We’ll be doing it right when we’re doing it like Big Fish Games

I get inspiration from many places for customer service and web app ideas. It's cool to observe how to make customers feel good about themselves and you. I love gaming. So I subscribe to Big Fish Games for $6.99/month. For that I get one game per month, and a discount on extra ones I buy. Yesterday … Continue reading We’ll be doing it right when we’re doing it like Big Fish Games →

167% Growth over Last Year

The webserver's been getting pretty busy lately, and we wondered if traffic had rebounded so soon from the yearly Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's lull. We jumped over to our Quantcast page, and — wow. One year ago, we were serving around 75,000 page-views per month. We're now doing 200,000. Looks like it's time to upgrade our server … Continue reading 167% Growth over Last Year →

Castleberry & Elison, PC — new OregonLaws.org sponsor

We're pleased to extend a warm welcome to our first sponsor, Castleberry & Elison, PC. I've personally known Emily and Pete for several years; they are extremely bright, capable, and dedicated professionals. Their firm handles civil and criminal matters, including family law, personal injury, and employment cases. We're very grateful for their support. It's exciting … Continue reading Castleberry & Elison, PC — new OregonLaws.org sponsor →

Winner of Best Idea award, CivicApps for Greater Portland

Robb, the creator of OregonLaws.org, was honored by the City of Portland for his Civic App idea: "The end result is that the city would focus on what only it can do best: providing raw data about itself, and, similar to the Secretary of State’s business registry, acting as a means of identification and authentication." … Continue reading Winner of Best Idea award, CivicApps for Greater Portland →

Robb to present at Law.Gov workshop: Access to the Raw Materials of Our Democracy

"Law.Gov is a national conversation about broader access to primary legal materials in the United States across all three branches of government and across the federal, state, and local governments. . . . "The workshops have examined copyright restrictions, privacy implications, and the technical underpinnings necessary to provide authenticated access to bulk legal materials. "This … Continue reading Robb to present at Law.Gov workshop: Access to the Raw Materials of Our Democracy →

2009 ORS Update

OregonLaws.org now provides the latest edition of the Oregon Revised Statutes. For example, here is the new law that prohibits cell phone use while driving: A person commits the offense of operating a motor vehicle while using a mobile communication device if the person, while operating a motor vehicle on a highway . . . ORS 811.507

A technical post: Ruby interpreter comparison—MRI 1.9.1 vs. REE 1.8.7

I ran a small, controlled "real-world" experiment comparing these two interpreters. The results show identical time performance. My interest is Rails application speed This site, OregonLaws.org, is a Rails 2.3.4 application. (These blog pages are the sole exception, running on WordPress.) I manage the architecture and deployment so that server response time is 200 ms … Continue reading A technical post: Ruby interpreter comparison—MRI 1.9.1 vs. REE 1.8.7 →

It’s the little things that count: new spell-corrections in the search results

A lot of small subtle pieces go into making a search experience that's smooth and keeps the visitor in control at all times: breadcrumbs ("Home > Search results"), a new search "form" pre-populated with the previous query, a prompt clearly explaining the results of the last action ("Your search..."), an offer to continue on from … Continue reading It’s the little things that count: new spell-corrections in the search results →

Five superseded Oregon ORS editions: 2005, 2003, 2001, 1999 and 1997

Last night I discovered a great source of vintage versions of the Oregon Revised Statutes: The Internet Archive's WayBack Machine. I had a true Homer Simpson moment --- "Doh! Why didn't I think of this before?" For research-aholics, this is nothing short of nirvana. Great but not perfect The WayBack Machine isn't a perfect solution, … Continue reading Five superseded Oregon ORS editions: 2005, 2003, 2001, 1999 and 1997 →

Now serving secondary sources — relevant articles that give context and news

Articles from newspapers and other publications are now feeding into the OregonLaws.org database and are beginning to appear alongside the primary sources. For example, the page for ORS 447.233, Accessible Parking Space Requirements, now points to a recent Oregonian article, When Disabled Parking Disables the Disabled. Another is ORS 737.320, Review of Certain [Workers' Comp … Continue reading Now serving secondary sources — relevant articles that give context and news →