There’s a new blogging app out, well actually a new blogging platform, called [Paragraphs. I wrote up some thoughts about it and naturally published it on its own platform.][1]
[1]: http://benbrooks.me/whiny/
Month: May 2013
-
Kit & Kiya
Kirsten Ostgard, a friend (well friend of my Wife) has started [an Indiegogo campaign for a children’s Web/TV show called Kit & Kiya][1]. I’ve known Kirsten for a while now and I can say that [her passion for children][2], and children’s film in particular has been with her the entire time I have known her.
She’s a great person whom I think will succeed in children’s programming. She is only trying to raise $1,500 to get the project off the ground and I’m in for $100. Even if you don’t like the concept (and assuming you are a parent) the idea of having a better option than [Caillou][3] simply *must* be appealing to you.
Let’s get it funded.
[1]: http://igg.me/p/kit-kiya/x/1629035
[2]: http://500px.com/photo/13264863
[3]: http://www.caillou.com/indexEN.shtml -
Is it a beach ball, or a pinwheel?
Help me out:
[SURVEYS 0]
-
‘Social’
[Really great post from Cliff Watson (on Medium) about how and why kids are using social networking differently than adults][1]:
> For those of us out of school, Facebook is a place to see the accomplishments of our friends and acquaintances we’ve made over years and decades. We watch their lives: babies, job promotions, vacations, relationships, break-ups, new hair colors, ad nauseum.
> For kids who still go to school, Facebook is boring. If one of their friends does something amazing or amazingly dumb, they’ll find out within five minutes. If they’re not friends with that person, it will take 15 minutes.
That’s a really good point — I don’t know if it is true or accurate, but damned logical at least. It’s interesting how worried marketers are about what kids — teenagers — are doing, as if what people do as teenagers is lasting in any way.
When I was a teenager every last dime I had went two places: girls and cars (and in that order). I still spend most of my money on the former, but the latter quickly shifted to photography, then technology. In that sense I think it is a bit silly to focus too hard on teens for any type of long-term prediction.
[1]: https://medium.com/understandings-epiphanies/aae8d5f880cc
-
W3 Total Failure
When I first started with WordPress, I knew one thing to be true: I needed caching. A WordPress site without caching is a site waiting to go down.
Even with a fast, powerful server you’re better off caching WordPress, which as anyone who has tried will tell you, is a black-art. Not a black-art in the “bullshit SEO” sense, but in the sense that few people know how to do it effectively.
Initially I chose WP-Supercache because it’s easy to install and get started. Over the years I have tried just about every plugin in WordPress.org’s database and even some outside CDN options. For most of this site’s life I have used a well known caching plugin called W3 Total Cache. It has, by far, the most daunting array of options but in all of my testing it was about a half–second faster than any other option out there. A *half–second*, folks.
That half–second was worth all the hassle of configuring a complex plugin because on the web speed really matters. W3 Total Cache has always done its job, even passing the toughest test: a day where this site logged over 50,000 uniques in the span of 18 hours, on a relatively cheap hosting plan.
I’ve moved this website to four different hosts over the course of its life ((For those not on App.net, I just moved to a Mac mini at macminicolo.net.)) and taken the same WordPress configuration with me. In all that time I’ve only had one bad experience with W3TC (when an update was corrupt and took my site down) and other than that I have been perfectly happy.
Recently I began hosting on the Mac mini. Right away I was seeing problems with the caching plugin, but after some sorting out everything started working. Then I made a change to the footer and nothing on the site updated. I did everything I could think of and still nothing.
It occurred to me that the cache wasn’t working correctly. I disabled the plugin, but the site was still being cached. Huh?
I tried deleting the plugin and all of its far-reaching tentacles. And then the site went down.
I tried searching for solutions and, while I wasn’t alone, I couldn’t find a single thing that worked. I enlisted the help of an [elite WordPress guru][1] and even he was stymied.
And then he figured it out. We restarted the server, waited, and then the damned beast was banished. ((It looks like APC was storing something it shouldn’t have, whatever the reason a disabled plugin was still running.))
