We have a whiteboard hanging on the wall near the front desk at ArcStone’s Minneapolis office. The intent is to keep track of who is offsite, telecommuting, or out on an errand. In reality, most of us never use it properly. We forget to erase our names when we arrive at the office, forget to put our names up the day before if we plan to telecommute, or neglect to ask someone else to write our status on the board if we’re out sick. And, since it’s hanging on the wall at the office, you can’t read it if you’re working offsite.

In response to the shortcomings of the community whiteboard, ArcStonians have turned to email. We often see messages to the office distribution list, announcing when a team member will be available and where they’ll be during the course of the day. I’ve never liked it; I somehow manage to miss the notifications from members of my project teams.

But, as always, there was a better solution. We recently subscribed to Google Apps, a set of productivity tools offered by Google that includes calendaring. It’s allowed us to have company-wide shared calendars without the hassle and expense of using Zimbra or Microsoft Exchange Server for our email. Google offers an API for their calendar service; you can quickly write web application code that reads data from a Google Calendar and manipulates it. And the idea for the virtual in/out board was born!

The virtual in/out board is nothing more than a ColdFusion page that reads data from a shared calendar. When someone wants put their availability up on the board, they create an event on their own calendar and invite the in/out board as an attendee. The page checks the calendar for updates every five minutes or so, and refreshes the display (which is an otherwise unused PC at our front desk). We even have the data available in the ArcWeb, our custom time tracking and business management application, for viewing by offsite staff.

I’ll never have dry-erase marker on my hands again!

Nick Longtin, our most productive blogger, has recently been complaining about not being to read his email on his 19 inch widescreen external monitor. Couple that with his 30th birthday just a few days ago and he felt the need to get a bigger monitor for his aging eyes. Bigger to Nick isn’t 22 or 24 inches - IT’S 38 INCHES!!!

With this new monitor we expect Nick to be 8 times more productive. See for you own eyes how Nick is using monitor size to be more productive!

If you’re anything like me your daily digestion of web content can’t be contained in one browser tab. Between RSS feeds, work Intranets, gMail and other web applications, several tabs are needed, and flipping between them constantly becomes a carpal tunnel inducing nightmare.

The solution many choose is to setup a start page. Start pages are one page sites that aggregate data from many other web pages into a dashboard style display.

Google’s iGoogle is the most popular start page system, but I have started using a little known competitor that puts iGoogle to shame; Netvibes.

Keep reading for tips on setting up the ultimate start page and the secret to unlocking the start page’s hidden power.

Read the rest of this entry »

Are you guilty of writing florid, lengthy emails in your work life? It might be time to meditate on the five-sentences-or-less philosophy espoused in the signatures of some people’s emails. I’m not sure I can totally jump on this bandwagon, but maybe that’s just my love of my own words getting in the way.

The website appropriately details the philosophy in five sentences (not including the footer).

If you’re a believer, add it to your sig: http://five.sentenc.es/

Great strides in the brain / computer interface domain recently. Researchers at the Wadsworth Center (apparently affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh) have created a brain/computer interface which enables severely disabled people (completely unable to move their limbs) to do complex computing tasks like writing Word documents and sending email.

They have even taught a monkey how to control a robotic arm to grab food and feed itself. All with the power of the mind.

Read the original article.

It gives me hope that I might see the day where I can toss out my keyboard and mouse and simply put on my thinking cap…

I have adopted an email technique that works well for short quick messages to colleagues I find myself sending fifty times a day. Quite simply, I put the entire message in the subject line, leaving the body blank.

Recipients can then assimilate the entire communication without clicking on the message. For people who leave their email up all day on a dedicated screen the messages roll in like IMs, making the only effort needed to read them a quick glance.

I apply the following thought process when sending subject only messages:

1) Will the message be short enough to display in its entirety?
2) Does this user already have my contact info? (send a normal message to new contacts so they have your full signature)
3) Will the user need to reply to you with detailed questions and/or responses?

Consider the following example of a typical short message:

Subject: Meeting
Body: I am double-booked this afternoon. Can we reschedule our 1PM meeting for tomorrow?

Subject only version:

Subject: Meeting - I am double-booked this afternoon. Can we reschedule our 1PM meeting for tomorrow? - Best, Nicholas

Don’t forget to end your message appropriately. Just because its all in the subject line doesn’t mean you can forget your manners.

There has been a lot of talk about Wonderfile lately. For those of you in the dark, Wonderfile is our answer to the problem of organizing, sharing, searching, filtering, archiving, and distributing digital information.

To accomplish all the amazing things you can do with Wonderfile, we give you three tools: Libraries, Categories, and Tags. This trio of tools allows for unparalleled flexibility, organization, and searching capabilities.

