Minimalist Windows Desktop

I wrote about this in the past. I don’t like cluttered Desktop. I don’t understand why windows users tuning their desktop are tyring to copy the Mac interface (way too cluttered for me).

The best way to have a clean Windows desktop (without files and icons everywhere) is to remove the possibility to get anything in it. That way, it stays simple all the time.

The best way to avoid a behavior (cluttering the desktop) is to design a desktop that cannot be cluttered. (see this blog post on this general topic: Willpower is overrated).

coming back to the main topic.

Here is my requirement:
- Minimal CPU and memory utilization. My PC needs to be lightning fast.
- Simple and clean environment (no distraction) and *impossible to clutter it*
- Possibility to let message or Post-it in the background

I found this very good blog post about windows explorer replacement: Five best destop customization tools

I was able to do this with those tiny and free applications:

1) Emerge Desktop - is a replacement windows "shell". It replaces the windows explorer. Part. Super lean, simple and flexible. You can remove everything from your desktop (task bars, icons, everything!).
2) Launchy – I need a way to launch quickly my applications. This is done with Launchy.
3) Vistaswitcher - Because I removed everything from my desktop, I need a way to switch between application more efficiently than with the normal Windows tools. Vistaswitcher is the best tool for this.
4) BGinfo – Possibility to add text on your backround image. 0 CPU utilization when it is done. Completely transparent. Just amazing.

Here is a screen capture (yes, there is nothing to see that is the main goal).

Cross Post between Facebook and a Personal Blog

 

Why do we need to choose between Facebook and our personal blog? It is obviously painful to post manually the same information on Facebook and on our blog. At the same time we don't want usually to post the same type of information.

On Facebook: Casual post, short and aimed to our tech savvy friends (they need to use Facebook regularly)

In a Personal Blog: Usually longer post targeted to our non tech savvy friends

Bottom line, we need to be able to share content automatically between a Blog and Facebook but not all of it. How can we achieve that?

Let's start with what we cannot do:

1) Share RSS feeds from the Blog to Facebook - It copies *everything* and sometime this is an issue. Not possible to "filter" the feed.

2) Share the RSS Facebook feed in the blog - This is not possible as they change the link all the time! Facebook worked very hard to make the news feed not RSS capable. That is a shame but a reality. And this solution as anyway the same issue than above: it shares *everything* which is not our goal.

So, here is what I am doing now… the solution is different for my laptop and my mobile device (iphone)

On my laptop: I am just using the “share” button on my blogger account as explained here.  With this simple solution, I just publish once and then pick and choose which post I want to share.

on my iphone: I tried Seesmic or ping.fm without success (impossible to download an image on blogger with those apps, I am getting an error message all the time). They should also seriously invest in some documentation for the ping.fm web site. this is *so* confusing. I am now using pixelpipe to cross post with great success.

Design a new web site or a new application

 

I was looking for best practices to create a web site or in my specific case a facebook apps design.

This is for our MyNewResolutions Facebook applications. See this blog post for more information about it.

It seems that the most common way is to use Photoshop and then to create the XHTML/CSS from there. This is most common for graphic designer.

For HTML hackers, it is easier to start directly the mockup in XHTML/CSS.

If you are neither a photoshop guru (or an artist) nor a HTML hackers, you need to use a Fireframe software with a wysiwyg interface. The most common one seems to be from Adobe. Then, you still need to transform the resulting design to proper XHTML/CSS.

I was looking for a super simple and super quick Fireframe application. Facebook apps is usually not high in graphism anyway. Powerpoint is one solution but it seems to me cumbersome for web design.

And I found Balsamiq. I think this is the perfect match to quickly design a Facebook app. It is also possible to create automatically the XHMTL/CSS from the mockup with Napkee or BmmlExporter. I did not try those applications though.

Outsourcing an application in India

 

For our MyNewResolutions Facebook applications (See this blog post for more information about it) we were trying to understand the possibility of outsourcing the coding.

In my quest for Indian programmers, here is a quick study of the best outsourcing web sites.

Outsourcing website with Alexa ranking:

elance.com - 433

oDesk - 639

GetAFreelancer.com - 1200

rentacoder.com - 1800

guru.com - 1900

http://scriptlance.com - 3000
http://www.mturk.com - 7700

TopCoder - 35000

www.globalworkforce.com - enormous in US

And some review from various web sites:

www.elance.com – Generally a bit more expensive than other web sites, but still much cheaper than hiring someone locally in the USA. Providers on Elance are often of a higher quality than other web sites.

www.guru.com – Another possibility with freelancers in many different fields such as engineering, sales, legal – this site doesn’t focus only on programming.

www.odesk.com – Odesk is a bit different from other freelance websites in that it is more geared towards hiring people on an hourly basis and hiring teams of people. This is more effective for long term projects.

www.rentacoder.com – Very good for programming projects done at a fixed price. It works by escrowing the money for the project to give the provider some security, but you don’t need to release it until the project is completed.

www.globalworkforce.com – A provider of full time employees from multiple different countries (the Philippines, India etc).

