I decided to call my latest batch of homebrew Rosie IPA (in honor of the Puppy's first christmas) and I had an idea for a label in mind.  After stumbling and bumbling through the wealth of photoshop tutorials I realized that I SUCK AT PHOTOSHOP.  Actually, let me clarify, I suck and graphic designing in Photoshop.  I can rock Bridge + Camera Raw for photo editing, but when it comes to graphics and text and layouts and layers I SUCK.  It took me an hour to figure out how to draw a rectangle that fit across the top third of the canvas!!

Anyway, I stumbled through it and I'm actually pretty happy with the result:

The crazy thing is that I think I can do all of this even easier in the simplified editor that comes with Snagit!

1.  Bookmarks for QS

I love the fact that Quicksilver indexes my internet browser's bookmarks.  99% of the time I open my favorite web pages through Quicksilver.  Example: ctrl+space > "min" > Mint.com is opened in Safari.

Also, when I land on a site that I want to come back to but I don't necessarily want to clutter up the bookmarks bar, I'll bookmark the site and dump it into the "Bookmarks for QS" folder.  That way I can easily get back without having to drill through tons of folders or browser history to remember where I was.

2.  Google search from QS

Love this one but I can't take credit for figuring it out.  See Setting up a Google web search Trigger for instructions.

3.  Opening a folder for developing in TextMate

ctrl+space > navigate to the desired folder > tab > open with > textmate.  And it opens the folder in TextMate as a project.  Here's a little attempt at a screen cast I made while playing with Camtasia.

As I worked on brewing my Chinook IPA, Jason made up some fantastic chili.  Then Jen got home and decided to whip up some Tastefully Simple Beer Bread.

Even Rosie Helped.  We all ended a brew session with some great chili, some great beer bread, and washed it down with a brew or two.  Everyone was tuckered out after a wonderful afternoon!

]]> http://www.russthebus.com/2011/11/12/chili-baking-and-homebrew/feed/ 0 http://www.russthebus.com/2011/11/12/chinook-ipa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chinook-ipa http://www.russthebus.com/2011/11/12/chinook-ipa/#comments Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:47:36 +0000 Russ http://www.russthebus.com/?p=234 Aiming for:

Hoppy American IPA.  Kit link

Yeast:

Safale S-05 Dry Ale Yeast. Dry. 11.5g. Rehydrated.

Speciality Grains:

Malts:

Hops:

Calculated IBUs:  38 IBUs (via calculator)

OG: 1.070 @ 70 Degrees
FG:
ABV:

Brew Day Pics (11/12/2011):

Racked to Secondary (11/22/2011):

FG: 1.018

Bottled on 12/3/2011:

I am surprised at how well this worked!  I was expecting that nobody would participate or somebody would forget to checkin and then go on vacation or any number of possibilities.  But I'm proud to report our standups are more effective and efficient because we spend more time to discussing what was done, what to do and what things are standing in the way.

Let me try and explain in more detail.

What did you do before?  Before each daily standup I would email the  sprint tracker to the team.  Then we would walk down the task list and each team member would speak to:

1. What did you do yesterday?
2. How much time is left on your tasks?
3. What are you going to do today?
4. Is there anything standing in your way?

What is the Sprint Tracker?  The Sprint Tracker is a 6 tab excel document I pieced together from various other sources and concepts.  Here's a table that outlines each tab and its purpose.  We populate this document during each sprint planning meeting.

What are you doing now?  Now I check the sprint tracker into source control after the sprint planning meeting.  Then each day the team members check out the tracker, update their task remaining hours, and check it back in.  This effectively removed question #2 from above.  And I didn't realize how much time that would save!

One thing to mention that if someone doesn't update the document (and doesn't have a good excuse) then we either A) Publically humiliate the team member who forgot to update the document or B) the offending team member has to buy donuts.  Each of these methods has pros and cons.  But the most important part is to try and keep it fun because scrum masters catch more flies with honey (or they get developers write more code with donuts).

Since project manager job hunting is all about selling yourself. I decided against the typical formal resume & cover letter in favor of a proven, tried-and-true selling technique: "The Infomercial". 

I spent some time researching infomercial techniques and even more time watching a few classics on YouTube and even stumbled upon an article on 37signals called "Forget the resume, kill on the cover letter".  This article further assured me that my new direction was the correct direction. Entertained and inspired, I started to work together bits like the exaggerated problem, simple solution, testimonials and "but wait there's more".  Here's what I came up with. Please read the following in the voice of Billy Mays, the "Infomercial King".

