I've just completed my Rails Rumble contest entry for this year. I took a very focused project, and built it as a single solo developer. I'm extremely pleased with the way it turned out.

The site was inspired by a recent post over at kottke.org about "The Steve Ward" diet (see Kottke's source article from Philip Greenspun, it's a good read... and not actually about dieting).

After reading about this simple diet strategy (it's nothing more than a graph paper of your daily weight), I decided to try it for myself; it works. I've lost 8 pounds in about 3 weeks. My success is mostly due to more frequent and longer trips to the gym--the motivation for that has come directly from the accurate daily feedback you get from this plan.

The web site is a slightly more sophisticated version of the paper-and-pen version Steve Ward describes.

Check it out:

Introductory Screencast
The site itself - The Line Diet
My Rails Rumble Team page

The Rails Rumble contest opens for public voting on August 27th.

I am simultaneously shocked and honored that Riverdex, my entry with Chris Tenbrink to the 2008 Rails Rumble competition, has taken 3rd Place!

Now I have absolutely no excuse not to finish the site. I procrastinated building it for almost 2 years, and it became a reality in less than 48 hours.

So, for those of you preparing entries for next years' competition already, I've got a few bits of advice for you:

First, image is everything. Spend plenty of time making sure the first impression of your site is a good one. Make sure an uninitiated stranger can understand the purpose of your site simply by looking at the home page for a few seconds. Don't build any features that require more than a few clicks to access.

Second, spend most of your planning time on logistics. Identify exactly which plugins you'll need to use for your site, and practice installing them. Practice setting up a VPS from scratch. Only plan the design of your application in a loose way. You'll likely mis-estimate which pieces will take the most time, so you need to stay flexible about which ideas to leave on the cutting room floor.

Third, take breaks. I've heard from many of the other top-ten folks that they used far less than 48 hours. In other words, they actually slept. I did too, about 6 hours a night. I also went to the park with my family, and went out to dinner too. Your brain needs rest, and you'll operate more effectively when you're not burned out.

I've just submitted the final copy of my repository for riverdex.com, my entry for Rails Rumble 2008. I'll be updating this post with some additional background info and explanation later, but for now... enjoy the site.