To further illustrate how these tools can be put to use I have prepared a list of my top 10 ways to use Wonderfile:

Keep Track of all the PDFs I Download
Library: PDF Stash - Tags: Documentation, White Paper, How-To

Organize My Source Code
Library: Secret Sauces - Tags: Open Source, PHP, Security

Store Scans of Take Out Menus
Library: Munchies - Tags: Chinese, Free Delivery, Fast

Archive My Digital Artwork
Library: My Artwork - Tags: Anime, Flash, Black and White

Share Photos of the Kids
Library: My Two Sons - Tags: Candid, Halloween, Sports

Backup My Important Software
Library: Tools Of The Trade - Tags: Utilities, Drivers, Shareware

Capture Important Emails
Library: Transmissions - Tags: From Me, Receipts, See Attachment

Store Bookmarks
Library: World Wide Wonders - Tags: Funny, Useful, Blog

Play Photoshop Tennis
Library: 40 Love - Tags: My Serve, Completed, Draw

Sort Candid Celebrity Photos
Library: Celebrity Snaps - Tags: Vacation, Britney, Red Carpet

We’re getting soooo close to our Wonderfile beta launch….

An old salty dog programmer (also very successful money-wise) once told me. “A software application isn’t really done until it’s been rewritten from scratch at least five times.”

We’re on our fourth rewrite of Wonderfile. It doesn’t encapsulate our complete vision for the app, but we feel that it’s quite useful as it is, and definitely good enough to publically beta test.

What is Wonderfile? It is a completely new way to think about organizing electronic files. We’re done with the nested folders of the 80’s and have created a hierarchical tag-based framework for managing files. This is really different stuff - a paradigm shift. Comments from experienced IT pros we’ve shown early demos to…

* “Why hasn’t anyone else done this?”

* “I can use this in a ton of different ways.”

* “How can I invest?”

We’ll be posting the access code for our limited beta on this blog October 15th. We’ll let 250 testers in to the system - first come first serve. They’ll be given privileged account status (i.e. less expensive after the test is over) and will be able to influence future development of the system.

For a sneak preview, come see us demo Wonderfile to our peers at Minnedemo Oct. 11 (free beer for the first 200 attendees). Minnedemo is held at O’Gara’s in St. Paul - the demo’s start at 7:30 and we’re the fourth company on stage…

Visit - http://minnedemo.org to register.

I have a theory.

A web application will be at least 100% better if the developers who create it also actively use it.

It is akin to a meal prepared by an expert chef. The best chefs constantly sample their creations as they prepare a meal. When it is ready, they’ll serve it to their patrons and then sit down themselves to enjoy what they have lovingly created.

Like a chef, expert developers need to actively sample (test and use) their software while working on it, then sit down and consume their own code as a user would.

QA provided by testing experts definitely has its place - but I fear that sometimes developers (even good ones) miss significant opportunities to write better applications because they rely too heavily on testers / users to catch bugs and provide interface feedback. This reliance costs time - but even more significantly, we lose opportunities to improve the user experience because those who know how to change the code don’t take the time to actively engage and use the application. This lost opportunity for creative improvement could be avoided if developers spent an hour actively using the application for every 10 hours spent coding.

When I say using - I don’t mean quick tests, scripted testing, a little demo or anything like that - I mean actively using the application like their users will have to. I’m talking really, really use it and engage. A good chef will sit down and eat the meals he prepares - from that he draws inspiration for improvement. Programmers who consume the applications they write will create better software - hands down.

I couldn’t think of anything else to post, so I decided to put up a brief synopsis of my current musical adventures, especially what I listen to while I program.

1. The Knife. These guys are great; sort of electronic with fast beats. I listen to them when I really just need to focus, even if I’m having a bad day. I’ve never written any great code with them playing, but what they do for me is allow me to write code even when I really don’t want to.
2. The Hold Steady. I can’t listen to most of their stuff except in full album format, and I never listen to them just to get motivated. I reserve The Hold Steady for when I need to stay on a hot streak. I can listen to them on headphones, like The Knife, so they’re good for a midday streak often.
3. The Decembrists. I have all their stuff on my computer, and I’ve written a lot of my best stuff to their erudite lyrics and catchy melodies.
4. Radiohead. An old standby for writing great code. My very best coding sessions have involved listening to everyting they’ve ever done, in chronological order–it’s what I put on when I know I’m hot and I want to stay that way for the next 12 hours…
5. Dave Matthews Band. Not many programmers I know of are down with DMB, oddly, and I can’t listen to them for really hard concentration, but for basic bug fixing, they’re alright.
6. Mayaflyer. I like to start and end every day with Mayaflyer. They’re the only reason I’ve ever produced a worthwhile line of code, ever.
7. Wilco. Unbelievable for sustained periods of productivity. I can code for hours, especially with “A Ghost is Born.”
8. Just about anything from Schubert onwards, chronologically. I code really well to Shostakovich symphonies, Brahms concertos and sonatas, and Menotti’s operas. Also Philip Glass. If you’re a programmer reading this, try some Glass, especially the album of the Brazilian group playing his stuff, it’ll blow your mind.
9. TV on the Radio, The Strokes, The Libertines, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Velvet Revolver, Portishead, Interpol, We are Scientists… see Radiohead.

Oh, and as for what I’m reading right now, I’ll admit without embarrassment that I’m progressing through the Harry Potter series in order; I’m on book four and loving every second of it.