I have since switched back to WP-Supercache and couldn’t be happier — and given the amount of complaints I have seen about W3TC and users not being able to remove it, I simply cannot recommend that anyone use W3 Total Cache at this time.
[1]: https://twitter.com/jchristopher
-
‘Please Don’t Buy an SLR if You’ll Only Use the Kit Lens’
[Marco Arment on SLRs][1]:
> A decent consumer SLR body, usually $600–900, is a big investment for most people. But if you can’t also afford to buy at least one good lens with it, you’ll get better photos by going with a less expensive kit, such as a high-end point-and-shoot or an entry-level mirrorless setup.
I’ll second Marco here, with the caveat that you really can take a great photo with any lens or camera. **BUT** the overall quality when you try to use that photo later on is where you will really see the trade off and likely find frustration.
I’ve written about my [Panasonic GX1][2] and the excellent [20mm f/1.7][3] pancake lens. It is a camera setup I use all the time — I love it.
But I also have a [Canon 5D][4] (the mk I, not the [mk II][5] or [mk III][6] — maybe if I had ads, or if you click on the links and buy things — that works too) and with the 5D here’s the lenses that I have:
– [Canon 50mm f/1.4][7]
– [Canon 17-40mm f/4][8]
– [Canon 80-200mm f/2.8][9] (This is seriously an old-school lens)
– [Canon 100mm f/2][10]I used to have the Canon [24-70 f/2.8][11] (affectionately called “The Brick” because it weighs about a ton), but I never used it for anything because the focal range for the weight added was not a good trade off. It is, however, one of the sharpest, and brightest lenses I have used.
The two most used lenses in my setup for my Canon is the 50mm and the 17-40. I use the 50mm for any type of “normal” shooting and the 17-40 for a wide-angle for my day job in real estate.
Prime lenses (those with fixed focal lengths) are amazingly more sharp and less distorted than zooms. If you can, you should own at least one in the 28-50mm range (28 on a APS-C sensor, 50 on full frame — adjust to taste).
Here’s where I will differ with Marco, the 40mm he recommends is excellent, but there is also another really cheap lens, the [50mm 1.8][12]. The build quality is poor, but the lens is sharp and pretty fast. It’s a good entry step, Amazon has it listed at $110, but you can get it cheaper: [refurbished for $90][13], or you can find them from people who have stepped up for cheaper on Craigslist sometimes for as low as $65.
*Tip: If you need to test the lens when you go to buy a used one (and you should), [back focusing will be a really good test][14] and easy to do on site.*
For me the 50mm 1.4 is really all I need for personal photography and the 17-40 is all I need for work. There’s a lot of great lenses for a lot of money out there, but many are not needed. Your best bet is to get one good lens and see what you are lacking from there — also remember that buying a good lens will transfer from body to body with you. That 80-200mm lens I listed above is handed down from my Grandfather, it’s probably from the early 90s and still works fine.
[1]: http://www.marco.org/2013/05/07/your-kit-lens-sucks
[2]: https://brooksreview.net/2012/03/gx1/
[3]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002IKLJVE/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[4]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007Y791C/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[5]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001G5ZTLS/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[6]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007FGYZFI/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[7]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009XVCZ/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[8]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009R6WO/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[9]: http://photo.net/equipment/canon/80-200L
[10]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009USVW/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[11]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0076BNK30/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[12]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00007E7JU/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20
[13]: http://www.adorama.com/CA5018AFUR.html
[14]: http://cameralightlens.com/newsblog/?p=264 -
The Deciders
[This is a fantastic article from Jeffrey Rosen at The New Republic][1]. The article details one of the toughest problems with running a service — a service which allows users to upload content — the problem is: when, and what, content to take down.
The implications of being too aggressive are huge for the general openness of the internet while the implications of doing nothing could also be disastrous — and these are take down decisions being made by kids in the U.S. who are trying to follow a rule book handed to them. This is the one area where I won’t criticize Twitter, Facebook, or Google — they are doing a pretty good job dealing with a very difficult problem. They make mistakes, but by all accounts it seems that two things are true:
1. They are learning from mistakes.
2. They are not jumping to action before thinking through all the consequences.So kudos to them for that, and here’s hoping we can keep this control in the hands of the users and not the “free” governments of the world.
