Patience is a virtue, they say, but it's a virtue I don't have the patience to master. That's why several weeks ago, when a PayPal transfer didn't go through to my bank within the expected 2-3 days, I promptly made a Skype call to the bank to see what's up.
It's worth mentioning that I don't have the most traditional banking setup. I transfer money from PayPal to the New York branch of my bank in Thailand. I've also just started doing this, and it was the first time I'd transferred from PayPal directly instead of going through another bank first. Delays perhaps should have been expected. But then, that'd take patience.
So I call the bank long distance during my evening so it's daytime in the US, and count my blessings that Skype calls are cheap. Moments later, I'm talking to a teller who explains that my account isn't showing any pending transfers, but then says that they're experiencing delays now.
Her voice cracks. "I'm sorry, but we're in a temporary location due to floods, and that's delayed everything."
The world spins slower. I suddenly feel cold, heartless.
Banks aren't supposed to be worthy of our compassion, and digital transactions should just work, right? I press a button online, and expect cash to come out of my local ATM days later with no problem, always, every time. It's just bits and numbers, and if Google can do searches in 3 microseconds, then the bank is just old fashioned if they can't get my money to me as fast and cheap as possible.
And yet, it takes humans to keep those bits flowing. It takes a lady at a branch of my bank in New York, someone who was displaced thanks to Sandy, to make sure my transactions are processed. Perhaps there's an easier way for the bank to do it, a more efficient process, but no matter. Right now, there's a real human making sure my click actually does what it's supposed to do. The thought that Sandy had affected real people that process my bank transactions never crossed my mind.
In the end, the transfer went through, thanks to the amazing people at my bank that kept working through Sandy, a storm I totally forgot about when I rung their number from Bangkok. A storm that affected their lives, and made the people behind the bits more real.
~
This Thanksgiving weekend, my Dad came down with stroke-like symptoms, leading to a late-night ER visit, one night in the hospital, and numerous scans. Thankfully, today the doctors said he was fine, thanks to the marvel of technology that is a MRI scan. It turned an image of his brain into bits, and let the doctor see that his brain was fine. Blood tests turned samples of his blood into bits of data that showed things he needs to keep tabs on going forward.
Yeah, just bits. But some rather important bits, bits that mattered far more to me than a stray bank transfer.
Of all things, it was Windows XP and IE6 that got all of my Dad's medical info from lab to technician to doctor. The very OS and browser we all love to decry fun at online was now serving a live-changing function for my family. It was keeping a vast medical center running, day in and day out. Ancient, outdated bits were still working, giving me a new perspective on just how tough it would be to move organizations like this to new computing platforms.
And in the end, it wasn't the raw bits that mattered so much, or the XP Bliss background that filled the doctor's screen. The results could have been written in Comic Sans, for all I cared. It was the people - the technicians, receptionists, doctors - that used those bits to get us an appointment, analyze Dad's data, and tell us what to do, that really mattered.
~
We often decry banks for being greedy, and wonder aloud how people could be so lazy as to never upgrade past IE6. We get frustrated with web pages take more than a few seconds to load, are frustrated when an online order gets delayed, and expect doctors to instantly know how to help us (or else expect we can Google Doctor our own selves). When our favorite app breaks, or support doesn't email back in 1 minute, or the app we want to buy hasn't been reviewed by anyone yet, or mobile internet is flaky, we're frustrated, annoyed, and worse.
The people using old tech? They're luddites. The weather knocks out a popular site? Well, they surely should find some way to keep the power on, or else we'll move our business elsewhere.
You know what? It's not all that simple. There's people behind those bits, people with real lives and problems and time constraints, and sometimes there's a real-world explanation for our tech problems. And sometimes, there's a better reason for things we see as problems than we'd ever think of behind the comfort of our browsers.
One day, you'll be on the bad side of the bits. Or the good side of old bits. And it'll all make a bit more sense.
There's a few books that have made me stop and think more about my writing, and the overall strategy behind the sites I write for. I first started studying content strategy to improve my work writing copy for startups when I worked at CoSupport, but the things I've learned from these books have helped me with my writing and editing work ever sense. I'm still not a great writer, in any sense, but these books have been helpful to me, and I hope they're helpful to you as well.
This is the first book that made me seriously think different about how I approach writing and editing. It'll introduce you to Content strategy, if you've never heard of the term, and will help you rethink how you think about content. You'll go away thinking about why to write what you write.
