A quick google on how to compress these JPGs to free up a bit of hard disk space revealed a nice *nix tool for the job: jpegoptim

To download the latest version (v1.2.4) (my new GitHub project) go here: http://github.com/glennr/jpegoptim - this includes some minor fixes I made to help me get around an "Operation not permitted" error on OSX.

v1.2.3 is available from the original repo: http://freshmeat.net/projects/jpegoptim/ 

Jpegoptim works folder-by-folder, so if you have a large library like me, and want it to do all the hard work for you, here's the command 

If you're going to RailsConf 2010 and aren't attending the same schedule as me then you might as well stay at home. 

I'm not saying the other talks aren't going to be great, just that I am awesome (more specifically my ability to determine the Critical Conference Path (CCP)).

This great article from The Talent Code website shows this video of a baby playing (at high speed) 

The baby's approach, and resultant pattern reminded me a lot of Marius De Beer's talk about an Agile Mindset at a recent SCRUM.org.za gathering. Marius outlines the many, many things we need to do to become better software developers, and an approach to mastering them. 

The list includes many lean/agile things like;

  * Seek rapid feedback

  * One step build

  * Learn and use design patterns

  * Pair with someone

  ... and dozens more

In fact, there's so much to do that you cant do it all at once, so Marius advocates the "Toe Dipping" aproach. This entails; 

  * take a bite size chunk of one practice (e.g. reducing your build steps from 100 to 99, or 50)

  * learn from it

  * don't try to master it now. Move on and try part of another practice (e.g. Automated Tests)

  * rinse, revisit, repeat.

Much like the baby learns, don't you think?