[1]: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113045/free-speech-internet-silicon-valley-making-rules%23
-
Limitless Surveillance
[Glenn Greenwald reporting][1]:
> Let’s repeat that last part: “no digital communication is secure”, by which he means not that any communication is susceptible to government interception as it happens (although that is true), but far beyond that: all digital communications – meaning telephone calls, emails, online chats and the like – are automatically recorded and stored and accessible to the government after the fact. To describe that is to define what a ubiquitous, limitless Surveillance State is.
A better way to think about how bullshit this is, is to think about it this way: how would you feel if you found out the government (any government) opened all postal mail, copied it, filed the copies, resealed the envelope, and sent it along the way. If you think that is overstepping, well, there is *no* difference between intercepting postal mail and intercepting email or other digital communications.
[1]: http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/may/04/telephone-calls-recorded-fbi-boston
-
Calendaring on the Mac
For a long time I have argued for a smarter calendar. Jason Snell, [in an article for Macworld][1], outlines some great features that seem rather obvious, yet are missing from most apps.
> And yet it all feels a bit pedestrian, like I’m really just using a computerized, networked version of a paper calendar. What’s missing are features that could turn my calendar into something more like a personal assistant.
I agree with Jason and it got me thinking about [a post I wrote about the problems with calendar apps][2]. Let’s reconsider what a really great Mac calendaring app would be like.
To the right is what I have come up with.
My calendar mock up. Looks aside, I want to take a look at the data, how it is presented and why I made these design decisions.
## The Main View
There is only one view. No month view. No day view. You see today, tomorrow, and the following day, including an overview of a user-defined future time period.
I have always found a view of an entire week overwhelming. My forward planning capacity is about three days. Beyond three days everything is too far out to think about in detail right now. It’s good to have future events planned, but not good for your mind to stress about things so far in the future. Thus, three days.
The upcoming section shows events that fall outside of the current view in a snapshot-like way. There will be a preview of the weekend, as seen with the first two lines, and a heads-up about how next week starts (or how the next working day begins, if Friday isn’t the last day in the viewport). Then a more distant forecast, excluding specifics of each event, showing only a high-level overview of how fucked next week is.
My ideal calendar would pull out important things that may need pre-planning — as I have shown with the ‘flight’ notice in this area. Flights are something you want to know about more than a few days ahead, so it’s important to show them here.
Next come upcoming important dates, which is where birthdays and anniversaries are shown. Why should birthdays be an all day event at the top of my calendar?
Lastly, a pane to show upcoming task information from OmniFocus — again this is to give an idea of how busy next week is. I prefer to see a high-level, generic view of next week’s events because typically I wonder: “Will next week be busy?” And not: “Do I have a meeting at 11AM with Bob on Wednesday?” This viewport better answers my question, than seeing all the details of the next week.
## Specific Touches
You’ll notice that instead of showing twelve hours, I just set the times from 8AM – 5PM. This would be a user definable range, which should be set for the times you actually want to allow people to schedule meetings with you — since I assume you use a calendar service that shows others when you’re busy.
Before or after that period the app just shows “earlier” and “later” — times when you *can* have things scheduled, but really don’t want to. If you *choose* to schedule things outside of the core hours, they are more likely to have ambiguous timing — like date night. If an appointment is scheduled in the “early” or “later” block, the start time is shown in text.
### Events
Each event shows the title, location, weather (if wanted), and start time (if needed — see above). The colored bar to the left of each event denotes the duration of the appointment in orange/red and the travel times to and from the appointment in slate/blue. Ideally the app sets those automatically by grabbing travel time info from a mapping site (from a location you specify, to the location specified in the appointment).
Next you might notice the gray blocks around lunch time that prevent your lunch hour being snagged by a coworker wanting a meeting. These are not hard-coded blocks — instead you would set the default lunch time but can drag them around day-to-day to better fit your actual schedule.
