Learning
As the days get shorter, my final semester of graduate school looms on the horizon. Now that I look back on what may possibly might have been last summer break, I realize that I’ve learned quite a bit in my few months out of academia:
I’ve learned…
* [Rails](http://rubyonrails.com) (again).
* that Rails apps can work together in interesting ways.
* [Webby](http://webby.rubyforge.org).
* [Git](http://git.or.cz).
* [CSS](http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS).
* [Capistrano](http://www.capify.org).
* about [Engine Yard](http://EngineYard.com).
* about [Erlang](http://www.erlang.org).
* business / research and development coordination.
* [multi](http://twitter.com)-[team](http://campfirenow.com) [project](http://github.com) [management](http://basecamphq.com).
* how Angels work.
* how VC’s work.
* about [Flash](http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/).
* about [Jabber](http://jabber.org).
* wireframes someone develops in isolation tend to suck. A lot. Just thinking about them hurts.
* IE fails at CSS.
* that having too much money in your start up is bad.
* having an externally imposed hard deadline makes everyone work faster.
* some consultants are really affordable, others are not.
* most lawyers are expensive.
* some lawyers are free.
* reading fine print is important.
eirik 12:31 pm on September 3, 2008 Permalink
Just curious, what were you using webby for? Hope you enjoyed learning these things…
Kevin Chiu 12:47 pm on September 3, 2008 Permalink
http://kevinchiu.org/belhumeur
eirik 1:13 pm on September 3, 2008 Permalink
haven't used webby, myself, though I've heard of it. I have quite a bit of webgen experience (it was a somewhat painful learning curve, though) Site looks good. Nice use of webby + CSS + jquery
Ming Jack Po 4:50 am on September 22, 2008 Permalink
lol those are quite the lessons.
I absolutely love Rails as well, though I am still not convinced it's ready for prime time.
The stuff about VCs though.. those I had to learn the hard way (by having my first startup implode). I'm glad you didn't have to learn it that way :)
Kevin Chiu 11:37 am on September 22, 2008 Permalink
I'm actually not a rails fan. It just turned out that the guy who came before me was a rails guy; so we ended up sticking with rails.