long-winded than the first one: five and a half minutes of me talk-talk-talking:

BucketWise...
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So, yeah. With Capistrano and friends off my plate, I’ve actually found time to work on a project that has been in the works for years (and that’s no exaggeration, I first mentioned it in a blog post in October 2004). I’ve named it and renamed it (“Penny Pincher”, “Chump Change”, “Make...
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