## The Gist
The more I think about why calendars suck, the more I realize they *really* suck at two things:
1. Protecting my time for me.
2. Summarizing my time.On the *rare* occasions when I *need* to see a month-view I can grab one of a million other calendar apps. What I need every day is an app that runs fullscreen, which I glance at for a grasp on the next couple days. This kind of calendar app keeps me from getting overwhelmed, but still informs me if a nightmarish number of OmniFocus tasks and too many meetings are on the horizon.
Now *this* idea is closer to the killer calendar app.
[1]: http://www.macworld.com/article/2036158/why-aren-t-digital-calendars-smarter-.html
[2]: https://brooksreview.net/2010/09/sucky-calendars/ -
Gmail’s Design
[A great post detailing the difference between simplifying for the sake of design instead of for the sake of usability][1]. There are some really great points made, especially about how many clicks it takes to perform rather basic actions.
> It’s also stop putting away the things I’m currently using. I might like to have a clean desk but if I’m writing a letter, I don’t want to open my drawer every time I want to reach for a piece of paper, pen, pencil or eraser.
This really hit home for me, because I ran into this very problem a few months back. I decided to keep my pen in the pen drawer at my office — a rather innocent decision which I made so that I always knew where my pen was (I frequently would “lose” my pen and spend 20 seconds looking for it).
It felt good to make the change, but it turned out to be incredibly inconvenient. Even though I lose my pen sometimes, the benefit of having it out and ready far outweighs the “always knowing where it is” notion.
The same carries over with buttons in user interfaces. I hate the Mac OS X inspector windows that I always have to click through to get that *one* action that really should be accessible from the toolbar. (I am looking at you Pages, and your damned hidden “object causes wrap” check box — I hate you.)
[1]: http://www.taigeair.com/why-gmail-2013-sucks-terribad-user-experience.html
-
Transporter
I was listening to the [latest episode][1] of “Unprofessional” with Lex Friedman and Dave Wiskus, and found myself quite intrigued by one of their sponsors, [Transporter][2]:
Transporter is a private “off-cloud” storage device for syncing, sharing, accessing, and protecting your digital life. No cloud, no fees, no privacy concerns. Your files are only stored on your Transporters and computers and mobile devices that you authorize.
Basically, you purchase a Transporter device — empty or with a hard drive pre-installed — plug it into your router, and then use it just as you already use Dropbox or Google Drive. Files are accessible on devices you authorize, and you can share individual files or folders with friends and family.
There is [an iOS app][4] for accessing your data on-the-go, and while it’s certainly not the prettiest app in the world, at least [the icon isn’t blue][5].
I can see something like this being a fantastic solution for people who [may have concerns about their privacy][3] when it comes to a cloud solution. And, though there is [a higher up-front cost][6] compared to Dropbox or Google Drive, there are no recurring fees. A Transporter with a 1TB drive is $299, 2TB is $399, or if you have your own drive you can buy an empty Transporter for $199.
I’m going to pick up a Transporter with the 2TB drive this week, and will report back once I’ve had a chance to play with it.
[1]: http://www.muleradio.net/unprofessional/38/
[2]: http://www.filetransporter.com/learn-more/
[3]: https://brooksreview.net/2012/07/dropbox-security-4/
[4]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/connected-data/id613859212?mt=8
[5]: https://brooksreview.net/2010/10/seeing-blue/
[6]: http://filetransporterstore.com -
Quote of the Day: John Carey
“We are information junkies, always wondering whats behind the next refresh.” -
Quote of the Day: Paul Kafasis
“In short, the league owners as a whole don’t want to set a precedent of paying for their own stadiums.” -
Quietly Admitting
[Fraser Speirs][1]:
> The entire article follows the pattern of building up small issues (and non-issues) to be insurmountable obstacles, then quietly admitting that a solution actually exists.
What site is he talking about? Out of context it could really be any major tech site these days…
(For the record he was debunking an “anti-iPad in enterprises” article which, surprisingly, was not posted Cnet.)
[1]: http://speirs.org/blog/2013/4/27/it-does-not-love-ipads-and-thats-a-good-sign.html