About Me

PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

Book

I'm co-author of "Python Web Development with Django", an excellent guide to my favorite web framework. Its strong points include an introduction to Python, and better coverage of Django 1.0 than nearly anybody else. Published by Addison-Wesley, it is available from Amazon and your favorite technical bookstore as well.

Colophon

This runs on Django, served by Apache and mod_python. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive. The markup engine is Markdown.

Pile o'Tags

Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

Spam Report

At least 59054 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

AntiRSI

All the keyboarding I do, on top of motorcycle commuting, means that my wrists work very hard. For the past couple weeks I've been experimenting with a program called AntiRSI which tries to keep you out of trouble by recommending short "micro pauses" and longer "work breaks" -- based on how much continuous keyboard/mouse work you have actually been doing, not just on the clock.

If your rhythm is such that you are naturally taking breaks from the keyboard, AntiRSI stays out of your way. But when the pace increases, it will pop up with a reminder. It's the ten-second "micro pauses" that I think are saving me. One nice design detail is that these notifications aren't modal and don't get in the way of your typing. So if you want to spend a minute or two deferring that "micro pause" while you finish a thought, go right ahead -- AntiRSI waits patiently, but doesn't remove the notification until you actually take that ten-second pause. When I get there, I take the opportunity to do some Bob Anderson style wrist stretches.

Ahh.

Tuesday, October 11th, 2005
os x