Robert Palmer is literate. Smoetimes.

Where I landed ON PRIDE.

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:43:36 -0700

Situation: You have successfully completed a task that took a great deal of effort.

1: Just like your little league coach said: Even if this was your only home run of the season, and it just won the game, don’t do a dance on home plate.

2: Even Christians believe that pride is a sin.

3: Your inner critic says that your work isn’t that great anyway.

Where I landed: Repress feelings of pride at all times.

Where I landed ON CELEBRITIES.

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:10:34 -0700

SItuation: You and a famous celebrity are having dinner in the same restaurant.

1: Celebrities are people just like you and me. This guy may be famous, but he wants the same casual, relaxed dinner with his family that you do. Don’t bother him.

2: Celebrities crave attention. They want people to fawn over them, stroke their ego, and make them feel special. Ugh. Don’t give them the satisfaction.

Where I landed: Don’t ever speak to — or make eye contact with — celebrities.

We're moving!

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:25:00 -0800

But not far, don’t worry!

I’m moving with Michelle to her house in Encinitas on Feburary 21 (which is also President’s Day). I’ll be saying goodbye to beautiful Mission Valley, which has become somewhat less beautiful over the years.

Her place has two bedrooms, so Honest Code will have an actual office for the first time ever. We’ll also be within walking distance of not only the beach, but of some of our favorite restaurants: El Q’ero, The Potato Shack, and Pannikin. The Leucadia Donut Shoppe isn’t quite within walking distance, but that’s probably for the best.

We’re in the process of narrowing down a place for the wedding, and we’re sure to have an announcement about that soon. Stay tuned!

(That’s the view from her backyard, by the way.)

"If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the..."

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:12:31 -0700

“If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the rest will take care of itself.”

- Frank Perdue, via @mediatemple

Robert Palmer is now Honest Code

Thu, 06 May 2010 14:11:00 -0700

For new projects beginning after today, you’ll be seeing a new name on your emails and estimates: Honest Code.

I guess I’m growing up: I proposed to my girlfriend on Saturday (she said yes!) registered a new DBA with the county (they said yes too!), and opened a new business checking account (three for three!) to keep all the books organized. This little story — and the name Honest Code — is my way of saying that I value honesty, candor and transparency: Qualities I’m certain you value too.

Don’t worry: You’ll get the same hand-crafted site building, thoughtful analysis, and stress-free relationship you had before. But now I have a logo! Isn’t it awesome? It’s like a little shield!

Any projects with unbilled time right now will remain under my old name: Robert Palmer. Any new projects you begin after today will be billed under the new name: Honest Code. Everything else remains exactly the same: Address, phone numbers, rates, and tax ID number. You can even use the same email address (or my fancy new one: robert@honestcode.com) if you want.

It’s less change than you think. Thanks so much for being a customer, and I hope we can work together long into the future.

If you have any questions at all, please let me know. Thanks!

She said yes!

Mon, 03 May 2010 13:48:00 -0700

Those of you who follow my Twitter account (or know me in person) probably know that I proposed to Michelle on Saturday. The good news is that she said yes!

But for those wanting more details, here they are.

Michelle’s birthday was Saturday. For her birthday, her friend Christina bought tickets for us (Michelle and I) and for her and her boyfriend, Nick, to ride the Flightline, a zip-line ride at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We all had wanted to go, and the weather was beautiful.

All the while, I had planned on proposing that day. I’d gone shopping for rings, and was able to pick it up the Friday before — with not a moment to spare. What I’d thought, though, was that I’d wait until we got to the bottom of the zip line, and with our hearts racing propose right then and there.

The Flightline is actually two zip-lines: A short, practice zip-line in the middle of the park, and a long, 3500-foot zipline that shoots you over the area where the tram takes you, above the rhinos, springbok, African cattle, and zebras. What I didn’t know (or couldn’t tell from the previous times I’d seen it from far away) was that the platform for the long zipline was 900 feet in the air.

So we’re at the top of this platform, along with a dozen or so other people, and the weather is so nice, and we’re milling about waiting for the rigging to be set up. I decide over the course of about five seconds that I’m doing it now, because it’s beautiful and quiet.

I said to the other three in our little group, “guys, if you have two minutes I have to do something.” I said “Michelle,” and wasn’t even able to get another word out before Michelle sensed what was happening and turned around, embarrassed. So I gently turned her around, and said (and I’m paraphrasing here: It’s surprising hard to remember exactly what I said) that she made me the happiest man alive, and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and hoped that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me.

I should probably mention at this point that the platform that we’re standing on is a metal grating, with large, one-inch diameter holes. There are smaller holes with lips that bend up, for shoe traction.

As I prepared to get down on one knee, I was suddenly terrified of dropping the ring I had in my pocket. I very carefully took it out, and undid it from a cotton ball I had it around (so it wouldn’t fall out of my pocket on the zip-line).

I got down on one knee — which was very painful because of those traction things — and asked “Michelle, will you marry me?”

She said yes, and I got up, and we hugged, and everyone clapped. And it was the nicest I’ve ever felt.

(Afterward, one of the other couples in our zip-line group said that he got photos of the event itself, and that he’s planning on emailing them to me. I’ll post them when I have them.)

We went down the zip-line, had a nice time at the park, and then went to lunch at the Stone Brewery. The day couldn’t have been better.

Photos of the day (with more to come) are available on Flickr.

Client Alert: Dec 7 - 11

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:07:00 -0800

I’m out of the office this week for a conference, and then for a long pre-Christmas getaway weekend. I will have limited access to both phone and email for the week, so your patience is appreciated. I will return to the office December 14. Cheers!

