Another day, another trend. Or anyway, that's how it seems, right? We see styles come and go and history often repeats itself or borrows from itself. Graphic design is no exception. Take, for example, the current "flat UI" trend sweeping across websites and mobile apps. It bears a striking resemblance to the "color blocking" trend appearing in fashion design for the past few years.

In a lot of ways, flat UI design harkens back to the simple colors and shapes, the clean lines, the simple yet striking (do we dare say pretty) typography, and the rigid use of grid structures that were the standard of the Swiss design style in the 1950s.

That movement was credited with making things easy to read and understand --it intended to strip away any sort of subjectivism around the message and simply present the message itself. Sound familiar?

This weather app skin was described by a commenter as "So fresh and so clean clean."

The great skeuomorphism rebellion

Flat UI is a rebellion against the skeuomorphism that has dominated design trends for the past few years -- the use of leather textures and ripped paper in the iPhone's Contacts app, the Markerfelt font and yellow lined paper in the Notes app, and the insistence that every button on the internet have 10px rounded corners and glossy gradient shading.

All of that seems to be disappearing, and mostly for the better. Rumor has it that the next version of the iOS operating system will look a lot more like the Windows Phone and a lot less like the rolodexes and day planners of a bygone era. 

Skeuomorphism isn't all bad though. If the flat trend pushes too hard we may end up in a place where we can't tell just what we're supposed to click on anymore, or we may end up in a world where every website and app looks exactly the same, and that would be just plain boring!

Brooklyn-based Oak Studios utilizes clean space and a flat UI for its company site.

The next big thing

I welcome the move away from trying to make digital things look exactly like the analog things they are replacing, but as with every trend I think it is best to take it in strides and not abandon everything else in favor of it, because who knows what the next big thing will be in a year?

Maybe those 3D buttons will be cool again in a couple years when everyone is sick of "flat" design. 

Love it? Hate it? How do you feel about “flat” design?

A driver in England, one @EmmaWay20 tweeted (though has since deleted her account) the following:

"Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier -- I have right of way, he doesn't even pay road tax. #bloodycyclists"

It's funny -- in the way that getting away with murder is hilarious. She hit a real biker, who luckily wasn't seriously harmed, and left the scene, somehow feeling in the right. Though we don't have road tax here in the United States per se, each state requires car owners to pay registration fees, and truckers pay hefty higway taxes for their hefty vehicles. Does that mean that cyclists (many of whom probably also own cars) shouldn't have a right to use roads? Seems a bit preposterous, and ipayroadtax.com and @cyclehatred do a great job collecting info and tweets on such anti-bicycling attitudes.

Luckily, someone noticed Emma Way's tweet and called her to task on her hit and run. That someone? The Norwich Police.

Yelp's making it rain.

They say there's no such thing as bad publicity, but I think there's definitely bad publicity. Take, for example, Amy's Baking Company.

Scottsdale, Ariz. based Amy's Baking Company was recently featured on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares  and there's been a lot of backlash. A lot.

This was the first time Ramsay ever walked away without helping a restaurant. Plenty of viewers took to Facebook and Yelp to complain about the food and the dreadful service. And of course, the trolls descended, as they are wont to do.

While the episode of Kitchen Nightmares made it clear that the owners, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, weren't very good at taking criticism, the way that they responded to the online backlash is essentially a perfect example of what NOT to do on social media.

Bad publicity can get worse

There's no way that the Bouzaglos could really come across favorably after the episode, but this kind of drama literally fuels the Internet. Reddit is hooked up to it intravenously. And trolls feed upon it and scatter ill will like corpses.

Imagine having your normally quiet Facebook and Yelp pages transformed into a hate-fest, and having all your questionable business practices and possible dirty laundry aired – that would be extremely upsetting. And when you struggle to take criticism in normal situations, well this sort of epic critique-fest can only lead to implosion.

Say you find yourself embroiled in the middle of something nasty like this. You can't take back what happened, so the best thing you can do is to move forward, apologetically and as amicably as possible. But if you'd like to implode, then by all means do the following.

1. Don't take responsibility and definitely don't apologize

Many of the Yelp and Facebook comments focused on how poorly the restaurant staff were treated in the episode, particularly the managers' policy on taking tips from the servers. Other posters started commenting on how Amy's sells repackaged cakes, and then all hell broke loose.

Instead of sacking up and saying something like, "Kitchen Nightmares didn't show us in the best light. We know. It's difficult to take criticism on something we care about so much, but we'll do our best to make positive changes. We're taking your feedback and concerns seriously and are working to rectify the situation. Thank you for sticking by us, and we hope that you'll continue to visit us as we grow into a better business."

I guess this works too.

2. Feed the trolls

As the trolls swooped onto Amy's Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro Facebook page, someone, presumably Amy, yelled back, IN ALL CAPS.

A defensive response is like chum for the circling sharks, fresh meat for the vultures. And while trolling can sometimes bring about positive results (say, bringing to light unfair business practices), the means are always about making people angry. And if you're so angry that you TYPE IN ALL CAPS, then mission accomplished.

Instead of posting an apology, and ignoring the comments or informing users that they'll be closing down comments for a little bit while they get their business in order, the Bouzaglos attacked back: angrily, rudely, threateningly, horribly.

3. Make threats and tell people to get off your page

Oh yeah, that's another big no-no. When you're the target of the Wrath of Reddit, it may be tempting to say terrible things or threaten legal action or cry slander/libel. 

This only makes you look bad, because threats of violence are not protected speech under the First Amendment. But criticism, comments, parody and jokes are.

And if you've got a Facebook or a Yelp page, that's Internet public property. So that whole, "let's fight" mentality? Yeah, that'll only make things worse for you. Unless of course that's what you want. And as evidenced by the episode of Kitchen Nightmares and past run-ins with bad reviews, that's exactly what they want.

4. Lie, lie, lie

But if all else fails, and it will, maybe give lying a go. And, since you're not taking responsibility for anything at this point, what does it matter?

"Obviously our Facebook, YELP, Twitter and Website have been hacked," said a post signed Amy & Samy, "We are working with the local authorities as well as the FBI computer crimes unit to ensure this does not happen again. We did not post those horrible things.”

It's highly unlikely that such a thing occurred, and making up things like "the FBI computer crimes unit," only fuels the trolling. So let's continue down the path of no return, shall we?

5. Shut down and delete evidence

Now things are coming to a head. You don't like where things are going at this point, and you really shouldn't. Luckily the "hackers" have left you access to the account so you can remove all the negative comments. In fact, they've also let you delete all the embarrassing negative things you said. No more evidence. Problem solved. 

I mean, as long as no one took screen grabs, or checked their caches. Which no one does ever. Right?

Maybe you should just shut down the whole thing and start a new "clean" account. That'll work. Right?

Right?

And there you have it. Follow these tips and you'll be sure to implode in no time. Meltdown complete.

There are a growing number of resources to teach kids how to code. And with good reason - it's not only awesome, it's a critical skill. But instead of just focusing on computer languages, Tynker aims to teach kids how to think like a programmer.

Tynker teaches conceptual logic to kids through games and basic animations - with different levels and narratives for different age groups. Though currently only available for schools, a home edition should be available in the coming months.

Yelp is an amazing tool for attracting new customers and reaching out to your regulars. If your business is on Yelp (and we highly recommend that you get on there), you can add a Yelp badge to your website.

This simple tutorial from Jimdo will run you through all the steps you need to get on Yelp and get that HTML badge on your site.

For some reason Newt Gingrich is "really puzzled" about what to call a cellphone that "can get Wikipedia or go to Google." He recognizes that these "handheld computers" hold great potential for networking and staying in touch on-the-go, but apparently has never heard the term "smartphone."

If not a "cellphone" or a "smartphone," then what?

What *should* we call this device that's "something new and different?"

(Via BoingBoing)

We all want higher web conversions and buttons that people actually click, right? After all, that’s what a website is all about – getting a user to take a desired action: buying a product, requesting a demo, making a donation, sharing your articles, becoming a customer. 

This week, I’ve gathered some articles about how to get better web conversions – utilizing design, buttons, content and layout.

Five ways to increase web conversions with design

Do you know the Gutenberg rule? Even if you don't know it by that name, you’re already following it as you’re reading this. And designers, you probably do it subconsciously when designing for the “flow.” The Gutenberg rule (also sometimes called the Gutenberg diagram) if you haven’t already guessed, is the way our eyes view a page from top left to bottom right.

This article has five key points to help you maximize website conversions through better design, including "Eliminate the Paradox of Choice" and "Follow the Gutenberg Rule.”

Posted May 13, 2013 on HTML Goodies

The science of buttons: how to get people to click

Words, size, color, placement. 

This article outlines the four key design elements that will help you create buttons that people will actually click. This is a well-written, general button overview – an intro to Clicking 101, if you will.

Posted April 30, 2013 on SpeckyBoy

Call to action buttons: the ultimate guide on which ones convert and why

Now that you understand the basics of designing clickable buttons – large, contrasting color, and simple action words – we can move on.

This article digs into specific tweaks you can make to maximize button-click conversions, including things like providing ample white space, adding icons to buttons, differentiating the size between primary and secondary calls to action. The best part is all the visual examples – you can see high-conversion buttons in action on lots of websites you currently use.

Posted April 18th, 2013 on Visual Website Optimizer

Increase engagement with four easy tests

Is bigger better?

When it comes to increased user engagement, yes, bigger body copy size is better. This article covers four easy ways to adjust your page layout so it doesn’t look like a boring textbook, and helps your site gets lower bounce rates, meaning more time on your site. Check out the article for the rest of the tests you can set up to increase conversions.

Posted May 9th, 2013, on Search Engine Land

71 things to A/B test

Need more ideas on how to improve your website conversions? This article lists 71 things to test on your site to add to find out what provides the best conversions.

From serious tips: “Buy Now? Purchase? Checkout? Add to Cart? Change the call-to-action (CTA) text on your buttons to see which word or phrase converts more visitors.” To the not so serious ones: “Try stripping the content off of your entire page. Replace it with a ‘Click Here for Free Beer!’ button.”

Some of these suggestions may make you laugh, but hopefully, they’ll get you thinking creatively about ways to optimize your website calls to action.

Posted April 30th, 2013 on the Optimizely Blog

I like keeping my stuff online. To a point. I like the idea of storage and software and applications online. You know, the whole Cloud thing.

I'm all about keeping it simple. I hate boxes. Forget DVDs, I'm all about Netflix. I got tired of lugging books everywhere I moved so I made the transiton over to Kindle. I use Dropbox and Passpack on an almost daily basis to save storage space both on my computer and in my brain. I save photos via Facebook and Instagram, and save interesting things to do with Mason jars on Pinterest, (instead of like, using a scrapbook). I love being online and love the idea of storing things online.

But as more companies and products are shifting their focus towards putting everything on "the Cloud," I'm starting to think, Whoa Nelly. Hold up. I'm just not ready for that kind of commitment.

There's a lot I like about keeping stuff in the Cloud. But there's also a lot that hasn't really been sorted out yet. Which makes me reluctant to take all my stuff and my money into the Cloud.

Internet connections

My biggest fear in putting everything online is ohmygodwhatiftheInternetgoesdown. I mean sure, the Internet is ubiquitous. But sometimes it goes down and sometimes it's not available. I've been overall pretty impressed with how easy it is to find an Internet connection while traveling, using Boingo, Skype and coffee shop WiFi connections.

But I'm still wary.

If I rely too much on keeping my stuff online, I'm afraid that at some point I'm going to panic when the Internet's down. What if I don't have a data connection and/or I'm in the middle of nowhere?

Cost 

I've thought about signing up for Apple's cloud services. I like the idea of syncing songs to my iPhone without having to plug it into my computer. I'm lazy, OK? Plus, I don't have a lot of room on said iPhone, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to just sort of recall one of the videos I have in iTunes -- without having to store it on my phone. Cloud services to the rescue?

Except, I'm not really sure I want to shell out $24.99 for it.

Oh, and don't get me started about Adobe. It's bad enough the prices they charge for the tangible software package that is Creative Suite. But something about $49.99 a month for a cloud-based application just seems wrong. Maybe Creative Cloud will actually wind up being cheaper in the long run, what with all their constant updates. But the issue I have is that it doesn't feel like I'll ever actually own the program - I'll just get to pay for the privilege of using it. Which actually brings me to my last cloud issue.

Ownership and tangibility

When it comes to the cloud, what exactly do you own? I mean, we learned that we can't will our iTunes collections when we die thanks to Bruce Willis. And we also don't really own our Kindle content either. Remember that time Amazon erased all those copies of 1984?

And our other data? I'm never really quite sure.

I'd like some tangible ownership here. Just a little. Maybe the best solution is to keep copies of everything you put on the Cloud -- data you can access online when it's available, and offline the rest of the time? 

And I'm not totally sold on software subscriptions either, but maybe that's because they just don't seem cost effective yet.

I'd like to take it all to the Cloud -- but maybe in like a year or two when it's a little better.

What do you store on the Cloud? What do you like to keep off-line and in your hands?

In the Internet there is art. And art is in the eye of the beholder according to some guy. With the advent of Web 2.0, sites and apps have been created to make everyone’s life easier, except for real writers. It’s been worse for us. “I’m a real writer because I have a blog.” No, you’re not, dude. Because you don’t have an editor.

This week, we’re looking at sites and apps and things that inspire the artist in all of us.

1. @DentonPolice proves information is art. And hilarious.

Denton is a city in north Texas. And @DentonPolice is an unofficial Twitter feed of all the arrests that occur in said city, including mug shots, age, charges and, in some instances, if there was fine/bail. But more importantly, @DentonPolice is fascinating and shows that there is still so much potential for creation online.

It was created by a University of North Texas art photography student to show how much public information is posted onto the Internet. At first I thought this was a fake Twitter feed spun wild until I realized there’s no way someone could have photographed that many people and created such intricate cases. I mean, I suppose it’s possible, but look at those forlorn faces! These are clearly people arrested, some for “DEADLY CONDUCT.”

@DentonPolice draws attention to just how much information is online. Like, mugshots for example.

2. Prinstagram your photos

In the Internet age we are all writers. We are all philosophers. We are all barely passable photographers.

Sometimes “barely passable” isn’t actually so terrible, and you wind up with a picture that elicits some solid comments, retweets and Facebook shares and you think to yourself: I’m the next Ansel Adams, I need to print this sucker. That’s when you turn to Printsagram. With Printsagram, you can pick your favorite moody photo of a tree in winter and print it with your very own, photo-quality printer. You don’t have a photo-quality printer, you say? Hey man, they can’t do everything for you.

Print those tasty pictures of Instagramed dinners past.

3. Stereotypes are stupid, but sometimes creative

Stereotypes are pretty stupid. Especially when they’re biting, unnecessary social commentaries based on single interactions. But sometimes, stereotypes can lead to the creation of a website that tries to tell you about yourself based on the music you like. 

Stereotype.fm is just that site. Pick a band or artist you like (nothing obscure though because nobody listens to obscure music), type it in and learn new and baseline things about yourself! Most of which is so preposterous I can’t even stand it. Yet, I'm oddly compelled to see what kind of music it thinks I'll like and what kind of person it thinks I am based on my affinity for Gregorian chants.

