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Few lines on project management

February 18, 11 //
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From time to time I’ve been doing some projekt management for smaller (side)projects. They are, most commonly, small Innovation Voucher projects with quite limited timeframe and budget. And as we cannot use too many human resources for every small one, usually I’ve been done two jobs – as a project manager and a web designer.

I’ve never took any project management course, except one during my IMKE studies in TLU which means that these skills do more often came from reading best practices and during the projects I’ve been leading.

I’m not going to reveal my clumsy style how I interact with the client and how do I manage my small team. Instead of I will list here these small pieces of software I’m using daily to managing these projects.

Wunderlist (free)

Great task manager. I’ve been trying tens of alternatives (I even did stick to the Things for almost six months) but it seems that I’ve found a perfect one. It offers syncing via their servers between desktop computer (or laptop) and iPhone app, listing, task list printing view, sharing via Cloud App or e-mail, notes and more. Only thing I hate about it is this crappy dock icon.

Sparrow ($9.99, App Store)

New e-mail client for Mac. Perfect replacement for Mail for those who are using Gmail mailboxes. It offers very intuitive multiple accounts management, quick reply, labels and and useful menu bar icon for notifications.

Assembla (free for public projects)

Assembla features a bunch of tools for project management, ticketing, collaboration and more. These services include GIT, SVN, Trac. You are able to use free private SVN repositories for your code (2 GB space) or public space with Trac ticketing system. As far client is OK with it, it is much more convenient to pass your work to their after project is ended, if your stuff isn’t stuck in your corporate servers.

Skype (free)

No introduction is needed. I usually remove client from my list shortly after projects ends. Internet isn’t about collecting “friends”.

OmniPlan ($149.99, App Store)

Latest addition to my uses. Every client is keen on knowing how far is the project and how well does it goes. At this very moment I see OmniPlan perfect for visualizing this information.

Managing Flickr contacts

December 21, 10 //
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Just before the end of the year it’s always good idea to clean up your old stuff. On modern times it also includes some web services your are probably using.

Almighty photo-app Flickr is one of the most frequently used tool by me, for uploading my (daily) shots, finding Creative Commons licensed works or for browsing to find some inspirational moments.

By the end of this year I’ve managed to find nearly 80 people around the Flickr whom I call “contact”. Some of them are listed only because of my interest to them, others are friends and colleagues, former students etc.

It would be lovely if there were really easy method for bulk managing them, as there are for photos. Actually Flickr is somewhere in the middle – there aren’t toggle all buttons but as I’m moving my cursor on the user icon of my contact, a pop-up will be shown. It announces me that user is on my contact list, there’s a shortcuts to his or her photostream, sets, galleries and so on. The last option is to block this user.

Why block? During this period I’ve used Flickr, I’ve never blocked users. My block list is still empty and to be honest I’ve no idea why should I even use this option. More often I would use an option to delete certain user from my contact list. Social networking engine Elgg is actually integrated very similar user management pop-up to their views and with an option to remove user from contact list (or friend list, as used in Elgg).

Reading multi-column articles on Kindle

November 15, 10 //
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I’m almost half way on reading my very first e-book on talented Kindle device. It happen to be Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell. Progess is a bit low these days due to some happy days that are lasting in my family but I feel no hurry. Only thing I would like to say is that reading experience on Kindle is awesome.

Other issue is reading articles on that device. Specially articles that are formulated on multi-column pages. As known, smaller Kindle (6″) isn’t perfect for reading PDF files due to its small screen size. Though it’s far more comfortable than reading PDFs on iPhone, it’s still a bit pain.

Thanks to some talented developers there are some workarounds available – PDF Scissors and Briss. Both written in Java and that’s making them pretty much cross platform tools.

Working methods of both ones are quite similar. First of all load PDF file, define cropping areas and apply your choice. Cropped PDF file is going to be saved in the same directory as your original file. And as developer of the PDF Scissors points out, it’s very handy for cropping scanned PDFs for better readability on e-reading devices.

