Archive for October, 2009

Posted on October 25, 2009 - by J Lane

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-25

• Drain in the kitchen has stopped. I'd like to put a hit out on whoever did the plumbing in this place. #
• Drain partially fixed. Leaks stopped, but haven't pressure tested #
• RT @lanej0: #yyj #coworking opportunities, anyone? #
• RT @Shandilliahosen: Comment on Gizmodo:"Hey balloon boy I'm happy for you and Ima let you finish but Anne frank had the best attic hideout" #
• Oh hey, there's my boat! #
• Shaping up to be a nice day http://yfrog.com/0nwl5jj #
• Think I'm nomading it today at the public library in Sidney/Serious Coffee/somewhere outdoors (possibly) #
• I'm looking at a page right now that says "Book Online and save $0.75" Seriously. $42.75 instead of $43.50 reg. Don't even bother. #
• 2 iPhone apps I'd love: BCFerries schedule/status app & BCHydro reporting/status app (both using location services pls). #
• FYI: iPhone-friendly BCHydro outage info I built: http://bit.ly/4BnjnM Seems to work best with location name (ie. Mayne) #
• At the library, and somebody's listing to my iTunes library… Hope you're enjoying whoever you are! #
• Forgot my sunglasses. How can I possibly work under such conditions!? #
• Just saw a guy driving that looked exactly like Borat. #Wawaweewa #
• RT @stop: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." —Alan Kay #
• Two military helicopters just flew overhead #thingsyoudontseeincanadaoften #
• #crushit in the wild http://yfrog.com/0cks8oj #
• Apple should offer a #mightymouse apology program. "Sorry we shipped crap, here's a discount to make it right" #
• Someday I'll have working drains again #
• Live feed on dailybooth.com is mesmerizing: http://dailybooth.com/live #
• Now starting day 3 of no-water-because-it's-got-nowhere-to-go. #
• …on a related note: love living on this island. Community is the best of anywhere I've ever lived. #
• #nytimes travel from Sept 2009 lists the Oceanwood Inn as a top place to eat. http://bit.ly/qGdeR Restaurant's been closed 3+ years #
• Not very good news about our septic system…. #
• Wonder if the BC Gov't is specifically going to ban "iPods" while driving. Could be that sales boost that the Zune's been waiting for! #
• I'ma gonna drink this tonight: http://yfrog.com/0z7qwqj #
• Phillips Crooked Tooth Pumpkin Ale: Tasting and mini-review: http://bit.ly/1dlEvB #
• Fellow Canadians: can we all just agree to ignore the US on all things copyright-policy? #
• Day 5 (or 6?) of not having a working septic system. Today, the plumber has just decided not to show up. Awesome. #
• RT @lacouvee: RT @yyjWordCamp: Registration for WordCamp Victoria 2009 is now open – http://tweeting.ca/22b #yyj #wordpress #wordcamp #
• This markup may just be toxic. It's making me sick looking at it. #
• <sarcasm>Remember folks, it's important to wrap your images in <strong> tags…</sarcasm> #
• <sarcasm>Centre justifying your Javascript will enable it to make the Kesler run in 14 parsecs</sarcasm> #
• Just had lists show up in Twitter. 'course, I rarely ever use the web interface, so maybe it's been there a while. #
• My wife is trending on twitter. Okay, so it's just her name, but still. #
• Why does my mouse always slow to a crawl when I copy large files over the network? #
• Sigh, my front yard: http://yfrog.com/4j2t9j #
• Is it true? Have I finally taken over the #1 spot on Google for my name? I'd like to thank the academy, my parents, my agent… #
• …apparently only on the .ca variant. Weird. Oh well, I'll take it. (sort of feels like a Juno or an MMVMA now though…) #

Posted on October 24, 2009 - by J Lane

HelpMeApp

Keeping with the tradition of writing about my ideas well in advance of them being ready for primetime, my next side project is going to be HelpMeApp.

One of the biggest problems I’ve run into with managing Mailmangr support is keeping a handle on the bug reports, feature requests and inquiries that come in.  I’ve got them scattered between a todo list in Basecamp, my inbox, and an online ticketing system.  I know that there are a million help desk/bug tracker apps out there, but I have yet to find one that’s really easy and great to use from both sides.  I’m currently using Zendesk, but I’m really not nuts about it (it’s just the best I’ve found so far).  I’m going to build HelpMeApp to be exactly what I want it to be, and then if other people are interested in using it, cool.  If not, at least I’ll stop dropping the ball on Mailmanagr requests!

