Technology advances and quirks.
- Digsby, pidgen, tweetdeck and other tools.
Well, I seem to have spent most of the week trying out new tools to get everything working better.
Digsby
I had seen some friends using it, so thought I would give it a whirl. However, it is now gone. No interface for Skype, unwanted extras, not a clean uninstall, too slow for game’s grabs, and it kept loosing the IMAP connection.Tweetdeck
Again heard that friends found it useful, but unfortunately it did not last. I am used to getting the hang of new software in about 10 minutes or less. Tweetdeck, not good, and for only one service not really worth more time. As well, the twitter pop ups were so fleeting you had to keep going back into the ‘bad’ interface to read the whole thing. Too frustrating.Pidgen
Thank you Marlon for mentioning this. I have to agree with some reviews that said it doesn’t have the greatest interface, but I’m after functional not fashion. Maybe conventional users would also be switched off by having to download additional addins for skype and twitter. I find it wonderful. It accumulates tweets until I am ready to read them, it has all the services I need and it generally stays out of the way. Cleaner interface to chats than Digsby. Buddy list does not take up much screen real estate. And it is generally out of the way.Bartab
Tired of having FireFox fall over because you want more than 1 gig of memory used in your open tabs? This is an excellent solution. Thank you Alex Leonard.Clobby
Looking for a Facebook chat tool. Try Clobby. Even though it had trouble today with servers, it really works well as a chat room with some nice features such as separating private chats out, people’s profile pictures and links to their profiles, even though you obviously only see the public content.RescueTime
This one I am much less happy about but that is entirely my own fault. I have been looking for something to show how I was spending my computer time for a while, and thought great. Um, maybe next week I can be more diligent and get some real results out of it. Thank you Sacca. Nice looking reports, and very customisable. - Did you ever want a Jetpack?
The Jetsons and their jetpacks were a marvel for all of us as youngsters. We grew up and ‘reality’ took hold. I was most inspired to see that it is about to become a reality. True, it doesn’t yet quite look as nifty but I’m now sure it will get there.
The tools might not exist right now, but dreamers and doers will keep this world turning with new delights
- Wikis
How many times do we face situations like this in our working life when it is just not necessary.
The main thought behind wikis is to create a common knowledgebase so that everyone can work from the same page, something sorely needed in today’s world of global development, disjoint work force and hours, and the sheer amount of information flowing around. True, much of that information is ephemeral and dies almost as soon as it is read.
Major firms today use wikis to keep everyone up to date, and companies can even come to a standstill if the wiki server goes down. Wikipedia controversies show that strong rules are needed for what goes where, and who can release information publicly (within its operating context) to prevent idea wars. Once those have been resolved, it is a great way to keep going effectively.
Mashable’s short review of business wikis also includes a comment for a wiki for small business’ SocialText.
- Web site work
A common part of a freelance programmer’s life is updating web-sites for clients. If you’re lucky you have created the site yourself and this can make it easier to update the site. Sometimes you did not, and it can be a blind pick-a-box to try create a fair but accurate quote to update the site. Apart from the inherent requirements of the update, the construction of the existing site ranges from straight html to someone’s experimentation in what they thought would be the next greatest framework.
A freelance programmer can restrict themselves to one type of site in order to manage this complexity, however, when you’re making this your livelihood generally more flexibility is required. And hence each site is potentially a learning curve. In addition the necessity to be able to create code quickly and efficiently to keep productivity up and costs down is an ever present concern. But more on that later.
Another factor is the amount of input the people offering the job want to put in. From wanting to specify how the database should be organised, to requiring random additional components, to specific looks this all adds to the interest factor in accepting a particular piece of work. I just pray that all these factors are expressed up front. So that endless redevelopment cycles are not required. Limiting the work to a reasonable amount is definitely a skill in a freelancer’s negotiation skills once the job has been accepted.
Four sites that I have worked on that ranged through variations on this theme are
http://www.newryparkcottage.com.au/ to add the farm stays and book now widgets.
http://www.tuningmaestro.com/sell.php to add the sell subsystem, still iterating through look and final version.
http://www.findjewishbusinesses.com/ various maintenance tasks for a lovely client.
http://www.onlinemediasupport.com/stickler/ one day we will agree with what the site should actually be. - Landing in blog world.
and all of a sudden I am here. All the thinking about what to do and how / where is out of the window, and life pushed me to get this out. Isn’t that the way?
For any US readers, LivePerson is hosting Talk Money with Jean Chatzky on January 29 at 15:00.
