Rémy Giard's shared items in Google Reader

Nicole Sullivan’s Object Oriented CSS

Brad Neuberg — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:00:08 PST

Sometimes I'm so focused on JavaScript that it becomes a bit of a hammer for me that I try to use it on all problems. I forget about the power of CSS and what it can do. I recently met Nicole Sullivan at Web Directions North who is a CSS guru, especially around performance. She told me about an idea she's been working on called Object Oriented CSS, and she's just released open source code and documentation on the idea on github. From Nicole:

My [Object Oriented CSS] grids and templates are open sourced on github. They have all the functionality of YUI grids plus some important features.

* Only 4kb, half the size of YUI grids. (I was totally happy when I checked the final size!)
* They allow infinite nesting and stacking.
* The only change required to use any of the objects is to place it in the HTML, there are no changes to other places in the DOM and no location dependent styling. Eases back-end development and makes it a lot easier to manage for newbies.

http://wiki.github.com/stubbornella/oocss

...My prediction is that you'll be writing complex layouts in less than 24 hours without adding a line to the CSS file.

L’authenticité selon Seth Godin

Michelle Blanc — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:10:21 PST

L’authenticité est un sujet qui me tient à cœur et qui s’approche de celui de la transparence dont j’ai déjà parlé maintes fois et même présentées lors de certains événements (PDF). Godin dit :

Authenticity, for me, is doing what you promise, not “being who you are”.
(…)
As the Internet and a connected culture places a higher premium on authenticity (because if you’re inconsistent, you’re going to get caught) it’s easy to confuse authentic behavior with an existential crisis
(…)
You could spend your time wondering if what you say you are is really you. Or you could just act like that all the time. That’s good enough, thanks.

Je comprends très bien la notion de Godin que les actes parlent plus fort que les paroles et en ce sens, il a tout à fait raison. Cependant, l’authenticité, dans le sens de transparence et de vérité, est aussi très efficace en terme communicationnel Web. Je pense que les gens jugent sur les actions, mais qu’ils ne peuvent souvent juger de ces actions que de par ce qui transpire de l’écrit et sur le Web, c’est pratiquement la seule manière de savoir qu’une action a été faite ou qu’elle se fera. Je prends donc les préceptes de Seth Godin avec une certaine dose de philosophie et de nuance…

10 startups dans lesquelles j’investirais…

Stéphane — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:53:27 PST

…Si j’étais Business Angel. Il s’agit bien sûr d’une sélection hautement personnelle, tout comme la précédente. Mais je dois reconnaître que j’ai rencontré l’année dernière au cours de ma veille ~~quotidienne~~ hebdomadaire certains projets dont le concept et la réalisation (ces deux paramètres n’étant pas forcément réunis à chaque fois) ont attiré irrémédiablement mon attention.

J’ai donc noté au fur et à mesure, avec parcimonie, les startups auxquelles je crois vraiment. Elles ne sont pas toutes vouées à devenir des cash machines. Mais celles qui sont dans cette liste possèdent d’autres qualités qui les rendent attrayantes. Ce sont des projets dans lesquels j’aurais vraiment envie de m’impliquer. Et si j’en avais les moyens, je les contacterai très certainement pour voir avec elles comment les aider financièrement ou de toute autre manière.

Pageonce, your Internet, your way : l’idée derrière Pageonce est de centraliser toutes ses informations en un seul et même endroit. Il ne s’agit pas simplement d’agréger les données de services web 2.0 comme le propose déjà FriendFeed, mais d’aller encore plus loin en important les informations disséminées sur les comptes de ses fournisseurs d’électricité, de téléphonie, de sa banque, etc. L’idée est simple et la valeur ajoutée évidente (gain de temps). Le seul point négatif est qu’il faut développer un mécanisme d’importation différent (pour récupérer les données) pour chaque type de compte.
Kidmondo, an online baby journal : Kidmondo est un service en ligne qui permet de créer un site pour son enfant. Il propose tout ce que l’on peut imaginer : un calendrier, un blog, une galerie de photos et de vidéos, des graphiques pour suivre l’évolution du bébé, une timeline, … Bref, tout le nécessaire pour combler la jeune maman (ou papa) qui y trouvera de quoi constituer un véritable journal de bord. Il est bien sûr possible de partager toutes ces informations avec les membres de sa famille. La réalisation est très soignée, le marché énorme et le business model plutôt pertinent.
The Resumator, resumes in, results out : The Resumator, tout comme les deux startups suivantes, fait partie d’un de mes domaines de prédilection : l’emploi. Même si Monster est le leader de ce marché, cela fait bien longtemps qu’il a cessé d’innover. The Resumator s’adresse donc aux entreprises en leur proposant un service pour gérer leurs offres d’emploi et les candidatures qu’elles reçoivent. Le site est superbe et semble bien pensé. Le business model est éprouvé, puisqu’il faut payer 59 dollars par mois pour profiter de ce service. Où est-ce que je dois signer ?
Glassdoor, see what employees are saying : Glassdoor intéressera cette fois-ci plus les chercheurs d’emploi (actifs ou passifs). Vous avez reçu une proposition ou vous avez repéré une offre d’emploi, mais vous aimeriez en savoir plus sur la société ? Glassdoor est fait pour vous. Ce site comporte en effet peut-être les avis de personnes ayant déjà travaillé dans cette société. Et il est également capable d’afficher les salaires pratiqués en fonction du poste et de la situation géographique. C’est exactement le genre d’outil qui manque aujourd’hui, avec une véritable valeur ajoutée à la clé.
ididwork, the work log that shares : ididwork rappelle un peu le concept de Kudos que j’avais cité dans l’article de l’année dernière. Il s’agit ici simplement de résoudre le problème récurrent de manque de feedback dans le cadre de son travail et d’améliorer la communication au sein d’une équipe. Cela ressemble un peu à du Twitter pour les entreprises, avec un système d’encouragements qui pourrait palier aux déficiences actuelles (surtout en France). Encore une idée qui je l’espère devrait améliorer la vie au travail.
RescueTime, free time management software : maintenant que nous avons résolu tous ces problèmes d’emploi, nous allons nous intéresser à la productivité des salariés… Je parle de salariés, mais RescueTime s’adresse en fait à tous ceux qui travaillent sur un ordinateur. En installant un petit logiciel, RescueTime va être capable de vous indiquer quels sont ceux sur lesquels vous passez le plus de temps. Et tout ça de manière totalement transparente ! Le système de tags permet de regrouper ces applications par thème (par exemple toutes celles qui concernent le développement). Et il est possible de se fixer ensuite des objectifs pour réduire l’utilisation des plus chronophages (qui a dit Twitter ?) afin de devenir plus concentré et efficace.
Commonbox, le pot commun en ligne : Commonbox est une petite startup française dont l’objectif est tout simplement de transférer le concept de pot commun sur Internet. J’aime beaucoup ce projet, car il répond à un véritable besoin. Dorénavant, vous pourrez utiliser ce service dès que vous devez organiser un événement ou acheter un cadeau à plusieurs et qu’il faut ensuite se partager les frais. Et il y a bien d’autres raisons d’y faire appel. Il faut encore raffiner le business model, mais je suis persuadé que ce site a un sacré potentiel.
Forvo, all the words in the world, pronounced : voilà exactement le genre de service dont je parlais en introduction : difficile à monétiser (ou pas évident de prime abord), mais avec une réelle utilité et un certain cachet. Forvo permet en effet d’écouter des mots dans d’autres langues. Il s’agit donc d’un outil formidable pour apprendre une langue étrangère et améliorer son accent (si si). Le site est très bien conçu, facile à utiliser et parfois amusant si l’on décide de sortir des sentiers battus et de s’essayer à des langues exotiques…
BuySellAds, advertising marketplace : BuySellAds est une place de marché qui met en relation des annonceurs avec des blogueurs ou n’importe quel possesseur de site Internet. Ce service est d’une clarté surprenante et se révèle très simple à utiliser. Je ne comprends pas pourquoi nous n’avons pas d’équivalent en France, car même si le marché de la publicité est plus restreint, il y a sûrement de la place pour une plateforme de ce type (je pense particulièrement à la vente de bannières carrées 125×125). En plus, le business model fonctionne bien.
Guideal, show me your world : et pour terminer, un site avec là encore un concept original : Guideal. Visiter un pays, une ville, un quartier en compagnie de l’un de ses habitants est probablement une des meilleures façons de le découvrir. Guideal est donc une plateforme communautaire favorisant la mise en relation entre ces personnes et les voyageurs. L’idée est donc d’aller au-delà du simple guide du routard et de partager en plus un moment avec des locaux, sachant que ces derniers peuvent le faire gratuitement ou contre rémunération.