“Michael Bublé fans are more likely to be scared of spiders.” Really? You can't peg me Stereotype.fm.

Sterotype.fm claims to be able to tell what kind of person someone is, by the type of music he or she prefers.

4. The future of comics

The future of comics is obviously digital. It's been talked about it for years now with little action, but two new projects have surfaced that finally take full advantage of the digital platform: Panel Syndicate and Thrillbent.

Panel Syndicate is the home of the first issue of the new original graphic novel by much-lauded writer Bryan K. Vaughan and artist Marcos Martin. Now, right off the bat you’re thinking what makes this different and special? And I say to you they’re using a “name your price” business model, are DRM free AND they’re exploring the wide screen format in ways that most digital comics have only dreamed of.

Thrillbent is a site created by writer/editor Mark Waid and television writer/producer John Rogers for writers and artists that want to do something different. They’re not simply trying to venture into digital comics, they dove in completely.Thrillbent's motion comics, simply animated panels and form-bending layouts are so far ahead of the rest of the industry that many have accused them of trying to “kill print”.

I say, print is fine for some, but digital is for the masses.

Thrillbent is pushing the boundaries of traditional comics by including animated panels and form-bending layouts.

5. Design Taxi is all things design-y

If you’re designy and are looking for a place to show off your skills, or if you're like me and just like looking at cool designs, check out Design Taxi. Design Taxi is a place that showcases the work of tastemakers and influencers - amazing, ground-altering work that Canada probably wouldn’t understand (come on Canada, get with the program). It’s the cutting edge of the cutting edge, perfect for people looking to find or create the next big trend.

Design Taxi is the cutting edge of the cutting edge when it comes to design trends.

That’s all folks. See you next time!

Online Broken Link Checker does exactly what you think it would do. It checks for broken and dead links.

Enter the URL you want checked, and it shows you all the problematic links and where the problem likes in your HTML. The free version has a limit of 3000 pages, so be prepared to pay if you've got more.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificates are a means of encrypting information sent from a server to a client's computer and from a client's computer back to the server. 

If you’ve ever built an online store, collected any sort of personal payment information from a client through a website, or ever needed to meet PCI Compliance requirements – you've probably worked with them before.

Once your systems are configured and running properly under an SSL, you’ll rarely have to think about or deal with it. But getting your server configured under SSL in the first place can be a tricky endeavor, especially given the fact that there are multiple types of SSLs that you can purchase. It’s important to note that each type of SSL serves a specific purpose, so making the right selection for your site is very important.

Let’s take a look at the four most common SSL certificates on the market, and walk through what each one does. These include:

Traditional Certificates (Single Domain Certificate)

The traditional certificate is what you will encounter on the vast majority of sites. This certificate encrypts and protects data transmissions for a single domain. It is important to note that with a Traditional SSL Certificate, many certificate issuers will require that you enter a “Common Name” for your domain. This means that you will either need to enter www.yourdomain.com  or simply yourdomain.com.

Why is this important?  Well, in terms of an SSL, www.yourdomain.com is not the same as yourdomain.com.  So, if your website is configured to allow both www and non-www URLs, the only URL one that will render the site under HTTPS will be the one you specified under the “Common Name” setting.

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule and many of the larger Certificate Authorities are now allowing both www and non-www URLs to render under the Traditional Certificate – but don’t assume this is always the case.

Wildcard Certificates

The Wildcard SSL Certificate takes the Traditional Certificate to the next level. As mentioned above, the Traditional SSL Certificate allows you to encrypt data transmissions for a single domain, more specifically, a single domain under a specific Common Name. 

Within the Wildcard, your limitations are expanded to include subdomains for a specified domain, under a given common name.

Now, don't forget about the common name concept. If you decide to go the route of the Wildcard Certificate, when you specify the common name, keep in mind that the name you specify as the common name will become the “base name” used for the certificate, and you will need to include the full common name in your URL before the site renders under HTTPS.

Let me show you what I mean.

Say you purchased a Wildcard SSL and you specified your common name as: www.yourdomain.com

Your Wildcard Certificate will now encrypt data transmissions for all requests made to:

But, it won't work for:

On the other hand, if you purchased a Wildcard SSL and you specified the common name as yourdomain.com then:

These would work:

And these would not work:

See the difference and the potential problem you could run into here?

Now, you’ve probably realized that if you just purchased a Wildcard SSL Certificate, you could get around the whole www versus non-www issue inherent with some of the Certificate Authorities. And yes, you are correct – you could. 

Why wouldn't people just use the Wildcard Certificate by default then? As with most things, it comes down to cost. The Traditional SSL Certificate is typically cheaper than the Wildcard Certificate.

Shared Certificates

Shared SSL Certificates are typically encountered in a shared hosting environment. Many services like BlueHost (my favorite when it comes to shared hosting services) offer their clients free access to their Shared SSL Certificate, as long as they have a hosting package with them. 

The advantage of the Shared SSL is that you won’t need to have a dedicated IP Address to use it.  Depending on your host, a dedicated IP will have to be purchased, which ultimately could increase the overall cost of securing a site.

As with all "free" things, there are some limitations and/or quirks associated with a shared SSL Certificate. For example, with BlueHost, in order to render your site under the shared certificate, you have to use the following URL: https://secure.bluehost.com/~username/. While this may be okay for some sites, I personally think the URL looks a little tacky – especially for a commercial site.

Multi-Domain Certificates

The Multi-Domain Certificate is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. With a Multi-Domain certificate, you can secure multiple domains within one, single certificate. 

Of course, there are some "gotchas" here. First and foremost, with a Multi-Domain Certificate, you are typically capped out at a specific number of domains. So, although you will be able to secure multiple domains with one certificate, you won't be able to secure an infinite number of domains under it.

Secondly, unless otherwise stated by the Certificate Authority you are purchasing the Multi-Domain Certificate from, subdomains would be considered another domain. So, if you set one of your common names to yourdomain.com, and you wanted to also secure blog.yourdomain.com, you would need to add blog.yourdomain.com as another domain name under the certificate.

What types of SSL Certificates do you prefer?

Rifle Paper Co. is fantastic.

They've got awesome stationery, cards, and journals. And now they even have iPhone cases. Could they get any better? Probably. But right now, I'm totally loving these designs!

Tapgram is a social service that helps people who can't otherwise express themselves do just that - express themselves.

Instead of writing or typing out responses, users can tap on large icons that represent moods and can tap more to up the level of severity. Users can choose from a variety of moods including happy, sad, mischievous, and groovy. Though still a bit rough around the edges, Tapgram seems like an excellent way to help people with communication restrictions share what's really going on - and share it on social media for loved ones to keep track. And that is pretty groovy.

Wish you knew a thing or two before you started down your career path? Ever wonder what it’s really like to be a manager? Wouldn’t it have been great if someone could have sat you down and said, “Look, forget the fluffy stuff and platitudes, here’s what people won’t tell you about what it’s like working or managing.”

This week I’ve collected a series of “Things I wish I knew before I [fill in the blank].”

5 things I wish I knew before becoming an employee and employer

“There is shit work at every level of an organization.”

I finally figured this out. Not even designers with six figures get to design what they want all day, every day. Jenny Poondingo shares this and other insights into what she wished she knew before becoming an employee and then an employer.

Posted May 6, 2013 on Poondingo - ladybot entrepreneur

What I wish I knew before I started my business

This article features interviews with three different folks from Down Under. It's refreshing to know that around the world, entrepreneurs run into the same kinds of snags and issues – you are not alone!

Real quotes from real people.

Posted April 19, 2013 on The Age: My Small Business

5 awesome resources for college entrepreneurs (that I wish I knew about when I was in college)

“One of the biggest lies about college is that the only thing you can do there is prime yourself to go get a cubicle career at some big company.”

If you're still in college, this is for you. But it’s also applicable for recent grads and young professionals. Tips include getting involved with Meetups and finding professors/mentors who actually care about entrepreneurship – and yes, there are some.

Posted April 6, 2013 on Decoding Startups

I wish I knew

Shanley’s article on Medium (a delightful platform), aptly titled, “I Wish I Knew,” is full of a kind of honesty that you don't often hear when it comes to careers.

The post reveals a few things the author wished she knew when she started her career in tech and includes non-standard gems such as “Reliable is better than brilliant.” and “Burn bridges. It will be fine.”

Really, it will be.

Posted April 29, 2013 on Medium

Things Come Apart is everything, deconstructed.

Photographer Todd McLellan takes apart iconic designs and presents them in an oddly compelling form. From new technologies like the iPad to old beauties like a grand piano, every component is broken down and carefully arranged.

The days of submitting a form and having to scroll back after the page reloads are gone.

Whether with jQuery’s native asynchronous $.ajax handler or Malsup’s jQuery Form Plugin, this is relatively simple to implement. Streamlining and making user experience more efficient is key to keeping users on your site. A great way to implement this within ExpressionEngine, is with Safecracker entries.

I recently wrote an article on Bringing Matrix into Safecracker on the front-end, and the examples below will build from this, but are also general enough to be applied to just about anywhere. Do keep in mind that when working with ExpressionEngine, many of the challenges are geared toward EE’s hidden form inputs or saving Matrix data.

Matrix data submission

With Matrix, until the data is submitted, each row is named ‘field_name[row_new_x][col_id_x]’. Once submitted, this changes to ‘field_name[row_id_{row_id}][col_id_x]’. At this point everything is set and values are stored – there are no conflicts because each row now has a row ID.

When submitting by Ajax, I prefer to load the saved rows from requested data so that I can update the rows on the page and work in a conflict-free environment.
Keep in mind that when adding a row count ID with incrementing clicks and submitting without refreshing the updated rows – a risk of overwriting existing data can arise.

General validation

I generally like to include validation rules in Safecraker as backup, and validate mainly with jQuery on the front-end. Oddball errors do sometimes occur with EE, however, so it’s good to build in a method of checking whether EE is throwing an error page.

I check the Ajax data with .match() to look for occurrences of “Error.” This only works if the Safecracker parameter of “error_handling” is not set to “inline,” because this is checking against the user messages template that has “Error” in the title. If you want to have inline error handling, you could check your error container with .length.

The example below shows this in context:

success: function(data) {
   if (submitData.match(/Error/)) {
     // an error exists     
   } else {
     // no errors - good to go    
   }
}

Extended identifications

The last thing to note when submitting Safecracker form updates with Ajax is remembering that EE forms have an XID (a secure hash ID) for Spam prevention and cross-site requests – as an added measure of security.

So, you will need to refresh that XID after each form submission. It should be noted that this 40-character string is generated and logged into the database before being sent to the form; so generating a string via JavaScript won’t cut it. With jQuery’s $.get method this is simple enough.

And with this method, we would have something like:

$.get(url, function(returnData) {
   var newXID = $(returnData).find('.ajax_save input[name="XID"]').val(),
   form.find('input[name="XID"]').val(newXID);
});

Now let’s put it all together. Add the class “ajax_save” to previous Safecracker and Matrix examples to end up with one of the following, depending on whether or not you are using the jQuery form plugin:

/* jQuery Form Plugin
---------------------------------*/
$('.ajax_save').submit(function(){
   var url = window.location.pathname,
       form = $(this),
       load = $('.fields');
   var options = {
      success: function(submitData) {
         // if 'error' is matched in EE message template
         if (submitData.match(/Error/)) {
            var errors = $(submitData).find('ul').html();
            // show errors below form
            $('.fields').after('<ul class="form_errors">'+errors+'</ul>');
         } else {
            $.get(url, function(returnData) {
               var newXID = $(returnData).find('.ajax_save input[name="XID"]').val(),
                   newData = $(returnData).find('.fields').html();
               // replace XID with new one
               form.find('input[name="XID"]').val(newXID);
               // load updated matrix rows
               load.html(newData);
            });
            $('.form_errors').remove();
         }
      }
   }
   $(this).ajaxSubmit(options);
   return false;
});

/* jQuery $.ajax Method
---------------------------------*/
$('.ajax_save').submit(function(){
   var formData = $(this).serialize(),
       url = window.location.pathname,
       form = $(this),
       load = $('.fields');
   $.ajax({
      url : url,
      type : "POST",
      data : formData,
      success : function(submitData) {
         if (submitData.match(/Error/)) {
            var errors = $(submitData).find('ul').html();
            $('.fields').after('<ul class="form_errors">'+errors+'</ul>');
         } else {
            $.get(url, function(returnData) {
               var newXID = $(returnData).find('.ajax_save input[name="XID"]').val(),
                   newData = $(returnData).find('.fields').html();
               form.find('input[name="XID"]').val(newXID);
               load.html(newData);
            });
            $('.form_errors').remove();
         }
      }
   });
   return false;
});

And there you have it, Safecracker entry editing and Ajax.

How do you use Ajax with Safecracker to make a better user experience?

Let's say you go to a party. It’s a great party with people, food, dancing and maybe a sheep named Lionel. Everyone talks about how epic it was, how many great photos and moments were captured by so many different people, but not everybody has access to the photos.

Sure, you could share photos using iPhoto when you get home, if everyone’s using a Mac or just post all the pictures to Facebook with a link that says, “Have at it.” Or, you could use Albumatic to create an album of the party that everyone can contribute to - while they're at the party. Lets just do that, shall we?

Share, contribute to and follow your friends' albums with Albumatic.

Albums with friends

Albumatic is simple: someone creates an album in Albumatic for an event or day, lots of people take pictures, people add the pictures to the album and everyone in your friends list has access to them. It’s actually surprising that such an app doesn’t already exist or that someone like Apple or Facebook hasn’t bought or stolen the idea. (I’d say “developed” it themselves, but let's be honest here, Facebook doesn’t really “create” so much as buy and add to its ever expanding…mess.)

Now, a lot of people are going to say “David, what about the people who take pictures with a camera and not their phone?” To that I say: Really? That doesn’t happen anymore, grandpa. And then we’d talk about your elegant beard and the good old days where everyone used flash cubes.

Anyway, old man, let's talk about what else this app boasts. Well, it’s your basic social media setting with comments, a heart, and the ability to “flag as inappropriate.” You can share with friends nearby, or "watch" albums from afar.

Let's integrate, shall we

The biggest problems with the app center around access. Which is to say, first, the idea that the app can currently only be accessed by iPhone users. This limits its usage and really the whole point of it is sharing it with all your friends. Even the ones who use Android.

Second, you can’t post the entirety of the album on any sites like Facebook or share individual snaps on Twitter or Instagram. That’s a huge drawback since it’s supposed to be all about sharing. Sure, people have the option of downloading pictures from each album and sharing with them onto their phones, but that’s just not enough. We need more sharing!

Albumatic, as it currently is, just doesn't seem fully-formed. There aren't quite enough features yet and it’s still proprietary. It definitely has the potential to become a well-known photo app, but it has to address those issues and forge even further ahead.

Do you think Albumatic has the potential to become a truly killer photo app?

I've been meaning to learn Spanish for awhile now. I took German in high school and college, and dabbled in Korean while living in Seoul. I love languages, but at the moment, I don't really have time to enroll in any formal classes and I don't want to shell out the cash for Rosetta Stone.

Language books are OK, but I don't really retain much. I'd like to watch more Spanish TV, but I need just a little more foundation. Enter Duolingo.