Do your projects suffer from scope creep or schedule slippage? Are you tired of missing deliverable deadlines? Do you find out about blocking issues too late? Wouldn't it be great if there were a project manager that could solve these problems? Well now there is!

Russ is the experienced project manager / scrum master you've been looking for. Russ has played a key role in taking his product from crude drawings on a whiteboard to the successful web-based SaaS it is today. He has a proven track record managing scope creep, removing obstacles for the team, and delivering on time. His enthusiasm and technical ability have contributed to Russ being the respected and trusted scrum master that he is today.

But wait there's more! He's a tenacious self starter, highly motivated and able to prioritize and juggle multiple projects simultaneously. Just listen to what some of his references have to say:

And that's not all! He thrives in a startup-like environment where innovation and passion are valued. He is comfortable wearing many hats and is always willing to go the extra mile. If this sounds like someone you'd be interested in hiring then hurry and Act Now!

All this can be yours for 12 easy monthly payments (or 26 installments)! Supplies are limited so Act Now. Shipping and handling is not required but would be appreciated. Call (or email) now!

Let me know what you think.

References:

• Principals of Infomercial Advertising
• Forget the resume, kill on the cover letter

Cars 2

Cars 2.  I love everything Pixar (but who doesn't?).  Unfortunately rotten tomatoes reports this one fell a little short.  Personally I enjoyed the movie but I can see why people would say this was sub par.  I don't want to pick apart the movie (because I enjoyed it) but I would like to make a few small observations:

1. Adult-ish themes - The whole secret agent / spy /James Bond thing kind of went over the kids head.
2. Adult-ish jokes - There seemed to be more jokes aimed at the older audience members.  Not dirty jokes, but jokes that kids wouldn't get.  Like one car thought another car was attractive and said "she needed to go get some coolant".  I laughed but my nephew leaned over and asked me "What's coolant".
3. I didn't cry - Ok fine, I'll admit it.  I've teared up at least once during all the other Pixar movies.  I didn't even come close here.

The Muppets

The Muppets - coming this Thanksgiving (November 23, 2011).  Can't wait to see this one.  Been a huge fan of the Muppets my whole life.  Check out our Halloween costumes from 2009

Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh - in theaters July 15, 2011.  Tut tut, looks like a movie I want to see.

I finally decided to see if anyone else shared my annoyance and if anyone else did something about it.  I came across the Ultimate Status Bar extension and immediately tried it out.  Simple, Perfect and Exactly what I was looking for.  I love it when I get small wins like this!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Heres a screen shot from the Ultimate Status Bar download page:

A couple of our friends had a similar situation with their dog crying and destroying things while they were at work.  They ended up installing a web cam so they could check on him during the day.  I was intrigued and was looking for a weekend project, so I decided to look into "puppy cams".

I did some googling and ended up on a bunch of hybrid technology + pet lovers message boards (yeah, the internet has everything).  Most of the suggestions involved dropping some $$ at Best Buy and calling Comcast to get a static IP address -- neither of these things sounded like fun.  But eventually (buried on some message board somewhere) I came across iCam by SKJM.

This was perfect!  No hardware to buy (built in iSight camera on my MacBook Pro), Android & iPhone apps to stream the feed, and web browser viewer so we could check from work.

Installing and setting up the Mac software was super easy.  Something like 3 clicks, typing a un/pwd (no need to create an account), checking a checkbox and it was all set up.  (Good getting started documentation in their FAQs)

On the Mac

1. Download and Install and Run the iCam software on your computer
2. Enter an iCam Login and Password (Don't need to create an account)
3. Click the Start button.

Next came the Android app on my HTC Incredible.  It was super easy to get the thing running after I downloaded and installed the app ($3.99).

On the Android

1. Download the iCam app from the Android marketplace ($3.99)
2. Enter the same iCam Login and Password from above and tap Done.
3. Tap a video thumbnail to zoom in.

I was impressed at the good quality video streaming over my cell phone network.  The audio was a little crackily but not surprising since I was using the built in mic on a computer halfway across the room.

All in all, iCam is inexpensive, easy to use, and met all my puppy-cam needs.  I would definitely recommend this product to anyone in a similar situation.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Other reviews:

• http://y2kemo.com/2010/02/icam/
• http://www.gadling.com/2010/08/27/review-icam-app-streams-webcam-to-iphone/