jaacob.com

In my spare time (ha!) I’ve been undertaking a long overdue task—learning to program. While I’m competent in fumbling my way through other peoples’ PHP, I’ve got a few projects that I don’t think I can accomplish by adopting somebody else’s code.

The tossup is between learning PHP or Ruby on Rails, and since everything I’ve read says RoR is easier, I’ve jumped in.

Oy. I swear when people complain that the CSS box model is difficult to understand; Ruby makes that look like 2+2.

I realize they’re two completely different types of programming, but I’m dying to reach that moment when it all starts to come together in my head. The day I could start writing out CSS without flipping through a reference every 5 minutes was a happy day, and I need some sign that will happen with this. Unfortunately, my brain is still completely resisting.

Dan Benjamin’s guide to getting a development environment up and running on OS X was a huge help, and after reading Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby & Chris Pine’s Learn To Program, I’m now working through Agile Development. I have (I think) the concepts down, which was a feat for me at first; what a method, class, attribute, instance whatevers, etc… (my frustration in even listing these things out speaks volumes about how far I’ve come…)

I’m halfway through (more or less) the ‘build a shopping cart’ chapters, and while I was in awe of scaffolding and how fast it all came together, as soon as the program through up a NoMethodError and I couldn’t figure out where that method should have been put in… (shakes laptop uncontrollably)

Maybe I should have paid more attention during AP C++ back in the day.

I’m going through a social bookmarking dilemma, trying to decide whether or not to “move my business” over to ma.gnolia from del.icio.us. My del.icio.us tags have become a gigantic mess, mostly because I used to use the Foxylicious Firefox extension, which transformed periods into subfolders in the FF Bookmarks toolbar. I don’t use that anymore (now it’s a toss between Quicksilver and Spotlight) but the remnants of “web.dev.css” remain. I’ve been trying to plan in the time to go through and redo the whole lot but geez that’s tedious.

So here’s the new kid on the block, ma.gnolia. It looks good (although I do like the sparseness of del.icio.us so that’s a draw), it seems to emphasize the social aspect a little bit more, at least that’s what they say. The downside of the way ma.gnolia is going about things is that it is trying to create a “hangout”. You can form cliques (er, groups) to share your bookmarks with and get theirs—but I just want a fast site where I can send my bookmarks and see what others have marked as well. My needs for sociability in this space are met by del.icio.us’s “and 800 other people”, so far. It has felt a little stale though, so I’m hoping ma.gnolia will show me things I didn’t know I’ve been missing.

The one killer feature that is really influencing me to switch is ma.gnolia’s “saved copies” feature—it copies a version of the site right when you bookmark it so that even if something happens to the site, you can still access what you had bookmarked later on. I’m really not sure how much information they are saving, much less how to access it (it’s only mentioned in the tutorial as far as I can tell), but it sounds great.

Of course, ma.gnolia not only wants to be your social bookmarking site, they want to be your search engine as well. With the amount of junk that shows up in a Google search these days … maybe I should start working on revising my bookmarks, now that I’ve imported them. Or will del.icio.us come up with some phenomenal to keep me from switching?

Over at ChangeThis, my (BePrivy’s) proposal manifesto Why Passion Works is up for vote until March 18th. I’d really appreciate it if you’d take a second to visit and vote. Let me know in the comments if you voted and I’ll be sure to send you a copy the moment it’s finished. Thanks!

Over at Firewheel Design, they recently launched a new Dashboard widget called Colorburn—basically you get a new color palette delivered every day to your desktop.

Since readers were already sending in their palettes, Josh decided to turn it into a contest and give away icon sets from IconBuffet. Since I happen to like BePrivy’s color palette and BePrivy can use whatever exposure I can give it (her?), I sent in Privy to Passion, and won.

I think the SOHO collection is best suited for my needs…

Due to popular demand, here’s the second series of Getting Things Done desktop backgrounds.

See the first series of backgrounds.

I think I’ve covered all the material in the book that is useful to me and can be encapsulated into a desktop background, however if there is something additional you’d like to see, let me know in the comments.

Each file contains the image at 1900×1200, 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1440×900, 1024×768, and 800×600.

If you prefer the slideshow format that Shari devised, I have included that as well, with all 8 slides together.