Duolingo is a free language learn resource and translation tool. Users can learn Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese, and many more languages are set to be added into the system.

How it works

I created an account, picked a language (Spanish), and started out with the basics.

Each lesson has a few tips to read about the vocabulary, articles, conjugation -- whatever it is you'll be learning. You can refer back to the tips at any time.

I just dove in.

The lessons include different approaches to learning the language -- things like identifying the correct vocab word with a picture, translating a word or phrase into Spanish, selecting the correct word from a dropdown menu, or listening and transcribing a word or phrase in Spanish.

It's oddly compelling. And there's plenty of tips and hints along the way to help you out.

Your progress is tracked and synced across both online and app platforms.

Learn through context, get points

A lot of the learning is guesswork -- guessing what makes sense and learning from the mistakes. But don't worry, if you don't have any idea, you can always "peek" without penalty. Those little hints help you figure out a new word, all within the context.

Sometimes you fail, but that's what learning is all about. You can always check for tips or hints, or even check the discussion. But you lose a heart each time you get an answer wrong, and when you run out of hearts you have to start the lesson over. Also it makes the cartoon owl cry. Es la vida.

But if you finish with some hearts left you get bonus points (yay).

I like the points system only because it's actually helped keep me accountable since I don't like "losing." The points look like coins, which is a ridiculous, but effective incentive for me. You also get extra skill points for signing in each day. I vaguely remember getting some emails about keeping "the owl happy" or something if I missed a day of practice, but that whole guilt angle doesn't really work. It's all about the coins.

There's an app for it

Want to practice on-the-go? You'd better bet there's an app for that. In addition to my semi-daily log-ins to the Duolingo website, I also use the iPhone app (there's also an Android version coming very soon). The app keeps track of your progress and syncs with the web version.

I actually like the app better than the website. Maybe because it just feels sleeker. You get the same process of learning new words and grammar structures through context, but with some other cool features like dragging and dropping words into the correct order, and speaking phrases into a microphone.

I was so nervous the first time I spoke into my phone, watching as it "graded" my speaking. But awesomely enough, it understood me just fine.

Don't worry, the Duolingo app is something you could practice on-the-go -- just use headphones so as not to bother other people around you when you're doing the listening execises. And you can skip the microphone until a time when it seems less crazy to say things like "Nosotras lemmas el diario" to your phone. Simply hit the "I can't use a microphone right now" button and you're good to go.

Oh, and don't forget to set up your phone's International keyboards so you can type in Spanish (or whatever language you're learning).

Duolingo utilizes different learning methods that help you figure out words and grammatical structures through context.

Social translation

There's also a social component. You can connect with other friends who are learning too and compete with them. Which is fine, but doesn't interest me.

What does interest me is the community translation features. Once you get to a certain level in your progress you can opt in to try translating real sentences from around the web. I've not made it that far, but according to some reviews, the translations are really hard and the interface is still a bit buggy.

I wouldn't mind sitting down with a Spanish-English dictionary and giving it a try sometime. I mean, there are some serious points to earn there.

Todo está bien

I love the process of learning through Duolingo because it feels very natural. I feel like I'm committing a lot more to memory than just vocabulary words. I feel like I'm learning the process of how the Spanish language works. Instead of just repeating phrases by rote, I'm learning how to speak a language.

And that my friends is fantástico.

Need a study buddy? Come find me!

Not too long ago, Twitter #Music became a reality. There was a lot of pre-release buzz around the site and app. Hell, I’ve been waiting for nearly a month now. All that hype, and Twitter Music is pretty much nothing new and pretty much disappointing. Although admittedly, it does look good.

Twitter Music is a site/app that allows users of Twitter to follow their favorite artists, get recommendations for new artists, see what people on Twitter are listening to and can integrate with Spotify or Rdio. You can listen to trending music (and buy it from iTunes), all in a slick interface.

Twitter Music helps you find new music and connect with your favorite artists...if you're into that sort of thing.

The way it all works is that if you want to listen to an artist’s music via Twitter Music, you have to follow them on Twitter. And do you know what that means? That means inane tweets.

I love me some Kanye. I’ve bought every album he’s put out, save the most recent whatever-the-hell-that-was, and usually ignore his self-aggrandizing. But now I have to follow him in order to listen to his Twitter Music tracks? This is a problem. I mean, have you seen what he tweets?

Last.fm, Spotify and Rdio still work, you know

I’ve been using Last.fm for over five years now to scrobble, post my top give artists of the week to Twitter, receive new album alerts and stalk what my friends are listening to. I’ve been using Spotify for over two years now and enjoy discovering music without feeling stalker-y. Twitter Music doesn’t offer me anything new. It does all the things that Last.fm, Spotify and Rdio do, but with the added annoyance of having to follow artists on Twitter.

I’m sure that plenty of people are looking for new and better ways of stalking their friend’s music.  And maybe there are some people who’d like to use Twitter Music as a go between for Spotify or Rdio  instead of Facebook. But for me, I see nothing but annoyance here.

Twitter Music is especially great for Twitter

The only thing that of any import I’ve read about Twitter Music that’s of any import was reported by Jennifer Van Grove over at Cnet. She points out that Twitter Music successfully expands the data Twitter garners from its users; thus, giving them even more information about their users’ musical taste. And better targeted ads sure as hell helps Twitter’s market share.

So, to that end, I suppose I should take a step back from all my hate and tip my hat to Twitter for finding another way to make money from my tweets.

Have you used Twitter Music?

At first it felt like a betrayal. I’ve had Android phones since phones got smart. Five years of loyalty in the world of tech gadgets – why that’s like 35 years in the real world (dog years and tech gadget years are the same, right?).

Much to my surprise, I decided to switch to an iPhone 5 last month.

I was this close to picking the Samsung Galaxy III. But I thought it was about time to give the iPhone a go. I work on a MacBook pro, and have had iPods for years. Why not go for the full Apple integration? Worst-case scenario, I’d only have to hate it for two years, right?

Well, I like it all right. But I still miss my Android.

While my iPhone is actually a telephone, I find that I so rarely use it to make calls. I basically use it for everything else. And such was the same with my various iterations of Android smartphones. I’ve had no problem with the phone services of either. Now when it comes to the little details, the apps, the interfaces, the music – that’s a whole other story.

1. Apps - Apple

Apple wins hands down in the apps race. Apps for iOS are numerous and sleek as all-get-out. Android is like the little brother running to catch up. Wait for meeee!

Everyone seems to design iOS apps first. If the apps take off on iPhone, then developers are ready to test it on the Android market. Take Instagram, for example. I had to wait what seemed like years (two, actually)  for it to come to Android. Nobody has that kind of time anymore!

And something about the apps on iPhones just looks…better.

Though to be fair, it's not always better in iOS appland. I’m going to have to wait for Google Keep to come to iOS. And let us not forget the debacle that was Apple Maps.

2. Ringtones - Android

The whole add ringtones via iTunes thing makes me very angry. When I first heard that that’s what I was supposed to do, I thought it was a joke.

Here's a conversation I had with my husband, David, a long-time iPhone owner:

“Can’t I just use some app and make ringtones on my phone?”

“Of course you can. But then you have to plug in your phone to your computer, then sync it on iTunes, then add the ringtones back to your phone.”

"So what you're really saying is I can't do that?"

“…”

3. Battery life - Apple

Well, at least having an iPhone is also like having an iPod.  Not so much with an Android phone. Sure, I could listen to music on it – if I only wanted my battery to last for three hours total. You know, down from its typical seven hours. 

It gets a little tiring trying to plan my day around whether or not my phone will be dead.  My last phone, an LG Optimus, even came with an extra battery. It was nice to be able to switch out dead batteries, sure. But that only worked if I remembered to charge my extra battery. And I only had one charging cable. Battery-life gradually became this delicate balancing act of charging and switching and planning.

With my iPhone I can wait a day, or even two! Now I don’t know what to do with all the free time I have now that I don't have to coordinate batteries.

4. Lock screen - Android

I know this is completely inconsequential, but it’s something that I truly miss about my Android phones: the lockscreens.

Hear me out.

I like the iPhone’s slide-to-unlock, insomuch as I don’t call someone from my pocket. But I like Android’s slide-in-a-pattern feature. It gave me the ability to create my own passcode, and it doesn’t involve me remembering numbers. Just a little wiggle of my finger.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference.

5. The “coolness” factor - Apple

Let's take the cool factor. I already feel ten times cooler than I ever felt with my LG Optimus – and I had a really sweet case.

There’s something about the branding, the lifestyle, the I’m-cooler-than-you-ness of Apple that’s hard to ignore. I’m cognitively aware of it and how preposterous it all is – and yet, here I am, feeling cooler.

A very cool traitor, indeed.

Nearly two years ago, Susan and Corey Snipes had their first child, Amelie. Prior to their daughter’s birth, Corey was the co-owner of a consulting business. With Amelie’s arrival, Corey chose to reevaluate his work setup and made some changes to improve his and his family’s life.

Corey took some time out of his schedule to chat with Meta Q about what it’s like to be a working parent.

“Amelie was definitely a motivation for me to take a really hard look at how I was spending my time, what I was earning and how much work I was putting in to earn my income,” he said. “It made me look at how happy I was with all the different areas of my life. And I really had to prioritize. I just didn’t want to be the unhappy dad who hates his job. I wanted to be the dad who was willing to make hard changes and structure his life in the way that he wanted it to be.”

MQ: What was your work schedule like before having a baby?

CS: I was working fifty to sixty hours a week. I was the co-owner of a consulting business, and we had a lot of projects and clients I was responsible for. I was getting pretty burned out. I decided before Amelie was born, I actually didn’t like the job I had created for myself. No evening or weekend was sacred. I was literally working all the time.

MQ: What was it like during maternity/paternity leave? How has it changed post-baby?

CS: I took about three weeks off entirely once Amelie was born and then started back at approximately ten hours a week and ramped up from there. Right now I work between twenty and thirty hours a week and vary rarely work weekends.

Weekdays are a pretty complicated set of handoffs between Susan, myself and our nanny. But we do have a schedule.

One other thing that is different now is I have set work hours, and I tend to stick to them. I had to rearrange a lot of stuff in my life to get to this point.

MQ: How else has it changed?

CS: I get to spend most of Tuesdays and Thursdays one-on-one with Amelie. She and I go to play dates, music class and kids’ activities. It’s really super fun, and it is a part of my week I value a lot. I try to work in a bunch of housework those days too.

Another change is I work from home most of the time. I have an office, but I am rarely in the office. I get to put that commute time back into family and work.

MQ: Has your job position or type of work changed since having a baby?

CS: Yes, drastically. Having Amelie was probably the biggest professional shift in my life since starting my own business in 2005.

I split up my consulting firm, and my partner took over most of the clients. I took a really hard look at the work I was doing and shed lots of projects that were either time or money sinks. I moved myself to more or less one project at a time developing and consulting, which was drastically different from what I was doing before.

I raised my billing rates a lot and was able to cut out a lot of ongoing expenses by splitting up the company.

These changes have allowed me to work twenty to thirty hours a week, instead of fifty to sixty. It was hard to pull the new setup together, but it is definitely a key piece of where I am now with my work/life balance.

Also, I am generally a lot more focused. I have found the greatest degree of happiness if I feel like I don’t have a lot of other external needs pulling me different directions from what I am doing in the moment.

MQ: What were your expectations about becoming a working parent, pre-baby? How have they changed after having a child?

CS: I didn’t have a lot of preconceived notions about how it was going to be. I just knew it would be really hard, and I needed to make some big changes. And all that turned out to be true.

Also I knew that having flexible work arrangements would be very important. Susan and I are very lucky in that we have a lot of say over how we spend our time. A lot of professions aren’t setup to support this flexibility. The location and time independence is pretty key, and it helps to work in a field where there is a lot of work too.

MQ: Tell us about a typical day in your life as a working parent.

CS: On my busy days, Mondays and Wednesdays, I get up at six, walk our dog and have coffee. While Susan and Amelie are getting ready, I work a little to prep for the day. Then I take Susan to work and drop Amelie off at the nanny’s house. I then come back home and start my day in earnest. I break generally midmorning to take a shower and eat breakfast and then work till about 1:30, when I go pick everybody up. Once back home, I work from 2:30-5:00. Then from about 5:00 to 8:30 we have dinner, family time and I walk our dog again. Once Amelie is in bed, I go back and work. This is sort of optional work time. It just depends on how much is going on. But by the end of the evening, I am totally wiped out.

Then Tuesday and Thursday I get to hang out with Amelie till mid afternoon, which is super fun. And on Fridays Amelie is with Susan, and I work kind of a normal day.  Usually I get out a little early in the afternoon, and I don’t work most weekends.

All said, it is a fairly fragile structure. We are all very interdependent. If there is trouble in our schedule, it tends to throw a lot of things into disarray. But it doesn’t happen that often. So we just deal with it.

MQ: How have you arranged your child care (daycare, nanny, work from home, etc)?

CS: We arranged it through a client of Susan’s. The client and Susan were both on a mailing list geared towards Denver moms. The client put up a post saying someone she had worked with and really liked as a doula was getting into the childcare business; and if anyone was looking for a nanny, they should get in touch. So Susan contacted the nanny, and we really liked her.

MQ: How would you arrange your childcare in an ideal world?

CS: I like how we have our childcare set up. Despite its fragility and feeling like I could always use a couple more hours in the week, it seems like a pretty good balance. I am able to get a lot of work done when I need to, and Susan feels the same. She and I both are able to be around Amelie a lot during the week. And since I get to spend a fair amount of time with my Amelie on Tuesdays and Thursdays (plus all the other family time when I am not working), it is a really good balance for me.

Also Amelie is learning a lot outside of us. We aren’t the only people raising our daughter. She is getting a bit more exposure to other people and other styles of learning.  Also her care is pretty individualized. It is either just Amelie or Amelie and one other kid at the nanny’s house.

MQ: How do you try to achieve a happy work-life balance?

CS: I try as much as I can to not overcommit on either side of the family/work equation so I can really focus on what I am doing. When I am with family or when I am at work, I try to set myself up so I don’t feel like I should be doing the other thing.

I have restructured my company and work life to support a really high degree of time and location independence and seek out clients who support these things as well. I have been really lucky. I was able to say, “This is how I want my professional life to be.” And I was able to make it happen.

Dumping my expenses and raising my hourly rate so that I can work less and earn the same amount was pretty key for me too.

MQ: What's one thing you wished someone had told you before you became a working parent?

CS: It was tough for me.  I don’t think I had a lot of surprises, but I did spend a lot of time feeling like I was inventing things for myself from scratch. It was really tough for me to find role models or people writing about being a part-time working dad. So much information is geared toward moms with a small but growing body of information for full-time stay-at-home dads.

MQ: Any other words of wisdom or thoughts you would pass along to other future working parents?

CS: Time is the most valuable commodity. Everything that I’ve done that contributes to me feeling like things are working or feeling happy with myself has been primarily about rearranging and maximizing my time and having location independence. The amount of time you are able to take out of things like commuting or hobbies you aren’t getting much out of and instead put towards family and work will go a long way towards happiness.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of telecommuting and working abroad.

