I wrote a wee post for the Refresh Aberdeen Open Mic blog - listing some of the webby events I'm looking forward to. 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Dearest php

We've been together forever. We've had some great times. But we've been spending less time together recently. Especially in the evenings. When it counts.

I need us to stay friends and keep things professional - but it's time you knew. I've been seeing Ruby. We haven't even shipped yet. But I've a feeling we will.

It's not me, it's you.

I used to love your bloated hacky dirty ways, but recently I feel drawn to clean, predictable, elegance. In many ways you now disgust me.

Call it maturity or call it a mid life crisis. It feels real, so it is real.

So yes. That's why MAMP got taken off the MBP - it was messing with ruby accessing MySQL and I couldn't commit the time to getting to the bottom of the conflict. I'm not a syasadmin!

Let's stay friends. For the kids.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Using twitter as a route to channel data to other apps is something I've played with for a while. 

Back in 2009 I knocked up a wee site to turn tweets into charts - mainly to document coffee overconsumption and cycling mediocrity - some examples here. (I haven't kept the ever changing twitter API stuff up to date, so it's not consuming new tweets, or allowing new sign ups any more.)

The downside of using datatoy was that I looked somewhat mental and self obsessed to my followers. "bikerun 21 km" and "coffee 1 nero triple latte" are hardly classic tweets.

It was like the Path sleep/wake nonsense.

I'm now playing with things like Arduino, Twine and odd toothbrush APIs  - and I really want to feed some of the data from these through twitter. Routing through twitter opens up options for easily processing through sites like ifttt.com, and lets me watch the stream of data in one place if I want to. 

But this would create a lot of junk tweets. Junk tweets really annoy people. And really annoyed people sometimes kill. I don't want to be killed. 

I could create a new twitter account just for these tweets, but that's a bit faily. There has to be a better way.

#self

A standard marker like #self at the end of the tweet would allow clients to filter out all these auto tweets. So followers see a nice clean twitter feed, the tweeter has the convenience of a single twitter account, and the auto tweets can follow a nice clean path. A lot of clients have mute filters. Adding #self kills these tweets immediately.  

So my examples above become "bikerun 21 km #self" and "coffee 1 nero triple latte #self". 

Wider adoption of this principle beyond twitter could make the Path wake/sleep option useful again. I love the feature, but I don't want to flood everyones stream with my boring sleep tracking. Applying a #self tag would allow others to easily ignore that message. 

If I want to use runkeeper, track my blood pressure through a sensor, or hook my wireless bathroom scales to my twitter, or monitor the quality of my toothbrushing - I just apply the #self tag.

Then when I want to process the data I just hook up to my tweets mentioning #self.

The tweets are still public, and can be viewed like any other when not filtered out. So 3rd party sites don't need full auth to just consume my feed and do stuff with my data - produce visualisations, summaries, reactions.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The wee lads love eating toothpaste and chewing the toothbrush. They need some serious cajoling to actually brush properly though. To be fair Robin is a bit young, but Dugald is in the zone for proper brushing. So I backed this on kickstarter:

This looks like a fun way to make toothbrushing competitive. And nothing motivates the wee lad like a bit of competition.

And it has an API. So when this arrives - my son's toothbrush will have an API. We are living in the future people. We are living in the future. A toothbrush - with an API. And an iPhone app. Who needs a flying car when your toothbrush has an API.

I'm already kicking about ideas for an Arduino thingummy that watches the data feed from the toothbrush and does something in the real world when he hits two minutes. Like start a clock that shows how long since he brushed. 

There's more from the guy behind this thing here - worth a watch. 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

In the middle of January I got a chest infection - not uncommon in a Scottish winter I'm sure - but it thumped me hard. A week later I had to give in and take some time off work. It had turned into pneumonia and all my energy, focus and enthusiasm vapourised.

After a couple of failed attempts, we eventually found the antibiotics that would sort me out, and I pretty quickly came back to life. But not before I'd essentially lost 2 or 3 weeks use of my brain.

I'm now working through my notebooks, todos, evernote, book pile, email etc... getting everything stacked up in my brain again to pick up where I left off a month ago. It's flooding back in pretty quickly, but the written notes are amazingly useful during the process.

I'm really glad I'm a note taker.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I had the longest Christmas break ever in 2011. 25 straight days away from the desk. It would have been way too long were it not for the fun to be had from my 3 1/2 year old having his first proper Christmas where he 'gets it'.

A side effect of the break was a return to filling notebooks with ideas, building little side project tools in the evening, and generally creating stuff in a way I haven't done for some time.

So what drove this?

I have a creative job. I design things. I build things. I solve problems, or at least delve into and define problems. Every day. My brain obviously has a drive to do this - so during the break it directed the energy at other problems.

And, in the few weeks before the break I'd been to Build and to the Northern Lights conferences. Both were inspiring. Both got the brain working. Summed up by one wee line in the build talk from  @wilsonminer: "You know what we get to do when we leave here? We get to make things."

But I think there's something more.