The cheapest way to travel to London

November 6, 10 //
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Do you remember Icelandic volcanic ash news from the past spring? I do. Did you know that during this period there was tens of promotional offers from various companies, who tried to earn from this multinational event?

One of the firms who took advantage of it was the one behind the popular travel books – Lonely Planet. Their offer was called “Volcano Relief Sale“. During three days all iPhone users could download free city guides for cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Rome, Stockholm and Vienna.

Users like me did download most of them almost instantly.

Why?

Because this is the most cheapest way to travel around the Europe.

Playing with Kindle, Automator and Calibre

October 27, 10 //
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As well-known fact, Kindle do not support EPUB formatted e-books. That’s part of the politics in Amazon and I’m not here to judge them for that. All I concern is that how find handy way to convert a small collection of EPUB books into .mobi which is working just fine on Kindle.

The most popular solution so far seems to be Calibre, free and open source e-book management application. On the one hand it really works – converts documents and books from one format to another, finds my Kindle and all that kind of things. But on the other hand it is one of the most ugliest piece of software I’ve ever used. You even don’t have to download it to be convinced, check the screenshots right here.

That was the reason I panically started to search an alternative for Calibre. Short googing and I found command line tool KindleGen, provided by Amazon to build ebooks that can be sold through Kindle platform. Unfortunately it’s not the ideal solution in situation where all the books that are waiting to converting are not in standard EPUB format and in some cases are even PDF files.

It seemed that I’m not the only one who is or has been looking similar solution. Oddly most of them turned back to Calibre but this time using the command line method. It turned out that after applying command-line tools from Preferences pane users are able to insert short command

ebook-convert eBookName.epub .mobi

and its there.

My next thought – there should be an app for that. Or at least simple Automator application to where you are able to drag your EPUB file. I found that Kris Johnson has covered that topic on his blog post, although with creating the service not application. But basically this applies to application as well.

Save it and use it. Basically you are free to convert all the formats that are supported by Calibre. Just drag and drop the file on the application icon and wait patiently for few seconds or a bit more and ready made *.mobi book should be waiting you in the same directory as original file.

Intuitive equals familiar

October 19, 10 //
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Steeling is wrong but I can guarantee that all I took was an heading from Jef Raskin article. As he is discussing on meaning of “intuitive”, he finally suggests that:

… we (should) replace the word “intuitive” with the word “familiar” (or sometimes “old hat”) in informal HCI discourse…

Why? Because

… it is clear that a user interface feature is “intuitive” insofar as it resembles or is identical to something the user has already learned. In short, “intuitive” in this context is an almost exact synonym of “familiar.”

I received my new toy this morning, latest Kindle e-book reader. Ordered directly from Amazon, shipped via UPS and did cost me around 140 EUR (including all taxes and shipping).

Very first thoughts while unpacking were positive – minimal package, light user guide or more like quick start guide, USB cable and device itself. Battery was already almost charged, after first boot it did demonstrate that it was already connected to my Amazon account. And it’s light. Really, I mean without cover (sold separately) it doesn’t weight much more than 200 gr. But all other technical details are remaining to some further blog post.

Kindle & iPad

Few words on user experience after few hours of using.

As I’m familiar with iOS platform and devices that are using it my first impression was – this thing is naked and I’m loving it! I’ve felt similar feeling after long working day filled with meetings and chatting and people. And same moment I open front door of my home all those distractions will be behind and for couple of hours I’ll be able to manage my time and doings. Although my personal iPhone is the best phone I’ve ever had, iPad is reminding me my most horrible and busiest days at work*. Even if it’s on bookself or on the table and stand-by, it’s constantly shouting “use me, do something with me, I can play, I can anything you like!”. Really.

Kindle is quiet. It’s screen is still clean thanks to physical controls on top of the device. Black & white screen is really eye-friendly. Page turning, opening menus and confirming settings is fast. It even can handle web pages thanks to “experimental” web browser. And what’s really nice, you are actually able to read one column PDF files on its screen.

