It's called CouchTalks, and it's a free service to create, edit and share lists.

http://couchtalks.com

Why did we create this?

1) For fun. We are students, and love creating and thinking new services/apps. We wanted to make something simple, yet interesting enough to build some experience on.

2) There's no service like this. Not on the whole planet. We wanted to try that out. (Update: actually, this is not completely true. There are a few services similar to us, although our approach is different.)

3) We wanted a way to share some points around a topic, without the need to create a new blog post just for that. Or to tweet 5 times in a row.

4) To have a place where to write down simple ideas. Let's say you've got a pretty good idea about a project: on Couchtalks you can post it as a list, adding second thoughts and reordering priorities (yes, lists are sortables).

No need to create a "new project" on your desktop app. No need to use post-it.

So what?

We are in search of feedback :)

This service is far from perfect: we did a bunch of mistakes during the making. Some have been fixed, others have been listed (:P) to be fixed later.. but we are pretty sure there are some that we simply "can't see".

If any of you wants to give it a try and help us out, it would be awesome!

What kind of techs do we use?

• Server side magic: Rails.
• Client side awesomeness: jQuery.
• Everything is built on top of Heroku (which is both magic and awesome).

We use some of the Amazon Web Services too (S3, and SES).

Will this make us gazillionaires?

Off course!

Additional poll

Does my english suck?

Today I tried implementing an inline characters counter in jQuery.

A link is better than words: drive.nowseriously.com/experiments/jQuery-inline-characters-counter/ Go ahead, test it out, and remember that there are still some bugs..

What do you think?

[original post on forrst.com]

Quando, nel lontano 3 febbraio 2007, decisi di registrarmi a Twitter non ci capii nulla. Non sapevo chi seguire, nè perchè. Non sapevo cosa scrivere, e come.
Così iniziai a seguire gente... più o meno a caso.

Questo approccio al sistema mi ha seguito per molto tempo, condizionando la mia intera esperienza online e permettendomi di conoscere nuove e brillanti figure del web italiano. Qui ho scoperto numerose notizie, video ed esperienze, rendendo quella piccola parte di web un posto unico nel suo genere. Posto che ancora oggi trovo insostituibile.

Negli ultimi mesi ho iniziato a fare qualcosa per il mio futuro, a prendere scelte particolari e forse un po' difficili da comprendere. Sono state mosse complesse, ma che sono convinto mi porteranno là dove voglio vedermi nel prossimo futuro.

Molte altre seguiranno, ma oggi voglio concentrarmi su un piccolo set molto complesso per chi, come me, il web lo vive ogni giorno.

Sto cercando di ridurre tutte le mie fonti di informazione e distrazione allo stretto necessario.

Twitter.

Ho deciso di unfolloware il 30% dei miei "following" (~250->~180). Alcuni sono persone che seguo (e mi seguono) da molto tempo, e credetemi quando dico che è stata davvero, davvero dura.
Parallelamente a questo ho eliminato alcune brutte abitudini e ogni tipo di notifica visuale o sonora su qualsiasi dispositivo.

Google Reader

Ho rimosso una buona percentuale di feed quali: "Tuaw", "io9" e molti di quelli che andavano a formare la mia pila quotidiana di "cose-DA-leggere". La metà degli articoli erano fuffa di poco interesse.

Email e push

Grazie al cielo non sono un tipo che riceve centinaia e centinaia di email al giorno ma, possedendo un iPhone, la frequenza con cui vengo distratto da vibrazioni e notifiche varie è alta.
La tentazione poi di lanciare Mail ad ogni badge è qualcosa di diabolico.
Qualche giorno fa ho quindi disabilitato ogni forma di controllo automatico, sia su smartphone (per così dire), che su Mac, e ho stabilito dei limiti e degli orari durante i quali concedervi la mia mente.
Meglio 20+ minuti di fila in un giorno, che 5 ogni quarto d'ora.

Addizionalmente ho rimosso la mia email da tutte le newsletter automatiche che occasionalmente mi capitavano, e impostato appositi filtri per non perdermi le cose più importanti.

La maggior parte della posta può aspettare.

Facebook

Ho ridotto l'utilizzo di Facebook già da parecchio tempo. In ogni caso ho nascosto svariati creatori di rumore (generalmente persone che passano la loro giornata pubblicando link), unfan-ato numerose pagine (quasi 200) e eliminato tutte le applicazioni non essenziali (che sono ben poche).
Personalmente trovo che questo sito abbia ancora un qualcosa di utile, di conseguenza non ci sono andato giù pesante (leggasi, "non ho ancora cancellato l'account").

"E se poi te ne penti?" cit.

Ho predisposto tutto quanto in maniera tale da poter tornare sui miei passi. Se il mio esperimento sarà un fallimento, non mi farò grandi problemi a farlo.

MA.... perchè?

"It's not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?" - Henry David Thoureau

More on that later.

I started this blog with the promise of keeping it a bit more personal than the others I used to write on and it turns out that I'm not keeping it updated at all. Probably this is because I'm too lazy to maintain it, or (more) probably I still haven't decided in which language should I post.
In the meantime I'm writing these lines to tell you that I'm still alive and that:

So.. what did I do all of this time?

Well.. I've been very busy (ok, not that busy) studying, twittering, working (yes, especially during the summer) and doing what I do best: thinking about the future (which for most people means "wasting time").

I've designed some websites (but never found the time to put them on my "floating" portfolio), and scribbled many and many UI ideas, some of which may be coded in the next months (hmmm, still thinking about them).

A lot of others things happened and I should probably say something about my new "adventure" in the University of Udine but tonight I have to stop here. It's 1:06am right now, I have sleep at least 6 hours ;)

Will I write again here?

