The World Has Changed…Has Your Marketing? | The Customer Collective

Very interesting article - with American statistics: "You need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and become what people are interested in."

The World Has Changed…Has Your Marketing? | The Customer Collective.

Facebook Page redesign: 10 things admins should do RIGHT NOW.: The Social Path

Pretty useful list of things that Facebok Page admins should look at following the new Page redesign:

Facebook Page redesign: 10 things admins should do RIGHT NOW.: The Social Path.

Why Your Form Buttons Should Never Say Submit - UX Movement

In may cases Submit buttons are "calls to action". You're asking a visitor/user to do something.

Instead of the default "Submit", consider what's actually happening from your user's perspective. Is there a better way to word that button?

When users fill out a form, they are engag­ing in a task. The action but­ton should affirm what that task is, so that users know exactly what hap­pens when they click that but­ton. A but­ton that describes the user’s task tells users that the form focuses on car­ry­ing out that spe­cific task. The more focused your form is, the more likely you’ll get users to com­plete your form.

via Why Your Form Buttons Should Never Say Submit - UX Movement.

TweetStats :: Graphin' Your Stats

It's true that for busineeses engaging in social media, it's all about engagement and quality rather than just looking at statitics. No doubt about that.

However, sometimes statitics can help you get a bird's eye view of how your account is going.

TweetStats is one such tool, and gives you some benchmarks for your Twitter account that can compare month-by-month.

favicon.ico Generator

Need to create a little favicon for your website's address bar? I found this handly little favicon.ico Generator that saves having to install any software.

@media queries added

First attempt with @media queries after being inspired at this year's Web Directions.

It's still pretty basic, but it works (mostly). You drag the width of your supported browser (Safari for example) until it's a bit less than the 960px grid used here, and the sidebar will drop down to below the content as the whole design takes on a fluid width.

Try it and see!

Migration Time

This blog formerly existed at waterfallweb.net - but it seemed a bit pointless to keep using that name when everywhere else online I'm "rockyshark".

So here's to the big migration!

You may be noticing the general ugliness of this theme. Believe it or not, it's that way on purpose.

Online mockups coming soon

Very excited/pleased to read this post from Balsamiq relating to their online mockups web app.



I've been a desktop Balsamiq user for some time now and am finding it more and more indispensable with each project. It's been replacing project specification docs to the point where I don't really have to write any other instructions. By linking pages together and viewing it in fullscreen mode, we can see how the home page, section pages, contact pages, and even modal popup windows and AJAX behaviours should work.

I can "knock together" a basic site in a few minutes - and an intranet in a few hours. In each case, the result is much clearer and easier that written briefs or specification docs. Clients can understand them just as easy as programmers and designers!

And when the client approves the mockups, we can refer back to them if there are any additional requests. "That wasn't in the mockups you approved. We can do it, but it will cost an additional $x..."

The webapp will make collaboration that much easier. Really looking forward to its release!

Microsoft should release IE6 as a single-site browser

Internet Explorer 6 is still out there. In large numbers.

Often the reason given is that the corporate sector is tied to it through intranets and other applications that rely on it.

So, why not release IE6 as a single-site browser (SSB), like Mozilla's Prism for example?

1. Corporates can run their intranets via the IE6 SSB


2. The general-use browser can then be updated to the latest version (IE8), which has to make security easier for their IT department


3. Microsoft can then officially drop support for IE6, and only need to support the SSB in its corporate environment


4. The rest of us can breathe a sigh of relief as we watch IE6 usage fall rapidly!

It seems like a simple solution to me, but perhaps it's not that simple. Otherwise Microsoft would have done it already. Yes?

Snow Leopard Exchange Support

I'm holding my breath regarding Microsoft Exchange support in Apple's new OS10.6 Snow Leopard.

You see, I dropped using my PC altogether about a week ago. Well, almost. I still have to remote into my server and use Outlook that's installed there, as we rely on Exchange for our email and calendar.

Which is a bit of a nuisance, as any links clicked in the mail open up in IE on the server inside the Remote Desktop window. And saving attachments? Sheesh.

So apparently my copy of Exchange-supporting Appleness is being shipped on Friday.

I really hope it "cuts the mustard". I'll post my thoughts here once I've installed it!

Displaying a gallery description using NextGen Gallery for Wordpress

Been battling with the excellent NextGen gallery plugin for Wordpress this afternoon.

