Beautiful thoughts

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:03:46 +0100

Tom Taylor gave what sounds like it would have been a very interesting talk 'Delighting with Data' to the Oxford Geek night on Jun 25th last:

But sometimes we geeks forget about all the delightful and beautiful things we can build. The things that aren�t necessarily useful or purposeful, but pointless, silly and wonderful. So, I�m talking about building beautiful things out of (sometimes) boring data sources. I�ll be talking less about design and visualisation, and more about projects and �things�.

I've never come across Tom before but he seems an interesting fellow and some of the applications that he's built, simple though they be, are inventive and interesting. It's a lesson to someone like me who is more prone to grand designs that never amount to anything real.

Coincidentally my copy of 'Practical Ruby Projects' by Topher Cyll just dropped through the door this morning. I'd come across Topher's name and the book was reccomended as a Ruby tinkerer's delight.

Over my life I've had a lot of periods where I have felt creative but the last few years I have struggled to capture that feeling.

I want it back.

Here's to beautiful thoughts and making them happen.

Curiouser and Curiouser! on data

Beautiful thoughts