I want something that’s equally easy for people to submit requests to, as for employees that have to respond to and manage those requests.  I had considered building HelpMeApp as another Basecamp/Highrise API project, on the back-end to manage all of the data; but I think there might be too many constraints with that idea.  You need to be able to merge requests, for example, and there’s no easy way to merge messages in Basecamp — so I don’t think the model will work.  There will likely be pretty deep integration though, just because that’s the way I roll (being able to add requesters to Highrise, and keep a history of their requests for example).

I’ve got a couple of other ideas to kick things up a notch or two.  I’ve actually managed to roll a couple of ideas that I’ve had in the past into HelpMeApp, and I think they’re pretty complimentary.  I’m pretty excited about where it’s going.

The bug/feature request list on Mailmanagr is starting to decrease in length now, so I think the time is right.  Any thoughts out there, or “must have” features?  I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’d like it to look like, but if you’ve got a “it would be really neat if”, I’m all ears.

I’m probably going to do a big of a “live blogging” of the progress, although it could be slow at times.  There’ll at least be the occasional update over at Industry Interactive about how things are going.

Posted on October 24, 2009 - by J Lane

Flu vaccine: to be or not to be

There’s been a pile of debate about whether or not people should get the flu vaccine.  It’s probably been fuelled by the media’s hype of the “life-threatening” H1N1 strain of the flu virus.  Today, I came across this video via. a friend on twitter:

At one point, the reporter tosses out the stat of a “one in a million” neurological disorder.  That might seem like pretty good odds.  According to the US census bureau, the current population of the US is 304 million — so if everyone in the US got vaccinated, 304 of them would no longer be able to talk or walk normally.  Huh.  It would suck to be one of those 304 just because I wanted to avoid getting the flu.

I’m neither pro nor anti vaccines in general.  There’s no doubt that they’ve contributed to wiping out some absolutely horrifying diseases.  That said, I don’t know whether I’d be willing to gamble the inconvenience of a flu with a one in a million change of having a permanent, life-altering condition.  With our first son, we started out getting him vaccinated on the normal routine.  He had a horrible reaction to the first round though (high fever, listlessness), so we opted to hold off on the next few shots.  He’s all caught up now, as is our younger son, but we waited until they were over the age of 1 to finish it off.  I was talking with my Doctor about it at the time (a really great, practical guy), and he pointed out that we live in Canada where the chances of catching most of the diseases you’re being vaccinated against is pretty low.  He asked if we were planning to travel anywhere in the future (no), and said that we were probably fine.  He did say that there is that risk though (one in a million?)

I pretty much get the flu at some point or another every year.  I never have an easy time of it either.  Am I going to get a flu vaccination?  Nope.  There’s a couple of factors in play in that decision:

1. I work from home, and live on an island of about 1,000 people.  Sure, people come and go from the island every day, and I make trips over to the city on a somewhat regular schedule, but I think my risk of exposure is pretty minimal.  I doubt we’ll see H1N1 make an appearance on Mayne.
2. Coughing, sneezing, and flu symptoms suck, but personally I’m not likely to die from them.  I’m not likely to become permanently impaired from the flu.  I might have a couple of weeks of low productivity (sorry in advance clients, I appreciate your patience).
3. A significant portion of people that get the flu vaccine, end up with the flu.  The way a vaccine works is that it actually hits your immune system with a low dose of the virus being vaccinated against.  Your body then generates it’s own antibodies to deal with future exposures to that virus.  If you’re a bit under the weather, or if the vaccine dose is off a bit, you could end up with an all-out flu from the vaccine.

Posted on October 21, 2009 - by J Lane

A little something for the blog

My last six or so posts are Twitter aggregations, so it’s time to post something of actual substance.  Here’s what’s up:

1. Life, kids, family: things are good.  Reilly’s really digging Kindergarten, Parker is really digging not having Reilly around all of the time (he does miss him though, I can tell).

   Rae started up Damage Control and has been kicking ass at that.  She’s pretty busy, and has found something really cool that she’s enjoying doing.

2. Work: Industry Interactive is doing well.  Work has been steady, lots of new clients, lots of local work, which has been cool.  Yeah, things have slowed down a bit, but nothing to get worried about.
3. Mailmanagr: steady growth and improvement.  New designs this year, new features being added all the time.  I’m pretty happy with the way it’s going, and the feedback I get indicates that a lot of other people are happy too.
4. Living here: still love it.  There’s the occasional challenge, but this place is amazing.  I can’t imagine raising my family anywhere else.

