Crisis Averted!

I've finally gotten around to tossing Jabber::Bot up on GitHub. There have been several requests in the past few months to add group chat support and other features, and I haven't had time to look into it. I've even had some patches sent via email that I haven't been able to get to (thanks Matt!).

Perhaps the magical powers of GitHub can give Jabber::Bot a new life.

Looking at the archives here, it's become obvious I've nearly forgotten how to blog since starting at Yahoo! almost a year and a half ago. It's not that I haven't been doing anything interesting, or come across interesting things to talk about — far from it.

I've been doing and seeing some of the most amazing things I've ever done or seen, from a career perspective. But, I have found that doing kick ass things at work has made me less likely to do kick ass things while not at work. And those non-work kick ass things are what I used to like to blog about. Doing kick ass things is a tons of fun, but it takes a lot of effort. One shouldn't do kick ass things all the time, or else one might run out of ass to kick. So I save my ass kicking energy for the asses that most need kicking.

Most of my time since joining Yahoo! has been spent working on SearchMonkey, and jumping between various other kick ass projects. Of course, there have also been a good number of not so kick ass projects. Again, it's important to not run out of ass to kick, or energy to kick ass. On top of that, be sure to kick the right ass, not just any old ass that comes along. Even if an ass appears to be begging you to kick it. Even if it offers you cash. Even if peer pressure makes you feel like you'd be less kick ass if you didn't kick this particular ass. There's not much worse than a wasted or misplaced ass kick. Kick ass wisely.

Anyway, late last year I had decided this here blog could use a redesign, and I could use a swift kick in the ass to get things moving again. But, now I'm not so sure. I haven't blogged because I haven't had anything much to say, and that's fine. Despite the kick ass things going on at work I just haven't found myself thinking, "Hey, I should blog about this!" The day I do have something to say (like today) it'll still be here waiting. In the meantime, for all the little blips of life from "whoa" to "wtf" there's always Twitter.

My co-worker Ryan Grove has posted an article on the YUI Blog describing several ways he optimized Yahoo! Search for the iPhone. He covers things like Mobile Safari cache size limits and squeezing every last byte out of minified JavaScript. Sage advice for budding and veteran iPhone web developers alike.

A recent pastime of mine has been poking around YouTube for old school hip hop jams, or really terrible new "hip hop" jams. There's also the occasional mind-bending heavy metal, the ukulele guy and a sick solo acoustic rendition of the Doobie's "Listen to the Music."

Anyway, while cruising the 'Tube the other day I stumbled upon something pretty incredible. His name is Ronald Jenkees and he loves making music. Taking inspiration from hip hop producers like Dr. Dre and Timbaland and infusing his own style, Ronald composes homegrown beats and melodies using his computer and a pair of keyboards. He dabbles in hip hop, funk, techno and even church organ gospel. The result is some damn good music.

In his YouTube videos Ronald enjoys giving glimpses of his upcoming songs, and often will improvise a melody on top of a still-in-progress beat. The man has some serious skills, and is very humble about his creations.

His songs are available for purchase and download from his website as well as iTunes. Throwing Fire and Disorganized Fun are two of my favorites.

Update: It's come to my attention that Ronald Jenkees may be nothing more than a persona. Benjamin Feltes might be his real name. At this point the evidence is inconclusive. Either way, I don't care. The tunes is good, so I can't much complain.

Yahoo! Search is hosting a developer launch party for SearchMonkey, our new developer platform this Thursday, May 15th from 5:30 to 8:30pm at Yahoo! Headquarters in Sunnyvale.

You'll have a chance to meet with the developers behind it, see live demos, enjoy free food and drinks (alcohol for the big kids only), and land some schwag if you're into that kind of thing.

To get on the guest list, register at upcoming.org and send your full name and company (if you have one) to searchmonkeyevent@yahoo-inc.com. Security will only allow registered guests through, and space is limited.