Category: Uncategorized

Freebase has just finished creating a process to import Netflix film data on a daily basis. Freebase now includes in their movie metadata the key for the Netflix API. For Netflix API developers, this makes it possible to leverage Freebase’s powerful query engine and create amazing application interfaces. But even for those people who have…

I’m working on a little hacky toy for our upcoming hack day at work, and one of the pieces requires that I get some info from the Amazon “REST” API. It’s not REST in the least, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about creating a signed request which…

Ah, here we are in the last month of the last year of the decade. Well, technically we’re really not. We get to spend this delightful month (and the one next year) debating over which one is really “The end of a decade.” I know that people, in general, start counting at one. And the…

Today I learned that Simon and Schuster plans to delay publishing of their e-books for months beyond the hardcover date. How clever! I’m sure they think that we, the consumers, will think this is just dandy and fork over $27 for their hardbound books and they’ll once again be rolling in cash. I have some…

I’ve started a new job at Netflix (hurray!), making sure that our partner branded apps get certified quickly and effectively, and ensuring that our API meets their needs. It’s a great job, and I’m having a wonderful time. Netflix is exactly the kind of company I want to work for. You might have noticed, my…

OSCON has always had a big kickoff event on Tuesday night, to get everyone ready before the keynotes and sessions get started on Wednesday.  Last night they used this time to present their first ever Ignite event, and it was excellent – one of the most engaging and fun kickoff events I’ve seen at an…

When I started working on computers, the main thing people used databases for was storing tabular data.  Sales reports, inventory records, lists of things.  Relational databases were cool because you could associate a transaction in your sales table with an item in your inventory table.  As the internet has grown, however, our database needs have…

Developing applications for mobile devices is often a daunting thought for those of us more comfortable in the land of high-level languages.  However, in the wake of the new iPhone announcement, I thought I would check out the mobile development offerings at OSCON to see if there was anything I could sink my teeth into.  It…

One of my work projects has gotten to the point where we really need to have some performance numbers under stress.  I played with The Grinder, poked at JUnit, and looked around at some of the other tools out there.  I was limited by the fact that I only have one system, and it’s very…

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, and along with thousands of other bloggers, I’m going to write a little bit today about a woman I have found inspiring in the technical world.  This isn’t an easy task, picking one woman.  Like Liz, I am blessed to personally know a huge number of inspiring geeky women, but…