Zed Shaw

Zed is king of the internet...for now.

If anyone out there is using this newfangled Ruby on Rails framework, Zed's (open source) Mongrel product has become the de facto container for running your app. It's a tiny little c program, and dead fast and stable. He co-wrote a little PDF on it that I had printed on a pillowcase. It's so comforting to know that my apps are running on Mongrel that the pillowcase serves as a little reminder so that I can go to sleep- without a glass of wine and one of those little blue capsules.

For a more general interest look at why Zed is such an interesting character, check out his essay blasting Joel Spolsky and Don Norman's articles on simplicity vs. complexity. If you aren't following that "debate", good for you...I'll summarize though- some people think simplicity is good. Some people think complexity is good. The people that are right think that good design makes complex tasks as simpler as they can be, but no simpler.