I am Isaac Z. Schlueter. I am a web developer living in California, USA. I also run isaacschlueter.com, but I’ve decided that since no one can spell my name, it is perhaps wise to use a shorter url.
Additionally, in the years that I was learning about web development, I used isaacschlueter.com as a stomping ground, which has resulted in a lot of legacy stuff and weeds and code-rot. I decided that I could redesign the site, and provide all sorts of redirects to send things to their new locations, like I have in the past, but that it would be easier and simpler to just abandon ship and start fresh.
This site is my new(er) sandbox. Experiments will be kept separate from the blog. New features will be carefully scrutinized prior to inclusion. I am approaching this site with a “less-is-more” attitude.
Why “Foo”?
Foo is the canonical metasyntactic variable. When you write code to show code, you call your things foo, bar, baz, quux, and maybe asdf. Foo is “happiness” in Chinese, if pronounced right. Foo is never fubar. So many IETF RFCs use “foo” and “bar” that they wrote RFC 3092 on the etymology of the word. The Jargon File has a great entry on foo.
Why “Hack”?
Please read Eric Steven Raymond’s wonderful and insightful How to Be a Hacker and Paul Graham’s Hackers and Painters. A hacker is someone who will spend 2 hours to save 5 minutes of daily boredom. A hacker is someone who is not content to just say “it works, whatever,” and instead must figure out how and why. When a hacker gets a new cell phone, he goes through all the option menus before calling his mother (and probably never picks up the manual, unless something doesn’t seem to work right.) A hacker is not content to merely create functional software; the code must also be beautiful and elegant. A hacker is an artist in a medium where most others see only incomprehensible magic.
It seemed like a good fit.
But much much more importantly, “foohack.com” was not already registered, it is very short, easy to spell, and geeky. I searched for weeks to find something meeting those criteria, and while foohack was not my first pick, I’m extremely happy with it.
Why are your posts so long?
Because they’re more fun to write that way. I can’t do frequent regular updates these days. Using Twitter scratches that itch better, anyhow. I’d much rather write an essay about something interesting to me than just comment on the world in tiny bursts.
How do I get an avatar on my comments?
They’re Gravatars. Go get one, and then use your gravatar email address when you post a comment.
Life is too short to maintain multiple avatar images.
Intellectual Property Ownership
I work for Yahoo!, and write about work a lot. After all, I’m a web developer, and this is a blog about web development. But my opinions are my own. They’re not endorsed by or reflective of Yahoo! Inc. in any way whatsoever. I’m not really high enough up on the food chain to have much in the way of secret information, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in any opinions I have of Yahoo!, good or bad.
All code examples shared in blog posts are licensed under the WTFPL license. Test pages can be used as inspiration, and you are encouraged to use the techniques you find in your own work. However, my writing and web development may not be copied wholesale, syndicated publicly, or reprinted in any public medium without specific written permission. You may not copy my test pages wholesale onto your own server. You may of course cite sections of text and comment in any place where you’d like with proper attribution and linkage. That’s public discourse, and fair use, and I heartily encourage it.
Privacy Policy
I’ll share everything except your email address, which will be locked in a vault, never shared, and only used to send you information that you request. I’ll reimage my server before I let anyone at that data, even if they’re waiving a subpoena. I’m a packrat when it comes to information, so it will probably continue to exist online forever, and I’ll do my best to ensure that the URL doesn’t change once it’s set.
When I say that I’ll share everything, I really mean it. I won’t delete comments just because you say something you regret (though I may delete them if I don’t want them on my site). If you email me through this site, that goes for the content of your email, as well. While I’m generally a nice and understanding guy, if you’re a jerk, or even just an idiot, I may have unsavory things to say about you, and I may say them on this site if I decide that it would be good writing material. I’ve never regretted being honest, but I’ve often regretted being quiet.
In other words, if you do anything with Foohack, assume that it’s may end up out in public; except your email address, which in my opinion, is more sacred than medical records.