Switching to ExpressionEngine 2.0

The desicion

I’m moving this blog to ExpressionEngine. I’ll be using EE 2.0, which just came out about a month ago. I’ve had a personal license for quite some time and I’ve decided to use it and explore what it’s got in store.

Is there something wrong with WordPress?

Absolutely not. I’m 100% sure that it’s the best blogging platform available. It rocks and I love it.

So why ExpressionEngine?

Well I use ExpressionEngine daily at work. About 95% of the sites we do are on EE. I haven’t had the time to play with version 2.0 and I want to get the hang of it.

I love EE’s templating system and I’m looking forward to creating a blog “theme” in EE.

So for now, thank you WordPress. Hello EE.

January 20th, 2010

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Music for sleeping

I love Slaapwel Records. They publish music to make you fall asleep. It’s just a beauty.

January 4th, 2010

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Sticking with LaunchBar

To the LaunchBar vs Quicksilver debate I’ve got an answer: I’m sticking with LaunchBar.

During the last 3 years I’ve used Quicksilver, LaunchBar 4, Google Quick Search Box and now LaunchBar 5.

Right after I got my Mac people started suggesting I use Quicksilver and sure enough I fell in love with it. I had never had a power tool like it when I used Windows and it changed the way I used computers. The idea of having everything just a keystroke away was great.

After some months passed I stumbled in a blog somewhere the suggestion of using LaunchBar (I think it was this post in Alex King’s blog). So I tried it out and was amazed at how fast it was. Then GQS launched and I tried that for some months. It was OK, and it was from Google, but after a while I had to admit I was not enjoying it as I had enjoyed Quicksilver or LaunchBar.

I went back to Quicksilver stuck with it. I was just used to it.

After I upgraded to Snow Leopard I discovered I had to update my Quicksilver with a beta update that was released. During those frustrating days of issues with Snow Leopard I remembered LaunchBar and downloaded the new and improved version 5.

Shit was it good! I had forgotten how fast it was. If you’re a Quicksilver user you might ask yourself “What do you mean fast? Quicksilver’s fast”. No it’s not once you’ve tried LaunchBar. It’s lightning fast. There’s no delay either in launching after invoking it, no delay in searching and basically no delay in anything.

So here’s what you’ll get from it:

Speed. Compared to GQS and Quicksilver it’s fast as hell. Anything you can do anywhere else, LaunchBar will do faster.

Great Indexing. I don’t care how they do it but LaunchBar seems to get indexing just right. I’ve never stumbled with the issue of not being able to find the file I’m looking for. I remember using Quicksilver that I had to develop searching skills. Not here. I just works.

Clipboard history. I know Quicksilver has a clipboard plugin. I used it. But LaunchBar has a built-in clipboard manager that rocks. I created custom shortcuts and I can invoke both my complete clipboard history or an instant insertion of a recent clipboard item. (One thing I wish though, is being able to hold more than 40 history items, which is LaunchBar’s maximum).

Quitting, Selecting and Launching Apps. LaunchBar doesn’t just let you launch an app quickly. It’s got shortcuts to easily move from one app to the other, selecting the one you want (just as with Command-Tab) and will also let you quit an app right from the running apps list.

That’s not all it’s got. It’s got tons of features, but these are the most I’m enjoying lately.

Give yourself a treat. At least try it. It’s better than the rest.

(Oh and I’m not affiliated with the guys at Obdev. It would be cool though, I’d probably have a bit more cash.)

December 26th, 2009

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TaskPaper and the Pomodoro Technique

Pomodoro and TaskPaperI’ve been practicing the Pomodoro Technique for about 1 month now. It’s been an incredibly useful tool for me. It’s brought about changes on many levels. One of which is the kind of To-Do lists I create.

I’ve loved the GTD methodology since I found it 2 years ago. I’ve used many of the most popular GTD apps. Many. I’ve used OmniFocus, Check Off, Things, Hit List and Actiontastic (which dooesn’t seem to be in development anymore). But with the Pomodoro Technique things have changed as well as the apps I really need.

In The Pomodoro Technique all tasks have to be worked on (regardless of how many minutes they will take, how much you want to actually work on them or what context they belong to). They are all important. There is less of the “tagging and setting contexs” of a task. You decide which task (in a broader sense, not a next action) is most important to work on at the moment and just start working on it. You just start your timer and get to work. All tasks become level. There is less bullshit about the task choosing and more work happening.

So with this change in perspective I started wishing for a simpler place to write down lists of tasks (when I need them!). In comes TaskPaper.

TaskPaper is drop dead simple. It’s a freaking list of things to do! But don’t be fooled by simplicity. In simplicity is power (which is at the core of the Pomodoro Technique).

In TaskPaper you define a project name, write down some tasks under it, and just scratch them as done when you’re finished. It’s just like what you do when you grab a piece of paper and write down what you want to get at the grocery store. You get the items and scratch them one by one.