Que pensez-vous des startups présentées dans cette liste ? Est-ce que vous financeriez les mêmes si vous aviez à votre disposition quelques dizaines de milliers d’euros ? Tiens, je serais curieux de savoir ce que Cédric, Julien ou Henri feraient…

Autres articles sur le même sujet :

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Revue de presse

Stéphane — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:29:50 PST

La revue de presse hebdomadaire pour vous faire découvrir ce qui se passe ailleurs, dans d’autres blogs. Il s’agit d’articles en français ou en anglais, un pour chaque jour de la semaine, que j’aimerais partager avec vous. Comme on dit en anglais, enjoy!

Perfectionism
Le fondateur de Reddit revient sur son aventure et plus particulièrement sur cet avantage (ou faiblesse ?) que l’on appelle perfectionnisme. Différents points de vue sont également abordés dans les commentaires.
Why your startup shouldn’t copy 37signals or Fog Creek
Il faut savoir trouver son propre chemin, car les stratégies prônées par certains vont à l’encontre de celles prodiguées par d’autres. Et pourtant, tous ont connu le succès et leur retour d’expérience est intéressant à plus d’un titre.
The art and science of the small exit
Voici quelques conseils avisés pour les entrepreneurs qui créent leur startup dans l’espoir de la revendre plus tard en empochant une plus-value (même si je pense qu’il vaudrait mieux se lancer avec un véritable business model).
Clear and effective communication in web design
Encore un excellent article de Smashing Magazine qui s’intéresse à la communication sur un site Internet et plus particulièrement aux différentes manières de transmettre efficacement un message à ses visiteurs.
Top 25 most dangerous programming mistakes
Un très bon récapitulatif des erreurs à ne pas faire lors de la conception d’une application web : ne pas filtrer les données, utiliser un algorithme de cryptage peu performant, afficher des informations sensibles dans les messages d’erreur, …
What makes for a good blog?
Bonne question. Voici d’ailleurs quelques éléments de réponse. Je rejoins tout à fait l’auteur sur les points 1 et 3 : il ne faut pas oublier de se présenter et le fait de raconter une histoire est il me semble très bénéfique.
Et si cela ne servait plus à rien de mémoriser et d’apprendre par coeur ?
Est-ce que le numérique et son accès immédiat à des informations telles que celles offertes par Wikipédia ont changé la donne ? La technologie va-t-elle altérer notre façon d’apprendre ?

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Montreal Python 5

ygingras — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:01:47 PST

We have the pleasure to announce that Montreal Python 5 will be on
2009-02-26 at La Banque.

The main presentation will be Alexandre Vassalotti on Porting your
Code to Python 3:

Python 3, also colloquially known as Python 3000, is now out for
general use. Unfortunately, its usage is limited since only a few
libraries are currently compatible with Python 3. In this
presentation, you will learn a straightforward process for migrating
Python code and the common difficulties related to the
transition. In addition, an overview of the new features brought by
Python 3 will be described with practical examples. Finally,
upcoming changes and features in Python 2.7 and 3.1 will be
presented.

Alexandre Vassalotti is a contributing Python core developer and a
computer science student at McGill University. He was a successful
participant of Google Summer of Code 2007, for which he worked on
the different aspects of Python 3.0.

The main presentation should be from 45 to 60 minutes. Before the main
presentation, there will be a few flash (5 mins) presentation. We
still have open spots for the flash presentation so don’t hesitate to
send us your idea for a flash presentation.

La Banque is located at 175 Roy. See you there.

– Yannick Gingras

Twitter, est-ce pour vous ?

(author unknown) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:14:00 PST

Le journaliste techno du New York Times David Pogue s'arrête sur l'utilisation de Twitter au quotidien.

11 Useful Tips On Setting Goals And Achieving Them

Abhijeet Mukherjee — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:44:00 PST

Sometime back, Seth Godin wrote a thought provoking post on goals. He mentioned that it's really easy to not have goals and live in the present. But that is what most of us do. And those who walk that extra mile, deliver, and make an impact are the people who have goals. They set goals and don't lose sight of it till they have achieved them.

I wish we all could be like them. How many of you have kept up with your new year resolutions? It has been only few days since you made those promises to yourself. But I can bet that most of you have already given up. And that's the thing about goals. Setting them is easy. Losing sight of them...easier.

