I decided to venture out to the scary world of Amazon Web Services. I am far enough along that it makes sense to update this blog about my experience. I am working with Couchdb and Node.js. I love couch and so far, really enjoy node. I'm deploying this on ubuntu (which is always awesome) on ec2. My current workflow goes like this.. Reboot in ubuntu Make changes to my app, commit and push from git ssh into ec2, pull from git enjoy It is as similar to app engine as I could make it. I'm sure going

This is a very clever way to tell a story

I am moving the crestron portion of the blog. I want to have it non-branded with mcottondesign to prevent a wonk-conflict. http://mcotton.posterous.com/

I love my iPad and it continues to make me smile when I use it. I like it more than my iPhone (if I didn't need to program, I would say more than my macbook). Since crestron has released a mobile app for it, I have been working on finding how it fits into the home automation landscape. I don't want to endless speculate on it fixing all the world's problems, or how it will be cause the end of other touchscreens. But I will say, that seeing what other designers have been able to create with it l

I've decided to write my own blog instead of just using wordpress. I don't know if this is a good thing or not. I wouldn't fly a home-made plane. I wouldn't scuba with a home-made tank. But I will make my mark on the world by blazing my own trail. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

I have my new iPad and I love it. It might my not be as magical as apple claims, but it is innovative. It it a toy and not a serious computer. As long as you expect it to be beautiful it won't disappoint. For the same price as a net book it is a great purchase I have shown it some customers and the real test will be how I can deploy it into the custom installation market. Sent from my iPad

I wasn't happy with the old page, but after some re-work it is much better.

I am trying a new experiment, I want to see if a programmer in a first world country can earn more than minimum wage. I will start posting listings I am interested in and the reasoning behing my bids.

It depresses me how sensational the news media has become. But I have learned that I don't have good luck with people who watch fox news. If you're offended by this than we aren't a good fit

It took way too long but I found a solution for the xpanel kiosk mode bug. I was having a weird issue with 'phantom' button clicks when it was in kiosk mode. The problem went away if I put it in full-screen. After some tinkering and google-ing the problem here are the new xpanel.ini settings. left=-4 top=-50 right=1028 bottom-772 That completely fills the screen at 1024x768

My name is Mark Cotton. I'm convinced my chihuahua is plotting my downfall. My body stays busy with my day job but my mind is often left to run wild. This is the place where my latest ideas form. m c o t t o n @ m c o t t o n d e s i g n . c o m

Here are some guidelines from a WW2 manual on sabotage. It sounds like people I have worked with in the past. Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions. Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of per sonal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments. When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “furthe

I was amazed at this video. It is a video of how a fire control computer. The catch is that it is from the 40's. http://www.eugeneleeslover.com/VIDEOS/fire_control_computer_1.html

I'm very excited to start with a series of post about working with Google App Engine. I'm planning on showing code samples of reducing server load through memcache, creating mashups with other services through urlfetch and JSON, and reducing initial (cold start) page loads through AJAX. Stay tumed for code samples and instructions.

or watch it here

I always thought the Ruby on Rails crowd was just being snobbish when they railed on PHP. I started using a hosted server with the classic LAMP stack and it was awful. Google App Engine and python have spoiled me.

A project we did made Gizmodo's top ten list. Link is here: The whole video is here:

David Heinemeier Hansson - FOWA Dublin 2009 from Carsonified on Vimeo .

In the excitement of building a new house it is easy to gloss over some of the finer details. You should take care that your electrical system doesn't get forgotten about. Your builder has an electrician that he uses, and there is good reason they work together, but just because he is working on your house doesn't mean he is working for you. He won't be able to read your mind and so I've put together a list of things you should discuss. 1. Outlets, Outlets, Outlets In a well designed home you