Matt Heerema

Interesting Web Citings for March 24th

Sites and articles that I found very interesting today…

HTML5 & CSS3 Checklist
Handy little compatibility chart.

iPad User Experience Guidelines | UX Magazine
My favorite: "Rethink Your Lists" – Consider a more real-world vision of your application. For example, on iPhone, Contacts is a streamlined list, but on iPad, Contacts is an address book with a beautifully tangible look and feel.

Use a Tablet to Create Stunning Comic Book Fan Art Illustrations | Psdtuts+
Why I give up ever trying to illustrate :) This is a sample tutorial?? This would be my magnum opus…

Snake Oil? The scientific evidence for health supplements | Information Is Beautiful
Well visualized data is special. This one is particularly interesting

Take Up and E-Read
Neat discussion on physical books vs. ebooks, especially with regard to sacred text, like The Bible

Photoshop Content-Aware Fill Sneak Peek
o.O … watch this.

Meet The HTC Evo, The World’s First 4G Android Smartphone
I smell an iPhone killer. Unless Apple (and ATT) step up their game, this is going to pose a threat. 4G wireless, plus the ability to use it as a MiFi wireless hotspot. Lots of speed and storage… beauteous.

Brain Crack – ZeFrank
(Careful, F-bombs abound, but it's worth a watch.) “Each day I live in mortal fear that I’ve used up the last idea that will ever come to me.”

Drop shadow with CSS for all web browsers
A tidy collection of all the proprietary box-shadow methods for all modern browsers (AND IE 5.5+). Nice post.

Interesting Web Cites for May 29th

Sites and articles that I found very interesting today…

• Anxiety – Lightweight To-do Management – Not a new thing, but new to me. Great lightweight Mac task management app that integrates with Mail and iCal
• jQuery Performance Rules – Best Practices for Speeding Up jQuery – Great tips by a coworker, Dave Artz

Working From Home

Michael Boyink has a great post with tips for working from home. Worth a read if you are fortunate enough to be able to do so. He has a nice summary paragraph at the end:

If you’re lucky enough to be able to work at home, don’t make it just a little mini office away from the office. Life’s too short to replicate the creativity and soul-sucking office environment in your own home. Work in your PJ’s, work odd hours, play music at high-volume, have a movie on while you work—do anything just to remind yourself that by being at home your life is a little less like Dilbert everyday.

Otherwise what’s the point?

Great post Mike.

Two-Way Syncing Google Calendar and iCal

Oh wow, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time! Built in syncing of iCal and gCal. It’s been possible to do it third party apps but I’ve always been a little suspicious of their efficacy (I have no data, only superstition there).

Christian Warren posted about it on TUAW. Ahhh TUAW, not only do I like working on you, I like reading you.

Getting Things Done: Make Time to Make

I’m not sure how many times I’ve recently told people that “my job has changed dramatically” and “all I do” now is answer e-mail and attend phone calls, whence my comment on twitter about being able to do 90% of my job on my new iPhone 3G (which continues to amaze me).

I have definitely felt off my game, unproductive, and am staring down the barrel of managerial irrelevance. If I’m not able to continue sharpening my design and development skills, and spend all of my time on project management and people management, then very soon I will no longer be a Web designer.

Having read Merlin Mann’s recent series “Make Time to Make”, I don’t think my problem lies in the phone calls and project-related e-mail. It’s all the e-mail requests for help and ideas, Twitter, and incessant IMs that keep me off my game.

Now I just need to figure out how to manage that.

Constant, short, queries from my team via e-mail and IM are a constant part of my day, and an important (?) part of my job. Many of these require a near immediate response. Maybe I need to accept my fate as a manager. Thoughts?