I am not someone who achieves every goals he sets; I struggle and procrastinate too. But I have improved over the past few months. And I have realized that just thinking about a goal doesn't help you achieve it. There are certain other factors which should be taken into consideration while setting goals and while trying to achieve them.

Here are some of the tips which I think can help us set goals and achieve them. And if you are someone who has been successful in setting and achieving goals in the past then make sure you talk about it in the comments.

Take a firm decision
I think it's all about the will power really. So before setting any goal, whether it's a goal related to your career or a simple personal goal, make sure you take a firm decision in your mind that no matter what happens you will stick to them. Pledge firmly that you won't forget about them until you achieve them.

Get priorities in order
Your goals should be in sync with where you see yourself in the time ahead. They should be in sync with your priorities. Having long term goals isn't bad but you should first take into account your present situation and where exactly you are failing to improve. Once you get the idea, set goals which get rid of the immediate obstacles and assure an incremental progress.

Write them down
A very simple tip and a very effective one too. Write your goals on a piece of paper and paste it somewhere which can remind you everyday that you need to get them. No, I am not suggesting that you get paranoid. If you think that they won't go out of your mind and you don't need to jot them down, it's good. But if there's a slightest chance that you'll lose sight of them, it's better to have them written down and take a look everyday.

Take a deep look
Once you have written them down, take a deep look. Think about them. Are they realistic goals ? Or are you spreading yourself too thin ? My suggestion is to not set goals just for the sake of it. Whatever goals you have set and then written, make sure you have the strength, willingness and determination to achieve.

Make an action plan
So you have set goals, written them down and now you are all set to start working towards achieving them. First step - make an action plan. There could be more than one method to achieve a goal. Which one suits you ? Decide on it.

Track progress
Extremely important. If you don't track progress, you don't get an idea if you are going the right way and if you would ever achieve it in the time frame you had set in your mind. So track your progress everyday. There are various methods and tools to track progress and I'll discuss them in detail in my next article.

Involve others
It is always good to involve others in the process of setting and achieving goals. Take advice when necessary. And don't be rigid. There are people out there who are better at this. Their suggestions are always valuable.

Welcome failure
If you learn to welcome failure and keep going, I think there's nothing which can stop you from achieving your goals. I don't know anyone who had an absolute smooth run and became successful. Failure is an important part of the entire process. Welcome it. Learn from it.

Persist
Persist. Don't give up. As I mentioned, there could be many paths leading to the same destination. Try out different methods. Learn and improve. Be patient. Be persistent.

Celebrate
Celebrate when you have successfully taken the next step. You've just shortened the path to your destination. Hence stop thinking for a while and enjoy the moment.

Don't lose sight!
And finally, don't lose sight of your goals. If we don't lose sight of it and wade our way through the obstacles, there isn't a goal which can't be achieved. So lets stay focused till we reach our destination. Lets not lose sight of it.

Cheers,

Abhijeet

Written on 2/09/2008 by Abhijeet Mukherjee. You can catch him at Jeet Blog where he blogs about different Web 2.0 apps and online tools and how they can help you become more productive.

Photo Credit:
tourist_on_earth

Web Development is Moving On - Are you?

Christian Heilmann — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:52:17 PST

It is quite interesting to see how web development turned from a niche for brochure-ware and intranets to one of the biggest software development environments in the market over just a few years.

“The web as the platform” is a hollow dream no longer ‐ you can now run and develop a web application without needing to host anything yourself and you can even get the data from other sources. With this radical shift comes a lot of change for developers, but the question is, are you keeping up?

Change is good - we need to get our act together in any case. It’s 2009 and we have the chance to start this year by tackling issues that concern everybody: the general recession, inevitable lay‐offs and lack of investment in non-profit generating parts of organizations. Now’s a good time to get real, regroup, and reassess the ways in which we approach our jobs.

We are in a crisis - have you watched the television lately? It doesn’t make cheerful viewing. However, with every crisis comes the opportunity (and the necessity) to improve and see how we can work more efficiently, producing things that are more valuable and relevant to the people we want to reach. The hype is over ‐ it’s time to get busy, working as professionals.

Back When All This Was Just Fields

When I started web development every article, tutorial or introduction to a system started with “open your editor, read this documentation and start writing your app, (or web site, css trick or javascript trick)”. I loved it. I downloaded the article to a floppy disk at work, went home and in the evenings without the internet (remember you paid by the minute) wrote my first solutions and battled with the documentation. Later, the only thing that changed was that I didn’t work on it at home but on a laptop on the train instead.

Nowadays, things look different. First of all, for the most part it’s impossible to develop offline ‐ this is because we use hosted services, APIs and most likely you’ll write something that uses some data stored elsewhere on the web. Offline web development is becoming very rare indeed, which can be terribly frustrating if you are in a public space or hotel rooms. In other words, we build on already tested and proven concepts instead of building everything ourselves. This means we have to do much less work, but it also means that we don’t have full control. We rely on data being available to us by third parties or ‘the web’. This is pretty tough for developers as we tend to be control freaks.

Aiming Higher and Wider

The other thing that can be a hurdle for the old school developer is the fact that we tend not to build new systems any longer. Back in the day we worked on the bleeding edge: almost everything we built was the first of its kind on the web and clients came to us to build their first web presence. Users were easy to come by and people were eager to do things easier and quicker on the web. This is pretty much over.

Unless you have a ‘very’ compelling product or idea clients will already have something in place that they use and will have already spent a lot of time and money on it. Maintenance is much more common than innovation. Users are much more spoilt by choice and already spend a lot of their time using other products ‐ just building something and hoping that users will come is not enough any longer.

Most products you’ll build these days are aimed at piggy‐backing on existing user bases and use cases, rather than creating something entirely new. The web has become much more of a commodity than it used to be and a lot of people rely on it for their day‐to-day chores and social communication. For example, the amount of people that started to get in contact with me after years of silence is staggering. The reason? Facebook and how simple it is to use. These are the same people that asked me if my e-mail address would change when I moved to another city!

These social networks create huge traction, and even hardware developers jump on them to sell their newest products. Just yesterday I saw a mobile ad at the train station telling me that the new smart phone automatically gets updates from my friends on Facebook. Sounds a tad creepy to me, but I’m sure it boosted that manufacturer’s smart phone sales and I am sure many a teenager will be asking for this one for their birthday.