Horizontal_focus.zip  [172kb | preview]

4ideas.zip  [192kb | preview]

Vertical_focus.zip  [136kb | preview]

6level_review.zip  [208kb | preview]

Slideshow: GTD_Slideshow_1-2.zip  [208kb]

Starting a new business, my mind is constantly on overdrive trying to come up with ideas for all of the projects I’m juggling. Whether it’s working through a CSS problem, brainstorming marketing ideas or developing a pitch for a client, I have to be ready to capture whatever comes out of my head, whenever it decides to come out—it definitely doesn’t work on my schedule! (I was doing work in Illustrator, and yet here I am suddenly writing a post!)

This list is broken down into two “states”—in my own space and on the go, since that’s how the majority of my time is spent.

In my own space (home, work)

• Large notebook, variety of pens

  Your large notebook should be like a child to you—it should always be underfoot and you should immediately go into a panic if you lose it. If you aren’t worried about losing it, then you aren’t capturing your most important thoughts. The large notebook is like a bank vault, sturdy and capable of holding a variety of items (magazine clippings, printouts, etc).

  I utilize both Canson and Moleskine notebooks at home because I like the way you can fold them flat, no spirals get bent out of shape and they hold up well when stuffed with additional items. My Canson usually has two pens stuck in-between pages; one at the page I’m on and another at the beginning of the book as a backup. The Moleskine is a newer addition and isn’t quite as adept in this regard, but folds flat much better for “larger” thoughts that cover both pages.

• Ta-da Lists

  When I’m working on my laptop and come up with a new idea for say, a website, one of the best ways to capture that idea is to make a new list on Ta-da. I can dump the stream-of-consciousness idea into the optional description field and throw a few to-do’s on the list (usually “research if this has been done before” and “flesh out idea further”) for later review.

  Since Ta-da is my home page, it is always loaded and ready to go. One of the coolest “features” is the fact that lists that are ignored filter down to the bottom. I can gauge my own personal interest in a project based on the fact that it has made its way down to the bottom of the screen. Must mean I’m not actually interested in the idea or that it’s not very good! I just run through the entire list during my weekly review and clean up the junk at the bottom.

On the go (walking/driving/mass transport)

• Voice recorder (standalone & cell phone)

  One of the best gifts the girl has gotten me over the years is my Olympus VN-1800 Digital Voice Recorder. The voice recorder is great for when you are walking around town (as I am frequently) or driving in the car. Too many times I have said to myself “write this down when you get home”, only to completely forget what it was. I always seem to remember that I had something to write down though, so I spend the night furiously racking my brain for what was probably not a very good idea to begin with. (Most of them aren’t!) Loss of productivity + increase in frustration = unhappy camper. It’s a bitch to go back and listen to yourself fumble through an idea out loud though—use headphones unless you want your S.O. ridiculing you all night.

  Most cell phones have this functionality, but their memory is so limited (depending on the phone) that it’s usually useless unless you review and delete promptly. Sometimes I go back to my Olympus and listen to ideas I had a year ago with a totally different perspective, which wouldn’t be possible with my cell.

• Pocket-sized Moleskine & Fisher Space Pen

  Pen and paper are a must at all times, and I don’t think there is a better solution than these two. Both fit easily in my pocket and are lightweight. While I don’t usually like ballpoint pens, the space pen is tops. Pressurized so you can write upside down without losing any ink flow, all smooth corners so it won’t catch in your pocket or stab you in the leg; it’s the ideal traveling writing instrument. I keep a $10 bill in the back pocket of my moleskine for emergencies (I think I got that tip off Moleskinerie) or in case I lose it a good samaritan can mail it home.

• Pocket-sized digital camera

  While always carrying a camera sets you up for the opportunity to catch those fleeting beautiful moments in life that you’d otherwise be saying “Agh! Where’s my camera?!”, it can also be useful for capturing visual inspriation for your work. Many times I am out in the world and see a pattern, typographical treatment, color combination, etc that I can’t capture properly with pen and paper or my voice. With the camera by my side, I can “re-inspire” myself when the time is more appropriate.

Via Shaun Inman’s links on rentzsch.com - googling the term “Unfortunately $yourname” (for the less programmingly inclined, $ indicates a variable) generates some bizarre results.

• Unfortunately Jacob fell into this category, and he was led away to be shot…

• Unfortunately, Jacob did not have Ryan’s dessert because it was not completely cooked through when served.

• Unfortunately, Jacob didn’t live long enough to realize his dream.

• Unfortunately Jacob failed to patent his invention; copy-cat manufacturers sprang up in the wake of his sales route.

• Unfortunately, Jacob didn’t have the type of parasites we had thought.

Sounds like the makings of a Dada book to me…