Where to start

I’ve been struggling through the process of re-designing my own site for quite some time now. I know it sounds strange. I can spend all the time I want, incorporate anything I desire, and have it look any way I could possibly imagine. How can I go wrong with that?!

Therein was the problem: unlimited possibility.

Examples of the issue

Pretend for a moment that you’re a talented movie producer and you’ve got an unlimited budget, a flexible schedule and all the greatest actors begging to work for you. With so much talent and potential handed to you, you might think that you’ve got a successful movie pretty much in the bag already. On the other hand, you could come up with a movie like Spiderman 3 or Pearl Harbor.

Ok, erase all that. You’re still a talented movie producer, but you’ve got almost no budget, a short timetable and one great actor. With more constraints, you’ve gotta get creative. A great movie doesn’t sound so easy all of a sudden. Primer was a very good movie made for $7,000 but some more famous examples would be the first Rocky movie, Mad Max or even The Blair Witch Project.

First steps

I soon realized that without constraints, there was no way I was ever going to get anything done. So I went about setting some up.

Identify your priorities

What do you want to have on your site? Is it going to be for work and business relations or is it for your Russian nesting doll collection? The more specific and detailed your priorities list is, the quicker you can get to finding a solution. Remember that this isn’t cast in stone. You can add features at a later date. We’re primarily interested in getting the ball rolling here.

Identify your assets

This is more about identifying what you’ve currently got in terms of media and content than it is about future planning. Again, you’re taking stock of what you got now. Leave provisions for future additions, but don’t let them stop you from getting things started.

Set a time limit

Time limits keep you from pursuing too many wild ideas and gives you a deadline to shoot for. Be reasonable with your deadline. I try to define mine in hours rather than a date in the future.

Incorporate something new

Try to incorporate one new technology, language, or principle. But only one thing. Focusing on learning one new thing will keep you focused on that task. Also, if you’ve set a time limit for yourself, you won’t have time to immerse yourself in multiple new ideas.

How I attained my goals

I’ve got a blog (which you’re reading), a twitter account and a flickr account that I wanted tied into one page that would be a sort of summary for my online presence. I knew I was going to be utilizing the RSS feeds from each of these sites, so I researched and found a PHP solution called SimplePie that allowed me to import my RSS feeds. I then gave myself two hours to sketch, mock up, and prepare the layout and another hour for the CSS. The SimplePie setup went a lot smoother than I anticipated and in no time, I had a site up and running.

Did it look exactly the way I wanted it to? No. But it was about 90% of the way there which is about 75% closer than it has ever been in the past. By giving myself some guidelines and a target, I was able to get something done.

Apple has recently filed more patents on some even more ridiculous multi-touch technology. I’m all for progress, but there are certain things that, in my mind, we will always need physical buttons and switches for; typing documents on a computer with any hope of efficiency and re-setting a frozen computer. Multi-touch also brings about another whole new problem… learning the gestures. Keys have a label, we know that they do one function. Multi-touch touchpads on your laptop are unintuitive as you cannot see yourself interacting with the object, the one instance where multi-touch belongs, on screen.

Some of the patents filed have described “haptic” feedback in their patented multi-touch keyboard. Apple already has haptic feedback implemented on some of their products and you probably didn’t even know it, The Apple Mighty Mouse. The switching mechanism in the mouse doesn’t make any noise when you use the scroll wheel. There is a small speaker in the mouse itself that simulates the sound of the ball scrolling. You’ve been duped.

I’ve had enough of hearing about their brilliant human interaction design. There is no magic there folks, just some good ole’ common sense. Some people have their qualms with the way things are laid out, but on the whole its hard to argue with something that MAKES SENSE. Honestly, why do I have to click Start to Shut down my computer? Lets be clear here, I’m not saying Windows doesn’t have a thought out and intuitive layout, unintuitive layouts are the domain of Linux (flamebait?).

And while I’m pissing and moaning… Before you all go off and get bent on the MacBook Air, think about a few things for me will you? No replaceable battery, one USB port, no optical drive, no 3G. This device clearly wasn’t designed for road warriors, it was designed to be a fashion accessory and a design exercise and nothing more. I want that point to be quite clear. Think that the Air is more than that? Prove it.

No, that hasn’t changed. I still hate iPods. The Zune never changed the world and it all came back to the same reason: DRM.

Today I digitally purchased music without DRM. This is the day I never thought would come. Mark it on your calendars.

In case you didn’t know Amazon has been selling MP3’s without any DRM or other wonky “gotcha” schemes. They have a fairly large catalog, but its nowhere near as extensive as iTunes. Who fucking cares about iTunes? The MP3’s are high quality, 256kbps, with album art included. The only snag I had was I tried to download them at work on a computer running OSX 10.3 and the downloader tool only supports 10.4+ so I wound up purchasing tracks one at a time. The beauty? I put them on my new Iriver Clix2, my Mac at work, my HTPC and my laptop. No burning to CD, ripping, copying pasting, syncing or any other horse shit.

I’m actually so blown away that I can’t even believe its legal. I still feel like I’ve stolen something. Try it now. If you don’t, you’re letting yourself and the world down.

This is how it should have been done YEARS AGO. BRAVO Amazon. BRA-VO.

1. Don’t Lie- Specifically to yourself. You are the most important thing in your life. It doesn’t go any other way. Telling a lie to protect the feelings of somebody else only makes it harder to live with yourself. If/when that other person finds out they have been lead along, they too will feel upset and confused as to why they were lead to believe in something that wasn’t true.
2. Speak- Start the conversation, even if you have nothing to say. Get your thoughts out so that you can analyze them. This works hand-in-hand with listening.
3. Listen- Acknowledge what others are saying. Recognize others feelings as well as beliefs. You may be surprised to find out that there are more people that feel the same way you do. Do not close the doors of the mind. Listen to yourself. Your words may be more telling than you think.
4. Respect- Yourself. The whole you. Abusing your body is nothing more than punishing yourself. What have you done wrong to deserve this self punishment? Take care of what you have. You weren’t born with spare parts. Respect others for their views and their opinions as well as their choices. Do not let opposing views get under your skin.
5. Move on- Learn from what has happened in the past. Dwelling on this will not get you anywhere. I have a quote that sums this up very succinctly:
   “The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
   Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
   Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
   Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it”-Omar Khayyam
6. Set Goals- High ones. You are more capable than you realize. It is easy to settle, but it is far more satisfying to work for something and earn it. Failure to attain lofty goals should not be seen as your downfall. Be proud of the work you put in.
7. Love- Love what you do, who you work with, your hobby, your pets, yourself.

I will be updating this and refining it as the week progresses. I hope that you get something out of it. If not, let it be a reinforcement to what you already know. Oh, and last but certainly not least, my un-official number 8. Smile.

Scientific American