Social networks are taking over in all kind of environments. The same is happening to search engines.

For example, I do see a lot of movie posters on my way to work and realized lately that the film industry has stopped bothering with domain names for movies (I guess domain squatters blackmailing them are to blame). Instead I started to see “enter xyz in Google to learn more” and one movie even used a bebo and myspace address instead of a domain. This is quite commonplace in South East Asia already.

A ‘New’ Breed of Developers

What shall we do about it? We could sit sulking in our developer corner claiming that these things will never work but the fact is that this is where people invest and the money still flows. It is also where the users are. There is a big market in some technologically underdeveloped countries for Facebook applications and even blog systems. Using out‐of‐the‐box solutions companies can easily cover both the development and the maintenance of the content. Can you for example guess where http://s2999.com is written and maintained?

The interesting fact for businesses is that these developers are pragmatic. They don’t cost much for a business to hire, they deliver the job without trying to lecture you and all they expect is a share of the outcome. Us on the other hand, leading and amazing developers that we are, are rumored to be tricky to work with, grumpy even. We don’t want to use things that other people made and are very happy indeed to tell any business person that they are wrong and we know all about the web. Who’d you work with?

Sure, this is nothing new – outsourcing shops have promised cut‐price development for years and most of the time the outcome was appalling (funnily enough, in a lot of cases not because the developers were bad but the management didn’t know what they wanted or failed to give precise delivery specs). With the systems in place though, development becomes much more of a ‘use’ case than a ‘build’ case and this is the biggest challenge we now face.

Goodbye White Canvas, Hello Lego Bricks

In essence, web development these days doesn’t start with a blank document but with downloading an SDK or entering your application data in some web app to get a developer key. In other words using a system that is much larger than anything you’d ever have done yourself. This concept is very hard to swallow for us battle‐hardened masters of the command line and I myself have problems getting enthusiastic about using a chunk of ‘hello world’ code and turning it into something great.

If we look at it logically, however, and leave our ego to go and play in the garden for a while it’s clear that there are many valid reasons to use SDKs and hosted development environments. It’s exactly the same thing we do as clever developers ‐ build ourselves shortcuts, hack our development tools or assemble our very own library of snippets - in order to avoid having to do the same things over and over again.

Using SDKs and hosted development environments shouldn’t mean your work will be dumbed down or that people won’t respect you as a developer. It means that they are helping to take the pain away and have taken away the hoops that they jumped through so that you can just build something interesting without worrying about the underlying architecture, security of the system or its performance.

Abstracting these away means you can easily do fixes or improvements should the need occur ‐ and boy will it occur. It is not fun to maintain a site or a server these days. The amount of people that want to hack you and inject malicious code is staggering and their skills are impressive. The only way to battle these threats is to have one system to fix ‐ not millions of little applications.

Abstraction also means that many more people can start developing applications. Geeks build geek tools, designers build designer tools, ‐ if you lower the entry barrier to developing, all groups can bring their expertise to play with the system and subsequently you can build really cool tools together. Of course, there is a lot of pointless and bad work being done too (no, I don’t want your teddy bear to travel on Facebook or catch dozens of sheep) but that’s like saying HTML is bad because people can use tables and fonts to create layouts fast instead of using CSS.

So Are We Obsolete?

Does this mean that the tinkerers, the people who spend hours fixing an IE6 bug or open the border of the screen to show sprites outside the dedicated area (yes, C64) are obsolete and should just move on? No, it doesn’t ‐ not by a long shot. If we cave in now and grumpily sit in the corner pointing at the kids with their fancy SDK toys we are indeed obsolete, but there are a lot of things that this brave new world of development needs us to do.

It needs us to analyze the systems and see where they need improvement. For example the amount of accessibility issues that can be fixed in social networks with very little effort is staggering. Most of these issues are not there because people are lazy but because they just don’t know about the consequences of their actions.

Why not help with turning these systems into a working network of systems. Open Social is a great idea but suffers from too many people shouting ‘FAIL’ at it instead of helping to fix it.

Why not work on bridging the gap between our two worlds. There is no sense in offering people a text box in an HTML page to develop in. I have used one of these and the resulting code is ‘always’ terrible. The same applies to code editors in a browser doing the indenting and colour coding for us ‐ they are flaky and when they crash they take your whole app with it (and the pictures of kittens you had in another tab). There are some Firefox extensions that allow you to edit text in your editor and then enable you to pull it back into the text area with a keyboard shortcut ‐ more of those please. Show by example how your expertise can make web applications better and how communicating with you upfront makes for better APIs and SDKs.

So What About the Future?

If I knew that… However, what I will say is that the way some web developers deal with market forces and business people is wrong.

Our craft is becoming a commodity and people in charge don’t care about the quality of the markup, CSS or how short our JavaScript is. What matters is how fast you can get it to market, how many people it reaches and how cheaply it can be built. I think that web development has come on in leaps and bounds in the last years, not because of top‐down decisions and empowerment of the folks on the ground, but by geeks just doing the right thing without asking for permission first. We should follow standards and build solid code to make our own life easier ‐ not to impress other people. Then show the code and explain its merits to people outside of the development world to improve it for everybody.

So, (a little late) here are some of my New Year’s resolutions for this year:

Give things the benefit of the doubt before judging them. In other words, keep the ‘FAIL’ shouting to the funny blogs where it belongs.
Take time to have a look at the SDKs, hosted services and frameworks out there and write about them instead of showing yet another proof of concept.
Try to talk to people in charge of these systems to stop them from aggravating the developer crowd with decisions that are perfectly logical to them but don’t hold up in our world.
Great API developers don’t necessarily know HTML and their demos might be atrocious table and font monsters. Instead of shunning the API provide examples of how to do it better. Explaining the effects that bad API design can have goes much further than judging only by our own standards.
Clean up the demo code of the systems, SDKs and APIs that I have direct access to. There is nothing worse than a bad example being replicated million fold as people copy+paste instead of reading docs.
Write human readable documentation and don’t expect a degree in Klingon. Ask non-developers how real people use systems and what they like most about them.

What do you think? Is it time to live in the now and help build a good web 2.0,3.0,4.3212 and so on or have we lost the battle for a beautiful, valid and semantically rich web already?

Another Productivity Tip: Use iTerm and Vim

(author unknown) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:29:41 PST

I was pairing with James Golick the other day, and he told me he was using iTerm in fullscreen mode. I was pretty excited by that, and I immediately downloaded and installed it.