Telecommuting has become the norm. For many people, working from home actually makes them more productive. Some people claim they’re less distracted at home, while others espouse the freedom to be home and take time to care for their children.

At the same time, the world continues to become flatter, as Thomas Friedman drilled into our heads in his 2007 book The World Is Flat, now in version 3.0. An Internet connection is all it takes to be connected to anyone, anywhere. We’re right on the cusp of the world embracing a global culture. 

Telecommuting, Gangnam Style

Last year I taught English as a Second Language in a private school in Seoul, South Korea. In my free time, I wrote articles for the Meta Q, which is based in Denver, Colorado. 

I was training the next generation of Korean students to speak English, an invaluable tool that helps them when they left their homes for colleges abroad, and began writing articles about the Internet and technology.

The secret world of visas

To teach English in Seoul I needed an E-2 visa.

While the process of gaining an E-2 visa (a visa that’s only for teaching, and only for a specific institution) in Seoul isn’t terribly difficult, it does require a lot of paperwork. And finding a job that will sponsor the visa and fill out said paperwork takes effort. 

Say I just wanted to live in Seoul? Well, I'd need a visa. Without a job to sponsor a visa, I could only stay in Korea for six months at a time. But if I wanted to get a visa to do anything other than teach in Korea – that would be a lot more difficult. Not impossible, but damn near close to it.

“Not impossible but damn near close to it,” is also a great way to describe the EU visa process for non-EU citizens.

The European Union has a program that allows citizens of the EU to live and work almost anywhere else in the EU – which is great – but is far more complicated if you come from a country not part of the EU.

You need to prove that you’re better qualified for a particular job than any other EU citizen. I understand this can be easy to prove if a company wants to cough up all the money it takes to sponsor your visa. But generally, this practice leaves many jobs unattainable for immigrants such as myself.

Finding a foreign company that will sponsor your visa isn’t easy. There’s a lot of paperwork and liability and numerous fees involved that many smaller businesses are simply unable to pay. So we have to think about the ways we can help countries achieve their goals more easily. And that all rests with a revamping of the visa process.

Gone are the days when people could just pack up and go to a new place, and find a job later. The limited movement from country to country forces people to find jobs before they leave, jobs that are willing to jump through bureaucratic hoops. But mainly it just forces people to stay where they are.

The future of immigrating and telecommuting

That’s where we are right now. Different countries with different visa processes leaving much to be desired and millions of people desperate to take jobs in different countries for various reasons. For me, the reason is adventure. For others, the economy in their country is in the toilet. Whatever the reason, the whole process needs to be revamped.

If Thomas Friedman is right – and he has assured us he is – then jobs that used to only be found in the US (and the UK and Canada) can now be found just about everywhere. There are tech start-ups and incubators in countries like Ireland, Germany, Kenya and Thailand, where they simply weren’t before.

New fields are opening in new countries all over the world. And countries who hope to create their own Silicon Valley can’t because they don’t have the work force to achieve it. Solving these problems require education and immigration, two things which are not mutually exclusive. 

We need to move from place to place, freely

While I’m sure there will be a lot of people/governments who will complain that opening the visa process up could but undue strain on their economies, I counter that it will actually strengthen the world economy.

The US is no longer a lone island, economically speaking. We’re inexorably tethered to economies all over the world.  Just as we all feel the pinch when countries like Greece circle the economic drain, when countries like India and China start to boom, the US, along with just about every other economy around the world benefits.

We’re all in this together, damnit.

Some will claim that opening things up will make immigration a nightmare. To that I respond that opening up the visa process will force countries to reorganize their desperately out-of-date governments anyway. Make it easier for people to live where they want to live, and to work where they want to work.

If the US is no longer the land of opportunity for everyone, then why can’t we create new opportunities elsewhere? This could be the kind of catalyst that could drive explosive growth in places like Jamaica or Uganda or even Mongolia. Perhaps all it takes to fix the world economy is recognition that we’re all connected. We need to remember that before we all go down the tubes.

That, or people will continue to work illegally, small businesses will fail to grow and big companies will keep looking for that next cheap place to outsource work.

I dream of a future where I can work from home -- anywhere I decide that my home should be.

Stand-up, sit-down, but whatever you do, don’t have a discussion!

At Q Digital Studio, we mix with a lot of development teams that are "agile" or practice "scrum methodology." We don't adhere to any strict methodology. Instead, we like to borrow ideas that sound good and then adapt them to our needs. One of these great ideas is the daily stand-up, aka the daily meeting.

We call our daily meeting the Daily Q (for Q Digital Studio.) We don't require standing up for the meeting, but we do aim for it to be short and sweet, ideally just five minutes. Our Daily Q is primarily a meeting about what our current tasks are and planning for what's next.

It's not a brainstorming or problem-solving meeting – those should not involve the whole team. (There is a time and place for brainstorming and problem solving, and it’s at a planned time, with an agenda and it only involves the necessary people.)

In addition to our Daily Q, we also have a once a week company meeting we call the Weekly Q. This is a more in-depth meeting, but we still keep it short so it doesn’t turn into a soapbox for any one person, or into a time-suck for any one project.

Our daily meeting rules

The idea behind the scrum/daily stand-up is for a team to meet every morning to discuss what they’re actively doing on a given project: specifically to outline what they accomplished the day before, what’s on the docket for their day and any issues impeding their work. It’s called a stand-up, because typically teams stand up so that no one gets too comfortable – this helps keep it short.

While we don’t do our daily meetings precisely this way, here are the guidelines for our daily morning meetings – the Daily Q.

1. Same time everyday.
We start our workday at 8 am officially. Our Daily Q is at 8:30, which theoretically gives everyone enough time to review emails, maybe knock out a small task or two, and make their to do list/plan for the day.

2. Same place.
We have our meetings in person for everyone in the office. And we Skype call anyone working out of the office that day.

3. Same people, same order.
Our daily meeting involves the entire team working that day, no matter what project or what location. (We have a flexible work environment, so not everyone works every weekday.) We each give our updates in the same order every day. If someone isn't there, we just move on to the next person.

4. Same focus.
The goal for the meeting is the same. The primary focus is what each person is working on for the day across any project, and whether we have any issues or need anything – either from someone else on the team or from a client. As team leader, I often help folks adjust priorities. The meeting helps us find out if we need to have additional meetings for specific projects/tasks, or follow-up with clients.

Why is a daily meeting so great?

On a small web team (ours is seven), it's nice to know what everyone is up to. We rarely all work on the same project, but we are often matched up into twos and threes on certain projects. It’s good for everyone to see each other face-to-face everyday.

We're a close-knit team and our daily meeting helps us function as a powerful cohesive unit. As team leader, I like to make sure no small tasks are forgotten, and priorities are kept in the right order. And because it's just a few minutes everyday, the meeting is not a big time sink – it's optimally targeted and useful.

What if… ?

What happens if someone isn't there or is late?
I have a tendency to wait 5 minutes, but if someone is later than that, we go ahead without them. We start on time about 90% of the time, and a few minutes late the rest of the time.

What happens if someone starts talking about something too detailed or off-topic?
We’ve been doing our Daily Q for about a year. At this point, it’s unusual for someone to get totally side-tracked. But if it starts to happen, someone will say, let's talk about it right after this meeting. No big deal, we just keep on target.

What if you need to talk about company-wide stuff for more than 5 minutes?
We do need to do this! We have a once a week meeting where we talk about what we're working on for the week, as well as bigger events/news, such as company holidays, new projects, etc. These meetings last around 15-20 minutes for our team of seven. In addition, we schedule brainstorming meetings, planning sessions and other meetings as needed from time-to-time.

To thine own self be true. And to thine own brand. People really hate phonies.

When tragedy rocks a locale, a country or even the world – is your social media manager prepared to act? In light of the recent events in Boston Mass., many a brand acquitted themselves equitably – others, not as much.

Keep in mind that there's no one-size-fits all response to a crisis. But however you decide to react should be in line with your branding and messaging. Besides, does anyone really want Whirlpool, Inc. praying for them? Sometimes silence is golden.

Have a plan.

Ask yourself the following:

• Do you see your brand as a reputable source of information for followers? Which kinds of information?
• Do you frequently engage with users or take a more passive stance?
• Are your tweets serious, playful, personal, or professional?

Once you understand where your brand fits into the grand scheme of things, then you can proceed. But do so with caution.

Take care not to come across as insensitive or out of touch during a crisis situation.

A crisis breaks out. What do you do?

First of all, as a social media manager, you need to be checking Twitter pretty regularly. You should be following some reputable news sources and should be aware of crises quickly.

1. Log in, and see how people are reacting, and "take the pulse" of the situation.
2. Re-evaluate your scheduled posts. Is something you have planned going to come across as rude, inconsequential, or insensitive? Consider deleting the posts or rescheduling for a later time.
3. Based on your brand identity, decide if it would make more sense to post your condolences or to just remain mum.
4. If you do choose to address the issue, make sure to do so in a way that makes sense for your brand. Whether that's a "We're thinking about you" tweet or  "We'll be taking a break from tweeting in light of current events" – do something that's in line with your messaging. 
5. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to piggyback on a #hashtag with self-promotion.
6. Don't feel as though you need to completely shut down operations. While shameless self-promotion is always shameless, it tends to stand out more when people's attentions are elsewhere. But the world keeps turning and you have to make money. By all means update your followers on new articles and upcoming events – just make sure to do it with care.
7. Follow up. Is there something meaningful you can add to the conversation in the aftermath? An analysis from your perspective, how your brand is helping the situation, or how your followers can get involved? Again, only do this if it makes sense for your brand.
8. Follow your gut. Do what feels right. Be honest, forthcoming, and most of all, be human.

Don't feel as though you have to stop everything work-related – just proceed with caution.

In your opinion, what brands handled the recent events in Boston appropriately? And which brands made you cringe?

I first heard about Mailbox as the “fast, fun mobile inbox that puts email in its place.” So I downloaded the app to get started. But you don’t get started immediately. Oh no. You’re put into a queue, given a reservation behind hundreds of thousands of people. That sounds like hyperbole, but it’s not.

So I waited three weeks.

It makes sense on one level why it took me so long to finally gain access to Mailbox. I mean, they’re using a cloud-based email structure, where instead of having emails hit your phone directly, they’re going to the cloud and securely transmitted to your phone. To free up the server space in their cloud takes some time, especially with the sheer number of people who seem to be using the app.

Soon enough I received notification that the app was ready for me. Finally. But then the real frustration began.

Gmail 2.0, perhaps?

Mailbox is an email app designed for people who favor the Gmail model of email. It allows users to look at emails on the fly, organize them easily and – the real selling point – decide when you’d like to actually deal with the email. Alerts and snooze and achieving are the name of the game and it’s clearly the kind of app for someone who receives emails frequently.

Mailbox is also the kind of app for people who are extremely well organized or have a desire to become better organized. I’m the kind of organized where I read and answer emails readily, many of which languish in my inbox for weeks or months.

Mailbox evangelism

I’ve spoken with several friends who use the app regularly. They swear by it, tweeting claims like “I am a @Mailbox evangelist. Changed the way I handled eMail. 1st change in my habits in 15 years. No malarkey.”

It was those kinds of testimonials that drove me to downloading the app in the first place, along with the slick design and promise to have all emails pushed immediately instead of having to us the Mail app on my iPhone.

Mailbox gives users the opportunity to "snooze" emails, add them to lists, archive them and delete them -- all in the name of a "zero inbox."

Clean, clear and under control

The email interface is clean and simple. The task bar has three buttons -- a clock, an inbox and a check mark, which correspond with: to do later, in queue, and done.

Swipe emails to the left gently (about half way), until the interface is yellow and you can “snooze” the messages. You can then specify just when you’d like to revisit them – later today, this evening, tomorrow, this weekend, next week, in a month, some day, and at a specific date of your choosing.

Swipe the email all the way from left to right and it lights up in sepia tones. Now you can send it to a designated list. The list options include "To Buy", "To Read", "To Watch," or you can create your own lists.

Swipe gently to the right and the interface turns green. This will send it to the archive. Swipe it all the way from right to left,  a red “X” appears and then email is deleted.

Once you've cleared everything from your inboxes, you're rewarded with the message "You're all done" and an image with the Mailbox logo.

You have 520 messages, in no particular order

Once I set Mailbox up I noticed pulsing message notifying me that I had 520 emails waiting, but I really didn’t. I’d read all those. But because they were still in my inbox, the app assumed that I was lazy or didn’t understand how email worked (maybe that’s true), so it suggested that I archive my emails.

That seemed fair.

Soon everything was archived. Everything. Oh God, I’ve lost everything, I thought.

So, I went into the tab dedicated to my professional emails, now archived, hit the little check mark at the top of the screen to see those emails, and at the top of that list was an email from 2010. Ugh.

As I scrolled down I found that my emails were all there, luckily, but in no desirable order. Oh good, that’s one positive and several negatives.

Zero inbox, tons of work

Mailbox is built around the philosophy of a "zero inbox." Which is all fine and good for incoming emails, but it means that I’m actually going to have to work to properly organize the inbox mess. Ugh.

The whole point of me getting Mailbox was so I wouldn’t have to work to at organizing my inbox.

Mailbox users: Love it or leave it?

At first glance, Wanelo looks like a never-ending stream of stuff you'd find at Urban Outfitters. At second glance it's more like a Pinterest minus recipes, and with links to buy it all.

Pronounced "wah-nee-loh", and short for "want, need, love," Wanelo is an online community for shopping. Find the stuff you want, need, or love and save it to your collections.

Trending

Sign in and you're welcomed by "Today's Trending Products," a four-by-infinity grid of pictures featuring "trendy" stuff, but mainly tanktops and iPhone cases. Click on something you like, or simply scroll off into the ever-loading abyss.

Search for things you're interested in or for stores you like. Save things you like to one of your collections or tag your friends if you want to share something you found (using "@"and the username)

You can follow people, stores, and specific collections.

The Wanelo trending page shows the most popular posts in real time.

Start the dangerous fun

Like Pinterest, Wanelo has a desktop browser bookmarklet. Whenever you see a product you want, need or love click the "+Post to Wanelo" button.  You can can also use the Wanelo Shopping app on your tablet or smartphone.

When you post an item you want/need/love, you can choose which photo to use, which collection to add it to, and what you'd like to say. Comment about it, @mention someone or #hashtag it.

Now add some details like the price (if it's not already listed) and what category it falls under. At present the only categories available are women, men, home, and kids. So techies are out of luck.

Buy and sell

The biggest difference between Pinterest and Wanelo seems to be the emphasis on buying. Pinterest allows users to save all kinds of stuff they like, including things they'd like to buy. Click on the link to the original URL and you can buy that thing you wanted via Pinterest. Wanelo takes it just a wee bit further by presenting each image with the option to save to a collection or to buy each featured item.

Wanelo also allows users to follow stores/sellers they like. Store pages are created when members post products from a new store. Individual sellers on Etsy or eBay would get their own store pages on Wanelo (well, after the moderators approve it).

Choose what collection you want to post to, and what you'd like to say about your find. Hashtag away. You then have the option of putting it in one of four categories: women, men, home and kids.

It's all about the people

If you're a seller, you can claim your store page and customize it. You can interact with shoppers, answer questions, post products or create contests.