Sure, it’s got notes and tagging, but you’ll see that’s not what’s important in TaskPaper. TaskPaper is all about lists and getting things done.

So if you’re planning on getting the job done without having to watch 4 screencasts to learn your favorite GTD app, give TaskPaper a try, it might be what you’re looking for. And if you already practice the Pomodoro Technique it may be a good option for you too.

December 2nd, 2009

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How to hire a programmer

A great post on how Aaron Swartz hires programmers. I love the way it’s written and I love the approach.

December 1st, 2009

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Browser Testing in 2009

A great article written by Andy Clarke on how he handles browser testing for the sites he makes.

I like the fact that he relies on educating the client to cover his ass about older browsers. I just lived hell myself a few weeks ago when a project practically came to a halt due to my client telling me he was using IE6. It was my mistake not having discussed browser issues with him.

December 1st, 2009

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Transforming an image —Acorn gets it right

I’ve been integrating Acorn into my work-flow for about two months now. (Acorn is an image editor of OS X —an alternative to Photoshop or Fireworks). I’ve been using it for cropping images, creating transparent pngs, optimizing jpgs and basically any “small” task that would require me to open up the gigantic monster called Photoshop. (And we all know that just launching Photoshop means the task is not “small” anymore).

So here’s something that has had me in awe for a few weeks. When in Acorn you select Command-Shift-T, to transform an image, the default behavior of Acorn is to “Constrain Proportions”. Instead of holding the Shift key, which is what you have to do in Photoshop/Fireworks/Pixelmator/etc, you can just transform the image to it’s desired size.

I love this! I mean honestly, when was the last time you had to transform an image without holding the shift key? I bet you haven’t done that in years! Making it the default behavior seems to me a “small” detail that shows how smart new software can be. It just takes a developer that can forget the competition and observe what’s really needed.

I’ve probably wasted years of my life pressing that damned Shift key.

Note: I’m using the 2.2 Beta versions of Acorn. You can get it here.

November 29th, 2009

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Social web applications? Anyone can do it.

Advertising Age Digital just posted about the announcement of the Forrester Groundswell Awards. They have awarded successful and groundbreaking social web apps. The list of entries and winners is great. And according to Josh Bernoff the most important lesson to learn is this: anyone can do it.

October 29th, 2009

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Editing the default WordPress Search Form

Most WordPress themes come with their own HTML markup for it’s search form. But sometimes you just don’t know where the hell the code is coming from.

Let’s say you drag the Search widget to your Dynamic Sidebar but want to change the text of the search button. Well here’s what you gotta do:

  1. Look for a file in your theme directory called searchform.php
  2. If you find it, edit it.
  3. If you don’t find it, create a file called searchform.php in your theme directory and paste the following default code:
 <form id="searchform" method="get" action="/index.php">
      <div>
         <input type="text" name="s" id="s" size="15" /><br />
         <input type="submit" value="Search" />
      </div>
     </form>

Now you’re ready to edit your default Search Form.

October 13th, 2009

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Web designer’s dilemma. Getting rid of Adobe.

There’s a growing wish in the web designer community to get rid of Adobe products and find some kind of Photoshop / Fireworks / Illustrator replacement. Why replace Adobe with something else? Well everyone knows the answer to that: Adobe products are bloated and big. They have too many features that no one cares about. They make your computer crash.

Are there any alternatives right now? Well. Yes and No.

For the Mac there are a few names being mentioned. Acorn, Pixelmator and Opacity.

Of these I’ve used Pixelmator and Acorn.

Pixelmator seems to be the one that’s pretty much ahead in the game. But the last version of Pixelmator seemed to me to export bad quality images for web. And it has this annoying bug that messes up layers’ positions when you do Crop, Save Image, and then go back to the original image.

That’s the thing that’s annoying. Pixelmator could have gotten it right almost a year ago, but they don’t focus enough on what web designers need. Their aim seems to be too broad. It’s an almighty “image editor” —which is just what made Photoshop a piece of shit.

I’ve only been using Acorn for a week and I’m really liking it. It draws vector shapes with pixel precision, has optional stroke and curved corners. It’s lightweight and super fast. One major problem is that it flattens PSD files when it opens them. (Pixelmator is way ahead in that area).

The great thing about Acorn is that Flying Meat, the developer, seems to be focusing on getting the web designer community the tool they need. I’m praying that they make it.

The problem I’m facing? When you work with a team it would take one hell of an app to make people ditch their favorite tools. I’m sure this is a problem for a lot of people too.

So let’s wait and see who wins. I’m sure that whomever can deliver an app that can replace Adobe Fireworks will end up making millions of bucks. I just want to be happy making sites.

Further reading:

October 13th, 2009

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