Looking at my behaviour over the period there was a huge drop in my consumption of media. I spend a couple of hours a day commuting, and spend almost all of that time listening to (mainly) tech / business / science podcasts. A fair chunk of my evening will be spent working or listening to podcasts, reading books, touring kickstarter, keeping up on hacker news etc...  

It's a guess, but I think that some creative drive is partly satisfied simply by the knowing that other people are out there creating. By listening to smart people talk about the smart things they did, my brain gets a little hit of innovation, and relaxes. The urgency to make stuff disipates because so much stuff is already being made.

Like when serial killers watch Steven Seagal movies and then just stay in on an evening.

So I'm experimenting with keeping my head stuck in the sand. Or at least one ear in the sand. Instead of listening to tech podcasts during my commute I'm listening to some Miles Davis and toying with ideas on the iPad or in a notebook. I'm avoiding wasting my 'hands free' time just listening. I can listen to TWIST while I cook!

So far it's proving to be fun. The proof will, however, be in the shipiting!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Last year I bought and read more books about web, design, code and innovation than I have for a while. Here is a list of a few of the more useful, interesting, inspiring or just downright helpful of those. For no greater reason than the fact that it's useful to have a list to point people at. 

I hope the reading in 2012 is as rich.

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning

Thinking about thinking is one of the things I've been thinking about recently. This book takes thinking about thinking to new levels - and should be compulsory reading for anyone who thinks for a living. Which is most of us. I think. I wish I'd read it sooner.

8faces

I'm a developer turned solution architect who 'gets' design in an abstract kind of way but I'm trying to dig in deeper and build a stronger design foundation. 8faces has really helped me take design seriously by treating design thinking seriously. It's also a lovely thing to have kicking around the house.

Lean Startup

Measure. Measure. Measure. The big lessons from this has really shifted my opinions as to what constitutes a successful project. It's not about delivering on time, on budget, with a happy client (although that all counts). It's about tracking the right numbers, and making sure that the charts go up and to the right. And making sure that everyone knows which numbers we're tracking, why, and what they need to do to influence them. Easily forgotten.

Understanding Comics

The talk from Scott McCloud at Build 2011 was entertaining, interesting and thought provoking. I ordered the book during the talk (amazon one click is amazing isn't it). I swallowed it whole - a great visual communication baseline. 

Ogilvy on Advertising

I've worked in marketing companies for years and never read any Ogilvy. Amazing how many of the basic principles are 100% applicable to the new world of online advertising. Not bad for a book from '83.

A Book Apart

A publisher, not a book I know. They all got bought and read though, and there's not really a stinker among them. I bought the first few on paper, but have the digital copies for the rest because I found I either had the hard copy at my desk and needed it at home, or vice versa. Continuing the a list apart genius of publishing relatively timeless stuff relating to the fast moving world of the internet. Can't wait for the next one by Mike_FTW.

Stewart Lee - How I escaped my certain fate

Oddly enough, this fits the 'thinking about thinking' thing really well. I picked it up being a Stewart Lee fanboy - it's basically three standup shows annotated as though they were Shakespear. Which sounds awful. But gives some great insights into how he thinks about how he thinks about comedy. It's also funny.

Rework

37Signals bombastic absolutist superior lecturing slap around the head for the mediocre. I find it hard to disagree with any of it - but that doesn't mean that it's all easy to apply in real life... I'd love to give every client a copy of this.

Business Model Generation

A fun framework for thrashing out business models. At work we use a lot of processes - often boiling tonnes of work down to a simple diagram. This book uses a similar approach, hugely interesting to see the layers and layers of detail applied by such a diverse range of experts to one process.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

For the last year and a bit I've been a big fan of, and occassional contributor to, the Mighty Meetup here in Aberdeen. I've even got a bit grumpy about it from time to time. Before the Mighty Meetup there really wasn't a natural offline home for the web community in town. Ian and the guys at Deer Digital did a cracking job in generating interest and giving the community a home.

In November last year I came back from the Build Conference wanting to get more involved in organising and steering the activities around town. I sounded out a few other regulars at the MM and the feeling was quite generally shared - that more of us would like to contribute to the organisation and running of events - not just the participation.

We wanted to create aswell as consume. Not unusual for web folk huh!

So on Wednesday, at the last Mighty Meetup, I announced the start of Refresh Aberdeen. Feedback on the evening, and since, has been tremendously positive, welcoming, and enthusiastic. Ian and the other Mighty Meetup folk are all on board, and we have a good head of steam already.

We're already discussing meetups, talks, events and hack days - and even the possibility of a code retreat in the city.

Exciting times.

It's great to see an idea which I sketched out on the flight back from Belfast in the middle of November turn into a live project within a couple of months.

Me making the announcement on Wednesday night.
Photo credit to Kyle Saric

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Soul, 6:30 for 7, evening of the 7th December. They do an excellent burger. It'll be smashing. Bring your paddles and drysuits. 

If you've never been to soul its here and we'll be somewhere round the side of the bar. 