Wanelo wants to "help people find the most interesting products in the universe" and "enable sellers big and small to build businesses on top of Wanelo." Are they successful?

The most interesting products in the universe? Um.

Helping sellers build their businesses? Definitely.

Since its 2010 inception, there are now 6 million registered users, 70% of which are active on a monthly basis. Approximately 5 million products are saved 8 million time each day. Over 200,000 stores, ranging from major retailers to small independent shops, have Wanelo profiles. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Wanelo thinks "ecommerce is so '90s." This time around, they say, it's all about people. And tanktops?

Of the many things I love about ExpressionEngine, native events management is not one of them.

There really is no good way to do it with out-of-the-box EE. What I have done before, and what I’ve found to be the best way to do it natively, is to use the entry date and expiration date to control display of your events.

I love EE for its clarity and simplicity in helping clients edit their own content, so for me this method just doesn’t fit that and doesn’t work for me. There is also the Calendar Tag for displaying entries, but this comes with several downsides, most notably, no custom fields.

So if you need a location or other basic event field displayed in your calendar, you’re out of luck unless you alter the core. This is never really a good option.

Simplicity is golden.

I recently needed to sort out a way to handle events and ended up with Low Events.

There are a few calendar add-on options for EE that I researched, and I found that roughly 99% of the time, a client’s events needs are typically pretty simple: date, time, location and description.

On the rare occasion, a recurrence method might be needed as well. So when I found Low Events, I was elated at how it could do everything I needed – from the admin to the front-end – at a fraction of the cost of other options I found.

In the admin, and at its core, it’s a date fieldtype.

No hassle with the entry date that’s really the start date and the expiration date that’s really the end date, just a field that enables entering a start and an end and the option to make it all day – exactly what I need without clutter and confusion.

Now in the name of simplicity, Low did not develop a recurrence method, but as always, there is a way. I found this post that discusses how to do it.

It takes two channels - one for the event details and information, and one for the events that have the date and time (Low Events fieldtype) only. Make a relationship from the events channel entries with the date information to the event information entry, and you can add events at will without worrying about duplicating the content, just the date and time.

The upside? You have total control over every event. Say you have a single event from a long run of events that you need to change the time for – just edit that single event.

Now for the front-end.

Given the date information from the fieldtype, Low Events has a plethora of display methods and helpers to do exactly what you need to display your events.

There are the variable helpers which display your dates and times as you need, and there are calendar tags that allow for any entry data including custom fields, archive and list tags, and entry linking options.

I’ve used the events tag nested in the calendar tag to create a full calendar with all the information I needed to display from the events.

Anyone who needs events management in EE, I strongly recommend Low Events to take the headache out of the task.

As always, Low has created an add-on that keeps things simple and does exactly what you need, all packaged up for a fair price. Like I said, the simplicity is golden.

Do you use Low Events? How do you tackle events management on EE?

Who wants to purchase an HBO package just so they can watch Game of Thrones when they can just download the most recent episode? Who wants to buy a whole album when that catchy single will suffice? Why channel surf when you can just watch your favorite shows on Hulu or Netflix? We're living in an a la carte world -- and it's time that companies start catching up.

Apple leads the a la carte charge

iTunes was really the beginning of pick-and-choose tech. Apple created a model in which the customer decided which songs they wanted and only got that, instead of having to pay for the entire album. Customers could pick out the song they most desired to listen to and buy it, usually for 99 cents. This same model would later be adopted by Amazon, Google’s Play and others.

Apple's iTunes then used the same model for television episodes and movies, followed again by Amazon. The trend was obvious, people didn’t want the whole cow they wanted what parts they wanted.

Cherry pick your cable TV

But music, television episodes and movies aren’t enough. In recent months, reports have surfaced that Apple might be pushing for something new and big, and cherry picked for this article. There’s buzz suggesting the new option might be purchasing or subscribing only to particular TV shows or networks and having them delivered directly to a device connected to your TV.

Major League Baseball has created a package deal for computers, cable television and smart phones that allow users to watch and/or listen to games on the fly. Just like with Apple’s iTunes Store, this is a good start, but not quite there yet. Makes you wonder when MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, etc. might enact an ala carte structure allowing fans to only watch their team’s games as well as All-Star games and play-offs.

Beyond a la carte

Really there are thousands of things that should be customizable. Like phone contracts. Or Internet services. Or prices.

Radiohead released the album In Rainbows a few years ago in this fashion, announcing to their fans that they could name their own price. Louis C.K. did it with his Live at the Beacon Theater stand up special. Type nerds everywhere rejoiced at the advent ot Lost Type Coop's pay-what-you-want model.

We are living in an a la carte world, and I am an a la carte girl. Err...boy.

What other products and services could benefit from a realistic, revamped, a la carte structure?

I took a working vacation. Throughout the month of March, I globetrotted from Seoul to Hong Kong to Frankfurt, Milan, Vienna and Dublin. Stopping off in Chicago and finally Denver. Along the way, I logged on, checked in, and stayed in touch. This is the story of my month as a digital nomad.

Day Two

Realized I forgot to schedule social media for Tuesday. The day may be over in Hong Kong, but there's still a few working hours left in Denver. Phew. Scheduled all social for the rest of the week using our guesthouse's WiFi. Did I mention that they room we're staying in is 5x8 feet? I now understand why everyone in Hong Kong stays out late. It's depressing to stay in. Thankfully there is WiFi everywhere.

Day Four

I'm writing this from the PuDong Airport in Shanghai. I forgot to get the Boingo app on my laptop, so I can't log in to the Internet. Luckily, it works on my iPod, so I can check emails. Facebook is blocked. Pray for me.

Day Five

Arrived in Frankfurt at 5:10 am after 15 harrowing hours sans Internet. I think I've got the shakes.

I can't connect to Boingo at Frankfurt airport for whatever reason, so we opt to pay 5 Euros for 24 hours of T-mobile Internet access. It's highway robbery, but I use that time to edit an article shared with me over Google Drive.

After meeting David's uncle at Frankfurt's Hauptbahnhof, we drive to his home in Geißen where we spend at least 30 minutes trying to access his WiFi, but we can't find his password. We found many passwords, though. None of which work. We bite the bullet and use his computer. I do a quick check-in on email and Hootsuite, wrestling with the German keyboard the whole time. I get the extra letters and characters, but the "Y" and "Z" key positions are inexplicably switched.

Day Seven

We spent the weekend in Cologne eating delicious food and fighting jetlag. I take advantage of the fact that I keep waking up so damn early to do a little digital house cleaning, making sure everything is ready to go for the week ahead.

Day Nine

Spent the day sight-seeing, and arrived at David's cousin's house with just enough time to charge my iPod. Skype call with the office to check in for the week. It feels amazing to still be able to keep in touch, while not allowing work to take over my vacation.

Day Twelve

Another aunt's house, another awesome WiFi connection. This time we're in Hamburg. Found out that most German WiFi passwords are extraordinarily long and can usually be found on the bottom of the WiFi router. Wish I had know that in Geißen.

Ach du lieber! 30 minutes of free WiFi at a coffee shop called Balzac in Hamburg, Germany. 

Day Fifteen

We took a high-speed Deutsche Bahn train to Freiburg, Germany to visit my aunt and uncle. The best part of the trip was the free WiFi on the train- literally high speed Internet. I tweeted with glee.

My uncle's a bit of a technophobe, so I was shocked to learn that he did, in fact, have an Internet connection. It was a LAN line, but oh well, you take what you can get.

Day Seventeen

En route to Florence, Italy, we had an unexpected layover in Switzerland, due to a missed train connection. They announced platform seven in three languages, two of which I understand fluently. Yet somehow we wind up on the wrong train and must backtrack to Zurich. No Boingo or Skype WiFi was available, but for 5 Swiss Francs we're able to get on the Zurich WiFi system and email David's uncle to inform him we'll be three hours late.

Day Twenty-one

We spend the day galavanting around Florence, trying out every gelato place in sight. Grab lunch at an outside bistro, that of course, has WiFi. Email the office from my iPod touch, updating them on my projects for the week, etc. Feeling like a boss despite the fact that I ate an entire loaf of focaccia bread by myself.

Day Twenty-four

Took the night train to Vienna (an epically exhausting trip) and am overwhelmed to discover that our hotel offers free, open Internet, no strings attached. After wasting an hour on Tumblr, and posting tons of #latergrams, I get down to business, making sure I'll be set for the next few days.

Day Twenty-seven

Back in the US, staying in Chicago at David's parents' house. Enjoying being in (almost) the same time zone as the office, and finally being able to answer emails during daylight hours. It's good to be home.

Do stay online when you travel? Have you lived the life of a digital nomad? Share your stories below!

I feel like a handwritten type and calligraphy trend is popping up all over the place.

Not that there is anything wrong with it, in fact, I am a big fan. Both styles were even recently noted in a Top Graphic Design Trends of 2012. You can pour through pages and pages of it on Type Everything and you’ll find it just about anywhere you go on Pinterest. 

I found that it’s being used a lot for "pretty things" like good old fashioned snail mail, home décor and of course, wedding invites.

Google is even getting in on the action with Pacifico, in their web-friendly font series and Lost Type Co-Op has some awesome fonts available like Mission Script, Widsom Script, and Lavanderia.

These aren't your type professor's fonts. 

Is the demand for handmade typography part of the same trend towards handmade goods and foods? Or is this newfound love for vintage-type themes and trends, a reintroduction to handmade typography? Does it have anything to do with a reemergence of Art Nouveau?

It also may have something more to do with a desire for originality.

Everyone has unique handwriting so why not express it in your designs? Using typefaces, it’s impossible to be totally unique because every other designer out there can use them as well.

Sure writing on paper is easy, but designing a script-like typeface has its quirks and takes patience. I have yet to experiment with this, but I’m looking forward to giving it a go. But then of course there is always the easy route, too. 

Yay or nay? Has the script style typeface made a comeback?

Wow, a lot of people hate the duckface. And people posting posed pictures of themselves. And Flo from those Progressive commercials. 

Hater is a free app in Apple’s App Store that aims to bring people who hate together. But not the "scary" kind of hate so much as the "grumbly" kind.

Call it a social media connection for haters, though not to the people who will be posting because they’ll just grumble at that. Or maybe call it "Facebook for grumps." Whatever you call it, it’s a safe place for you to hate… stuff.

Their logo, following the grumbles of hundreds of thousands on Facebook, is the "like" button, turned upside down.

Unlike Facebook, where it's necessary to include your actual information, Hater allows you to create an “alter ego” so that your grump doesn’t have to come back to you in any form. In this way, it’s a lot like, you know, EVERYWHERE ON THE INTERNET.

And just like everywhere else on the Internet, you’re able to invite friends and acquaintances to Hater to eventually grow their community of grumps.

Who likes to hate?

It’s hard to get an idea (or any statistics) of how many people actually use the app however,  leaving me to wonder what such a seemingly unregulated arena for hate might become.

After all, the Internet already has places like 4Chan and Reddit, where users can post their grunts of displeasure at their leisure, without much repercussion. The difference, it would seem, is that this is an app. 4Chan and Reddit don’t have apps. Also a different interface.

Hate unchained

Their tagline: “Share things you hate with people you love,” seems to sum up what they’re trying to do here: create a social app for people to post angrily.

The problem is what this could become. It seems like there ought to some safeguards against outright racist, homophobic or hate speech, but nothing is clearly posted anywhere on their site or on the app.

The Hater app creators seem to be trying to cultivate something more positive amongst "the hate," but who knows how long that will last. Will they have to tighten the regulations? A lot of users are not going to like that.

Are you a Hater?

I'm leaving on a jetplane. And I like to have WiFi with me, if at all possible.

I took a little trip around the world (Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg, Freiburg, Zurich, Florence, Vienna and Dublin) all while doing my work from the road. Sure, I though about the fabulousness of traveling, but it was so much the more fabulous when I was able to check my email, maybe Instagram a pic or two.

While WiFi hot spot devices were an option, I didn't want to sign up for a two year contract for two weeks' worth of Internet. So while the personal, on-the-go WiFi devices were intriguing, I looked to see what I could tap into while traveling.

It's down to Boingo and Skype

I spent some time looking around for WiFi networks around the globe, and Skype and Boingo both claim to have pretty extensive networks, though it seems as though Boingo's actually more extensive in terms of places you'll actually go to. All I had to do was download the apps on my iPod touch, purchase pay-as-you-go credits and get ready to connect.

The rundown

Boingo has WiFi hotspots at more than 600,000 locations. Anywhere where you find an affiliate WiFi hotspot, you can log in. Boingo works on both IOS and Android platforms. And laptops, naturally.

Boingo offers several options for WiFi - subscriptions based on region or different pay-as-you go options. I opted to purchase 10 credit hours for $19.99 (plus one free!).

Skype offers access to "over a million public WiFi hotspots."  Buy Skype credits, join a WiFi hotspot, and bam! I opted for $10 credit hours. Download the Skype WiFi app for your device (IOS, Android or your laptop of choice), and connect for about $.05 a minute.

There are no limits on the amount of data you can upload or download, though you do need to have a Skype account with credit.

Boingo notifies you when there's a compatible WiFi network nearby.

How they stack up

Based on my personal experience in the cities I visited, and airports/trainstations I stopped in along the way, here's what I found:

Availabilty: Boingo was the winner, hands down. I found connections all over the place, even in China, though not in Swizerland or Italy. I never managed to find a Skype WiFi connection, anywhere, though I've been assured they exist.

Usability: I found that both apps had clean easy-to-use interfaces. Boingo also had an additional app to track data usage, but I never found it all that necessary.

Connectivity: As I never found any of the Skype WiFi networks, I can't comment on its connectivity. Boingo was sometimes a little spotty, often times dropping if I wasn't clearly in range, but all in all, it worked pretty well.

Regular Expressions are a very powerful tool in the development world. If you are a developer and you don't know how to write a regular expression, you need to learn as soon as possible. Seriously. They can drastically alter and simplify a lot of the code you write on a regular basis.

I say that because truth be told, it wasn't until very recently that I sat down and really made an effort to fully understand what Regular Expressions were all about. Regex has always scared me. Those cryptic statements I frequently encountered on developer forums were difficult to wrap my brain around.

I was able to get by with a semi-basic understanding of Regex for a while, but I decided it was time to roll up my sleeves and face my fears.  

In this article, I'm going to give you a brief tutorial outlining how to get started in reading regular expressions, and how to go about writing them. I would love for this to be an all-inclusive how-to, but unfortunately, the topic is far too extensive to cover in a single article. Fortunately, some very bright folks have written quite a few books, which do a great job of explaining the concepts in their entirety. I read and referenced Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey E.F. Friedl while writing this article and I highly recommend it.

And before we get started, please note that many of the examples I present in the article will be written to work with PHP. You can easily copy and modify them to work with your language of choice. Also, note that, unless explicitly instructed otherwise, Regular Expressions are case sensitive. As you are looking over the examples, please keep this in mind.  Remember, in Regex, a "Q" is not the same as a "q."

What is a Regular Expression?

Simply stated, a Regular Expression is a set of rules which defines a pattern to search for within an input string. It's all about creating specific rules, and then checking to see if a given string meets those rules.

Where are they used?

