Keeping (too) busy
Since I left Digital River at the end of February, I have been working closely with Scott Scazafavo on a stealth start-up idea we had been kicking around. Most mornings I hit my office early and attempt to further the research or code base. I worked on some Java REST API code I wanted to improve from its early usage at marrspoints.com. I remembered there was a simple test site that gave canned responses to HTTP GET, POST requests along with cookies and the likes. After a tad of searching, I found it again: httpbin.org – what a nice tool. Simple yet elegant – and great for testing out HTTP code samples where you just need a simple endpoint. Tutorials on the Internet should just use this site in their examples – as it likely will not change much.
The dangers of the Internet
This is where the danger began… As I was done using it for the simple testing I was doing, and was ready to move onto the next phase, I noticed that it had the authors name with a hyperlink. Since I wished I had written such a useful “demo” or example.com website, I wanted to see a tad more about him. Through Kenneth Reitz, I learned that I comparatively don’t have many cool hobbies or talents (I am not that great of an auto racer and I have not written books, published music, been a professional speaker or even amateur photographer). That is all on top of his enormous contribution to the Open Source space. This guy is REALLY talented. Through his link on his personal values, I saw another link stating that “Life is not a Race, but it has No Speed Limits”. Of course that deserved a click!
Through Kenneth and that link, I met (online so to speak) Derek Sivers and read his axiom – that “Life Has No Speed Limits“. And though that story, the life of Kimo Williams and why focus matters. Focus? On the Internet with so many lessons to learn?
Saying “Hell Yeah!”
It was great to “meet” three SUPER TALENTED people on the Internet this morning. People I will likely never meet in person or even exchange emails. Yet, people from whom I have already learned. While perusing Derek’s site, I found another life lesson to which I truly try to adhere. No “yes.” Either “HELL YEAH!” or “no.”
OK- back to that focus thing and getting some work done.