Client Alert: Thanksgiving Holiday

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:30:00 -0800

Happy Thanksgiving all! The office will be closed for the rest of the week. I’ll be back at my desk on Monday, November 30.

Client Alert: Monday and Tuesday

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:52:00 -0700

Please note that I will be away from my desk with limited access to telephone and email after about 1 p.m. on Monday (Oct. 26) and all of Tuesday (Oct 27). I have a meeting out of town Monday afternoon, and I’m spending the day with family on Tuesday for my birthday.

Apologies for any inconvenience. I will be back at my desk Wednesday (Oct 28).

Happy Friday (via JKTrix and Neatorama)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:08:14 -0700

Happy Friday (via JKTrix and Neatorama)

It's rather quite hypnotic

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:15:29 -0700

(Heavy lifting by Eric Spiegelman.)

TUAW: Pantone offers color libraries for iPhone, mostly

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:36:37 -0700

TUAW: Pantone offers color libraries for iPhone, mostly: While it’s been in the App Store for the last few days, Pantone is officially launching its color discovery and management app for iPhone today, called myPANTONE.

The Pantone Matching System,…

A note about a Twitter message (about me) you may or may not have received

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:50:00 -0700

On Twitter, someone by the name of @jlbc3 posted messages to about 85 percent of the users I follow, saying:

You know Robert Palmer? He’s one of the biggest arseholes you’ll meet. I’m going to call his boss & ex boss to say so.

The user isn’t following anyone, has no followers, and otherwise has no metadata (a location or URL, for example).

While I’ve grown accustomed to the level and tenor of Twitter spam, this appears to ratchet things up a notch. To the point, I have to say, where it might not be spam at all. Someone — it would appear — is deeply upset with me, and has decided to vent that upsettedness by posting anonymous Twitter messages to everyone I know.

For example, if it is spam, the very first message is curious:

@roberpalmer Still up the biz with Miriello? I’m not surprised, screwball that u are. You really ought to get a life before I tell your boss

While the majority of the messages were the same, sent around the same time, and were probably generated by a script, this first message (while addressed to a misspelled version of my username) knows enough about what I’ve posted online to name a place where I used to work. As an aside, I don’t think I’m really still “up the biz” with them, not that I really know what “up the biz” means. Taking into consideration the use of the Britishism “arsehole,” the messages’ author is perhaps someone in the UK. All the people I know there are really quite lovely.

Moreover, the message was sent to everyone from personal friends to Stephen Colbert, which would suggest that an automated script went and processed all the Twitter people I follow, rather than picking and choosing individuals for maximum hurting. In fact, one current client that I follow (and who follows me) was omitted from the distribution list.

The threat in the message, overall, is benign. Still, it’s bothered me enough to get me up early to write this. Since I work for myself, my boss is me. My “ex boss” is Ron, whom I enjoy a genial relationship with. In either case, I’m actually very comfortable with this individual making these calls, since I know at least I’d like to talk to this person.

Hopefully I’m the only one affected by this quirk of the Internet. In any event, I feel like I should apologize for this happening. I don’t want to be a bad person. If someone thinks that I am, I’ve no idea what I’ve done to deserve this sort of publicity. If anyone has any problem with anything I’ve said, done, or posted, I hope they feel comfortable enough to talk to me about it, or at least post something with a name or email address attached.

Sorry, everyone. I’m happy to listen, happy to talk, and happy to put this behind me.

Update (Sep. 12): It looks like Twitter has removed @jlbc3’s account, so the Twitter links in this story will take you to an error page. If I had to guess, this means the whole thing was just a scripting exercise for someone, and I made a mountain out of a molehill. Still — I’d rather have made a mountain out of it than dug myself into a hole by doing nothing. Hopefully it’s not the start of a spammy trend.

Just say no to Socialism

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:27:48 -0700

(Pasting in an anonymous post on 4Chan [I know, but bear with me] that I first saw here. -RP)

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the Municipal Water Utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of food inspected by the US Department of Agriculture and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I got into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issed by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door, I deposited the mail I needed to send out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day of not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, I enjoyed another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA. I drove my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which had not burned down during my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local Police Department.

I then logged on to the Internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and posted on Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

TUAW: Retrospect 8.1 brings back PowerPC support, improves performance

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:16:44 -0700

TUAW: Retrospect 8.1 brings back PowerPC support, improves performance: EMC announced today an update to its popular Retrospect network backup software; version 8.1 brings back support for PowerPC-based workstations and improves performance for Intel-based Macs.

…

TUAW: Behold! My Mac mini media center

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:36:35 -0700

TUAW: Behold! My Mac mini media center:

I know! A media center!

I had cable service, a DVD player, and a TiVo Series 2. My goal was to combine all of those things into one set-top-box — the Mac mini — and maybe even unsubscribe from…

In case you haven’t seen my response to John...

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:04:00 -0700

In case you haven’t seen my response to John Boehner’s terrible healthcare chart.

TUAW: Developer Color Picker: For your pickiest developer

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:19:07 -0700

TUAW: Developer Color Picker: For your pickiest developer: Wade Cosgrove, code ninja over at Panic, has released a freeware Developer Color Picker that helps developers of all stripes pick and paste color declarations for a variety of languages.

Any…

TUAW: Apple distributes 1.5B apps in App Store's first year

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:09:39 -0700

TUAW: Apple distributes 1.5B apps in App Store's first year:

Apple announced today in a short press release that it had ~~sold~~ distributed 1.5 billion iPhone and iPod touch applications during the App Store’s first year of existence.

Despite the slow…

"Make something intended not for your own use, but for use by dummies, and you’ll usually wind up..."

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:37:55 -0700

“Make something intended not for your own use, but for use by dummies, and you’ll usually wind up creating something dumb.”

- Daring Fireball