Definitely. I will do my best to keep this blog updated! However, you can follow me on internet in many many ways, for example: I Tweet A LOT! (both in italian and english)
If you want, drop me a "hi!!" (@gigasoft) on twitter, it would be very appreciated! :)

Until next time!
Giovanni also known as gigasoft

Ps
note that since I don't use too much my english-only twitter account (@nowseriously), you can follow me on @gigasoft if you want :)

It's been a great day to try out sister's D60,  cousin's D90 and "my" totally not as-awesome-as-their-cams Sony-Cybershot-something-else.

It's been a lot of fun and really exciting because, you know, we were shooting at 8 feet (2/3 meters) over the ground! (thanks to the gorgeous amount snow).
I'm planning, or better say hoping, to buy a serious camera this year, so wait for some great videos in the next months/years/centuries :)

UPDATE!!:
here is the link to the photo-set (and it's full of photos that doesn't appear in the video).

SECOND UPDATE!!!:
and here is the link my sister's flickr account (which is obviously featured in the video)

Enjoy!

Why did I Photoshopped it in this totally ugly way?
Because... I'm busy DSE :)
 

In these days I'm really really busy: a lot of things to study and some designs/sites to deliver.
I'm so busy/lazy that I don't event twit the way I used to (at least on my english profile, on the italian one I'm quite active).

BUT. let me update you on some things:

• I've got some projects in mind (like usual..), and some of them should be fast to develop and show to the world
• I've bought an iPhone (2G with 16GB) and sold my iPod Touch
• I'm planning a secret trip outside europe so, don't tell anyone
• I still love twitter!
• I've got a couple of designs in mind that should rock
• I'm developing something with symfony
• I've discovered a bug on my notification system
• I'm looking forward to record another episode of "The Macbiters Podcast" with Grendizer (sorry, only for Italian people)
• tonight I'll stay at home since, unlike my friends, I've got a lovely and totally awesome cold!

oh, and maybe I'll fall in love with something  these days. But I'm still not sure.

Well, see you soon guys! At least I think.. :)

During the first days of september, I came out with me.nowseriously.com: an "experiment" of making a personal website using only Open Source products (such as Inkscape, Gimp and the powerful/awesome/the-best PHP framework, Symfony).
This has been a sort of personal success, with comments from some international bloggers and designers, and some subscriptions to the notification list too.

Nearly a month ago I came out with this blog, and today, after a few posts and tons of twitter updates, I ask you one question:

What do you think about my WordPress Theme?

Feedbacks, suggestions, critics and "this-is-awesome"-comments are welcome.

What I think I should do

As for every personal project I show off, there are some things that has to be modified and adapted after the "release".
Here are some things I'd love to improve in the next weeks: 

• improve the sidebar, by adding some informations or links
• fill the huge empty space next to the logo with something like twitter updates
• lots of minor things..

Watching forward to apply the ideas I have in mind :)

Some notes

• check out the use of jQuery in local scrolling and the buttons "Share" and "About" at the end of any post
• thanks to Smashing Magazine for the "love this" icons
• I grabbed the wood background here
• you can follow my twitter updates both in english and italian

We set up a wifi network (the easiest I've ever seen), got a bit drunk, and laughed a bit about the Safari's "integrated porn-mode".

Unfortunately the "switcher" had ordered a mac just before the release of iWork and iLife '09 so, you know, he'll miss guitar lessons and the awesome iPhoto's face-detector.

That's not my case obviously!

2 iPod's usb cables, 1 pair of headphones  and 1  mag safe broken this month.

What about power over wireless Apple?

There's no need to explain this interface because it's really easy to understand but, in the new version, the developers added some new really appreciated tricks:

• flick along a twit to use some quick actions like: public reply, user profile and favourite
• follow discussion with "in reply to..." buttons
• twitpic.com has now an integrated viewer
• instapaper.com integration during browsing
• optional lanscape keyboard (I keep this disabled)

Besides those new things, I'll show you my favourite features :)

Adios bubbles.. welcome simple view!

With the last update, Tweetie has changed the default theme, dropping the iChat-like bubble system (a bit ugly imho) for a smoother and more beautiful interface which uses drop shadows and really intuitive animations.

Here is a preview (it doesn't reflect the real beauty):

If you prefer the old-iChat-style, you can take it back directly from the preference panel

Multi account (optional)

This feature will be useless for the most part of the users but, you know, if you want to manage many accounts (for example, writing in two different languages, like I do), this feature really speed you up!

Integrated browser

Easy and fast integration: just tap any link and start using it!
At any time, during the navigation, you'll be able to use some really useful action like:

• twit about this page
• email this page
• add page to Instapaper (read later service with istant registration)
• and a classic: "open this in Safari"

Popularity enhancements

With the new update, Tweetie  has included some popular-but-unuseful features that really make this app awesome!
Some examples?

First of all enable "Popularity enhancements" from the preferences (Settings->Tweetie->Advanced), then relaunch Tweetie and choose one of these i found (tell me if you find out more!!):

• Digital farts: raise the volume and flick some twits: the classic sliding sound will be replaced from something more... natural!
• Flashlight: this is useful! A full-featured (lol) flashlight for iPhone directly under the tab "More" ;)

So instead of buying 3 stupid applications, you can now buy a damn good one, with all the features you'd ever dreamed :)

And then?

I've used a lot of Twitter's client for iPhone for a while, from the famous Twinkle to the less used (and not so bad) Twitterlator, but now I must admit: Tweetie is the best!

I suggest to buy it from the App Store: it costs 2.39€, but really rocks!

Oh.. and the icon is pretty good looking.