I had created an Album, which is a container for mutiple Galleries. Simple enough. But then, once you had selected a Gallery, I wanted to display the Gallery description on the Gallery page above the thumbnails.

In the Manage gallery section you can type a description, but it didn't seem there was any way to display that on the actual website.

So if you need to, open the file gallery.php which is inside the plugins directory, nextgen-gallery/view/gallery.php

Next, above the line
<div class="ngg-galleryoverview" id="ngg-gallery-<?php echo $gallery->ID ?>">
add this:
<h2><?php echo $gallery->title; ?></h2>
<p class="gallery-desc"><?php echo nl2br($gallery->description); ?></p>

This will give you an H2 with the Gallery Title, and then the description below it.

EasyPHP 3 and mod_rewrite gotchas

Just got a new server in the office so updated to the latest EasyPHP - version 3. However, all was not smooth:

1. At first I kept getting a "permission denied" error - you'll need to search the httpd.conf file for the <Directory /> container and get rid of Deny from all. (Or at least comment it out, anyway.)


2. The mod-rewrite wouldn't work. Two steps to fix this:
   
   
   
   1. Search httpd.conf for mod_rewrite and uncomment the LoadModule line.
   
   
   2. Search for AllowOverride. There should be two instances where you need to change None to All. (Source)
   
   
   
   

Now I can get back to work!

Better Project Management via a Better Definition

This last year has seen a number of changes to the way our business is managed. We have tried just about every project management tool under the sun, from the popular Basecamp and open-source web-based alternatives, thought to the bloated Microsoft Project - all without much success.

And it turns out that my struggle to get this part of my business right has been based on a bad definition. (Or probably, more accurately, no definition.)

So in order to find the right tool - the question must be asked: "What is project management?"

And the answer is best summed up in explaining what it's not.

Earlier this year I purchased Sitepoint's The Principles of Project Management - and on page 8 the obvious truth stood out:

Firstly, project management is not personal productivity. This is an easy mistake to make, however. Most folks’ early experience with project management is on smaller projects on which they’re doing most of the work themselves. It’s easy to start treating the project schedule as your diary, the task list as your to-do list. But as soon as you add anyone else to the project, be it a client who wants to understand the time line or a colleague helping out with some of the work, this approach starts to cause problems.

If you make your project management tools double as personal productivity tools, you’ll almost certainly be including far too much detail. Keep a clean line between what you need for yourself personally, and what the project needs. This way, when you have slightly larger projects with more people involved, your tools will scale.

If you think about it, many of the project management tools pitched at web design businesses are very much focussed on tasks. Way too much detail - and the whole project management things just gets way too hard.

So I have found a solution that is surprisingly low-tech:

A whiteboard.

Yep - that's it. It happens to be a magnetic whiteboard though. So here's what I do.

1. The whiteboard is divided up into columns - with each column representing a milestone. "Received Content"... "Design Approved"...  I have about 7 stages I think from memory (I'm writing this from home) but there's no magic number. Divide your workflow into milestones you can tick off.


2. Each project is represented by a little piece of paper with some essential details. And it's held to the whiteboard with an amazing piece of technology called a magnet. When you have received the content, move it into the next column!

This overcame a couple of problems:

1. Software wants you to enter due dates for everything, whereas in reality a lot of when something gets finished depends on the client. So due dates regularly got missed, and planning went out the window. The whiteboard has no dates.


2. It's quite easy to stand back and see any bottlenecks on your process. Got a lot of projects sitting in stage x? Why? Then do something about moving some of those along.

That's about it. Check the whiteboard once or twice a week with your team and get progress on where everything is at, and what projects can be moved to the next column.

This does not address the question of the detail though. What actually needs to be done during each stage of development? And how do you know when it's done?

Ah, well that's a topic for another post...

Adding ringtones to your iPhone

You'd think that with thousands of songs on your iPhone, making a ringtone out of one of them would be simple. Yes? No.

Found a post that almost explained it all here - but it didn't quite work for me. I didn't have an option to convert to AAC! Then I found another post here that helped me figure out why.

So here's the trick:

1. Go to your Import Settings in iTunes (they are in different places depending on Mac or PC). If it's not already, set it to import files as AAC.


2. Locate the track you want to use in iTunes. Many songs start out a little quiet - which is no good for a ringtone - so play the track and write down the times where the ringtone should start and finish.


