Bazosphere

Yahoo has released a whole slew of User Interface components as open source. The UI Library components are written in JavaScript and speed the development of DHTML and AJAX browser interfaces.

http://developer.yahoo.net/yui/ 

The components basically fall into two groups ‘Core’ components and  and UI controls. The controls let you easily implement things such as calendars, animation, drag and drop, sliders and tree controls.

In addition Yahoo has also launched a UI blog to share war stories and lessons learned during UI development.

Google has announced that they have incorporated their Google Talk chat network into the Gmail interface. This allows you to chat straight from within Gmail and it also allows you to save chat histories.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/chat-email-crazy-delicious.html 

From time to time on various blogs and websites the debate will rage about design versus function and which is more important.

Developers will argue that the functionality is what people use the site/application for and if it doesn’t work well or have the features they want, they won’t use it no matter how pretty it looks. Designers argue that it is the aesthetics and design of the site/app that the users interact with and if they don’t like it they will never get around to using the functionality.

In my various roles in managing websites and web based applications I must admit I have always kind of sided with the designers. A recent study would seem to indicate this is true. It says that ” In just one-twentieth of a second - less than half the time it takes to blink - people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an internet site.”

It also goes on to say that “If the first impression is negative, you’ll probably drive people off.”

If you are running a eCommerce and trying to sell something, which depends on people sticking around long enough to actually see what you are selling, then it would appear the designers are right.

Barry

Okay, I am a bit of a sucker for the whole new years resolution thang. I like to set goals and objectives for the year. I hate to feel as if I am just drifting along without a plan, at least most of the time. Invariably though, I get to the end of a year and pause to reflect back on what I have accomplished with that year of my life. The problem is I can never remember half the stuff I did!

So, I have vowed that this year was going to be different. I am going to have a plan and I am going to document it and track my progress against it. Being a computer geek and compulsive list maker (I will even add things I have already done to a list just so I can cross them off, I know, I need help) I thought I would find a place on the web that would allow me to create lists of goals, make notes and organise the different streams of resolutions (life, work, travel, etc.)

The requirements were:
- I have to be able to have several different categories of lists such as career, personal, etc.
- I have to be able to create multiple lists, to-dos and be able to check them off
- I have to be able to keep a running record of what I have achieved, for example free form notes, snippets, etc
- Items that have been ticked off as complete should not disappear as I want to be able to look back on them with a sense of accomplishment
- Should be able to send reminders if I miss something
- It should be simple
- Oh yeah, and it should all be free

So after a little bit of searching (like 2 minutes) I found 3 candidates;
- Remember the Milk - www.rememberthemilk.com
- Ta Da Lists - www.tadalist.com from 37 Signals
- Backpack - www.backpackit.com from 37 Signals

I had a brief play with all of them

RememberTheMilk.com Is a very AJAXy, Web 2.0y list manager site. Similar to the To-Do lists you would find in something like MS Outlook.

You can have:

• Multiple To-Do Lists
• Add multiple tasks to each list
• Have due dates, priorities, reminders and time recurrence for tasks
• Share lists
• Store contacts and organise them into groups, etc.

On the whole, very cool and I liked it.

Ta-Da Lists is a very simple list management site. You can make multiple list, add tasks to those lists and mark them complete. You can mark tasks as complete, but without and date information as to when it was completed. That is about it.

You can also share lists and publish them via RSS, but I found it a bit to basic for my needs.

BackPack is from the same company as Ta-Da lists, but it has much more functionality.
You Can:

• Do all the stuff above with your lists
• You can also have multiple pages
• Add notes to each page to track progress
• Add files and images to each page if desired
• Share info
• Even send note to you site via email

The only thing it didn’t have that I wanted was tracking on completed task to show when they were marked complete. Instead they are just marked complete with no indication of when. You can get around this by also adding a note to you page, which will be time- stamped.

I chose BackPack as I thought it was the most flexible for what I wanted to accomplish.
It worked out well because I can keep one page with all my resolutions/objectives on it and individual pages to track progress on each resolution.

37 Signals also has a project management system called Basecamp, which is good for tracking and collaborating on projects.

Bring on the year.

As I mentioned in the previous post I recently made the switch to Apple. I must say I am happy with the OS X platform, however I still consider myself a newbie, a babe in the woods when it comes to the power of OS X and what applications are out there for the Mac.

I recently came across a post by Paul Stamatiou called “10 Apps Every New Mac User Should Download”. There is a great list of apps in the article (complete with download links) and in the comments that follow. So if you are a fellow Apple newbie check it out.

I switched from PC to an Apple iMac G5 (at least at home) about 6 months back and for the most part I have been loving it. At the risk of sound like an Apple love zombie, I think it is a great product, a great user interface and a great operating system.

However, as much as I like it there are still some times when you miss out if you are not on Windows. Case in point, Google Earth. Google Earth was fantastically cool when it first came out (still is), but it was Windoze only. Grrrrrrrrrrr!

Well part the clouds, shoot the beams of sunlight and cue the celestial music. Hallelujah, Google has finally release Google Earth for the Mac.

Thanks guys (and gals).

Okay, one of my new years resolutions was to get off my backside and start a blog. So here we go.

Currently;

Listening To: Ricky Gervais Podcast - Hilarious!

Watching: The Long Way ‘Round

Playing With: ColdSpring