Learning

So occasionally during my regular work over on the [TechInAsia.com][techinasia] blog, some repetitive or monotonous task arises that could be potentially automated somehow. Up until now, my toolbox to take these tasks on has been really limited, but my python skills are beginning to shape up so that I can actually implement some automation to take care of simple tasks.

Here's a simple script that I was working on yesterday, which returns a list of posts for a contributing writer in a given month, along with a word count for each post.

A while ago I tried visualizing all of Japan's many Prime Ministers on a Timeline using data from Wikipedia [^ft] and a Google Docs timeline gadget. It sort of worked, but was buggy... As I look at the page now, it does not work at all.

Here's a post about two very unlikely bed-fellows: Drupal and Markdown.

Drupal is a powerful CMS that I use on this site, even though it is sort of a kill-a-fly-with-a-bazooka solution, and has been a pretty continuous mind-fuck for me since I began flirting with it. From a non-developer point of view, 'flirting with Drupal' might be something akin to flirting with grizzly bear.

Some of you may have figured out by now that I’m blogging over on Penn-Olson.com, an up-and-coming blog focused on technology in Asia. Think Mashable or Techcrunch but with an Asian focus. It means that I get to cover China again, something I haven’t done much of since moving leaving China for Japan back in 2008. But above all else it means that I get to experiment with new web publishing tools, something I seldom get to do when writing freelance for individual clients.

Like many people in the weeks following the earthquake, I found myself trying to wrap my head around radiation data. I’ve been a big fan of data journalists/geeks for the past couple of years, and many of these people were doing great work after the quake. I tried to point them out on my own website by gathering their “quaketools,” and by writing a short feature in The Japan Times about data visualization.

I'm trying to learn some more command line stuff lately, mostly because I think it makes me look badass -- in much the same way as smoking or bear claws makes one look badass.

I haven't blogged much on here lately, but that doesn't mean that I've been up to nuthin'... Over on Gizmag I recently covered Tokyo Make Meeting, and I got to kick out a few videos which was great fun.  I really need a decent mic for voiceovers though. And a camera.

A few of you may have noticed last week that my CNet blogging days have come to a end. This was a tough decision for me to make because CNet Asia has really been fun over the past few years, and I don't have anything but praise for my editor and the other CNet bloggers. When asked to recommend a replacement I couldn't think of anyone better than Hideki Francis Onda, and I was delighted that he was willing to take over in my place. Do check him out.

Update: SixRevisions has a great post on getting started with Drupal as well.

The worst thing about all the documentation over on Drupal.org is that it's just not very accessible to non-developers. But first I want to address the question,

I don't do stuff like this very often, but last night I had a chance to spill my guts to about 30 or 40 people on a topic that I've kinda been obsessing over for quite a while. I've met a lot of people who write for a living over the past few months, and I always find myself recommending certain tools or a workflow tweak to help them do what they do a little bit better.

Maybe I gush about this stuff too much, who knows...