From Away Blog Posts

Django 1.0 Released!

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:47:00 -0600

Many congratulations to the Django development team!

After over three years of development with a huge number of contributors, the Django Project Team has officially released Django 1.0 for public/production consumption.

For anyone that isn’t in the know, Django is an open-source Python framework for rapid development of web applications.

Command History - Another Meme

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:17:00 -0600

I’m not usually one to post memes on this site, but since it’s been six months to the day since I’ve posted anything here I thought this might be a good way to get the ball rolling again.

Rest assured, this site isn’t dead. I’m working on a redesign and a new content management system in my spare time, which is pretty limited these days.

Follow Up: A List Apart Web Design Survey

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:13:00 -0600

A List Apart has released the survey results from their first annual Web Design Survey.

There’s a ton of data in the report, but I think it will be very interesting to peruse. It gives a pretty decent look at the skill levels and such in the industry today.

Findings from the ALA Web Design Survey

Designers & Developers for MDA

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:19:00 -0600

“We’re known as sticklers for standards, purveyors of good design and creators of beautiful things on the web, but do they know us for being supporters of a great cause?”

Designers & Developers for MDA

A challenge to the web community from Ryan Irelan to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. If you have a few spare dollars, please help out this great cause and donate. If not, please at least link to this page) on Ryan’s site.

Simplelog Redirection Plugin

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 09:14:00 -0600

Prior to my switch to Simplelog as my blogging platform, I had built up a decent readership at this site. After the switch, a my feed URL changed, so naturally I popped on over to Feedburner and updated my URL. In the following weeks, I noticed that the number of readers of my feed had been almost cut in half. I was pretty sure I hadn’t written anything that would have offended that many people, so I started investigating a little further.

Then it hit me, there were probably a lot of people that were still subscribed to my (very old) feed URL from my Wordpress days that was being redirected toward my Feedburner URL. I just needed to find a way to graceful 301 redirect this URL to Feedburner. Since there was no way to do this (currently) in Simplelog interface, I wrote my own plugin to suit my needs.

Schedule Local Backups With iCal and Automator

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:30:00 -0600

A while back Matt Brett posted a message on twitter that he was looking for a simple backup/sync solution for OSX. I dropped him an email with my backup solution and thought to myself that it would be a good idea to post it here as well. Of course, time passed and I still hadn’t gotten around to getting anything written up, until Matt posted an article on his site about the power of twitter, and mentioned my backup script. Since then I’ve had a constant stream of emails flowing into my inbox about my backup script, so finally, here it is.

Joost Invites

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Mon, 14 May 2007 14:26:00 -0600

“Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.”

I’ve got a ton of Joost invites to give away (read unlimited). If you haven’t tried out the service yet and are interested in this new media phenomena, drop a line to joost@from-away.net with a quick note including the email address you’d like the invite sent to.

I Took It!

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:20:00 -0600

I just finished taking the First Annual A List Apart Web Design Survey.

The survey took me less than five minutes to complete, and because I offered my name and email address at the end of the survey, I’ve been entered to win a free ticket to An Event Apart event, an Apple 30GB video iPod, an Event Apart jump drive, or an A List Apart T-shirt.

Personally, I’m very curious to see the results of this survey, especially with all of the recent discussion surrounding gender diversity at web conferences, and the industry in general.

So, if you’ve got 5 spare minutes and would like the chance to win some cool prizes, make sure to take the survey.

Simplelog Contact Mailer Plugin

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:47:00 -0600

After following the conversation surrounding the Contact Mailer plugin offered by Harold Emsheimer at the Simplelog Forums, I decided to download and install it on my own site.

I found the plugin easy enough to install and after playing around with it for a bit, I decided to hack it apart a bit and make it even easier to install, and clean up the URL’s the plugin uses.

My Home Office

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:27:00 -0600

Seeing Garrett’s post made me realize that I haven’t posted a recent shot of my office since I started working from home either.

I’m fascinated with seeing other people’s workspace as a means to add to or improve my own. So, if you’ve got a recent shot of your own home office link to it in the comments.

See the photos after the jump.

Installing Simplelog on A Small Orange

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:40:00 -0600

Having recently installed Simplelog on my A Small Orange hosting account, I thought I’d go through the install process here for the benefit of those that might be running into problems getting it set up. I’ll also throw in a few other general tips and tricks for those that may be setting it up on a similar setup.

First things first, you’ll need to download the latest version of Simplelog from the Simplelog website: or, if you’re feeling adventurous you can download the latest development version from Simplelog SVN: using the username and password 'anonymous’.

Resume Broadcast

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:00:00 -0600

Well, after an absense that was entirely too long to be called temporary, From Away is back in full swing. As you can tell from this post, I was a bit disillusioned with the whole web industry and decided that I needed to give myself a bit of a break from maintaining this website and extra-curricular web work in general. But, in light of the events of the last couple of months, I’m back and quite refreshed.

The New Gig

My biggest motivating factor for getting this website back up and running again has definitely been my new job.

Waivering...

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:07:00 -0600

I’m currently feeling very restless in my position of employment. I say currently, but I’ve had this feeling for quite a few months now. Mind you, I really like the people I work with (and I love developing websites and web apps – but every project in my current job is starting to feel the same), but I have this feeling that there are other, much more exciting projects out there that I’d love to be spending my working hours on.

Apple Boot Camp Public Beta

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 08:04:00 -0600

If you happen to have an Intel based Mac and a copy of Windows XP Professional SP2, make sure to check out Boot Camp Public Beta from Apple.

Some Progress

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 14:03:00 -0600

A lot of progress has been made on my quest to reboot on May 1st. The image after the jump is a little glimpse as to the look for the new design, but I don’t want to give anything away just yet.

Ta-da Lists Widget

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 14:03:38 -0600

The Ta-da Lists Widget has been released on the world by Keegan, Ryan, and Noah.

I’m glad this one lived to see the light of day, I’m sure I’ll be making extensive use of it. Cheers for the hard work guys.

People Still Don't Get It

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 22:03:06 -0600

Even after the last fiasco, people still don’t seem to get it… via Business Logs

Never Miss A TV Show Again

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 17:02:20 -0600

How to Subscribe to TV Shows Using The Democracy Player, Bittorrent, & RSS

Found via Greg.

Safari Shell Execution Exploit

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 14:02:22 -0600

Those of you that use OS X and may be worried about the latest exploit to hit the newswire – the Safari Shell Execution Exploit. Fear not, it doesn’t pose a severe security risk…yet.

John Gruber explains the exploit in this post: The Safari Shell Script Execution Exploit

Rebooting...Again...

jeff@jeffsmithdesigns.com ( ) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 22:02:29 -0600

Yes, there is a new design coming for this site as I have stated on a couple of previous occasions. But…the wait for it will be a little bit further in the future than I previously anticipated.

I decided that if I entered the CSS Reboot I would be able to give myself a bit more time to complete the design. And hopefully I’ll be able to give it that little extra touch that I wouldn’t have time for if the design was pushed out the door in a hurry.

So, keep an eye on my profile at CSS Reboot...Something good is coming on May 1st. In the meantime though, I plan to try to keep up the regular posting here. Even if it is these short little posts I’ve been tossing up the last week or so.