We’re excited to announce something very big: Instagram + Facebook bit.ly/Hslpv2

— Instagram (@instagram) April 9, 2012

For me, Instagram is a cut above the rest. It’s an inspiring application. It always brings a smile and offers some inspiration on a daily basis. As a early adopter (signing up on the first day it launched), it has been truly awesome to see how far it has come. The effort the whole team has put in over the last 2 years is truly mind-blowing.

Seeing people rage tweeting this morning sure made me think about what the future holds for Instagram.

Instead of joining in I gave it the 5 minutes.

“So next time you hear something, or someone, talk about an idea, pitch an idea, or suggest an idea, give it five minutes. Think about it a little bit before pushing back, before saying it’s too hard or it’s too much work. Those things may be true, but there may be another truth in there too: It may be worth it.”

Also being a Gowalla fan (also acquired by Facebook) which has turned out to be more of a data acquisition than a service integration to their platform (so far), I have a feeling that this Instagram one will be the opposite. I think it will be worth it. Well, I really hope so…

These days when I hear of someone buying someone I tend to fall back on the wise words by Mark Christiansen (who is the creator of Pinboard) – Don’t Be A Free User.

Mark’s brilliant post basically preachers that if you enjoy a service that is free, why not yell at the developers to start charging so us users don’t get screwed.

Mark’s handy little chart.

I wonder where Instagram would be today if they decided to go down a paid model? Would they be worth 1 billion smackaroos?

I am sure all the awesome people that are employed at both companies are hoping for the best outcome and never want to see it fail. Here’s hoping they take it to the next level.

One thing I do ask of all involved is not to merge Facebook’s privacy preference with the simplistic settings that Instagram has today.

Long live the inspiring application that sparks my daily creativity.

____
Further Reading:
Instagram’s blog post
Mark Zuckerberg’s post

I pledged to myself when I redesigned my site that I would try and do a blog once a fortnight. I even made a small pact with my fellow co-worker at the time. I managed to uphold the pact until we went our separate ways, just before the end of 2011.

Since then, so much has been going on – new job, chasing old clients for absurd amounts of money, working on Web Design Weekly and a couple of other little side projects whilst still trying to make the most of living in Sydney.

Yet none of the above really are good enough excuses to stop hitting the publish button. So here’s to turning off the social media streams, putting the headphones in, flicking on some cool beats, opening up IA Writer and busting out some thoughts.

Finding the time can seem overwhelming sometimes but if it’s something you enjoy doing then making the time should be easy!

—
This post is my small way of participating in Ideas of March.

A refresher course, followed by a few jumps repeating some of the early AFF stages and I am loving it.

Last weekend I managed to convince my instructor (Fully Sik) to wear my GoPro on one of my jumps. As a result I managed to get my 18th jumped filmed, which is my first ever filmed skydive.

Doing a refresher of AFF Stage 7.
Jumping with Fully Sik. Exit at 8.500 ft.
A little back flip, 360 and a tiny track. 

Good times!

So far this year I haven’t really kept up with twitter due to a new full time job but I have been getting more and more into checking out GitHub. Maybe its just me, but it seems to have gone into overdrive lately. So many active passonate people spending countless hours pouring there knowledge and skills into pushing the web forward.

Maybe its the year of GitHub…

Most days in between real work I spend time either exploring new commits, comments, issues, new repositories or discovering amazing coders to follow.

If your on GitHub, be sure to keep an eye on these passionate coders!

Nicolas Gallagher – https://github.com/necolas

Mathias Bynens – https://github.com/mathiasbynens

Remy Sharp – https://github.com/remy

Scott Jehl – https://github.com/scottjehl

Divya Manian – https://github.com/nimbupani

Ryan Seddon – https://github.com/ryanseddon

Dave Rupert – https://github.com/davatron5000

Alex Sexton – https://github.com/SlexAxton

David DeSandro – https://github.com/desandro

Paul Irish – https://github.com/paulirish

Chris Coyier – https://github.com/chriscoyier

Ben Schwarz – https://github.com/benschwarz

Adam Stacoviak – https://github.com/adamstac

Lea Verou – https://github.com/LeaVerou

Of course this is a bias list that suit my interests but I decided to pick a list of people rather than repositories to follow (maybe another post). Seeing how the above interact on GitHub (coding skills, thinking and general passion) is really inspiring and I am sure we can all learn a trick or two.