Finally I figured out why I already love it – it is intuitive / familiar. It is the most closest digital device which reading experience could compete with physical books. As soon we are realising that e-books are similar pieces of digital media as music and video that we are consuming from day to day. Though books in their nature are thousands of years old and it’s very hard to think of them as something not very physical.

* I love my work!

One week trial with ZTE MF100 USB Modem

September 28, 10 //
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Estonian mobile operators are massively producing ads for various media channels to gain rapid growth in mobile data and internet market. All three operators have their “very best” data plans with “the best prices” and with “the fastest speeds available”. Their message is that if you’re not using mobile internet, you are one lost soul.

Although I’m a loyal client for the biggest and the most expensive firm, their mobile data plans sucks in a big time. Though I use mobile data on my phone on quite average level, cost for service is way too much. So for the experiment I took the second best choice and grabbed myself fresh Mint from the Elisa.

Mint is a data plan with different levels of data speeds and prices. Starting from 6.5 eur/month and speed up to 1 Mbit/s seems to be reasonable enough. With only one major restriction – user shouldn’t go over 1GB data traffic during the trial period – convinced me to sign punch of papers and I was ready to go.

Installation and setup was quick, after connecting the modem and next-next-next clicking process, modem did find the needed signal in a seconds and let me connect to it. But there are some steps I would like to test while I’m back home:

ZTE MF100 USB Modem

  • Is it possible to find signal without an external antenna in a old house with 50cm thick walls in a middle of the deep forest – Update – no, internal antenna is weak, comparable to average cell phone. Update no.2 – this device does not support external antenna either.
  • Is it possible to share the internet to other computers as well
  • what is the real amount of daily traffic in a normal use

I should be able to answer to those question after week. If any case I should be unhappy with the service, I’m still able to return it without any cost.

Elgg Blank, clean and minimal theme for Elgg

September 6, 10 //
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Open source networking platform Elgg has been used in CET for some time now, probably since version 1.1. Several successful projects are still running on it and future plans are promising. Although for most of the project Elgg is providing stabile platform for prototyping, one of the live-sites running on Elgg has over 1500 registered users and as a platform it has proven its strengths.

For my own personal reasons I’ve been working on usable (and visually clean) Elgg theme that could be use as a starting point for developing a new theme. Elgg Blank is clean theme for Elgg 1.7.2, tested on Firefox 3.5 and latest Safari. Doing my best to test it on IE 8.

Elgg Blank theme, sneak preview

Do not hesitate to give any feedback on it. Checkoutl the latest Elgg Blank from here.

Blue River seestyle for Coda

September 3, 10 //
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While working with super-duper piece of software Coda, I felt that its native look could be a little more personalised. As a result small collection of .sseestyle themes (codename Blue River) has been born. You are free to download, use and modify it from here: Blue River seestyle for Coda 0.1.

As I’m mostly working on CSS, HTML and PHP files, only those three modes are included in the package. For the installation open the Preferences menu in Coda, click on the Colors tab and import preferred files.

Blue River 0.1 seestyle

Facebook help center – removing friends

July 28, 10 //
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At the current period of time my most active “friends” collections lives in Facebook (as we all do). I bet that I could pass 75% of my dear friends on street without even saying “hello” or greeting them on any other way. And every time I do that I feel bad and sorry – because I just passed my friend and I was rude at the same time.

I do have a solution and I thought I could use this already few days ago. On Sunday night I decided to clean up my friends list on Facebook. Not hundred but maybe at least 25 of them.

Right, I started. And I stopped. Nearly an hour later without any success. I couldn’t determinate how to remove friends on Facebook, I was stuck in this fuzzy UI that sucks my Estonian friends from Orkut and other virtual meeting places.

I tried again yesterday evening. Still nothing. I couldn’t find the right button or link (I was looking for something like “remove this friend”, “remove from friend list” etc.). Until this point I didn’t tried cmd+f on Safari or Google search for help.

Here I am again and first thing I did after sitting down on my desk was fast Google search on how to remove friends on Facebook. And I found this helpful Facebook manual with the right answers.

It took me 3 days to succeed. What a lousy average internet user I am.

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