 

Summary

I used elance and odesk to get quotes but finally as we were in a rush we had to build the application ourselves.

I got 4 propositions for the full facebook application: $250, $500, $500, $460

This was for a simpler version of MyNewResolutions. In our opinion to do the full MyNewResolutions Facebook application, it would require at least 5-10 times this.

15 propositions with hourly rates. From $6 to $20 per hour. Those prices are dependant of the number of referral (with $6, the engineer has no referral). The average is around $9-$12.

The birth of a new Facebook application

 

After many months (year?) of discussions about creating a web2.0 application, we have finally done it.

Here is the baby: Mynewresolutions on Facebook

to be fair, I had a couple of friends super motivated by this idea and I thought it was a good time to jump on the wagon. Here are some tidbits from one month of work.

The idea

The idea behind Mynewresolutions is very simple: it is the end of the year, people need an application to log their new year resolutions.

If this is successful, there are lots of possibilities to keep people interested by actually keeping track of those resolutions.

Design and framework

It is just so easy to jump into the code without thinking too much about the usability or the design. Especially as we were under crunch time and we thought the application would be small.

Big mistake… we wasted a lot of time on changing the design. It is almost as doing the application 2 or 3 times.

See my specific post about some other thought gathered on the net:
http://zhorba.blogspot.com/2009/12/design-new-web-site-or-new-application.html

Coding a facebook application

No beginner guide here. There are so many already on the web. We were almost beginner developers one month ago. The last time we coded was 10 years ago during our study. And it was a long time before social networking. This application is the fruit of 200-250 hours of work with all the learning.

We were under crunch time (the end of the year is only… once per year) so outsourcing was not an option. We did explore the idea though:
http://zhorba.blogspot.com/2009/12/outsourcing-application-in-india.html

The good news is it is so much faster than before to build a good application. Ajax is now quite easy thanks to Jquery. And the APIs and examples are everywhere on the net.

The bad news is about the Facebook API. Very sparse and bad documentation. The API itself is changing all the time and very buggy. This means applications have to be updated regularly and books are almost immediately outdated.

Monetizing

This is also a bad news. It is now very difficult to make any money from a facebook apps.

The success of an application is now related to its “stickiness” or ratio between daily users and monthly users. 

This is thus no surprise that most successful applications are games.

This probably explain the relative mediocrity of non-games applications on facebook. No revenue means no investment in those applications.

Trends for monetization:

1) Advertisement is not working. tons of data on this subject on the net.
2) Affiliation – Seems not that successful neither – No link about revenue from this model.

3) Virtual currency/virtual goods

4) Resell Emails address

5) Resell the application based on the number of active users. Even with no revenue those apps can be used in a marketing campaign to increase the users of another social media.

Almost 4 percent of applications have over 10,000 monthly active users which isn’t bad (June 2009)

Best Apps for Ipod Touch

I just bought an Iphone 3GS… I know this article is about Ipod Touch. I basically wanted to say farewell to my old companion with this post.

So here it is…

Offmaps – Amazing application for Ipod touch! The power of google map without paying those expensive data plan. A must have for any Ipod touch user.

Keytasks – The application is not free and already End of Life. What a nice advice, thanks Zorba! But the sad truth is there is no replacement yet to sync all the outlook task to the Iphone/Ipod. I am testing toodledoo right now…

Skype – You can transform your Ipod touch in a phone. Plug in the ipod a headset with a mic and it is indeed a skype phone. You can perhaps even try to use the bluetooth chips in it since the last software upgrade. And if your friends are still teasing you with their “real” iphone, you can still use some fake caller. I was using “FAC”.

EverNote - I have done a quick review of Evernote last month. I still think this application sucks on the Ipod touch as the offline mode is really annoying. But it is the only app that can sync text and pictures quickly. I am using it mostly to copy/paste block of google map image before driving somewhere.

iPass – To get access to a wifi network more often

RSSplayer – Not perfect, but still the best around. I am listening to tons of podcast but I don’t sync my ipod regularly. with this small app, I can download the podcast when in a Wifi spot and listen it in my car. Cool.

The perfect Windows Desktop

[Update March 2011 - See my new windows desktop]

I think I found the Desktop experience Nirvana.

My requirement for the perfect desktop:
- Minimal CPU and memory utilization. My PC needs to be lightning fast.
- Simple and clean environment (no distraction)
- Possibility to let message or Post-it in the background

I was able to do this with those 2 amazingly tiny and free application:
1) BGinfo – Possibility to add text on your backround image. 0 CPU utilization when it is done. Completely transparent. Just amazing.

2) DesktopOK – Why this is not by default on Windows is just beyond me. Everytime I change my screen resolution, my icons are moved everywhere in my screens. With this tiny (30kB!) application, I can save and restore all my icons on my desktop. Just cool.

Here is a screen capture.

Wii as a media center

 

[Update September 2009 – See my updated post on this subject after more testing, the post below was written after just a couple of weeks of testing.]

