TedRoden.com

ShifD - Emacs (and vi) Key Commands

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:55 GMT

I was able to distract the guys working on shifd long enough to slide a couple of commits past them.

So for today, I'll just talk about one of the features I added when the rest of the staff wasn't looking. You can now edit and save shifd content using familiar key commands. ¹

First, because it was easy, I added vi shortcuts. So i will put you in insert mode. It opens up the text box, focuses it and waits patiently. When you've added your text, you can hit [escape] :wq and it'll save and close it.

Adding vi shortcuts made me feel dirty, so I quickly added emacs commands too. The emacs version is pretty much only useful on a Mac, because control-s means something very different on windows/linux. To start a new shifd note, you can press [control]-x [control]-f². To save the note, press [control]-x [control]-s. Not bad, eh?

There are a couple other shortcuts as well. For example, t will show/hide the input box, but those aren't quite on the same level of nerdiness, so I won't mention them all here. Go try it out for yourself.

1. This stuff, like most of the internet, is disabled in Internet Explorer.

2. I know that this would generally prompt you in emacs, but you get the gist of it.

Google Region

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:17 GMT

Somehow, this didn't occur to me until today: it would be really great to select some text and enter a key command to search for that text on google. It may have taken me a long time to realize I wanted something like that, but I've used it today more times than I'd like to admit.

Anyways, here's how to make that happen in emacs, complete with a "control-c g" shortcut.

;; google-region
(defun google-region (&optional flags)
  "Google the selected region"
  (interactive)
  (let ((query (buffer-substring (region-beginning) (region-end))))
    (browse-url (concat "http://www.google.com/search?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=" query))))
;; press control-c g to google the selected region
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c g") 'google-region)

Shifd from emacs

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:36 GMT

I made a little extension for emacs so that I could shifd things directly from inside the editor. Here's a video of it in action. If you're interested in the extension, let me know. I can make it available.

Emacs and Shifd from Ted Roden on Vimeo.

One more time...

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:39 GMT

It's been a wild couple of months. I got married and went on a honeymoon and left two jobs!

So today, I've done it again. I gave my notice¹... Again.

1. Notice was given to my landlord, not my job.

About Me

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:09 GMT

My name is Ted Roden. This is my 'about me' page. ¹ ²

I live in New York City, but I grew up in Illinois before spending several years in Portland Oregon. I am married to a wonderful girl from Texas. I work at The New York Times as a Creative Technologist. Before that, I was a Senior Developer at vimeo.com.

I like music, computers and various sports teams. If you want to contact me, you should be able to find my email address on every page of this website.

This is what I looked like in September of 2007.

Ted Roden, Sept 2007

This photo was taken Justin and is being usde without his permission, but he's a great guy.

1. This is not a repeat post. I repost this page everytime I update it... so I guess it is a repeat post.

2. I hope to expand on this post soon, but I wanted to make sure this post had the most up to date information.

Farewell, not a goodbye.

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:11 GMT

Tomorrow, April 18th, is my last day at vimeo.com.

I was hired by Jakob after being interviewed by him and Pile. I promptly gave 3 weeks notice at my previous employer and recommended that Vimeo also hire my longtime friend and coworker. They did. We started on the same day.

When I started we all worked from the founders' apartment, in Zach's old room. It was a lot of fun. ¹

Going to space

Soon after that, we moved into our new (and current) office, which previously housed parts of ask.com. We were total pros.

Formal Friday

Over the next few months, Vimeo gained some new friends. We also lost some others, who went on to bigger and brighter things.

For one more day, I get to come into work and work on some of the coolest stuff on the web. With some of smartest and funniest and nicest people you could ever wish to meet.

It's been wonderful. I'm proud of what we've done here and excited for what they'll continue to do without me. We introduced the web to HD, we built fancy APIs, we grew and grew and grew. It's only getting better.

Yes, I'll continue to post awesome videos and hang out in the API forum answering questions. And, no, I won't let any of my fans down.

Two Dudes

It's going to be pretty strange. Monday will be the first day in over 8 years that I haven't worked with Peter. I'm sure I'll still ask his opinion on obscure database configurations and on where I should go to lunch, but we'll have to start hanging out after work. (Chicago Cubs, if you're listening, you could make that a lot easier by winning).

I'm sad to be leaving and excited for what is to come. It's funny how that works, you can never just feel one way. You're always happy for someone else and sad for yourself or super hungry, but nothing sounds good. Just once, it'd be nice to have it all worked out.

I'm sure it goes without saying, which means I'm going to say it now: I'm honored and humbled to have worked with the amazing people at Vimeo, College Humor and Busted Tees. Just like every other day since I started here, I can't wait to come to work tomorrow.

1. All of these photos were taken from Justin's flickr photostream and used without his permission. He has my apologies.

Liner notes to my newest muxtape

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:42 GMT

Muxtape is a great service by a neat guy. When it launched, I created a muxtape called iliketheslowjams. It's a good mix, but as you may have guessed, it's a bit slow.

So recently, I created a regular muxtape at tedroden.muxtape.com. I really like this one. It's got a everything, a live track from a show that I attended, a guest vocal performance by Mandy Moore, it's not too indie or anything, it's pretty good. But after a couple of listens, I realized that it too was very slow. So I decided to create a muxtape for the rest of me. The liner notes follow.

cockrock.muxtape.com: The liner notes

This is music so brutal, so carnal, so primal that when you see these bands live you don't even watch them. You stand in front of the monstrous convulsing speakers and let your body soak it in. This is as close to nature as you're going to get today. This mix tells you that you're going to be a better parent than your parents were. This is important, you're going to teach this stuff to your kids. Onto the songs.