Regular Expressions can be used anywhere you need to match one string to another. This can include searching blocks of content for specific words, locating duplicate words in a string, validating form inputs such as dates or email addresses and even extracting content from XML documents.

Getting started, character by character.

Before we get to the "meat" of this article, I want to take a moment to explain a very critical aspect that I found to be crucial to fully comprehending how Regular Expressions work. 

Regular Expressions parse and match, on a character-by-character basis.

Take the word "Monkey" as an example. 

When humans see the word "Monkey," we typically see it as an entire word, we immediately know how to say it, that it's a noun, and what the word means. 

A regular expression on the other hand does not see the word "Monkey," it sees a capital "M" followed by a lowercase "o" followed by a lowercase "n" and so forth…

Notice how it interprets the string "Monkey" not in its entirety, nor as a meaningful word in the human language. Regular Expressions interpret strings on a character-by-character basis. This is how Regex sees and understands its world.

To start out, we first need to define some of the most important components you are going to encounter when reading and writing Regular Expressions. These include:

1. Character classes
2. Metacharacters

Character classes

A character class is the location in your Regular Expression where you define the characters you would like to search for at a specific point in a string. The starting position of the character class is delineated with '[' (open bracket), and closed with ']' (end bracket). Let's take a look at a quick example.

PHP Example:

Suppose we have a string and we want to see if it contains the word "Hello," but more specifically, if it contains the letter "H" followed by the letters, "ello."  In PHP, the code might look something like this:

$string = 'Hello world';
$regex_pattern = '/[H]ello/';
$pattern_located = preg_match($regex_pattern, $string);
echo $pattern_located;

In the example above, our variable $string is our subject, the string of text we would like to run a search on. In the $regex_pattern variable, you can see that we have included the word "Hello," but the letter "H" is wrapped in our character class (the opening and closing brackets).

When this code is executed, the Regular Expression is going to analyze our input string ($string) and check to see if at any point within the string, the letter "H," followed by the letter "e" followed by the letter "l" and so forth  -- is encountered. If it is, the Regular Expression will succeed and the preg_match() function will return true.

Now, it's important to note that character classes are case sensitive. Thus, if we changed our $regex_pattern variable to:

$regex_pattern = '/[h]ello/';

The Regular Expression will fail (return false).  Think back to the "character by character basis" discussion. Because our string does not contain a lowercase "h," followed by a lowercase "e." followed by a lowercase "l," and so on (notice the difference between the upper case versus the lowercase "h"), the expression does not find a match.

If we wanted to test for an uppercase "H" or a lowercase "h" in the word "Hello," we would need to explicitly declare that rule in the expression we write. This brings us to our next component of Regular Expressions – Metacharacters.

Metacharacters

In terms of Regex, a metacharacter is a special character that's used in a search, which serves a unique purpose and is interpreted in a special way.

Metacharacters are used in conjunction with character classes to extend and enhance the search capability of a Regular Expression. There are quite a few metacharacters available for use in a Regular Expression. At the bottom of this section, I have included a table, which lists and describes the function each one serves. I won't use every one on the list, but I will use the most common ones in the examples.

Going back to our "Hello World" example above, we left off where we could search for the string "Hello" or the string "hello," but not both at the same time. Let's take a look at how we can do this using metacharacters.

Right now we have the following code:

$string = 'Hello world';
$regex_pattern = '/[H]ello/';
$pattern_located = preg_match($regex_pattern, $string);
echo $pattern_located;

And let's assume we want to match either a capital "H" or a lowercase "h" in the word "hello." To do that, we need to utilize the "|" (pipe) metacharacter, which represents an "or" statement. 

So, to match the word “Hello” or the word "hello" we would change our Regex statement to the following:

$regex_pattern = '/[H|h]ello/';

Notice the "|" character which now appears between the capital "H" and the lowercase "h" in our character class.

When the Regular Expression is processed with our input $string, the expression is going to be processed as follows:

Is there an "H" or is there an "h," followed by an "e" followed by an "l" and so on.

Because we do have a capital "H" the expression will evaluate to true. If we were to change the "H" to an "h," the expression would still evaluate to true because we have added our "or" statement.

Note:  When using the "|" character, you can actually omit this character from your expression  and achieve the same result.  So, in terms of our example, [H|h] would become [Hh].  This  relates back to the way Regular Expressions are parsed (on a character by character basis).   Personally, I like to include the "|" character simply because it's easier on the eyes.

Let's take a look at another example using a different metacharacter.

Example:

Suppose we have our "Hello World" string, but we don't care what character the word "World" starts out with, but we do care that it starts with a capital letter. So, the word "Zorld," even though it's not a word, would evaluate true.

Here is what our code might look like:

$string = 'Hello Zorld';
$regex_pattern = '/[A-Z]orld/';
$pattern_located = preg_match($regex_pattern, $string);
echo $pattern_located;

In the character class, notice that I used a capital "A" and a captial "Z" – this informs the expression that we should be looking for an uppercase character, but we also added in the "-" (dash) character between the letters. The "-" (dash) is a metacharacter which basically means "through" (or a range).  So, in this case, we are saying A through Z.

When the expression is interpreted, it's going to go through each character in the string, and test to see if the sequence of characters matches our rules. So, when the function starts out, it's going to start with the first letter in the string which is an "H" – and since we have a capital letter in the range of A-Z, this portion of the expression will evaluate to true, BUT when we get to the next character, which is an "e" in the case of the word, "Hello" – the expression realizes that this is not the match we are looking for and continues on parsing each character until it reaches the capital "Z" we entered in the word "Zorld." 

Again, the expression sees the capital "Z," and that capital "Z" matches our first rule, so it continues on to the next letter, which is an "o," and that also matches our rule. This process continues until we reach the end of the word, when the expression realizes that we do have a match, and it returns a value of true.

Let's take this one step further and apply some knowledge we already have about Regular Expressions.  What if we wanted to search for either a capital or a lowercase alpha character appearing before the letters "orld"?

This is what your expression might look like:

$regex_pattern = '/[A-Z|a-z]orld/';

Notice I included the "|" character delineating an "or statement." Now when the expression is parsed, so long as the character before "orld" is an alpha character, the expression will find a match and will evaluate to true.

Here is a list of the metacharacters and a description of each one.

Would you like to read more about Regular Expressions or have you had enough? Let me know in the comments below!

I’m currently Internetless in Shanghai’s Pudong Airport. The whole building’s architecture reminds me of the ceilings of an Ikea, blue with white pins jutting out from it. It’s overcast or foggy or hazy or experiencing a normal level of pollution. My computer is plugged into a free battery charge station using a universal adapter. It’s warm. Too warm. I’m uncomfortable, and I’m writing this article.

Necessity dictates that I must write this article. It’s been up in the schedule for a month now and I’ve been putting it off long enough. It’s time to sit here, watching people slowly putter around, and write this puppy…this sucks.

The seats are hard, I’m slouched, that creepy guy has walked past me at least five times now, but I have a window. At least I have a window.  A window I can’t see much through, save a blinking yellow light on a food truck on the tarmac and, maybe, the runway. But a window nonetheless.

Work with a view

I like quiet places with a view that’s not too distracting. I’m the kind of writer that needs a structured environment to work. Background musak at a coffee shop or conversations all around me aren’t too distracting but the one thing I can’t do without is a view. A window to look out of.

It reminds me how small I am. Keeps me humble. Reminds me that there are millions of other people out there doing much more arduous work than sitting on my butt writing a meandering article, and that I should probably get back to work.

It keeps me honest. Often times it allows me a moment or two to spot someone or something interesting that might find it’s way into a piece. Regardless, it’s the X-factor that makes producing, quickly, easier. And it’s different for everybody.

I know artists that listen to podcasts to keep a momentum going. I know writers that need a specific kind of music playing to create a rhythm. I know a certain lady who can't get into a work groove without a cup of coffee in hand. But after years of working on my writing and honing my craft, I find that the most important thing to me is a window.

A physical window so that I can concentrate on the mental window I’m creating.

Then again, maybe I can just imagine that there’s a window in front of me and that I’m watching the world through.

There’s that guy again.

What do you need in your workspace to get the juices flowing?

I'm what you'd call a "Millennial," youngish, tech-savvy, college-educated and 36% of the workforce.

Being plugged in as I am to the Interwebs, I've stumbled upon several articles in which writers try to decode the inner workings of the Millennial mind in order to understand our strange idiosyncrasies like wanting to work from home, or why we like to get constant feedback about our performance. Many of the articles touch on key elements, but I'm left wondering why the tone of the articles often come across as submissive or patronizing.

I admit, I don't want the life that my parents had. I don't expect to stay at the same job for years upon years. I want flexibility and more autonomy. I want to hear when I perform well.

And I'm not alone.

While I'm sure I'm not the voice of my entire generation, like Millennial icon Lena Dunham, I am "a voice of a generation." Here's what I'm looking for in a workplace.

A flexible schedule

Flexibility is more important  than money. I want a decent, livable wage, no doubt. But if given the choice between a high-paying job with no flexibility and a lower paying job with more freedom to work in the office or telecommute, it's a no brainer. Flexibility, baby.

I want to be able to choose when I work from home and when I work in the office.

If I'm feeling sick, I can work from home or come in late, without feeling penalized. If I need a change of scenery I can go to a coffee shop. If I really need to focus, I can come into the office. Flexibility is bliss. And I'd much rather be happy in my work than paid millions of dollars to be stressed out and miserable.

A good work-life balance

I want to have kids someday. But I also want to have my career. I believe that the two are not mutually exclusive. Having a flexible work environment means that I could feasibly keep my job and have a family. What's so crazy about that?

In an ideal world, my husband and I would both have flexible jobs that allow us to spend some time at home and some time in the office throughout the week. We could share child-rearing responsibilities, and take off the time we need for the usual baby things.

I'm not going to be a stay-at-home mom. Ever. But I will happily be a mom who works from home and spends time with her kids. But in like two or three years down the road.

Health insurance is a must

I don't need a million dollars, I just need a low deductible. Prescription coverage is vital. The more comprehensive the better.

I shouldn't have to pay $45,000 for an emergency appendectomy. And if you don't think your employees' well-being are worth the extra monthly health care payments, then you shouldn't have employees. And you certainly won't have me as one.

Feedback, within reason

Everyone needs validation. And I admit, my generation is notorious for craving feedback. But it's not (just) because we were overly validated as children. It's mainly because we want to know if we're doing it right.

I want to know if I'm doing a good job. Because then I'll continue doing a good job. If I'm doing something wrong; I'd like to know so I can amend that. I'm not sure why this has become such a hot topic when it comes to Millennials. We want to know when we're doing well so we can keep doing well.

You don't have to pat us on the back and give a gold star for chrissake. Everyone likes to hear when they're doing something right.

Room to grow

My last, so-called Millennial workplace "demand," is that I be given the opportunity to grow. When I've learned enough, and performed well, give me more responsibility. A little raise every now and then to show that I'm performing well.

I'm not expecting to make VP in a year, but I'm also not going to stick around if I'm going to stagnate at an entry-level position for five years. I want to be ever upward and onward.

It's preposterous to think that Millenials are "just a bunch of spoiled brats" when what we're looking for is pretty reasonable. But I'm pretty sure they said the same thing about Gen Xers and Boomers when they were younger. Kids these days, huh?

Millennials: What do you look for in a job?

Let's talk about automation. From Merriam-Webster, automation is "the technique of making an apparatus, a process, or a system operate automatically". From me – the lazy developer – automation is the process of making sure we never have to do anything more than once, ever again.

I've been holding an ongoing conversation with a few friends about whether or not automation is a good thing for us humans and I've heard strong arguments for both sides.

Automation Yay:

• Automation can free our brains from having to remember unnecessary information.
• Automation can keep us from being required to do mundane tasks and gives us the freedom to focus on new, more interesting tasks.
• Automation can even solve food, housing and energy shortage problems.

Automation Nay:

• Automation can make us more lazy.
• Automation can take away jobs and personable relationships.
• And, my personal favorite, computers will destroy all the humans and take over the world.

I say yay automation!

While there are aspects to both these views that are true (or at least possible) my personal belief is that, ultimately, it's all in how we choose to use automation. If we make smart decisions I believe that automation has the potenital to help shape a healthier society across the globe. In fact, I would argue that automation is already being used for good.

Garden auto-pilot

My favorite example of how automation can be helpful, not harmful, is the automated garden. Imagine if we all had a garden in our backyard that grew organic vegetables without us having to worry about regularly testing the quality of the soil or when to water it. Some might say that this takes the fun, or even the art out of gardening but not all of us can be expert gardeners. Treehugger.com has a great article about making your own automated gardening system here.

Money management without the management

Another great example of smart automation that already exists is the money management app, Mint. Mint connects to your bank account and regularly gathers information about your spending habits. It also allows you to set budgets for various spending categories and provides useful information and visual data about how you're spending money in these areas. It can also send automated alerts when you're reaching your set limits on these budgets.

3D makes thing easy

The power of automation can also be seen in the quickly emerging 3D printing technologies. 3D printers can print just about any three-dimensional object based on a digital blueprint. Need a replacement car part? Your household 3D printer can bake one up for you in no time!

This technology has the potential to cut down on waste and costs that traditional manufacturing produces since an object is only made when it's needed and it can be done right in your own home. Yay, free shipping! And as 3D printing advances, larger and more complex objects will be possible. Imagine printing your own house exactly the way you want it laid out.

In conclusion

These are just a few useful automated systems but there is no shortage of other examples, many of which we may use everyday without even noticing (it's called a smart phone for a reason). I think that, as long as we're conscious about how we use it, automation can solve so many of the problems we see today and give us the freedom to explore even greater possibilities. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Throughout my years as a freelancer and small business owner, I've developed a set of guidelines for managing web projects with clients. Most of these rules just live in my head, so it seemed a good idea to bring them out in the open.

Some of these rules were learned the hard way. Some just by watching other people run their businesses.  All of my rules are actively in practice. Well, except when they need to broken – and those caveats are noted below.

Here are my five favorite client guidelines.

1. Never launch a site on a Friday

It's a dangerous idea to launch a website on a Friday, and here’s why. If something goes wrong, you will need to work to fix it over the weekend. And double-worse, you may have to work with your client over the weekend if and when something is wrong, or if your client simply thinks that something might be wrong (even if they only forgot to clear their cache). In addition to being no fun to work on weekends, it sets a bad precedent.

THE EXCEPTION:
Is it okay to break this rule? Very recently, I launched a website on a Friday – breaking my own rule! I did this for a combination of reasons. The site was a small non-database driven site, with no special functionality. The site was replacing a very ugly, broken out of date site, and we thought even if there were any quirks with the new one, it would be vastly improved. Lastly, they're an easy-going client and if they didn't hear from me promptly over the weekend, no one would have panicked.

2. Don't answer client phone calls during non-business hours

Even if I'm at the office and a client calls the office phone, I let it go to voicemail. I don't give my mobile number to clients. This one is such an easy habit for me now. I like having distinct boundaries for work. I may still work after business hours, but I don't want clients to expect that.  I want to maintain professionalism and respect.