Ok, I bought a Wii last week. My main goal was to get rid off Comcast cable (too expensive). I thought that instead of buying an expensive laptop to stream hulu, It would be better to buy a gaming console. I have 2 daughters (1 and 3 years old so I thought the Wii was the best fit as a gaming console for the next 2-3 years).

Looking at the Console competition landscape: Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. The Wii seems not, at first glance, the best console as a media center:
- Can't just plug it to a Windows media center
- No upnp capability
- No Hard drive so limited streaming capacity (In fact it is possible through the homebrew hacking scene.)

Anyway, here is my need:
1) Stream my music from my windows PC
2) Possibility to use Hulu
3) Movie streaming from my PC

The only interesting link I found about this subject is this one:
http://www.last100.com/2007/06/25/five-resources-to-create-a-wii-media-center/

But related to Mac only software. I need to build a page like this for windows server.

so far, I have been very disapointed with the Wii quality as a media center. for the following reason:

- Lack of Flash 8 and 9 on the Opera browser (Impossible to watch Hulu, Youtube, Last.fm, Deezer.com, …).
- Quality of movie streaming is *really* bad on the Wii. Impossible to watch a movie on the Wii from your local PC.

Here are the current solution I am using:
Web site usable on the Wii: http://www.liquidicelabs.com/wiiportal/

Current solution that I am testing for browsing streaming content from my PC: Orb, TVersity and Weezo. Those solutions basically let a Wii connect a remote PC with media content.

So far, Orb as the better interface and Tversity seems better to stream video (still not watchable though).

I can’t wait for the playon (http://www.themediamall.com/playon) addon for Wii!

Other application in my radar for testing:
- Ampache (Winamp streaming over http)
- Jinzora

Browsing around about this subject I found those amazing web sites:
http://moblog.net/view/885546/watch-movies-perfectly-every-time-on-wii-best-wii-media-center-solution
http://wiimediacentre.com/
http://www.wiiloaded.com/Announcine-WiiMC-The-Wii-Media-Center-t-5917-wii
http://wiideocenter.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I will improve this article after some more testing.

I have seen this answer from Orb forum:
http://forums.orb.com/viewtopic.php?t=7982

That’s amazing news!

The new applications I am desesperatly tracking…

 

1) Xmarks for google Chrome. I can’t stand Firefox anymore (too slooowww!!!, eating all my cpu). I still have a firefox running on my laptop for a couple of reasons: Xmarks, websites not working with Google chrome, some other addons.

I need a way to sync my bookmark between all my PCs and between my browser applications (Firefox and Chrome).

Track this: http://blog.xmarks.com/

2) Playon for the Wii. This is coming soon. I can’t wait to see the quality of Hulu on the Wii. If it is good enough, I can at last remove my comcast subsciption.

Track this: http://www.themediamall.com/blog

3) New Iphone 3.0 applications and New iphone. I am using an Ipod touch right now because I just don’t want to pay 30$ a month for the data plan. Beside, it is a good test to see if I can live with only wifi without email pushed after nearly 5 years plugged to a blackberry.

I am planning to switch to a real Iphone sometime around September/October.

Track this: http://www.iphonehacks.com/

and this: http://reviews.cnet.com/iphone-atlas/

and this one: http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/

4) New Wii hardware and software. When Nintendo will take seriously the HTPC market with the Wii??

They should support the latest Flash on their Opera Browser and support the DLNA/uPNP with an external Hard drive. this would be a killer app for the Wii!

Track this: http://www.mywiinews.com/

and this: http://www.n4g.com/wii/default.aspx

How do I use Evernote

First of all, I don’t understand why it is not possible to use Evernote offline on Iphone/Ipod touch. Please, Please, Please Evernote add the offline editing capacity on the mobile application of Evernote!

Evernote processing:

1) As part of my regular GTD process, I process all Evernotes notes:

- Each note should have a tag: Temp, meeting, Task, Blog

- meeting notes should be copied on a txt file. I don’t trust Evernote for long term storage.

- Notes with a Tag “task”, should be treated as an “in basket” object (see GTD).

2) In meeting, I am using the Evernote application to take my meeting minutes. The landscape view is perfect for fast typing. I can’t modify my note though which is a pain but I didn’t find another application to do that.

3) On my laptop, quick Notepad application. Shortcut are a big part of it:

A newest version of EverNote had been released, and how it allowed for a couple of interesting global shortcut keys: CTRL+ALT+V and CTRL+ALT+N. The first would allow you to paste the contents of the Windows clipboard into a brand new note. The second would open EverNote and start a brand new note for you.

4) Tracking Blogs Ideas. Everytime I have an idea for a new Blog post, I just add a couple of lines in Evernotes, tag it with “Blog”. I will update the blog post multiple time until I find the quality of the post good enough.

5) In my everything in the cloud personal strategy (perhaps another post about this one day), I use Evenotes as my data hub. This means, if I loose everything, I can go in a cybercafe, log to evernotes and find everything (where to find everything and some login/password).