Happy coding, committing and making the web a better place.

Who do you think is worth following? Please comment below.

During the last few weeks the feeling of leaping out of a plane again has been occupying my mind. With a total of 16 jumps I am keen to get back into it in the new year and progress through the accreditation levels.

Now that I have re-located to Sydney hopefully after a few pay checks I will dust off the log book and head straight to 14,000 ft.

Bring on the terminal velocity!

Hanging 10 @ Bondi

Penny Farthing

Raining Apples

Banksy

At present I am really digging taking photos on a regular basis. For the last year or so I have been keen to make the splash and get a digital SLR to take my photography to the next level. But of late I have started to shy away from that idea as the ease of whipping out my phone and taking a half decent photo is becoming more and more appealing with each photo.

Above is a small selection of some of my favourite shots that I have taken during the last 6 months. All photo’s were taken with an iPhone 4 and enhanced with Instagram.

Happy snapping!

Instagram username – jake_bresnehan

Epic video by Dave Otto on the raddest wave in Tasmania. Video via – shipsterns.com.

It’s pretty simple and brings your WordPress blog alive with ease.

Recent Post Short Code In WordPress

1

Add this code to your functions.php file.

2

Add this short-code to the page where you would like to pull in your recent posts.

3

Ta-Da!

To find out more about WordPress shortcodes, check out the Shortcode API Codex.

Well there is a very simple technique you can use to develop your sites locally and will no doubt increase your development time. You can edit directly on my local machine, pick up either device and just reload Safari. BOOM!

First off, make sure that your iPhone/iPad and your Mac are using the same wireless access point, as they will need to be on the same local network.

Hopefully you will already have MAMP installed. If not head over to the MAMP website and do the download thing for free. This will install a local server environment in a matter of seconds on your machine.

1

Retrieve your IP address from System Preferences > Network.

2

Open up MAMP and click on the Preferences… button.

3

Select the ‘Ports’ tab and make note of the Apache Port number.

4

Select the ‘Apache’ tab and set the Document Root to be your development folder.

5

Vist IP address + Apache Port number on you iPhone/iPad (192.168.1.104:8888).

6

Happy Hacking!

Note: These directions are designed for a Mac. Sorry non-mac users.

After listening to episode 13 of Creatiplicity with Nathan Smith it put even more doubt in my mind that the title of “Web Designer” was for me.

Nathan explain his role as the UX developer of HP as:

“UX developer is shorthand for designer / front end developer.

Technically everything is UX.

If a database query is running slow and the page takes longer to load because it’s not cached, then that’s bad UX.”

Nathan goes on to explain Jared Spool’s take on UX.

“Jared Spool explains UX like air conditioning.

If you go to a conference meeting, before you start you don’t sit down and say thank you to the person who set the thermostat at 21 degrees.

‘Thanks. It’s a perfect temperature, thanks. I don’t need a t-shirt, I’m not too hot, I’m not too cold. It’s perfect. Thank you.’

No one ever does that. They only complain when it’s wrong. Good user experience is transparent. You don’t know that a lot of time and thought has gone into it because it just works the way you thought it should and it just intuitively works.

So that’s the role of UX, versus pure front end or just visual design.”

The way Nathan and Jared describe UX really hits the spot in what I strive to do with every product. Hence, why I am questioning my title.

At the time of writing I would broadly categorise my skills to be:

• HTML (including HTML5)
• CSS (including CSS3)
• JavaScript (jQuery, jQuery Mobile)
• Content Management Systems (WordPress)
• Mobile application development (Web-based)
• Design (Web and Mobile interfaces)
• Responsive Design principles
• Accessibility
• Usability
• User testing
• Analytics

As well as a basic knowledge of …

• Ruby on Rails
• Start-ups
• Marketing

No doubt this list will evolve, adapt, expand or contract over time as the industry moves forward at bull-dust speed.

So after many lines of code, cups of coffee and lack of sleep I have settled for the title that I believe is the best representation of my skills if I had to choose one – “Web Designer”.

I believe if I claim to be a “Web Designer” and am not considering all the other aspects of web design, I am deluded. All the other titles are a given and will be reflected through my words and work and that’s why I’m sticking with the title “Web Designer”.