3. Right-click the track and click Get Info. On the Options tab mark the start time and then end time for your ringtone. Click OK.


4. Right-click the track again and choose Create AAC Version. (This won't be there if your import settings are set to MP3.) This will create a new track based on the times you have entered, in the same folder as the other track.


5. Right-click the track again and choose Show in Finder (Or Show in Explorer).


6. Locate the new file and change the filename so it ends in .m4r instead of .m4a


7. Double-click that file and iTunes should then import it as a ringtone, not a normal track.


8. Go to the settings in your iPhone and the new ringtone should t=be there under the Custom heading (after you have synced it of course!)

Phew! But it saves buying ringtones for songs you already own!

iTunes 8

I was prompted to update iTunes today, but little did I realise what was in store!



A new feature called Genius looks at your tracks and can suggest playlists based up any track in your library that you select. And the Genius Sidebar links off to iTunes Store where you can purchase other tracks by the same artists that you don't have, as well as other related suggestions.

It's optional, but I think it's a nice addition. Of course, I expect it's sending info about the tracks you play off to Apple, so if you're concerned about that then it's probably not for you.

Telstra Offers iPhone

If there aren't already enough iPhone posts running around the blogosphere already, I thought I'd add my own.

Hooray! Australia gets the new 3G iPhone!

Bummer... only Optus and Vodaphone announced they'd carry it. Which is no good for those of us not living in a capital city – as Telstra is the only carrier that really offers decent coverage. Sure, the others are represented, but their coverage just isn’t the same as Telstra’s.

So any chance I had of possibly getting an iPhone hinged upon an announcement from Telstra.

And today I discover some good news!

Of course, we don’t know pricing yet, but the normal thing to happen in Australia is for carriers to subsidise the initial cost of the phone in exchange for a contract (typically 24 months).

So as long as the plan isn’t ridiculously expensive, roll on Jull 11! Fingers crossed!

Energizer Software Gotcha

I had a bit of a rant recently about the software that comes with some new USB Charger packs.

Well, not I feel like a bit of a goose... It actually installs as a Dashboard Widget! Found it totally by accident... but there it is!

Ah well...

Engergizer Software Low on Batteries

Purchased a nifty little USB charger yesterday that charges a couple of batteries - you guessed it - straight from the computer's USB port.

Cool!

It even has software you can download so you can keep an eye on the charge level on screen.

Cooler!



Except do you think it will install for me?

I download the Mac - Intel version, expanded the folder, and ran the install program. At the end it wanted to restart the Macbook (that sounds a lot like something that Windows wants to do) so I did. But alas, there's nothing there!

Nothing in Applications. Nothing in Spotlight (apart from what I downloaded). Nothing in Quicksilver. Nada. Zip. Zero.

I thought that maybe plugging the unit it will launch something? Nope.

So I installed something, but I dunno where it is, or how to open it. Hmmm.

Anyone managed to successfully install this software? Does it work?

Video Conferencing with Messenger

Video conferencing with Windows Live Messenger was always a great way to keep in touch with family spread far and wide. It was a bit of a pain hooking up the webcam though, so it didn't really happen as often as it should.

So my new Macbook has a built-in webcam. Handy! Time to get back to using video.

Except everyone I know uses Windows Live Messenger.

I had Adium installed - a great little IM (Instant Messaging) program that you can use to type notes to people with Live Messenger (among others). But no video.

So I tried Yahoo Messenger. Yep, it has video. Yep, you can message people using Live Messenger. But you can't video conference with people using Live messenger. Sigh.

Microsoft even make a version of Messenger for the Mac. But would you guess? No video!

It was actually while writing this post that i found aMSN - a Live messenger clone that actually supports video! So instead of signing off this post with despair, I have a glimmer of hope. About to download it and try it out now...

New MacBook

Well, the bug bit.

Having to share the iMac became too much. My new MacBook arrived today!

It's a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of RAM, with OSX Leopard (10.5).

And of course, it has the cool little Apple logo that lights up on the lid when it's on, too!

One of the things I miss the most is the old right-click - but I'm pleased to say that's been taken care of on this new machine.

Go to System Preferences and choose Keyboard & Mouse. You'll see this:

The bit that says "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click" basically lets you tap the trackpad with 2 fingers for a right-click. Easy!

And the 2 finger scrolling is pretty cool too. That saves trying to line the mouse up on the scrollbars.

Now, back to playing,,,!