I found this a very interesting read. Nothing new, but a great way of explaining it, which made me stop and think about web design and what I do naturally, due to experience and making mistakes. Well we have all been there too.
Understanding Visual Hierarchy in Web Design.
Later…
This is a very interesting post, in fact the time period that I have been conducting my research, I too have notice similar observations as Kathleen Richardson.
Definitely, worth a read.
Cheers!
I am using git a lot for my not-for-profit projects and came across this tip which I find useful.
Now when you do a git commit without specifying a commit message, TextMate will pop-up and allow you to enter a commit message in it. When you save the file and close the window, the commit will go through as normal. (If you have another text editor you prefer instead, just change the “mate -w” line to the preferred one).
git config --global core.editor "mate -w"
For those curious what the -w argument is about, it tells the shell to wait for the mate process to terminate (the file to be saved and closed). Read this for more information about how to associate TextMate with various other shell scripts and programs.
Cheers!
I think this is interesting. Have you ever wonder exactly what permissions you are forgoing when connecting to that FB app. Well, FB-Secure let’s you know what permissions you need to provide. Here is a snippet from there web site.
FB-Secure is a FireFox extension that provides users a secure Facebook Application Installation process. Whenever you are about to install a Facebook application, FB-Secure will inform you of requested security permissions and also provide you with data to help you make your decision.
With FB-Secure you are able to control what permissions to grant to your Facebook applications.
http://liisp.uncc.edu/fbs/
Here is an interesting post from the NYTimes. In particular, the following caught my attention.
“But it is the lack of obligations that makes Facebook better than other forms of communication. It’s socially efficient and even appears to make staying in touch a whole lot less work. You can read about friends taking their children to soccer games, but your lack of response doesn’t mean that you will stop hearing about their birthday parties, swim lessons, prom nights and graduations.
You can even hide a friend’s messages and they are none the wiser. Facebook also lets people create hierarchies of friends so that information can be shared selectively. No one but you sees the cliques you assign people to. It shouldn’t be too surprising that Facebook has this effect. After all, technology has a grand tradition of distancing people from one another for the sake of efficiency.”
I think that this is an interesting approach, and why people like FB, in that they can customize what they way to see from friends, without their friends knowing. Now you are probably thinking that is rude, but you and your friends probably don’t even know it.
So, that isn’t that bad. As opposed to someone not returning your phone call is it? 
Here is the link for more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/technology/10every.html?_r=2
Cheers!
This was annouced today by FB.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/facebook-opens-the-walled-garden-door-download-your-data/40101
This was some of the response from zdnet. The move is an interesting one. For starters, Facebook’s move will be well received. Folks may not actually take their information away from Facebook, but they will certainly appreciate the option. By opening up data portability, Facebook is more likely to keep people in the fold. Just because a door is open doesn’t mean you’ll leave. Other key points:
What is interesting here is that all FB has really done is allowed anyone without programming experience to download their data. There were already ways to do this if you were a developer using the GraphAPI. What is going to be interesting is have FB updated the GraphAPI in order streamline this process as well make any new API updates, changes, which developers can then leverage? I will check that out soon as it is part of my research in the data collection phase.
later…..
Well looking over my regular design feeds that I read. I came across this application for the iPad.
http://www.norgeapps.com/designbrief/
Design Brief helps you “ask the right questions!”
Design Brief is a specially targeted app that aids creative professionals put together a great design brief document/agreement for a new design project.
I would be interested in folks who have used this and what they think of it?
Also, I am hoping to see more applications like this for the iPad. I think Apple’s competitors should look closely at this, as this is what I like about the iPad, that applications are being developed in new and interesting ways that we can use.
This is a great link I found that highlights that less is more. You judge for yourself.
Cheers.
This is a great link to fixing issues around Bundler. Some I have not hit yet, but I have a feeling I could. So, good to know and for anyone else working with Rails 3.
Fixing Common Bundler Problems.
Cheers.
So, with Ruby versions coming out so often, well it feels like it. Don’t get me wrong, that is a good thing. The problem is that it requires some testing of existing applications on different versions until it is upgraded. Not only does this apply to Ruby, but also Ruby on Rails as well.
I did my trusty search on Bing! and come across RVM: Ruby Version Manager.
To Install RVM, do the following:
$ gem sources -a http://gemcutter.org/
$ gem install rvm
$ rvm-install
$ echo “if [[ ! -z $HOME/.rvm ]] ; then source $HOME/.rvm ; fi” >> ~/.bash_profile
$ source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm
Now, you can install the necessary gems, that you want to install. Notice: Also, don’t use sudo as it will mess up the configuration.
Here I install the different Ruby interpreters:
$ rvm install ruby-1.8.7-p160
$ rvm install ruby-1.9.1
Now it’s important to notice that at this point you have separate gem installations for each of the interpreters you’ve installed in the previous step. That said, just go ahead and switch between your interpreters and use your command line scripts – ruby, gem, etc… – as usual.
Now, here is a way to switch between interpreters and install Ruby on Rails versions as well.
$ rvm ruby-1.8.7-p160 #switch to the specified version
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2009-04-08 patchlevel 160) [i686-darwin9.8.0]
$ gem install rails #note I’m not using sudo since the new gem paths point to the user’s home directory
$ rvm ruby-1.9.1 #switch to the specified version
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.1p376 (2009-12-07 revision 26041) [i386-darwin9.8.0]
$ gem install rails #note I’m not using sudo since the new gem paths point to the user’s home directory
Okay, you can now switch to a specific interpreter and have multiple rails versions, especially if you are migrating from 2.x to 3.
$ rvm gemset create rails222 rails126
Gemset ‘rails222′ created.
Gemset ‘rails126′ created.
$ rvm 1.9.2-head@rails222
$ gem install rails -v 2.2.2
$ rvm 1.9.2-head@rails126
$ gem install rails -v 1.2.6
There you go, pretty cool!
-Later.
The Essential Guide to Doing Research by Zina O'Leary
NVivo Essentials by Bengt Edhlund
Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis by Kathy Charmaz