Posts
I think we both know this isn't working out. Yeah, we had some good posts. The one about test-driven design was pretty popular. But, lately it's been pretty rough. You don't inter-operate with others. You don't even have a real RSS feed. I thought I didn't want all that fancy CSS and real templates. I was wrong. Who was I kidding? I'm a web developer. I need stylesheets and markup. It's part of me and I just don't think you care about my needs.
Sure you have lots of features. You're good friends with Flickr. At least we have that. But I'm not the biggest fan of your constant search for more friends. Are you some kind of whore?
I'm sorry. I didn't mean that...yes I did. You're a whore.
*sigh*
There's somebody else. I feel like she just gets me. We've been working together for the last few nights and I think it's going to go places. I'm moving over to WordPress. I'm going to put my Twitter posts in her sidebar.
Look don't make this any harder than it has to be. I'm going to export the posts later tonight. What do you mean you can't do that? It's over, let it go.
I think I'll start doing a semi regular update on new feeds I've added to my reader. I love discovering new cool things so maybe you will too.
Webcomics
KittyBot - http://www.kitty-bot.com/rss.php
The title should be all you need. Kitties? Bots? Sign me up. It's actually much better than that even. Gorgeous artwork, engaging writing, and some really interesting science fiction. And big robots.
Tech
GigaOM - http://gigaom.com/feed/
The always entertaining Om Malik (often seen on CrankyGeeks) writes about the telcos and has a new show "The GigaOM Show."
Update: I almost forgot this one!
Data Center Knowledge - http://feeds.feedburner.com/DataCenterKnowledge
Info about data centers and colocation facilities.
Gaming
Level Up - http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/rss.aspx
N'Gai Croal, the best gaming writer in the biz. I could do without the news summary posts but his articles are fantastic
Other
thought bucket - http://thoughtbucket.tumblr.com/rss
A Tumblog with a buch of interesting stuff.
I just now had a bit of a what I call a "user moment". It's one of those times where my refined, logical understanding of technology and design breaks down and I see things the way an ordinary, "unskilled", user would. It can be a bit unsettling.
Clicking through Digg I saw an article titled: Get Started with the Eclipse Platform . I have messed around with Eclipse a little in the past, but with a big piece of software like that it can be tough to know where to begin with it. I needed a straightforward "this is what the software is designed for, this is what it can do" sort of introduction. This article seemed like it could be just the thing I needed . I clicked the link to the article which lead me to an IBM developerWorks page.
It took me less than two seconds to mentally say ugh and close the tab. I stopped. That happened so quickly. I realized that without reading any of the content on the page I had completely dismissed it as a dry technical write-up with little informational value. I went back to the page. It is actually a very well written article that clearly defines the project and its features in a way that someone like me can grasp it. It was perfect.
So why did I dismiss it so quickly?
Looking at it, it displays many of the design principles that I am fond of: lots of whitespace, simple consistent navigation, no distracting elements. In fact, it's quite likely that I would have taken the same approach with a similar piece of content.
There is something missing from the page however. My initial reaction was something like Oh no, corporate technical documentation. Evade, evade, evade! The page looks and feels like process model documentation. I wanted to read something written by a person, not a company.
How do you communicate the human element?
It's becoming clear to me that if I only frequented sites that fit into my personal web design philosophies I wouldn't go to very many sites. Good content keeps me coming back, but I need a reason to check out the content in the first place. Usually, a snappy headline does the trick. Just take a look at Digg.com's front page and you'll see that that's a widespread phenomenon. Sometimes, though, when the need to view a specific piece of information is low, and the competition from other possible sites is high, it takes more than a clever title to make it stick.
Perhaps something as simple as putting the authors' pictures with the article would have helped. Or, they could structure their technical articles like a blog. I read many articles written by Microsoft employees that are technical in nature but because they are in blog format they feel much more personal. In any case, it is a subtle difference in the page's deign, not content, that makes the ultimate difference in my investment with the site.
Analyzing the situation like this really bugs me. As a web developer I hate the idea that a user will make a decision about whether or not they like my site in just a few seconds (if that) based solely on superfluous design elements. It's even worse to think that I myself do the same exact thing.
It's been a busy week. I've been in crunch mode on several big projects. I'm thrilled about the iPhone because it will do for cellphones what the iPod did for mp3 players. I wouldn't have my excellent Sansa e270 if it weren't for the nano.
As it stands though the iPhone is not for me. It needs to be hackable. Once they break it open or establish a proper sdk it will be far more interesting to me as a device.
For the last few months I've been seeing ads for Marriott's new "Ultra Adaptable" rooms in various video podcasts. The ads feature stark white rooms with shape shfting futuristic furniture: giant pulsing speakers, a massive fold-out multi-screen display, a magic spinning holocube.