I was already a Vim user, through the excellent MacVim, but I started using Vim from the console instead. My main screen is an Acer X243w, and with Vim in full screen, I have more than enough space to do all my coding. Splitting vertically is now a real pleasure, and I can even have a 4 way split that’s not too claustrophobic.

The other benefit of using iTerm instead of the default Mac OS X Terminal is that iTerm can be used in 256 colors, enabling Vim to do even more syntax highlighting. That wasn’t a problem in MacVim though.

Only caveat? Scrolling is a bit slow. Me and James both wonder about this…

Affichez plusieurs boîtes aux lettres sur GMail!

benoit@descary.com (Benoit Descary) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:32:29 PST

Sur Gmail, si vous êtes du type à associer vos courriels à des libellés, vous serez heureux d’apprendre qu’il est possible d’afficher plusieurs boîtes aux lettres en page d’accueil de votre webmail favori. Cette nouvelle fonction qui se nomme “Multiple inboxes” et s’active depuis la section “Labs” peut accueillir jusqu’à quatre boîtes aux lettres supplémentaires.

Lorsque vous activez “Multiple inboxes”, vous devez comme pour toutes les fonctions de Labs, utiliser la version anglophone américaine de GMail. Vous pourrez par la suite revenir à la version francophone. Cette fonction est en fait la superposition d’une fenêtre de recherche de libellé.

GMail vous permet d’afficher jusqu’à quatre cinq boîtes aux lettres en page d’accueil. Vous pouvez aussi décider si elles s’afficheront à droite, au-dessus ou au-dessous de votre boîte de réception principale. Il est cependant impossible de déterminer l’espace qu’occuperont ces boîtes supplémentaires.

Cette fonction nécessite évidemment que vous utilisiez les libellés. À mon avis, c’est sûrement le meilleur moyen de suivre des courriels provenant d’un autre compte ou encore des courriels de contacts réguliers auxquels vous attribuez des libellés. À ce rythme, qui voudra encore utiliser Outlook dans six mois?
Benoit Descary

Source: Blogue de GMail

Billets relatifs

Mark the End of the Day and Finish on Time

Simon Mackie — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:22:15 PST

Written by Simon Mackie.

Image by sxc.hu user blu_arim

One of the things that I struggle with most when I’m working from home is wrapping up and finishing for the day. Quite often, I’ll mean to finish at, say, 6:30 pm, but then another email drops into the old inbox, or I’ll move onto “just one more” task, and before I know it it’s late into the night and I haven’t even started thinking about dinner.

When working from home, separating “work” and “home” is one of my biggest challenges. I’ve developed a few strategies to try to deal with this over the years.

Here are the three strategies that I’ve found work best for me:

Have a clearly defined end time and stick to it.

This is an important one for me because if I don’t, I’ll tend to find myself working later and later. Having a goal end time also means that I try to get all my tasks done for the day by that time which makes my afternoon more productive. Of course, sometimes an emergency will pop up that needs dealing with there and then, but I try to make sure that I only extend my working time for emergencies.

If you need to use the Internet after the work day is finished, don’t open your work email.

If I open my work email and see an important email, I’ll be tempted to want to open it and deal with it. By making sure that I don’t open my work account in the evening, that temptation is removed. Another tip: if you have two computers, it can be a good idea to designate one as your “work” machine and one as your “home” machine.

If possible, have a home office in separate room designated for the purpose of working in.

If you have a separate room (a study or office) that you can set aside for working in, it means that you can leave the room, shut the door, and be done with your work for the day. It also have the benefit of meaning you don’t get distracted by home chores during your working day.

Unfortunately, my current apartment is too small and doesn’t have a separate room that I can use, so I’ve got a couple of methods that I use to delineate “home” mode and “work” mode:

Use a drop leaf-table as a desk and fold it away at the end of the day.

This means that when the desk is folded away, the work day is done. It also has the benefit of saving some space in my small apartment.

Towards the end of the day, try to get out of the house and work at a coffee shop.

That means that when I finish at the coffee shop and return home, I shouldn’t be doing any more work.

Following these methods, I find that I am more productive during the day and don’t find myself working late into the night as often.

How do you clearly define “work” time and “home” time? What strategies do you use to make sure thatyou finish on time?

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Making Time for Your Dream Project

Ali — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:58:46 PST

We’ve all got a dream project - something we’re telling ourselves that we’ll get around to one day. It could be that novel we want to write, that new career we want to launch, that skill we’d love to develop, that language we’re keen to learn, the level of fitness we’d like to achieve, etc.

The problem? For most of us, we’ve also got a lot of other things going on: work, family, friends, chores, volunteering... The seems to infinitely continue and those dream projects might seem destined to remain just dreams. A big long-term project could take an hour a day to make progress on. Where are you going to find the time?

The quick answer is – you’re not. You’re going to make the time for your dream project. Here’s how:

First: Pick One Thing
Don’t try to pursue twenty dreams at once. This might be the year when you write a novel. It won’t be the year when you write a novel, run a marathon, save $10,000, learn Mandarin, publish a daily webcomic...

Many of us are very good at starting new projects – and very bad at finishing them. Most life and career coaches advise sticking to one key project at a time, until it’s complete, or (if it’s something ongoing like a fitness program) until it’s firmly established in your life. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to try a ton of different things. However, you have to admit that it would be tough to find the time for that let alone mentally focusing on them all.

Second: Identify Unproductive Time
Most of us, however super-efficient we might be, have some gaps in our day of time which we rarely use productively. Perhaps you always spend your lunch hour reading blogs, or you sit straight down in front of the television when you get home in the evenings. Maybe your weekend mornings are non-existent because you lie in till noon.

Where do you have chunks of time that could be reclaimed for your dream project? Try to find at least a couple of hours a week that you could use: perhaps on Tuesdays, there’s nothing good on television, so you’ll commit to spending 8pm – 10pm pursuing your dreams. I am not saying that you have to give up everything that you have deemed as downtime or the things that you use to relax, but if you are serious about accomplishing a dream project, be prepared to make some choices.

Third: Double-up Your Time
A great way to make more time is to double-up. That means engaging in two activities at the same time. I don’t mean working on your dream project while you should be working for your employer, I mean using periods of time like your commute or the time you spend chopping vegetables for dinner. Identify any time-consuming parts of your day which involve mainly physical, rather than mental, effort. For some projects, these are ripe for doubling-up.

