In Place Editor Custom Binding for Knockout.js

I recently discovered knockout.js and was totally blown away. It does a great job of removing the need for (most) DOM manipulations which lets you focus on your data model and get complex UIs running with a minimal amount of code.  That said, those complex UIs are by default made up of simple widgets (input boxes, buttons, etc) and if you want more complex widgets (date pickers, inline editors, etc) you need to either find them elsewhere or roll your own.  Ryan Niemeyer gives a great explanation of how to create a date picker (or any custom binding) and I quickly incorporated it into my own site.  Since I also needed an inline editor I figured I would post my results so others could reuse and improve upon them.  The following code is very much based on the Custom Bindings article referenced above and the Jeditable inline editor.

Euphemisms: When Good Words Go Bad

A euphemism is a nice way of saying something not so nice.  The problem with euphemisms is that the more successful they are, the more likely they are to take on the not so nice meaning of the thing they're trying to be nice about.  Once this reversal happens, they transition from a euphemism to a synonym and a new euphemism must be created.  It's an interesting quirk of language that a word or phrase can be intended to mean one thing and then become so popular that it comes to mean something entirely different.

Pagination with Spring MVC, Spring Data and Java Config

Spring 3.1 has a lot of features for limiting the boiler-plate code you have to write for common functionality.  One great example is pagination.  Getting paged data from a database and presenting it to the user is one of those tasks that everyone seems to reinvent even though it's common functionality that is never specific to your business.  Spring Data provides some facilities to add pagination to your application with a minimal amount of code.  The documentation on this is pretty good and it includes some steps on how to set up both in the data tier and the web tier.  Unfortunately, the documentation is unclear in a few places (see below) and doesn't explain at all how to use a Java Config.  This post tries to fill those gaps.

I wrote A Facebook To GMail Syncing App

I wrote an app that syncs your Facebook Friends and GMail Contacts!  Actually, I rewrote an app that syncs your Facebook Friends and GMail Contacts.  The first version had some flaws.  But this version is new and improved.  Let me count the ways:

In which I accuse New Wave rockers "The Romantics" of defiling Rick James' Grave

Update: The below is officially facts because it is cited in Wikipedia.

In the low stakes world of accusing 80s rock bands of ripping off Rick James, few have the gumption to publicly post their assertions on the Internet.  What with the rabid fanaticism of "The Romantics" die-hards and the Internet's strict requirements for rock solid proof, no one is willing to touch this red hot topic with a serial mouse.  But people of the Internet, live in fear no more - for I shall lead you out of the dark as I raise my keyboard and shout for all to hear that The Romantics totally ripped off "Super Freak" in their modest 1983 hit "Talking in your sleep".

I find interesting things interesting

I'm fascinated by design in general and web design in particular.  The domain of Design always seemed complex and inaccessible to me even though as a professional programmer I do a particular kind of design on a regular basis.  Capital "D" Design has seemed to me like a far away land with it's own language, culture and secret societies that were all unapproachable to the lay person.  However, as I started to read and learn more about the process of Design it seems in many ways to be just like programming (a wild land I am nevertheless at home in).

Killing a Joke: Cannibal Joe's

I have no idea how professional comedy writers work, but for some reason I'm convinced that one of their favorite things to do is come up with a simple set up and then write 200 punchlines for it.  This isn't based on any facts or empirical research, other than sometimes in sitcoms you'll see a set up that every character in the room gets to riff on.  Also, it's something I like to do.  I think it's a fun mind exercise to see how many punchlines I can come up, especially when I'm bored.  Here's an example from a recent Facebook post that none of my friends seemed to care about. I like the last one the best.  Post your own slogans below!