The Elements of Content Strategy led me to this book, and it became the English textbook that taught me more than any English textbook I ever used in college. It takes you, step by step, though your content and how you should plan, edit, and more. It's a goldmine of ideas for making your online writing better, whether you're writing individual articles or editing a whole site. The main things it taught me were to write more concisely (still learning), and have a constant flow to my writing. It's big and in-depth, but it's good.
Sure, it might be derided for being outdated or having wrong advice, and I definitely don't apply everything it teaches. But it is a great refresher on writing proper English, filled with tips on things that most of us totally forget after leaving English I in school. Plus, it's free, so it'll only cost you the time to refresh your memory. It really is good.
This book is about design, but I found that reading it inspired me to write better. It's described as "A fieldguide for makers. A love letter to design." That seems a pretty adequate description for me. If you think of your writing as a craft, as something you do to express your creativity, then this is a book that will inspire you.
At least, it has and continues to inspire me.
Read the first chapter, How and Why, online for free
A Pen and Pencil, or a Blank Document and Your Keyboard | you
Oh wait, that's not a book. Not yet, anyhow.
The very best way to improve your writing is to write, and write, and write. That's why I'm writing this article, and why you should go write something right now. Then publish it, or throw it away. It really doesn't matter. Just making yourself put words down, and then doing that every day, is the very best thing you can do for your writing.
A fascinating interview with the designer behind iA Writer, the markdown writing app I use daily (even to write this post). The interview covers everything from his typography work, thoughts on responsive design, nostalgia in digital design, and why information architecture is here to stay.
Also, if you haven't read it yet, be sure to check out his great interview on The Verge: "Good design is invisible".
It's been a long time in coming, but I'm excited to be finally relaunching Techinch.com and writing on here again after an extremely long hiatus. Major changes take time, and this one definitely has, but it should definitely be for the better!
After starting out blogging on WordPress.com, moving to self-hosted WordPress was the obvious next step when I wanted to do more with my site. WordPress is still a great CMS, and it keeps getting better each year. The only problem is, it's complex. I never could feel like I really knew how to dig into its guts and change things I wanted to change. When I wanted a more flexible site design, I switched to WooThemes Canvas and designed a semi-unique without touching almost any code. That's nice and easy, but it's not what I wanted. I could have taken the time to learn more of the code-side of WordPress, but even though I know the WordPress admin screens inside and out, creating my own themes and plugins seemed too complex.
Over time, my writing workflow had changed as well. I started out blogging with Windows Live Writer back when I used a PC. I then started writing directly in the rich text editor in WordPress, before switching to using the WordPress HTML editor more often. Now, I typically write in Markdown-formatted plain text in iA Writer, export my post to HTML, and paste it in WordPress to publish. I wanted a way to write directly in Markdown and use plain text files in a CMS I could understand and customize as I wanted.
Enter Kirby. It's one of the simplest ways to create a site you could imagine. WordPress boasts a 5 minute install, but Kirby really delivers. Actually, if you have Git on your server, you could have a new, basic Kirby site deployed in under a minute. It's just plain files, so your pages and articles can be written in markdown-formatted plain text, and your theme can be coded with an incredibly simple API. I can't remember how I initially discovered Kirby, but once I saw how simple it was to use, I knew I wanted to move my site to it.
Moving from WordPress to Kirby was easier than I expected, thanks to the Kirby WordPress exporter. Before switching, I imported all of the comments on Techinch to Disqus, though I didn't add Disqus to my new theme because I thought I'd give it a try having no comments for now at least. I also kept my old wp-content folder in the top of my site directory so old images in articles still work as before. Then, since I wanted a fully new theme, I took quite a bit longer playing with CSS and PHP to get a theme working like I wanted. It's still a work in progress, but I think it's good enough now to get back to writing, and I'll keep tweaking it over time. I also wanted to switch to a VPS so I could use Dropbox to sync files to Techinch (another awesome feature of a file-based CMS like Kirby), but that proved too much to bite off at once. One thing at a time.
For now, Techinch is powered by:
Kirby - The amazing markdown flat-file CMS that's turning plain text files into everything you see on here.
Dreamhost - Shared hosting thats honestly worked quite good for me.
iA Writer - The best (in my opinion) focused Markdown writing app, which I'm using to write all articles I publish, here and at AppStorm.
Sublime Text - The code editor I use to write/edit any CSS/HTML/PHP and other code files on Techinch and elsewhere.
Transmit - The truck that, um, transmits my freshly pinned articles to the server to be published.
Adobe Source Sans Pro - The font I'm using (in both light and regular weights) for all of the typography on Techinch, via Google Fonts.