Eagles of Death Metal - I Want You Soo Hard (Boy's Bad News)

This song starts everything on the right note. The short track starts with a little laugh, perhaps a giggle, that tells you that you've come to the right place. The laugh says, "this will be nice, you're in for a treat, now check out these monster guitars."

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Whatever Happened To My Rock & Roll

This song follows suit with a very similar tempo. It sounds like your first leather jacket. While that jacket was ill-fitting and somehow constantly smelled of dust, whiskey and early twenties body odor, both the jacket and this song remind you that guitars sound better on vinyl.

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song

This isn't the first time you've heard a lot of these songs, and this one is no exception. Hearing it now feels like you're sitting through a history lesson you've heard a number of times. As if your stoner history teacher is totally phoning it in and the lecture is a rerun. But, you always liked this lesson and it helps you remember your roots. Also, you're not going to have to sit through the acoustic bits later in original album.

Queens Of The Stone Age - Little Sister

This song starts out with a woodblock. It doesn't let up. Most songs don't know how to rock with an entire drum set. The Queens could have done it here with only a hollowed out block of wood. But they don't stop there. The drums keep up, chanting starts and the simple guitar solo tempts you to break out your air guitar.

Federale - Magic Word

Brooklyn can rock. Federale will explain that to you. They immediately demand your attention, which you give, and you hang on every word they have to say. This song reminds you that guitars aren't best heard on vinyl, they're best heard through an open garage door behind a six pack of beer.

The Darkness - I Believe in a Thing Called Love

I'm not going to lie to you, this is a song for the ladies. Sure, you totally love it, because this song totally kicks ass, but at the end of the day it's a love song and that's not really your thing. Let your chick know that this song says everything that you can't, and ask if she wouldn't mind getting a couple of beers. It's a bit "hair metal," but sweet Jesus these guys rock! Listen to his voice, that shredding... magnificent.

Black Mountain - Evil Ways

For years and years the song name "Evil Ways" was taken by Santana, repurposed into something to buy groceries to. Not any longer. Black Mountain took that name and gave it an appropriate song. While you're certainly not going to, the drums make you want to play air drums, but you could.

Mastodon - Colony Of Birchmen

Listen to this glorious mess. The whole sound moves as one. When the guitars, bass and drums all gang up on you about two minutes in, you're not ashamed to admit you're a bit scared. But you're pretty sure you hear Josh Homme in there, letting you know everything is going to be OK.

Tenacious D - Karate

People suggest that this is a joke band and they laugh at them. I dare you to ask those people to name some bands that aren't a joke... you'll see, they're just confused. Also, this is the only acoustic addition. It rocks so hard, it's only acoustic because our pea brains couldn't handle an electric version of this song. Also, at one minute long, this is a perfect chance to smoke a cigarette. Amidst all this balls out rocking, it shouldn't take you much longer than a minute to smoke a cigarette.

Manowar - King Of Kings

Not only this mix, but the entire history of music has been leading up to this song. It starts strong, and he flat out declares that he owns "the right to be the king of kings." This song is an achievement on par with anything humanity has ever done. When it sounds like it's relenting about a minute and a half in, it sounds like a challenge from them: doubt this, let your guard down. I'd advise against it, close your eyes and get ready.

See what you want

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:43 GMT

Last week I relaunched my main site. It's got a few bugs, a couple of quirks and the design needs a bit of work. Even with those bugs, I still think it's a lot better than the previous versions and I wanted to point out a couple of things that the new site can do.

Filters

Are you only interested in seeing my breathtaking photos? Just my awesome links or hilarious quotes? That's easy! Just go to tedroden.com/filter/photos or (quotes, links or regular). That way you can see all my photos from all over the web, without going to my separate accounts on flickr, tumblr and anywhere else. Links is a collection links from delicious, magnolia, etc. You get the idea.

Stalkers

Do you want to track my every move? Go to my stalker page: grablr.com/i/am/stalking/tedroden. There you can see what I'm listening to, what I've read, things I've determined are "good," things I've posted online and what I'm planning on reading.

You can even suggest things for me to read by befriending me on delicious and tagging items as "for:fatius" Those things are automatically added to my "Planning on reading" list. When I'm bored, I go through that list.

The old site

If you don't like this change and just want the old site back, you can still get to that too! It helps make the new site.

The most sexist direct mail campaign ever

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:57 GMT

Yesterday when I opened my mailbox, I pulled out two catalogs for the same book of the month club. One addressed to me and the other to my lady. Sure, it's strange that we got on a book of the month club mailing list, but that isn't the strangest part. These catalogues are actually directed to "men" and "women" separately.

While men get invited to "where a smart reader belongs," women get options for "Love & Looks," "Style & Sex," and "Fabulous Fun!"

Stay classy Double Day.


The boys club	Chick lit

A new tedroden.com

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:31 GMT

I'm not ready to launch it, but I'm also not ready to keep it a secret any longer. So I'm just going to do it: I'm relaunching my website without finishing it.

tedroden.com is the new site, it's powered by a little thing called grablr.com. If you want my old site, it's now located at blog.tedroden.com.

That is all.