THE EXCEPTION:
Is it​ ever okay? Well, use your judgment. About six months ago, I gave a client my cell phone number and said they could call me if they had any issues – shortly after a site launch. This is a client at a governmental organization, and I was fairly sure they would really only call me in an emergency – they don't work on the weekends. They did in fact call me one time, very apologetic, with a bug fix that was highly important and time-sensitive.

3. Track time!

It's astonishing when people don't track their time on a project. Even if you work on fixed-bid projects where the number of hours doesn't affect your pay, how can you blindly work on something not knowing the amount of time you're putting in? It seems to me like anytime time isn't properly tracked, my estimate is way too low. So, in order to set appropriate rates and fees now and in the future, I need to know what the effort is for a task/feature/project.

THE EXCEPTION:
No exceptions on this one for me!

4. Don't present as something you're not.

In my early web designer/developer years, I used to contract with other folks.   Once this meant being responsible for all web design or development for a project run by a small PR firm. In another case I was one of a team of 2-3 contractors that all worked for a project manager/director on large web projects. These other companies wanted to present me as part of their team, so they'd hook me up with a company email address, and give me a fancy title like "Director of ..." I don't want to pretend (read, LIE) about being part of someone else's company so they look good.

Plus it's totally uncool to clients to pretend that you're a bigger or different firm than you actually are. I decided never to do this for my projects. It's okay to have contractors, and good clients understand that not everyone has super skills in all areas. Keep it real.

THE EXCEPTION:
None. It's not worth it. It'll come back to bite you.

5. Get rid of bad clients.

After you've been working for a little while, you'll undoubtedly encounter a few clients that are rotten apples. Bad clients have some combination of nasty traits like:

• Questioning your invoices -- Why is there 1/4 hour of time here for project Management? I have to pay you to talk to you on the phone?
• Always paying way late
• Consistently asking for things at the last minute
• Asking for things for free
• Being extremely disorganized
• Yelling at you or your team 
• Blaming you for things out of your control

The list goes on. If a client has three or more of these traits, they're not worth the stress and time. Heck, one really bad trait may be enough for me to boot them. They aren’t going to change. That energy is better spent on your favorite clients. It's hard the first time to get rid of bad clients, but it's part of running a grown up business.

THE EXCEPTION:
If you've only been in business for less than a year, you might not have acquired a bad client yet. But if you've been in business for over a year, and you haven't fired a client yet, you need to. Do it now.

Do you have any guidelines you swear by for client management?

I have an iPhone. This iPhone usually sits in my back left pocket, and I don’t know what time it is. I am lazy.

After regretting my first world problem, I have to fish my phone out of my back pocket. This is the “problem” for literally millions of us lazy smartphone users. We want to know the time without going into our pockets or purses. We want to know who is calling us so we know whether or not to ignore the call. We want to be able to change our music playlist from “Upbeat Sally” to “Down in the Dumps Dan” without fishing out the phone. This is the world we hope to all live in.

There’s been a lot of fuss, articles and blogs about smartwatches over the last couple months. So many, that I’ve decided to be as sarcastic and jerk-holey as possible in this article to fly in the face of all the people who have glommed on. You have been warned.

Writers are talking about the $469 to $2,299 Italian-made I’m Watch, Sony’s simply named SmartWatch starting at $149 , the $249 Motorola’s MotoACTV, the now discontinued $199 WIMM One Watch, the MetaWatch starting at $199 and the Kickstarter darling Pebble starting at $150. Then you have all these rumors of an Apple smartwatch, something that’s coming directly from Google and more! There’s so much non-news and hyperbole, in fact, that it’s left me wondering if these things really exist and if they’ll even sort of live up to all the hype.

1. Sony SmartWatch

Sony’s site focuses on their SmartWatch’s abilities, simple design and color screen. They’ve designed a generally stylish and simple looking watch packed with tons of capabilities, but it’s only compatible with Android devices. The thing looks like a tiny computer comfortably housed on your wrist, and it comes with a reasonable price.

But a smartwatch that doesn’t work with iPhones is a problem for anyone that might migrate between Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows phones.

2. I’m Watch

I’m Watch is exactly what you might think of from an Italian company. It’s gorgeous with a leather strap and a design that reminds me of a Fossil watch from the early 2000s. They boast a speakerphone, text message capability and the promise of receiving emails and appointments all linked up using Bluetooth. The phone can access Wifi and hotspots and phone calls can be hung up by simply shaking your wrist; which is slick.  With the i’music music database, you have access to millions of songs in the cloud, easily streamed to your phone; though having your headphones connected to your watch will probably look super weird for the first few years, much like they did coming out of phones at first.

But this thing is bulky with a 40.6mm x 52.9mm screen and thick strap. On the plus side, it works with both Android and iOS devices, so they have the leg up on Sony...minus the massive price tag. The sexy male model with a beard looking all smarmy does add points, however.

3. MotoACTV

The MotoACTV looks more like a sportwatch than a smartwatch, and for good reason. Instead of building something more sleek and sexy like the Sony SmartWatch, they went for a vacant niche -- the sporty sports watch.

Wireless music? Check. Golf software, GPS and heart rate monitor? Check. Bluetooth to be used with all the major smartphone OSs? Uhh, nope.

Looking at the site, it seems as though the ACTV only connects with Android phones through an app, and everything else using Bluetooth. But it is compatible with other fitness electronics making it easier to transfer data from your wrist to people at home watching the Tour DeFrance on their computers. “Look at that blue dot marked ‘David’ move!”

Motorola made the watch easy to attach to a bike instead of your wrist to give you the freedom to ride and check your coordinates easily. The stats look impressive to those Coloradans wanting to make sure they don’t miss a call on their bike trip to Boulder in the morning. Power through it, brah.

4. MetaWatch

MetaWatch was founded by Bill Geiser and David Rosales, formerly of Fossil, with the goal of creating something the masses can “glance” at so they don’t miss updates and notifications.

But where their screens might be lacking, (lacking, in that they remind me of 90s video game watches) their beautiful forward-thinking bands make their watches more attractive.

The site boasts a growing library of features and apps that make the MetaWatch more interesting than your average static smartwatch, including an alarm on the watch when your phone is out of range, an aspect of these smartwatches that need to be much more ubiquitous than they are. They have Bluetooth syncing, an Android app, and will be releasing an iOS app soon.

5. Pebble

As far as smartwatches go, the most attractive for me is the Pebble, a watch that was designed and created using old cellphone parts and funded using Kickstarter. The Pebble is generally the same as the watches above. It has a liquid crystal display, though with a much more attractive design, and a few different colored bands. It has simple apps for cycling, running, music control and a golf range finder.

The big difference between it and most of its competitors is that it works with both Android and iPhones. That’s a big selling point for me, as I’ve switched between the iPhone to Android phones for the last few years, and the ability to not have to buy a brand new watch to control my phone is worth a lot. $150 to be precise.

Battery life, accross the board

The moment of truth for all these smartwatches is the battery life. After all, if the thing only lasts a couple days or requires a lithium ion atomic powered battery, there’s no way this is going to work out.

The Pebble is rechargeable and keeps a charge for “7+ days”. The MetaWatch lists no information about the battery life but does mention that it is rechargeable (though based on the forums there are lots of problems with the battery). The MotoACTV is rechargeable with 20 hours of playback time, 325 hours of standby time and 20 hours indoors and nine hours outdoors of workout time. Sony’s SmartWatch looks to have taken the biggest hit with their battery as they expect one day of battery life with heavy usage, but at least they have a rechargeable battery, so you can plug it in next to your smartphone to charge.

And if you thought the Sony’s battery life was disappointing, just wait, check out the I’m Watch and its 24 hours of use when on standby. That’s just on standby! Luckily it can be recharged...several times a day. Oi.

They're the future, and I want one

As I look at all these smartwatches, I wonder how many of them require that I use my sausage fingers to type on a keyboard smaller than a saltine cracker. That’s going to be a problem. Also, I’m hungry.

And I’m confused as to the consistency for these smartwatches. Some of them connect using an app to be downloaded onto your phone, which is completely fantastic, while most use Bluetooth, which works, but lacks a certain sparkle.

So, what have we learned with all this smartwatch talk? Not much because I can’t get my hands on the things. But what we do know is that they’re the future, apparently, and I want one, most definitely.

Apparently Prey "just works."

Prey is a free, open-source system to help users recover lost or stolen laptops, phones and tablets.

Install it and it sits quietly in the background, undetected even by the activity monitor. It uses no system memory until activated.

So you lose your laptop. Now what?

The first thing Prey will do is check to see if there's an active Internet connection. if not, it'll search for the nearest WiFi hotspot to "triangulate and grab a fix on its location."

And it really is "shockingly accurate." In addition to geographic location Prey gathers information on altitude, allowing you to see what floor of a building your computer is on.

Prey gives you a list of the current running programs, recently modified files and active connections. You can lock down your PC making it unusable unless the correct password is entered.

Guilt the thieves into returning your stolen laptop?

You can grab a screenshot of the active session. Best (or worst of all, depending on the savviness of the thief), Prey takes a picture with your laptop's webcam so you know what the pilferer looks like and/or where the he/she is holed up.

While there are a number of services that "hunt down" computer thieves, most or just plain expensive. Prey seems like a good solution, especially because your lost laptop is 100% trackable if the thief connects to the Internet.

Of course, if someone wipes the hard drive clean, Prey won't work anymore. So time is always of the essence.

But at least Prey will give you a fighting chance.

Have you used Prey? Good or bad, how was your experience?

More than 180 days ago, I started a Tumblr blog called Regretful Facebook Post of the Day creating fictionalized posts based on what I saw posted by friends and family. Five days ago I announced I would be reducing posts from once a day to weekly. Two days ago, I wanted to burn and bury the blog out back.

Creating a blog is often spontaneous. A conversation with a friend or a random thought you had while people-watching can lead to the design and form of your blog. Sure, you made a splash at first, but sustaining that can be next to impossible, especially if you’re writing said blog in your spare time.

Content is difficult to produce. Unless you’re able to repost, repurpose or meme images and video that you find elsewhere on the web (which is fine), the creation of your content can be an agonizing progress. This is especially true for anyone who is trying to be funny, as being funny is not easy.

Our hypothetical blog

Let's pretend we have a hypothetical blog “Tourists doing stupid things in Times Square.” Now you have your gimmick. Then you scour Google’s Image Search or Compfight looking for the perfect, iconic image that sums up seeing, say, a tourist in Times Square doing something stupid. With your banner designed and your aim decided upon, you figure out which CMS you’re going to use (Tumblr is the easiest for anyone who is planning on creating any spur-of-the-moment blogs) and you’re off to the races.

You come up with a list of all the stupid things you’ve seen tourists do in Times Square from giving their wallet to a man with a shirt that says “Wallet Inspector” to taking that picture where they’re leaning back and spinning around with a big stupid smile on their face, to that lady who dresses like a human-sized cheetah. You’ve got your ideas and you start to write.

For the first few posts, maybe even the first few months, your ideas are novel, eliciting follows on a near daily basis. People love your writing, they love the way you described the human-sized cheetah woman’s giant eyes and they repost the hell out of nearly everything you post. You’re on top of the blog world! There’s nothing you can do wrong. And then, after the fourth month, nothing. Nothing is coming to mind.

You frantically take the subway to Times Square, looking for tourists doing stupid things to see nothing interesting or have a moment of excitement only to realize you already wrote about that. You’ve hit your terminous. Your gimmick’s logical end. You’re staring out into the abyss.

After you arrive at your terminous you panic. What’s going to make the Internet laugh now, you think. I have to think of something fast. And that’s when you scrape the bottom of the barrel. A man drops a tissue: GOLD! A tourist with a fannypack: PERFECT! You notice the number of followers has plateaued, your mother calls to ask if something is wrong (she’s read the blog) and your significant other who used to laugh each time you explained a post looks at you nervously, smiling with their eyebrows raised wondering is that it? It is. That’s the end. You’ve reached the end and you must stop.

Saying goodbye

Perhaps that’s not your story. Perhaps for you you look at your content and notice both how difficult it is to continue creating and how little motivation you have to go on. That’s your terminous. It’s time to step away, leave the blog to become a bloated corpse among the Internet’s billions of others and start on a new project, perhaps. Or not.

You could, like me, learn that keeping up with a blog is too damn hard and time-consuming. That it’s much more practical to work on your content that'll actually pay the bills. If blogging works for you and you’re able to keep going, forever writing, forever creating and even monetizing, then you’re a better man than I. Jerk.

There are lots of people who say things like “live your dreams” or “keep trying even though your blog has become unspectacular.” There are those who suggest that continuing to write is the only way for your writing to improve, your muse to return or to find a new muse all together. 

Based on my experience, 100% of blogs fail. Perhaps due to laziness, perhaps due to a lack of comments and feedback but mostly because of laziness. Because producing content is HARD. After all, if your blog is too easy, if it’s flowing forth from your keyboard strokes there are probably one of two things happening: 1) you’re an experienced and trained writer capable of producing content despite writer’s block or 2) You’ve just started your blog and haven’t exited the honeymoon period. Yet.

How long before you abandon your blog? Do you have any blogs that you’ve worked on for years without fail? How do you keep going?

I love Passpack.

Mostly because I forget a lot of things. Like constantly. I also have like five million log-ins. It's a bad combination, really. And since I don't want to be hacked every three days, I can't use the same password over and over again.

And here's where Passpack always saves the day. Sweet sweet Passpack. Better than my memory, and "more durable than paper."

Oh Passpack, how I love thee. Let me count the ways.

I don't know how many times I've forgotten my Skype password. Seriously, I'm like usually auto-logged in, so in the rare times I do sign in -- Passpack.

I have a domain name. And sometimes I need to log-in to check on things. Like once every two years. And when I do -- Passpack.

I use PayPal from time to time. And since PayPal is basically just buying stuff on the Internet with one password, I do like to have a nice secure password. And secure passwords are usually hard to remember, but I don't have to because -- Passpack.

Sign up. Log in.

Add passwords. Save passwords. Repeat as necessary. It takes two passwords to get in, but I can remember two if I don't have to remember 98 other ones.

Add friends if you want, honestly I don't. Let's keep this between you and me, Passpack, OK? 100 passwords and free free free. Pay a little more for other options, if you're business-minded. 

I can't count how many times Passpack has saved me, reminded me of number and letter combinations forgotten, and helped me log in to Pinterest that one time. It's a life saver.

Nine months ago, I went through a major life change.  I had my first baby.

My baby is a fun and spunky little guy named Carter. Prior to having Carter, I had no idea how work and family life would mesh together. But looking at my situation now, I couldn’t be happier having both. Sometimes the balance between the two can be tricky, but the reward far outweighs the headaches.

Since every working parent’s story is different, I thought it would be good to interview a few other people in the “biz” (developers and designers), and have them share their point of view on combining work and family life. To kick this “Working with Baby” series off, I first wanted to share my own story.

What was your work schedule like before having a baby? What was it like during maternity/paternity leave? How has it changed post-baby?

Before having Carter, I worked Monday through Thursday from eight to four. After having Carter, I took nine weeks of maternity leave and then slowly eased back into work. For the first six months, I worked from home on Monday and Thursday a total of ten hours a week. Now I work fifteen hours a week—a full day on Mondays and from ten to two on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I work from home most of the time, but on Monday, I go into the office from eleven to four. While it can be a bit tricky for my co-workers to remember when I am around, I have really enjoyed the variety in my schedule.