Influads - The ad network that helps support Techinch with stylish ads about great tech products and services.
The best thing about switching to Kirby has been the great community that's already formed around the new CMS. Bastian Alleger, the developer behind Kirby, and Niklaus Gerber, the designer behind some of the best Kirby themes released so far, have both been very helpful in getting my site switched to Kirby, so I'd like to take a second to say Thanks to both of them!
With that, it's time to get back to writing. Expect to see a lot more articles published here going forward. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more to come!
While I much prefer to work with my Mac, I still use a PC netbook, mainly for Skype calls and light working away from the office. I've got a Samsung N150 netbook running Windows 7, complete with the random smattering of apps preloaded by OEMs. Now, really, the netbook isn't so bad for its specs, but I must admit it's a far cry from the performance of even an iPad 1.
But, being the good owner I am, I decided to check for updates and let Windows try to keep itself running. I thought I'd check out the included BatteryCare app while I was waiting, and it, too, decided it wanted to update. Fine, whatever: update thyself, and I'll wait. And then I was dumbfounded to see the Apple Update icon pop up on my taskbar ... only to notice that the BatteryCare app that Samsung included was using Apple's Update Icon!
Congrats, Samsung. This netbook, white plastic and red lid and bulging battery, would never be mistaken for an Apple product. But you still had to rip off something from Apple in it!
So being the good blogger I am, I hastily took a screenshot to save the stolen icon for posterity. And at that exact moment, the BatteryCare updater crashed.
Guess they still haven't figured out how to copy Apple's software stability yet...
Update: As pointed out in the comments, BatteryCare is not made by Samsung. However, it was bundled with the laptop when I purchased it new, apparently as part of the Battery Life Extender package Samsung distributes for the netbook. Regardless of whether it was made by Samsung or not, it was obviously sanctioned by someone in Samsung for inclusion in their netbook, which is a rather bad choice seeing as it includes an icon that was ripped off from Apple.
The Adobe Brand Experience just provided a unique look at the logic behind Adobe's icon and splash screens in Creative Suite 6. While splash screens can be annoying and a digital relic of the days before App Stores, they can also be a creative reminder of the team behind the software and their design direction for it.
For what it's worth, I think the CS6 icons and splash screens are very nice looking, and the apps load fast enough for me that they're not annoying. After taking the time to document the splash screens in CS6 Design Standard, it's neat to see the thought behind it and the splash screen designs that didn't make the break.
If you design or edit websites on your Mac or iPad, today's a day you might want to take a stroll to your local App Store and trade some of your hard-earned monies for some freshly minted apps. Because today, the designers at Panic released Coda 2, a huge new version of their venerable Mac web development app, as well as Diet Coda, an amazing web editor for the iPad.
Diet Coda should, of course, win the Name of the Year reward, but it's got plenty more features that set it apart, including the amazing custom loupe that makes placing your curser amazingly easy, a built-in SSH console, syntax highlighting, code completion, and more. Whether you're writing new code or making small tweaks to your site, it's easily one of the best ways to create and edit websites from your iPad. It makes the iPad look even more like the PC replacement it is.
Coda 2 is big news as well if you're designing websites on your Mac, with a beautiful interface, Diet Coda integration for previewing your sites on your iPad, detailed built-in documentation, and all of Transmit's FTP goodness. Coda and Transmit were some of the original apps that attracted me to the Mac, and Panic has continued to set the standard for beautifully functional apps that prove that business and dev tools don't have to look like they were designed in the ‘90's. In fact, both of the Coda apps look nice enough to tempt non-developers like yours truly to sink our cash on them.
Best of all, both apps are 50% off for today in celebration of their launch. You can get Diet Coda for your iPad for just $9.99 today, or $19.99 later, or Coda 2 from the Mac App Store for $49.99 today or $99.99 after.
Now, perhaps I'll be inspired to start improving my web dev skills...
One of the most frustrating parts of traveling abroad can be currency exchange, especially when you feel like you're getting a bad deal on the local currency. Currency differences, like time and other measurements, can be hard to adjust to, and it's easy to feel like you're losing money at every turn when traveling abroad. Dmitry Dragilev, who I've worked with on Web.AppStorm.net articles in the past, is currently on a round-the-world trip, and he just released this new iPhone app to make you feel more certain you're getting a good deal when you're getting your currency exchanged. Just enter the local exchange rate, and the amount you're trying to exchange, and it'll show you what you're really being charged for the exchange.
Yet another handy, focused app that makes your phone the best multipurpose tool ever!
