it’s All Around Podcast 002: The Big Box, a response
This is a response to The Diary of a Cartoonist Episode 144, in which Scott Johnson muses on the common controversy surrounding WalMart. I recommend you listen to his podcast (~10 minutes long) before you listen to this response.
For me, the issue isn't about the free market vs. regulation or capitalism vs socialism, it's about human behavior. The rise of WalMart is perhaps the clearest example of one of the greatest human tragedies of our time.
The presence of WalMart, especially in already underprivileged areas, extracts wealth out of communities and destroys all sorts of jobs while offering only sub living wage, short term labor.
Ultimately, people are driven to act against their best interests because they are either lack education or aren't paying attention.
In the end WalMart is here to stay, along with many other monopolistic victors of capitalism. But, as individuals, we shouldn't justify their existence on this fact alone.
Let me know what you think
Going Open Source 1: Coding Style
This is the first article in 'So you want to go Open Source', a journal of my process as I work toward releasing a company project that has been in development for a very long time as open source. This article covers my first passes through the code base.
I have already taken my most advanced implementation of the code base, set it up in a shiny new dev area and stripped all traces of the former project. I'm left with a fully functional engine with no polish that basically purrs great but does very little - isn't attached to any gears, drive trains or tires... etc. My temptation is to start implementing the meta-code that will give the project shape, but that would be getting ahead of myself.
Before shaping the logic and design of the app, I ought to do a full audit of every line of code. In my fist pass through the code, I am focusing on two things:
- Cleaning up, stylizing and commenting the code and
- Creating an itemized list of all elements of the project that will have to be dynamicized and genericized
Style, style, style...
My approach to style focuses on clarity and accessibility with a bit of dry sarcastic wit. I will be using php documentor so I'll largely taking my inspiration from their style guide. I also recommend reading the pear guides, and articles and guides for other open source projects just to round out the ideas.
Framework?
I'm basing my software on a simplified MVC, so won't have to package any other framework or incorporate bridge notes on how issues may arrise.
Comments!
I'm finding that the process of commenting is the most helpful aspect of this exercise. By forcing myself to explain each segment of code, I am rigorously exposing potential inefficiencies, insecurities and even some contextual errors. I am also developing my master ToDo list concurrently as a place to organize the tasks. I recommend Basecamp for ToDoing.
This process will take me a while, as I have to fit it in amongst other responsibilities. Stay tuned for part 2.
Multitouch
Multitouch is one of the most exciting technologies on the cusp of breaking into the main stream. It seems that every major hardware company has serious R&D going and every software platform manufacturer is scrambling to pull the elements into their languages and apis. Here are a few interesting videos and articles that give a good flavor of things to come.
Virtual autopsy via multitouch
Adobe's initiative via the almighty TED
A good rundown of issues and initiative from 10/GUI
A demo of MTJ4, a Java Based Multitouch API
... and Tom Cruise, our favorite Scientologist, from Minority Report
Share and enjoy!
HTML 5 – it’s time
After a long run up, it's finally time to start embracing HTML 5. With support in Chrome, Firefox 3.5, Opera, and Safari it is just around the corner. IE is sulking in the corner as usual, too good to join the party but there are already efforts such a fiks-html5 in public development that will bypass the iempetulence (consider the term coined).
Here are the specs for scanning and/or reference:
and here's some authoritative light reading:
- http://www.alistapart.com/articles/previewofhtml5/
- http://html5doctor.com/
- http://www.alistapart.com/articles/get-ready-for-html-5/
Stay tuned for tales of integrating HTML 5!
Inside look into successful design shop
A List Apart is running a great article by Simon Collision, a driving force behind http://erskinedesign.com/. Simon gives an intimate account of how his shop began with just two people, ran into the traps and pitfalls indemic to such a venture, but then systematically overcame them with clear vision and sound operating priciples to move past the problems and grow to (what seems to be) a very successful six person shop. As half of a small business myself I closely identify with the challanges and am inspired by Erskine's solutions.
Read the full article here: http://www.alistapart.com/authors/c/simoncollison
Here's a video interview with Simon that looks interesting but is too long for me to watch right now because I'm eye-brows deep in one of the pitfalls that stems from setting out on the frontier: avoidance stemming from stress resulting in a dual whammy of lack of setting of clients expectations and allowing projects to run far over schedule due to lack of client engagement: http://www.colly.com/comments/starting_from_the_beginning/
Update: If you like the article on alistapart and are hungering for more check out the 9 part writeup on the Erskine website. Simon has a great passion for what he does and puts it out there with fearless abandon. If I had a hat I would tip it to him.
Resources: CSS for Readability
In design, some things should jump out at you while others should fall to the background. The readability of your site (or any copy) is probably the best example of something that should go unnoticed at the conscious level. Why? Because text is a medium for conveying information. It should get the word across while being invisible itself. Great readable text does this seamlessly, almost pulling the reader through the content. Good content in readable text will cause a reader to sigh and relax, or stand up with a smile and raise their arms in the air or even sometimes pause for a moment as if something has just whispered in their ear to find their life's problems and hardships unraveling toward a wondrous future.
Below are some sources for readable typesetting (fonts, lines spacing, color, etc..), some tutorials on how to design readable text and the occasional neat tool or site that is relavant in some other way.
Here's the best statement of style, including readability standards, I've found on the web. Yes, it's from http://www.alistapart.com. A must read anyone producing content - http://www.alistapart.com/contribute/styleguide/
Here are some other random ones: (I will add to this list as time goes on)
- http://www.legistyles.com/ has three nice styles to choose from.
- If you're just getting into CSS, here is a very clear and straightforward tutorial for CSS readability.
- The folks at http://readable-app.appspot.com/setup.html have a pretty neat idea. They put together a tool that allows you to decide upon a typeset that you like, then make a bookmark in your toolbar that will convert any page to that typeset. I don't forsee myself using the bookmark much but next time I'm trying to figure a font for something clicking through the style element may come in handy.
If you know of any resources, please leave them as comments. Thanks!