Here are just a few ideas of how your time could double-up:
- Writing poetry on the bus to work
- Listening to language CDs during your workout
- Playing audiobooks about the new career you’re planning whilst making dinner
- Knitting that afghan while you listen to the radio
Fourth: Get Your Time Back
If you can’t find enough time for your dream project by using unproductive time and by doubling-up, you need to look into some ways to get your time back. There are two possibilities here: either you negotiate with a partner or friend, or you pay for assistance.

For example, if you find that an hour of your evening is spent cooking dinner and washing up, why not ask your partner to cook every other day? While they’re doing so, you can work on your project.

If you don’t have a partner, or if they’re unable/unwilling to help out, look for paid help. Personal development blogger Sid Savara found that the price of pursuing his dreams was just $60/week:

For just $60 a week, I’ve bought myself some time to chase after some dreams: more time to workout, play guitar, and write in this blog. For $60 I managed to free up 10 hours every week!

Some other ideas are:
- Rope in your kids to help with chores or basic kitchen tasks (you may have to bribe them, but it’ll be cheaper than employing someone else!)
- Do all your shopping online – no more Saturdays spent battling the crowds.
- Cut back on some of the committees or voluntary groups that are eating up your time. Don’t feel you have to say “yes” to every request.
- Swap child-care duties with another family: you have their kids round one evening a week, and vice versa. This could give you several free hours to work on your project.

What’s your dream project? How have you made time for it – or how are you going to?

Written on 2/2/2009 by Ali Hale. Ali runs Alpha Student, a blog packed with academic, financial and practical tips to help students get the most out of their time at university.

Photo Credit: nertzy

$2000 Website: Custom-designed Web Sites on a Budget

Imran Ali — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:00:49 PST

Yesterday saw the launch of $2000 Website, an intriguing design shop in the Bay Area that describes itself as a “self-service” design agency, offering to design, code and publish a custom website within a two-week period.

Users begin by completing a short online questionnaire to help tease out their requirements. The dialog is largely focused on the strategy and goals of the client, rather than technical requirements: questions range from site’s goals, to the company’s “personality”, required calls-to-action, and some simple audience demographics, along with your aesthetic influences.

I’ve seen similar services in the past - including PSD2HTML, XHTMLized and PSD2WordPress - but these have focused on the technical production of an existing creative treatment.

The service is aiming at small businesses with limited budgets, but it’s not hard to envisage it as a labor-saving utility for web workers who need to quickly punch out a microsite for a new product, store, event, community campaign, or even a client of their own.

The company promises to prepare initial design treatments within five days and complete production within another five days. It limits the output to a five-page site, with the option to upsell additional creative services, such as creation of a brand, for another $500.

The creative quality of the modest client portfolio actually looks pretty good given the short time available to the producers, though it’s unclear what the division of work was between the company and the client. There’s nothing here that couldn’t be created with a working knowledge of WordPress, CSS and XHTML, but many web workers aren’t fluent in all those areas, nor have the time to undertake small projects economically.

So, perhaps the notion of web site micro-factories may prove to be a useful toolkit for web workers - what do you all think?

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6 Ways to Follow-up With Prospects Without Being Creepy

FreelanceSwitch.com — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:50:10 PST

Do you wait three days to call after a great meeting? A day? A week?

Establishing a client relationship is a lot like dating. You don’t want to seem too eager for the job, but you don’t want to be overly relaxed either.

As a freelancer, it’s essential we come across as professional and conﬁdent. If we look needy or over-eager, we’ll scare business away (and who needs that?). Following-up with prospects is an important tool we must utilize to our advantage, but it must be used in a wise and measured way. Here are a few tips for great client follow-up:

1. Ask for their project timeline

When you know a client’s timeline, you can gauge your response. For instance, when you know a project isn’t planned to start for a couple of months, you won’t worry when your prospect isn’t responding immediately to your estimate or proposal. On the other hand, a more rushed project time table requires a more immediate response on your part.

The biggest problem, I my opinion, is when your prospect says “there’s no rush, we can complete this whenever.” Without being pushy, nail down a time to meet again and put it in your calendar. It will help keep both of you accountable, and keep the momentum going. No matter what, make sure to call or email within twenty-four hours of meeting. Thank them for their time and the opportunity.

2. Ask if your prospect would like to receive your email newsletter

A great way to maintain consistent contact with your leads is through an email newsletter. If you don’t have one, consider making one (it’s a great way to promote your business and establish “expert status” while providing value to your prospects and customers). If your new lead is on the fence, receiving your newsletter will at least remind them you’re alive. At most it will display your talent, expertise, and (possibly) convince them to do business with you.

Keep in mind, inboxes are inundated with unsolicited emails and spam. Be sure to get permission before you send a mass email to anyone. In addition, provide valuable, practical information your customers can use. If you’re just marketing at people, they’ll get annoyed. I ﬁnd that about one email newsletter a month does an effective job. Of course, if you have time, you can send letters more frequently.

3. Send a thank-you note

Sure, you sent an email thank you and even made a phone call. But, nothing beats a good old fashion thank you note sent via the U.S. Postal System. For some reason, being able to decipher handwriting and feel a card in your hands just makes you feel special. If you want to make an impact, make your clients and prospects feel like they’re important. Send them a hand-written note within a week of meeting. They’ll love it.

4. If they request a bid, send one within 48 hours

In case you hadn’t noticed, we live in an instant gratiﬁcation society. Prospects and clients like instant results. Impress new leads with your speed and efﬁciency. If they request a proposal or hint that they need a more speciﬁc pricing estimate, get information to them in a timely manner. Send estimates within 48 hours of a request.

So there’s no confusion, indicate you’ll check in with them a week later. That way, you don’t annoy them with emails asking if they’ve made a decision, if they like your offer, if they have any questions, etc. Give them some time to mull it over and at least think about your bid. Most likely, they’ll let you know they got your proposal (and if they liked it).

5. Find a relevant, interesting article and send it

This doesn’t need to be an extravagant gesture. If you ﬁnd a blog post your prospect would ﬁnd interesting, send them a link. See an article about them in the local paper? Clip it and send it, along with a hand-written note. Just recently, I sent a networking acquaintance a note and a bunch of coupons for Quizno’s because she mentioned it was her favorite place to have lunch.

Be creative here. To make this gesture personal, make a mental note of personal details about your lead when you’re chatting with them. Do they have kids? Do they like to golf? If you remember these personal details, your more likely to create an impression. People do business with people they like. Make yourself likable, and memorable, by being thoughtful.