If you haven't confirmed already I'd appreciate it if you could tweet / email me / comment below or just tweet with the #rafting hashtag that you're coming along - it'll let me confirm final numbers with the venue.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Ladies and Gentlemen. The proposed Festive Rafting is almost upon us. I need to confirm some numbers and get something properly booked up for the evening of the 7th December. So - shout from the desktops and round up the nerds. Tweet me or comment below to yay or nay your attendance.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Eeless makes it easy to implement {LESS} CSS in your expression engine templates without having to rely on browser side compilation of your style.less into style.css.

It's an early doors expression engine module I wrote to let me play with LESS within my usual EE workflow. It still needs some (a lot) work; but it's on github for you to take, modify, criticise and be mean to. Feedback / Testers 100% welcome. You'll also find Eeless on devot-ee.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

As a quick follow up to this post, following the summer break the Aberdeen Mighty Meetup returns on 14th September. This time around my employer, Fifth Ring, are supporting the eats and drinks.

With any luck other agencies and companies around town will follow that lead and help support the event. Hint hint.

See you on the 14th.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The DIBI videos are up. They're all worth a look - but that's a weekend killer - so I'd suggest these 3 are the ones I've thought about most since the event and are worth pulling to the front of your list:

Kevin Mann - nice guy did stuff, doing it again, loads of interesting stuff in here.

Jeremy Keith - content first. devices or viewports. I won't repeat his prefered title for the talk here, my mum might read it.

Corey Donohoe - tools tools tools - watch this and tell me you don't want to work at github!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Friday 19th August 2011

12:30

Kilau Coffee on Little Belmont Street

#rafting + #meatismurdermonth = #veggierafting

#RAFTING with a twist. Normally rafting involves a collection of geeks / nerds gathering for the consumption of large burgers at the Globe while discussing web, tech and the '80s music collection of a certain rafter. In support of the @mcaulay obsession with #meatismurdermonth we are going veggie for the day. Depending on the success this may be a one time thing - or we might all be hardcore vegans by Christmas.

Nerds welcome. Seriously. We're totally inclusive. As long as you have a klout score north of 30!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I really enjoyed DIBI this week. Some really inspirational talks from some leading thinkers and practitioners in the web. Some great discussion with peers from across Europe and the US. I met some webslebs. Drank some guinness. Had my first ever RedBull.

A major topic at the after-events was the availability of meetups and tech events in everyones local area. Talking to people from across the UK, it was clear that the kind of meetups which we take for granted in 2011 Aberdeen are not available everywhere. Niche user groups are relatively common, but the kind of 'general web' focussed events like the Mighty Meetup is unusual anywhere. 

So it was disappointing to hear that the turnout for the Mighty Meetup was so low last week.

I felt an urge to urge everyone to come along. So, if you earn your living from the web, do me a favour.

This is a focal point for our industry in Aberdeen. Once a month, make the effort, show face, have a chat, learn some stuff and have some snacks / beer.

If the format / location / timing doesn't work for you - tell @iansted about it. He's a lovely guy, he'll listen. But come along, let's make it work for everyone. 

It strikes me that Aberdeen has an opportunity to build a real web community to the benefit of all. The Mighty Meetup has a really stupid name - but it has real potential to help bond the community together and raise everyones game.

During the DIBI keynote last week, @zeldman painted the most beautiful picture of a mobile strategy for A List Apart. The 'wow' moment for me was when he described 'drinking coffee in a strange city and hitting a button to see where all the nearby geeks are who might want to talk responsive design'.

That's not ready yet - but all the Aberdeen geeks should be at the Mighty Meetup. 2nd Wednesday of the Month.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Some legacy sites bring tears to the eyes.

Right now I'm making some changes to an old site for a client. A very old site. It's rough. It's written in an outdated language, with an outdated structure, quirky templating mechanism and various layers of functions. It's scheduled for replacement, but needs a minor change in the interim.

I feel like the work experience girl that loves animals, and gets to work at the vets for a week.

She skips along the road that Monday morning. Turns up with dreams of giving vitamin drips to puppies and watching them scamper off to their loving owners. Fully expecting to have a day full of rollercoaster emotions always ending in happyness and fluffy cuddles. Maybe rolf will turn up. Maybe she'll get a heart of gold award for resuscitating a badger! Within 5 years she'll have her own series on BBC 3 giving celebs tips on keeping their Daschunds breath fresh.

Instead she gets handed the rubber gloves and sent to the owl suffocating room.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The only problem with the excellent Hardboiled Web Design by Andy Clarke is the lack of an index. Nothing makes me less likely to grab a book for a quick lookup than a lack of an index - and it's a great book for lookups. So I pulled one together this evening while listening to Radio 4 - how civilised. I've posted the markdown, ODT and PDF on github - please fork and improve it, it's just a start. Print A4 and trim to fit! 

Update - we're official :)

hardboildedindex.pdf Download this file

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

IMG_1257.MOV Watch on Posterous

Sent from my iPhone

Permalink | Leave a comment  »