All the ad says is: "Plug in: the first ultra adaptable room from Marriott." The viewer is left thinking what am I seeing? Is this real? What is an ultra adaptable room? It's one of those commercials that is well suited for web viewing because you can quickly search to find out what the comapny is actually trying to advertise.
I resisted the urge to look it up for a while but today I cracked. It turns out, Marriot's new rooms are a faaaaar far cry from the Phillip K. Dickian future world presented in the ads. But, they are, in-fact, more interesting. We get a mid-def LCD TV (1366, 768) and a front-mounted jack panel with AC power, VGA-in, DVI-in, composite-in, headphone-in, phone, and network. Many times I've brought my own gaming console and wanted to hook it up to a hotel tv only to find no available connections. It always feels like a subtle push to pay for the overpriced on demand flicks. Now, Marriot is giving their guests what they want and making it as convenient as possible.
In fact, that's what the ad should say. Next time, guys, skip the confusing "art" ad and just show us the rooms.
The last few days have been almost surreal. On Sunday, my wife and I were recuperaing from my best friends wedding and I suggested that she give the DS a go. She has been playing Super Princess Peach off and on for a while now and I expected her to hit up that old standby. But, to my surprise, she grabbed Age of Empires and at that moment she was lost to me.
For the last three days our free time has been spent sitting together on the couch playing video games together. I've been going through my usual gamut of any and everything, she has been grinding through the campaign levels in AoE. I finally know what it is like for her when I am engrossed in a game and only give half replies, head cocked to the side slightly, hoping to give enough of an impression of I'm listening to not elicit further distraction.
I don't blame her at all. It's actually quite a relief to know that she now gets how I can spend so much time playing a game. Seeing her, a level headed non-traditional gamer, compelled to finish an epic 45-day campaign makes me feel a bit better about myself.
I was watching CrankyGeeks 67 and I had the personal revelation that Robert Scoble looks exactly like Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Update: Of course I wasn't the first person to notice this but this was the first time I had thought of it.
I have listened to .NET Podcasts on the topic, I've read the Wikipedia article, I've subscribed to testing blogs. I've even written actual NUnit testing code while following a tutorial. But still, I have no idea how to do Test Driven Design.
There hasn't been any other programming concept that has been as elusive to me as TDD. I feel like maybe I should be doing it. It is one of those things that programmers talk about in floaty idealized language, like Agile. The difference is, I get Agile. In fact, I use Agile (sort of) in my day to day work. When people talk about Agile they talk about it in terms of projects and deadlines and clients. Those are concrete terms that apply to my day to day work.
When people talk about TDD they tend to only talk about how great it is and how everyone should be doing it. Okay, you sold me. I'm a joiner, a sheeple, whatever. Now I need some tangibles to move from abstract concepts to actual production code.
An example like this:
http://www.agiledata.org/images/tddStates.jpg (source: http://www.agiledata.org/essays/tdd.html)
tells me very little about the nuts and bolts of TDD.
I'm willing to accept that it's a personal shortcoming that prevents me from moving from theory to application but it definitely isn't from lack of trying. Hopefully, I'll be able to just ride this fad out and get a jump start on the next big thing when it comes along. (Oh please let it be LOLCode!)
Edit: I decided to update these with some qualification. Maybe that will make me sound like less of a douche.
Some online services I love and use:
Freshbooks - Great interface. Frequent updates. It does a lot for free but they have a solid business model so I feel like I can depend on them down the road as my business grows.
Netflix - The website takes a rather straightforward task (adding movies to a list) and makes it something I look forward to doing every few days. Its movie recommendations so far have been spot on. It has helped me discover a lot of movies and films that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. ALso, the new Watch Now feature surprised me.
GMail - Tracking email throughout the day used to be a chore. The GMail interface really works with my lifestyle. It handles multiple location scenarios easily. The added bonus of having it hosted @gloryfish.org is icing on the cake.
Skype - Free online voice and video chat. The call quality is fantastic. It has made it easy and convenient to keep in touch with family all over the country.
Some online services that are cool but I don't use much:
Joost - A nice effort. Almost there. The quality and speed of the video delivery is very good. I would like to see more configuration/personalization options in the client. There isn't much on the service right now that keeps me coming back.
Yahoo! Pipes - Oh man. Yahoo! Pipes is awesome. The interface design is a tour de force for Yahoo's designers/developers. The power and flexibility of this tool is only marred by its dependence on many other servers. Combining more than a few feeds can be painfully slow. Debugging a large pipe is nearly impossible. (my Leo Laporte stalker pipe)
GloryFish.org - Great concept. Failing in its execution. The writers are usually interesting but they never write. The podcast started out rough but had potential. It's a shame they never took it any further. How long has the first web comic been on the front page? The site really only survives due to it's active forum goers.
Some online services I hate:
MySpace
Facebook
SecondLife
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There, was that so hard?