6. Follow-up with personal introductions

Here’s the scenario: a business colleague gives you the name of a person that might be interested in doing business with you. The ﬁrst mistake we generally make is not following up with this person at all. The second mistake is not having our friend make an introduction. Sure, you can get business by doing your own follow-ups, but isn’t it more effective if you set up a lunch with you, your friend, and the prospect?

Calling a referral is a lot like a blind date: uncomfortable and awkward. Set up a group thing, instead. The beneﬁt? Things aren’t so weird. Plus, your “cold” introduction becomes “warm,” and you have a living, breathing testimonial with you at lunch. My advice? When you get a referral, follow-up with the person who referred you. Thank them. Set up a lunch with them and your potential client. Do business.

Remember, establishing business relationships is a lot like dating: you need to put yourself out there, you need to take an active interest in your clients, and you need to ask for a second date (meeting). The lesson? Follow-up. You’ll create a good impression and develop the kind of client relationships that will ensure your business success.

Cut the Cord: Eliminating the Tech Support Side of Projects

Darrell Etherington — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:14:11 PST

“First, just let me say that I’m touched that you enjoyed my services so much that you want to continue our relationship long after the engagement has closed. Flattered, even. Still, for a freelance contractor, time is money, and you’re not paying me for mine any more, so at some point this has to stop. It’s not you, it’s me, I’m sure you understand.”

The above is a conversation I’ve had to have with clients time and time again, although not in those exact words, of course. Often, I later realized, it actually was my fault. In the early days of my career, I wasn’t providing clients with enough of an end-to-end solution. I short-sightedly forgot that when you’re transferring IP, it’s important to make sure that the client (and all of the client’s staff who will be involved) will be able to use whatever it is I’ve produced for them, for as long as the tool is in active use.

What that shouldn’t mean is that I end up acting as tech support for the rest of my days. What it should mean is that I provide them with enough resources up front that they don’t have to call me every five seconds to ask how to change or update something. Here are some tools you should provide to help make the handover as one-way as possible.

FAQ

Preferably generated through actual use cases and interactions with client staff. For example, if you’re providing a client with a web site, these might be questions that they themselves will receive from clients, like “What is the optimal browser for viewing the site?”, or they might be questions that client staff have about the update/modification process, like “What size images work best for the site’s homepage?”

User Guide

You’ve seen them, you’ve used them, now it’s time to make one. A user guide is an invaluable tool for any kind of deliverable you may be producing for a client. Usually, user guides are living documents and will continue to grow and be added to by client staff.

My advice for producing these is to start with a best-in-class survey, so dust off those that you’ve received packed with software, hardware, etc. and get a feel for the genre. Also, try to strike a balance, if possible, between visual and textual learners, by providing both ample descriptions and screenshots where appropriate. Also, use Clear Writing principles to maximize readability.

Quick Reference Card

Chances are, the people you’re turning over your deliverable to are no more inclined to read through an exhaustive manual or guide to find out what they want then you are. Hence the beauty of the Quick Reference Card. There are plenty of these documents available online, so it isn’t hard to find reference documents to work from.

The danger here is to go overboard and try to provide too much information. Remember, it isn’t supposed to be a manual.

You can also provide different versions of these documents for different stakeholders. Someone producing content might need a flow chart outlining the content approval process, for example, while someone responsible for changing code might need a basic HTML reference.

It can be hard to anticipate every possible question that a client will have after the project is handed over, but after a while you’ll get used to guessing the kinds of things they’ll expect answers to, and all of the above documents will be the better for it. Even if you’re not a pro, though, start using these documents and I promise your phone will ring less, or at least less for the wrong reasons and more for the right ones.

What strategies do you use for minimizing support after handing over your projects? Is some support inevitable?

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Presentation: Kent Beck: Trends in Agile Development

Abel Avram — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:18:00 PST

In this presentation, Kent Beck, the father of eXtreme Programming, shows the synergies between business and Agile development. The reason Agile is becoming more popular every day is because it responds to the business needs as they evolve. By Abel Avram

Événement Deloitte: les prédictions Technologies, médias et télécommunications 2009

benoit@descary.com (Benoit Descary) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:16:34 PST

Chaque année, Deloitte publie une vaste étude qui se nomme Technologies, médias et télécommunications (TMT). Ces prédictions sont basées sur une vaste enquête que Deloitte mène auprès de ses clients, anciens clients et grandes entreprises. Cette étude a été présentée à Montréal par Duncan Stewart, directeur de la recherche chez Deloitte Canada.

Trois thèmes font partie de cette étude. Les prédictions technologiques, médias et télécommunication. Les grandes tendances qui se dégagent de cette étude sont intéressantes, mais certainement pas surprenantes. Par exemple, Deloitte prévoit que les Netbook connaîtront une croissance rapide en 2009. Ces appareils vendus à petit prix pourraient s’écouler à plus de 50 millions d’exemplaires cette année.

Du côté de l’Internet, les réseaux sociaux maison et Wiki devraient s’implanter solidement au sein des grandes sociétés. Les coûts d’implantation de cette technologie deviennent de plus en plus abordables. Les réseaux sociaux faciliteront la diffusion d’information dans les sociétés.

En ce qui concerne les médias écrits, un journal sur dix devrait cesser de publier sa version papier. Les revenus publicitaires sont en baisse et pour survivre les journaux devront axer leur développement sur le Web.

L’utilisateur en entreprise passe de plus en plus de temps sur son fureteur Internet. Ceux-ci devront par contre devenir plus performants et plus robustes. En ce sens, Deloitte pense que Google Chrome apporte des idées et fonctions novatrices. Onglets indépendants qui évitent un redémarrage complet du navigateur lorsque survient un problème et une meilleure gestion de la mémoire constitue des avancées qui devraient permettre à Chrome de progresser rapidement.

Si ces sujets vous intéressent, je vous invite à visionner cette conférence. Vous trouverez les trois volets de l’étude téléchargeable au format PDF en lien ci-dessous.
Benoit Descary

Liens:
Les TMT predictions 2009
Global Technology Predictions
Global Media Predictions
Global Telecommunications Predictions

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What’s Your Inner Voice Telling You?

FreelanceSwitch.com — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:47:55 PST

In 2007, I was an employee working with a great company.

My boss was intelligent and inspiring. My coworkers were amicable and worked well as a team. The office environment was entirely casual; no suit and tie required. The pay was acceptable and vacation time fair.

The work was adequate, with some days more challenging than others. Office communication was radically transparent, as the staff would often meet weekly to review the recent triumphs and discuss the goals ahead. By most accounts, I should have been content with my career.