Has your job position or type of work changed since having a baby?

One of the things I take pride in at Q Digital Studio is all my co-workers do their jobs very well. For example, all the front-end developers know the latest CSS3, HTML5 and mobile development tips and tricks. Working only fifteen hours a week, I found it challenging to stay current.

But when my boss approached me to see if I would be interested in helping her manage more projects while still doing some design work and HTML/CSS updates, I said, “Heck, yes!” In this new role, I feel like I can serve our clients better, while still making a contribution to the Q Digital Studio team.

What were your expectations about becoming a working parent, pre-baby? How have they changed after having a child?

I knew I would be a healthier person, and thus a better mom, if I took some time away from Carter. I just wasn’t one hundred percent sure work would be the best outlet.

To be honest, I didn’t know if I was going to like working once I had a baby. I have friends who intended to return to work after having a baby, but within the first few months, they quit and chose to stay at home. I knew I would be a healthier person, and thus a better mom, if I took some time away from Carter. I just wasn’t one hundred percent sure work would be the best outlet.

Now post-baby, I can say working part time is a perfect fit for me. Taking care of a baby is a lot of new things all at once. And with my work, I feel a lot of comfort in the familiarity of doing something I have done for eight years. I find work to be stimulating -- whether it be interacting with my co-workers, clients or the projects I am working on.

Tell us about a typical day in your life as a working parent.

As you can see from my work schedule, there really is no “typical day.” But since my schedule is at least the same on Wednesdays and Thursdays, I suppose one of those days is my “typical day.”

Carter and I generally wake up around six to hang out with his dad before he goes to work.  During this time I do laundry or dishes, feed Carter and eat breakfast. After dad leaves, Carter watches me work out. In particular, he thinks it is a fun game to scoot in between my legs while I do lunges. Around nine, I lay Carter down for a nap and jump in the shower. Right before I start work at ten, I feed Carter one more time. From ten to two, I work in the spare bedroom. And around two, I close down shop and hang out with Carter the rest of the day.

How have you arranged your child care (daycare, nanny, work from home, etc)? How would you arrange it in an ideal world?

I feel incredibly fortunate to have a couple friends, who either nanny full time or are in graduate school and need a part-time job. One friend watches Carter on Mondays and then another friend watches him on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Since both girls watch Carter at my house, I get the pleasure of hearing Carter interact with his nannies. I can’t help but smile when I hear him squeal with delight at them. Not to mention both nannies have strengths which are unique and different from mine. I feel like Carter is better person for spending time with them.

How do you try to achieve a happy work-life balance?

I can’t stress it enough—check in with someone who can help you set boundaries. 

Every once in awhile—especially when first I took on the new role of client management—I found myself  struggling to separate work and family life. So I told my boss that  I don’t feel fully present with work nor fully present with Carter. So she and I created some boundaries that help me preserve my time with both. Even if your boss isn’t able to assist you in creating these boundaries, I highly recommend talking to a friend or family member who will help you brainstorm ways to set them.

What's one thing you wished someone had told you before you became a working parent?

I just have to tell myself when I get into my crazy, anxious spiral, “Breathe. It will all be okay.”

Relax. 

Sometimes I get pretty stressed at night when I start thinking about work, the chores I have to do at home and finding time to hangout with Carter, my husband and friends. But I have found that in the end, it all seems to work out without having to jump through too many hoops.  I just have to tell myself when I get into my crazy, anxious spiral, “Breathe. It will all be okay.”

Any other words of wisdom or thoughts you would pass along to other future working parents?

I had a friend tell me that if there are any major decisions or life changes you want to make, give it two months and make sure you really feel that way before you do anything. I think this is great advice. 

I won’t say I haven’t had moments where I thought working with a baby is too complicated, and I just want to give up. But those thoughts only last for about one minute. For the other fourteen hours and fifty-nine minutes of work I think, “I love being a working mom.” So give yourself time.

The adjustment to having a baby is huge, but the adventure is well worth it.

Two of my favorite aspects of using ExpressionEngine are Matrix and Safecracker. In terms of making life easier, they're amazing.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, Safecracker is a fantastic stand-alone entry form - it enables entering entries into EE from the front-end. If you haven't had the opportunity to explore Safecraker, I highly recommend doing so.

In addition to Safecracker, I'm also a huge fan of Pixel and Tonic's Matrix.  As an add-on, Matrix is one of the most timesaving  (and headache-saving) tools to have at your disposal.

Have complex data that you would love to have all in one field? Matrix is the key. It's super easy to output all your data on the front-end as well with its handy tag pairs -- it just makes so many tasks a breeze.

But what if you want to be able to enter and edit on the front-end?

I'll note that you can use Matrix's {field:field_name} method and that will output a table Matrix like in the Control Panel, but it may not provide what you're looking for in terms of look.

There’s a more creative way to do all this, and with a little more flexibility.

Submitting rows to a Matrix: An entry perspective

Understanding how Matrix rows are added is key to understanding how to edit then.

Assuming you have a two column Matrix, you'll have three inputs to manage, and code that looks like this:

{exp:safecracker channel="your_channel" return="/URL_TITLE"}
<input type="hidden" name="title" id="title" value="{current_time format='%M %j%S %Y'}" maxlength="100" onkeyup="liveUrlTitle();">
<input type="hidden" name="url_title" id="url_title" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="entry_date" id="entry_date" value="{entry_date}">

<div class="fields" id="sortable">
 
  <div class="field"><!--THIS IS A MATRIX ROW-->
   <input class="new_row_id" type="hidden" name="field_name[row_order][]" value="row_new_0">
   <input type="text" name="field_name[row_new_0][col_id_1]" value="{col_field_name_1}">
   <input type="text" name="field_name[row_new_0][col_id_2]" value="{col_field_name_2}">
   <span class="delete_row">[x]</span>
  </div>
  
</div>
<div class="buttons">
  <input id="new" type="button" value="add row">       
  <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</div>
{/exp:safecracker}

You'll want to replace “field_name” and “col_field_name_x” with your field names, and “col_id_x” with your column IDs. If you need to find your row IDs, you can either look in the database, or use the {field:field_name} tag and look at what it outputs.

The first input sets the row as a new row, while the following rows are your column data inputs. If we just wanted to create 3 rows of static input, we would duplicate the div “field” two more times and change “row_new_0” in the first input to increase by one. For example, the second iteration of the div would be “row_new_1,” and the third would be “row_new_2.” Since we will be mimicking the CP function, we'll want an “add row” function attached to the button with ID “new.”

It’s important to understand that “row_new_x” does NOT indicate the row_id – it is an identifier to separate it from all other rows that you will be adding. The row ID will be designated from the count in the database.

Next we’re going to add the following to our file:

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.8.1.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.1/jquery-ui.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
    $( "#sortable" ).sortable({
     containment: "parent"
    });
});
$(document).ready(function(){

$('.fields').on('click', '.delete_row', function(e){

  e.preventDefault();
  $(this).parent().remove();
  if ($('.fields div').length < 1){
   $('#new').val('create first row');
  }
});

var $clone = $(".fields div:eq(0)").clone().html();
var $button_txt = $('#new').val();
count = 1;
$('#new').on('click', function(e){
  e.preventDefault();
  if ($('#new').val() != $button_txt){
   $('#new').val($button_txt);
  }
  var $counter = count++;
  var $new_row = $clone.replace(/row_new_0/g,'row_new_'+$counter);

  $(".fields").append('<div class="field">'+$new_row+'</div>');
});

});

</script>

What we're doing is when clicking the “add row” button, a clone of div.field has been created, and all “row_new_x” values are being replaced by the counter integer. This way, when we add, reorder or delete we will not have a duplicate number -- and therefore no lost data.

I've also added a delete row function and text change for the “row” button, so if all rows are deleted, the user is prompted to create a “first” one. Since we're using drag-and-drop for sorting, it's also good to note that the order in which the rows will be saved is based on the HTML DOM order.

There it is: simple with a hint of complexity.

Change existing Matrix rows for an entry: An editing perspective

Editing from an entry detail view is similar to the way in which we normally output Matrix data. It would look something like this:

{exp:safecracker channel="recipes" return="/URL_TITLE" url_title="{segment_1}"}
<input type="hidden" name="title" id="title" value="{title}" size="50" maxlength="100" onkeyup="liveUrlTitle();">
<input type="hidden" name="url_title" id="url_title" value="{url_title}" maxlength="75" size="50">
<input type="hidden" name="entry_date" id="entry_date" value="{entry_date}" maxlength="23" size="25">

<div class="fields" id="sortable">

  {recipes_ingredients}
  <div class="field"><!--THIS IS A MATRIX ROW-->
   <input type="hidden" name="field_name[row_order][]" value="row_id_{row_id}" />
   <input type="text" id="field_name" name="field_name[row_id_{row_id}][col_id_1]" value="{col_field_name_1}">
   <input type="text" id="field_name" name="field_name[row_id_{row_id}][col_id_2]" value="{col_field_name_2}">
   <input type="checkbox" name="field_name[deleted_rows][]" value="row_id_{row_id}">delete
  </div>
  {/recipes_ingredients}

</div>
<div class="buttons">
   <input type="submit" value="Save">
</div>
{/exp:safecracker}

Our row identifiers are now defined by the row ID. Again, we can sort via jQuery and the rows will be saved in the HTML DOM order in which you have arranged them. The input with name “field_name[deleted_rows][]” will delete the row if checked, then submitted. You could also use Ajax to submit the form and delete– be creative!

Now you can utilize two of the most useful (not to mention just plain cool) ExpressionEngine modules/add-ons together to make magic happen. Let your imagination run wild and find creative uses for using Matrix on the front-end through Safecracker.

If you want to be found by like-minded individuals you need to self-market like crazy on Twitter, Facebook, and what-have-you. You have to tag and meta tag, StumbleUpon, and pray that someone will find you.

Blogging can be pretty intimidating.

Medium hopes to change that.

Created by Twitter co-founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, Medium is a self-publishing platform that is “optimized for quality, rather than popularity.” It’s like a group blog, organized into collections (both public and private). Using a combination of algorithms and human interaction, Medium features the “best” or most popular posts on the front page.

There are no comments, no likes, no reblogs, no reader count. It’s all just writing for writing’s sake. 

Log in with Twitter and you’re ready to go.

I’ve used Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr to date (and have abandoned all but Tumblr). I think that Medium could easily join the “pantheon” of blogging platforms if it integrated some sort of tagging or search function. While there are “Collections,” they seem sort of random. I like that there’s a front page, sure. But I also like to look around and search for writing on specific topics.

Medium is beautiful, simple, clean. When creating a new post, you can choose a featured image. Or not. Add a headline, subhead. Format the text with italics, bolds, blockquotes and hyperlinks. Smart quotes and em dashes are built in, so all you editors out there can breathe a sigh of relief.

It’s not merely a WYSIWYG editor. What you are typing is exactly what it will get. You’re not just creating the words, you’re creating the entire package -- presentation and all.

But the presentation is limited. You can’t change fonts, you can’t change the size of the text. You can’t underline or strikethrough or create tables. Rumor has it that bullet points are on the way.

It would be nice to have a little more freedom to customize, but I can also see a certain kind of freedom in not agonizing over font choices and paragraph spacing. I do also enjoy being able to peek under the hood and format a bit with HTML if the need arises - Medium doesn’t allow it at all. At least not yet.

I’d like to see Medium add a little more flexibility while still maintaining the simplicity and/or lack of distractions.

What I like:

• No videos, animated GIFs or music. It’s all about the writing.
• No ads. It just looks so clean.
• Simplicity. Again, it just looks so clean.
• No likes, reblogs, and no pokes. I like social, but not all aspects.

What I don’t like:

• No comments. For a “community” environment, there’s no feedback at all.
• Formatting is limited. I’m all for the clean look, but a little more creative control would be nice.
• No tagging or search feature. Give me a chance to find those hidden gems.
• No following capability. If I find someone I like, I’d like to keep track of their writing.

Have you used Medium yet? What do you think? 

Is Facebook the new Internet Explorer?

A funny question, really. Obviously Facebook isn’t a browser. Nor is Internet Explorer a social media site. But they’re both ubiquitous, ungainly, and losing favor with users all around the world.

A spunky browser with all kinds of potential

Internet Explorer was released in August 1995 as an add-on to Windows ’95. Even after “superior” browsers (some might say) like Safari, Firefox, and Chrome were released, many still use IE and most developers still code for it. Perhaps it’s because people just don’t like to change or simply because it’s packaged with all PCs.

Say what you want, it’s still there and people still swear by it (see my former boss and all of Korea). In fact, you’ll be amazed when you check out this infograph of Countries by most used web browser. As of December 2012, Internet Explorer used to be a big deal. Used to.

IE had releases fairly consistently at first. Their initial offerings were generally cutting edge for the time. They worked hard to make sure their browser used new technology, were patched regularly, and they consistently beat out other browsers around the world. That is, until they kind of stopped giving a crap around IE 6.

Social media and data collection, a love story

Facebook was launched in February 2004 to select colleges and opened its doors to anyone 13 or older with a valid email address in September 2006. It too was a revelation. People jumped the Myspace and Friendster ships and signed up en masse leading us to today where Facebook has over 1 billion users around the world.

That’s an incredible amount of users in less than a decade. It would be safe to say that Facebook is the omnipresent social media site across the globe.

Facebook’s initial business model was focused on social media. They connected people and allowed for the sharing of photos and for my ex’s to stalk me more easily (and vice versa).  It once had a fairly neutral persona. But then they monetized. And then they took their company public. Now people are seriously questioning their motives.

The tortoise, the hare and IE7

When Mozilla Firefox was first launched for PCs, many programmers and developers jumped ship from IE. Mozilla was open-source and free to mess with. And best of all, its 2001 0.9.5 update offered the ability to use tabs while browsing.  But it took years before everyone else caught on to this massive shift in browser interface.

Microsoft eventually responded to the tabbed browsing innovation with Internet Explorer 7… in 2006. And when they announced the release, they bragged that they made this “huge innovation” with something called “tabbed browsing,” Now we’re onto IE 10, and not much has really changed. People still use it, but for how much longer?

Internet Explorer may have shot ahead of the rest in the beginning, but Microsoft seemed content to rest on its laurels while other browsers slowly and steadily moved ahead.

And like IE, Facebook took off in the beginning of the social media gold rush, but how long until the (data)mine runs dry?

Sit back, relax, and gather intel

Facebook hasn’t changed much in the last two years.

Facebook's critics have pointed to an ever-widening net cast by the company in an effort to gather as much information about their users as possible in those years. The goal is to monetize their users in any way possible.

Whether you agree with the detractors or not, Facebook hasn’t made any truly innovative updates in the social media sphere in ages. Facebook has become a data-mining site, pure and simple. How long will it be able to gather data when it offers nothing of value to its users?

Sure, Zuckerberg recently announced Graph, its social search function to little fanfare, and much speculation that it would simply further its data-mining prerogative.  Some fear Graph will be used inappropriately, but most seem to think it’s shrug-worthy.

Internet Explorer and Facebook: everyone uses them. Or at least they used to.

Is Facebook set to become the next Internet Explorer?