SEO Expert, Evangelist and SEO Consulting Services - Tony Adam

Hey everyone,

Okay Okay! It’s been a while since I have posted any updates to the site!! I’ve been suuper busy and swamped! But, I have an update for the location and dates for BarCampLA!

It will be held at LittleRadio in Downtown Los Angeles!…So…here is the address:

1218 Long Beach Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90021

Check out the following Links:
Google map, Yahoo! Map ; photos ; video

Also, I will update you guys on the times and such as they become available, dont forget to visit the BarCampLA-2 website for more information about the event and to sign up if you would like to participate!!

Okay, for those of you that use Mac OS X read on if you haven’t found a good content syndication reader yet, but for those of you using Windows, stay tuned, I will be posting another blog entry for you folks!

So, a while ago I was told by a friend (James Payne) that I should pick up Newsfire and it is worth the $20 it costs. Well, back then I wasn’t really that intrigued by it, until I realized how much time I was spending going from site to site just to check out my subscriptions, whether its MSDN, Search Engine Watch, etc. I decided it was time to give it a shot and I am pretty amped about it now. I figured it was time to blog about how much I love it!

Why do I love it you ask? Well, first and foremost, I am a sucker for sexy looking apps and just like the site says, its the “Angelina Jolie of applications,” now people, THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING! Also, the ability to have groups is amazingly cool. I love group my technology, sports, etc. RSS feeds into the appropriate group so I know what I am looking at. Finally, podcasting, Newsfire brings podcasting ability to the reader and is fully integrated with iTunes, just a click away.

There is a ton of other functionality like searching feeds and podcasts, smart feeds, etc. But, hands down this is one application I would definitely spend the money on and it saves me a ton of time, and lets face it, in this day and age, time is money!! Three Cheers to Newsfire!!

So, I have finally decided that tomorrow (hopefully) will be the day I give myself a crash course in Ruby On Rails. I have been browsing the web today, on and off, trying to find some good resources and I found a couple good ones.

To start with, obviously the Ruby On Rail’s Website has some great information and tutorials to get the ball rolling for you, along with the API, and user groups.

O’Reilly put up a tutorial called, Rolling with Rails and a Part II of this called, Rolling with Rails, Part 2. These are both good resources, and more geared towards windows users. (I prefer Rails in a MAC / *nix environment).

Finally, an interesting one (and entertaining too!) that I ran across was called “Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby”.

So far, I have just browsed through these and these seem like the best to get on the right track! (No Pun Intended!). Leave some feedback if you have any other great resources for rails on Mac OS X or even in a Windows environment. I will definitely post some more once I have delved deep into the language.

Recently i’ve been involved in a few Agile Development type projects and companies that have used this approach.  I have mixed reviews on the matter and believe it can work, but only in certain situations.

The situations I have seen agile development work is when there is a clear idea of where the end product should be and can be iterated through over time.  The agile model is fantastic in this approach because it gives the end client or user a chance to watch the product move through stages.  Also, the development team and client have an idea of where the product will end up.  Also, I have seen agile development work in the situation where clients or management have no real definition of where the end product should be and need an iterative approach to get to that end product.  Note, that this only works out the best when they are understanding that it could be a VERY major process and take quite a long time.

Now, I have seen agile development purely tank and not work at all in another situation.  That situation is when there is no clearly understood end product in mind from the get go.  Once again, we must note that in these situations, there is a probability that this approach could go over well.  But, when you have driving forces, such as management and budgets, it is clearly, in my mind, impossible.  Agile projects require iteration and although they require this, there STILL must be some architecture and planning involved from the begin stages, even if it is minimal at best. 

In closing, I do not want this article to seem like I am bashing the agile development model, because, truth be told, I loved managing the MyTripz project and it was one of the best experiences thus far.  But, I believe that the agile method was used in a way that the customer was made clear of the approach and was very open and understanding the end product features and deliverables.  So, all in all, for those of you out there using the agile development method, GOOD LUCK to you and Good Day! =D

I’ve been getting spammed TONS lately on myspace by webcam girls, porn, web designers, etc. Everything from Messages to Friend Request to Event Invitations! It’s been getting tiresome, but none-the-less still very tolerable. I am actually linking this to the similarity of E-mail spam that we started to get, way back in day. It started trickling in, pouring in, and now, I am wondering if the flood gates are opening up! Hopefully this can be brought under control, unfortunately, if not, it might be a major negative in the myspace camp!

Hi everyone! I know it has been a while since I have posted here, but ITS THAT TIME AGAIN!!

BARCAMPLA 2 is just around the corner and tha dates are set for November 11th and 12th. Stay Tuned and I will get you updates as they come along!!