And that’s about it.

Posted on October 18, 2009 - by J Lane

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-18

• Playing Mario Kart Wii with a 3 and a 5 year old. It takes a while. #
• Ooops, just broke Basecamp. Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope. #
• I think I broke it… http://skitch.com/t/ad5 #
• …so much for trying to deal with Apple Mail's dumbass file attachment setup. #
• Here's my Skitch-inspired remix http://skitch.com/t/adh #
• Live bug fixing — that feels like an extreme sport. #
• How can one mail program cause so much trouble. There is zero consistency here. #
• Love it when I accidentally do something that looks really good #
• Felt like telling this to a client or two recently: http://bit.ly/3aAMya #
• *Qualified* sales leads used to mean something, why is it on the web all anyone wants is "traffic"? #
• Just got my copy of "SAM". Hey #uofl, if you're looking for ways to save money…. #
• I'll affectionately call that last bug "commas gone wild" #
• Jack Black on Sesame Street? It's too early for this #
• Oh Jack Black and Feist. Is Sesame Street turning into SNL? #
• Twitter's having some issues reposting tweets from a while ago. Or maybe it's the WP twittertools plugin… #
• Huh, this is what being a single working parent of two kids feels like. Respect to all you full timers out there. #
• I once #beatcancer in an arm wrestle #
• Thanks to @tferriss for recommending "22 immutable laws of marketing". Great read! #
• Seeking #coworking leads for #Victoria for Monday. Anyone? #
• #yyj #coworking opportunities, anyone? #

Posted on October 11, 2009 - by J Lane

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-11

• Loving Opacity on the Mac http://likethought.com/opacity/. If you're doing screen graphics, it's really useful. #
• Watching The Devils Advocate. #
• I wish #rogersatt had a computer system in which they could update phone numbers. Apparently employees only have read access… #
• …that said, I got to speak with two of the rudest #rogersatt employees this evening. Way to suck at customer service! #
• This make-a-photo-by-drawing-stick-figures thing is incredible: http://bit.ly/u0lGj (via @jasonfried) Demo video is really cool. #
• "I give up, he's improbable" #
• Hey, remember when Plesk would load quickly? Yeah, me neither. #
• Rogers no longer has monopoly over iPhone: http://ow.ly/t0jQ (via @theprovince) #
• How unfortunate that so many architects abuse Flash on their sites. And by "abuse Flash", I mean build their entire site in it. #
• #Rogers president's office has write access to the database. Awesome. Also, thank you John for being so polite and helpful. #
• Okay, I think I can finally lay that project to rest. #
• We didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning http://twitpic.com/kz3bw #
• Power is out. By tweeting this, I'm hoping that I'll soon be rendered wrong. #
• Injured B.C. children can sue despite waivers: court http://tinyurl.com/yzwrg3f . Guess I don't own my kids. Good to know. #
• Hells yeah http://twitpic.com/l25r7 #

Posted on October 4, 2009 - by J Lane

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-04

• Do we need winter tires on our buses for the winter olympics? http://tinyurl.com/ygrsl2y #
• Apple Wiki is probably the best wiki I've used in terms of usability. Also, Glee is a freakin' awesome show. #
• Your relationship is not "complicated" – it's just not over yet. (via @jquig99) (that's brilliant Jane) #
• Tweetie's upgrade price is fine. People are just used to having a big discount on upgrades — app store won't allow paid upgrades. #
• Options: 1. do work or 2. rebuild my computer because it's seriously pissing me off these days… #
• I'm sitting here thinking about how I can do a complete backup before rebuild. Or should I just trust Time Machine? Hmmmm…. #
• Today's re-install of 10.6 is brought to you by the letters G and U and the number 7 #
• Wow, that was relatively painless. Re-installed, restored (somewhat) from Time Machine. Everything good. #
• Listing to BBD. Not entirely sure why, but I'm having flashbacks to high school. #
• Starting on a real, honest to goodness subscription-based web app. I must be crazy to add something else now. #
• It's so gratifying to improve a web site so much. This one is going to be so much better when done. #
• If CRA doesn't adopt a more business-friendly approach to GST/HST interpretation & audit, HST will worsen bus. admin burdens via @CyndeeLaw #
• Awesome. P has spontaneously potty trained #poopinpottyftw #
• Businesses in ON/BC will have to track prov part of #HST & sales taxes in other provs separately in books: ask CRA auditors (via @CyndeeLaw) #