But something was missing.

It started during my morning commute. I would suit up for my bike (depending on the weather) and pedal along the streets, admiring the sense of aliveness that comes with breaking a light sweat. Upon arriving to work, I removed the lock from my backpack and secured my bike next to the rear office entrance, and gazed at the steps leading inside.

Suddenly the tiny voice in my head piped up: are you sure this is your path?

The statement wasn’t critical or mocking. It was merely asking my opinion on this seemingly natual routine of heading into work every weekday for the requisite 8 hours.

Yes, I told the voice. And headed down the steps.

Making Excuses

As the weeks wore on the voice didn’t disapear. Instead, while I typed up reports on my computer, designed a new web page, or printed another document, the question contined to reverberate in my head.

Are you sure this is your path?

I found myself forcibly silencing the voice. I reasoned that a steady paycheck was worthwhile, the experience invaluable, and besides, what else would I do instead of this job?

True, I had always been somewhat of a self-starter. In high school I coded websites for extra cash, wrote short stories for the love of writing, and even animated cartoons in my free time. In fact, my wife’s first exposure to my personality came from browsing my photos, video clips, and essays posted on my website.

After graduating university, I felt it was time to gain experience in a “normal” 9-5 career. I felt I lacked the knowledge and business network to try freelancing full-time.

As a compromise, I started a travel blog Brave New Traveler, and developed it as an outlet for the creativity I felt wasn’t being utilized in my current job.

I continued to ignore the voice.

Taking The Leap

A year passed. My employee contract was up for renewal. Nothing had really changed in the job itself; I was still doing similar tasks, not hating my work, but neither inspired by it either.

On a day like any other, I remember sitting in my home office, answering a few emails from friends. I found my mind wandering to the impending employee contract; what I should ask for, how I should negotiate.

Underneath this mental noise, I felt the tiny inner voice asking its question: Are you sure this is your path?

Immediately, I smothered the voice with excuses as to why I should stick with my current career: the money, the stability, the team. After all, many people hated their jobs, and I actually liked mine…most of the time.

Suddenly, it hit me: I was afraid.

I was inventing reasons to avoid the uncertainty of making the leap and becoming a freelancer. The unknown is scary. The known is predictable.

Yet if I actually listened the voice inside, I realized it was telling me to trust the unknown. It was telling me to follow the path that made me afraid, excited, curious, elated.

It was telling me to follow the path with heart.

The Path With Heart

At some point in their lives, many people ask themselves this same question: am I doing what I should be doing with my life? Am I on the right path? And more importantly, how do I know the right path when I find it?

Don Juan, quoted in the book The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castenda, believes the right path is always apparent, if you know how to look.

Look at every path closely and deliberately. Does this path have heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t.

One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

A path without heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy, it does not make you work at liking it.

For me, the path with heart was to make the leap to freelancer.

So that very night, when earlier I had been pondering the next year’s employee contract, instead I wrote an email to my boss.

I explained how grateful I was for her mentorship and for the opportunity to work with her company; that the position was absolutely right for someone else, but it was ultimately not right for me.

The Road Ahead

Since that fateful decision, I have never looked back.

Freelancing has provided me the space to create the life situation that I enjoy most, combining work and travel to develop projects that I infuse with my full passion and energy.

Certainly, the unknown has been stressful and more challenging than a regular 9-5 job. But the rewards are felt everyday.

First of all, I’m happier, and this happiness trickles outward in all aspects of my life. (Anyone who loves their work knows this to be a fundamental benefit). And second, I feel okay with uncertainty, since security is ultimately an illusion anyway. (Just as Wall Street).

This was made possible because I listened to my inner voice. I stopped making excuses and embraced the path with heart.

Of course, not all inner voices speak the same. But if you quieted your mind, took a deep breath, and really listened…

What’s your inner voice telling you?

Revue de presse

Stéphane — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:13:57 PST

What to expect when you’re expecting… to launch
Une fois son nouveau service Internet ouvert au public, de nouvelles tâches viennent s’ajouter à la liste déjà longue du créateur de startup. Du coup, sa vie ne sera jamais plus comme avant…
Savoir se présenter efficacement
Comme on a rarement deux fois l’occasion de faire une première bonne impression, il est important de bien savoir se présenter afin d’avoir le maximum d’impact sur ses interlocuteurs. Voici quelques conseils pour y parvenir.
SAS à un euro : la société par actions simplifiée vraiment simplifiée !
Depuis le 1er janvier 2009, il est maintenant possible de créer une société par actions simplifiée avec seulement un euro de capital. Mais avoir un capital social trop faible peut présenter des inconvénients.
Creating a PDF presentation inside Photoshop
Un petit tutorial tout simple qui montre la procédure à suivre pour créer rapidement une présentation (basique) au format PDF à partir d’une série d’images dans le logiciel de création et de retouche d’images d’Adobe.
Drupal.org, design iterations, and designing in the open
L’auteur revient sur le design de la nouvelle version du site de Drupal et sur la méthode participative adoptée. La modélisation d’un prototype au format HTML a permis d’itérer plus rapidement vis-à-vis des feedbacks de la communauté.
Create an amazing music player using mouse gestures & hotkeys in jQuery
Un tutorial complet sur l’implémentation d’actions avec la souris (sans utiliser les boutons, mais en faisant des gestes précis) pour contrôler un lecteur de musique. Une très belle fonctionnalité (quoique peut-être un peu trop avancé quand même).
Two ways to deal with “no”
Quelle est la meilleure manière de réagir lorsque l’on vient de perdre un appel d’offres ? Faut-il contacter le prospect pour lui faire comprendre qu’il a fait le mauvais choix ? Ou lui rappeler que vous serez toujours là en cas de problème ?

3 personnes ont déjà commenté cet article. Visiter le blog pour lire ces commentaires, ajouter le votre ou retrouver d'autres articles de la catégorie A Découvrir .

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Billets relatifs

Mark the End of the Day and Finish on Time

Making Time for Your Dream Project

$2000 Website: Custom-designed Web Sites on a Budget

6 Ways to Follow-up With Prospects Without Being Creepy

1. Ask for their project timeline

2. Ask if your prospect would like to receive your email newsletter

3. Send a thank-you note

4. If they request a bid, send one within 48 hours

5. Find a relevant, interesting article and send it

6. Follow-up with personal introductions

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Goodbye White Canvas, Hello Lego Bricks