Twitter's API Lead. Writer, critic, beverage enthusiast, programming language obsessive.
Areas of Expertise:
- Scala
- Ruby
- REST
- web
- Rails
- security
- Mac
- API
- consulting
- speaking
- writing
Biography
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Blog
Alex's blog posts are hosted at:
http://al3x.net/
http://al3x.net/
December 16 2009
In Which I’m Not Alone Back in October, I posted about my experience of San Francisco. Though I intended the post for a fairly narrow audience, it managed to attract more attention than I expected. For the next several weeks, I received a torrent of email, most of it from people… read moreCriticism, Cheerleading, and Negativity
December 06 2009
Criticism, Cheerleading, and Negativity There is the perception, particularly in American culture, that criticism and negativity go hand-in-hand. We understand well the idea of being in favor or something, or against something, but we don’t particularly understand how criticism fits into this dichotomy. As someone with a penchant for criticism, I’ve… read moreSo You're Moving to San Francisco
October 04 2009
So You’re Moving to San Francisco Writing about a place is difficult. You can spend months, years, even a lifetime in a city and still not really know it. More challenging still, everyone experiences a place differently. Two people who’ve grown up in the same place might fundamentally disagree on what… read moreTaking On a New Challenge At Twitter
October 02 2009
Taking On a New Challenge At Twitter I started working on Twitter in January of 2007, just a few months after the site launched. I honestly didn’t think I’d still be working on it almost three years later. I moved to San Francisco in May of that year to work for… read moreSeptember 14 2009
My Get-Back-To-Work Hack I’ve been looking for a way to fight distractions on the web. I’ve tried SelfControl, but just getting a “server not found” error in the browser when I visit a temptingly unproductive site isn’t particularly motivational. The hack for this I came up with today is cheap and dumb,… read moreAugust 10 2009
Switching Season Once, maybe twice a year, I do this stupid thing. At least I’m not alone in it, as friends get the same itch, but I have to do it. I think about switching away from the Apple platform. The last time I did this thought experiment was last year, almost… read moreTwo Unfinished Ideas About The Future
July 31 2009
Two Unfinished Ideas About The Future This is what I think about when I can’t sleep. I need these out of my head. And, somehow, they’re related. Radical Transparency What passes for transparency today is, in practice, mere translucency. Organizations reveal just enough information to avoid appearing closed and monolithic. They may attempt… read moreFever and the Future of Feed Readers
July 18 2009
Fever and the Future of Feed Readers Time was, every self-respecting geek lived and died by his feed reader (or aggregator, if you prefer). Just several years ago, the number of subscriptions in your RSS-chomping tool of choice made for bragging rights. “200? Oh, I can get through 500 feeds a… read moreJuly 07 2009
The Tapir Book When my coauthor and I began working on Programming Scala last year, the most frequent comment I got was, “you’re never going to want to write another book once you’re done.” Well, as of this morning, I’m pretty much done, and I can say that I’d very… read moreMay 17 2009
Reading The Web on Kindle 2 When I ordered a Kindle 2 shortly after the device was announced, I promised that I’d review it. Thanks to the book, I haven’t had time for much personal writing, but I’m sneaking this in today between edits. The Kindle works so well that it’s difficult… read moreMending The Bitter Absence of Reasoned Technical Discussion
April 04 2009
Mending The Bitter Absence of Reasoned Technical Discussion There’s a counterpart to my post on technology journalism that I’ve been hesitant to write. Just as most professional journalism on high technology fails us today, so too does the online discussion amongst technologists as a community. Social media (blogs, community news sites like… read moreTowards Better Technology Journalism
March 03 2009
Towards Better Technology Journalism Rarely does technology journalism produce informed, correct, relevant, and readable content. This is a sorry and damaging state of affairs. I’ve been drafting this post in my head for ages, and bringing the topic up to friends and colleagues ad nauseam. One approach I could take is to… read moreWhy I Don't Allow Comments, and More on Everything Buckets
February 24 2009
Why I Don’t Allow Comments, and More on Everything Buckets I don’t allow comments on this site. I have my reasons. There are certain types of sites for which comments work well. Metafilter is probably the best example of a long-lived web community that still boasts valuable, cogent comments. Investor Fred Wilson’s… read moreThe Problem With Email Clients
February 08 2009
The Problem With Email Clients A little over a week ago, Gmail made it possible to “go offline” and take the contents of your email archive wherever you like. Slate’s technology columnist, Farhad Manjoo, wrote an effusive piece declaring Gmail the victor in a battle between desktop email clients and webmail… read moreThe Case Against Everything Buckets
January 31 2009
The Case Against Everything Buckets The Mac software ecosystem faces a plague. A plague of Everything Buckets. Indulge me. If you search for “productivity” or “organization” software for the Mac, you’ll find variations on a particular type of application. These applications claim to be “your outboard brain” or “your digital filing cabinet”… read moreAlso find Alex on:
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