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Matthew Lang

Family guy and web developer

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Life at home, the garden, and the everyday.

Watched A House of Dynamite tonight. Edge-of-your-seat stuff with a change in storytelling from the usual single start-to-end format, but it definitely carried a strong message at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finally finished my greenhouse project.

A much better use of the space and will be a better environment for growing. We’ve more flowers growing on the deck as well. Be nice when these are in full bloom.

We’ve more plans for next year. A couple of raised beds will be added for vegetables and herbs.

A small glass greenhouse with a black frame is situated on a bed of stones in a backyard garden.

I started putting the steel base down on top of my greenhouse’s foundation tonight. Hopefully, it will be fully built and ready to host some plants by next week.

For the first time this year, I’m working from outside in the back garden. Over the summer, I’ll work a lot more between here and the golf club. Once all the usual chores have been done, I’ll share a picture of the back garden office.

After a much-needed lazy Saturday morning, I spent the afternoon doing a dry run of the base for my greenhouse. The bricks are lined up and level, but they need a final layer of concrete to keep them in place. I’m happy with the first run at it, though.

I missed some glorious golfing weather over the weekend as I finished painting the hall. With that done, all our major home decorating plans are complete, and I can enjoy the outdoors and golf until around October.

I’m ending the week on a high with my wife’s birthday today. My wife is off to yoga this morning, and then we’ll spend a couple of hours in the garden, preparing it for the good weather. Finally, I’ll be cooking the birthday girl’s requested dinner, which is one of her favourites, chicken pie.

Molly White reminds us that we can have a different web.

Though we now face a new challenge as the dominance of the massive walled gardens has become overwhelming, we have tools in our arsenal: the memories of once was, and the creativity of far more people than ever before, who entered the digital expanse but have grown disillusioned with the business moguls controlling life within the walls.

— We can have a different web

My hopes for tomorrow

The following 24 hours or so will be a roller coaster of waiting as Americans head to the polls to decide who will be the next resident of the White House. There’s certainly a lot at stake in this election.

This year’s campaigns have been eye-opening, with both highs and lows. Each candidate’s core message has been clear: one promises unity, while the other reflects division. I don’t remember America being this divided. Sure, social media and 24-hour news play a part in amplifying these divides, but one thing is clear: it’s time to fix them.

We’ll hopefully have an idea of the winner by tomorrow morning. Of course, I have my preference, but more than anything, I hope that the announcement won’t lead to any unrest and will be the start of another stable presidential term.

A peaceful declaration of the winner is my hope for tomorrow.

My favourite feature of iOS 18 is the changes to the home screen. Dark mode icons and the ability to place apps freely on the screen are welcome additions.

MacRumors has an in-depth guide to the new home and lock screen changes coming to iOS 18. Placing icons anywhere on the home screen is probably the one change I’m looking forward to seeing. I can’t say I’ll use the hidden app feature that much, but I can see a use for the ability to lock an app.

I finished flooring the last of the rooms yesterday. The wee yin is chuffed to bits with his bigger room. No more major home projects now until late autumn. Weekends are for golf now!

Back to Ikea this afternoon for the second time in a month. Picking up some furniture for the big yin’s room.

I picked the wrong time of year to do a major home project. I had to rest for a few days between flooring our three rooms as the lurgy had taken old. I returned to it last night and almost finished the second and largest of the three rooms. The final room will be done at the weekend.

First stage of our changing of rooms complete. My office is now upstairs and ready to go.

Going to floor the big yin’s new room over the next few days and then finish off the wee yin’s new room a few days after. Better rooms for everyone with more space for the boys.

After a few days of the lurgy ripping through the house and taking everyone out, I think we’re all starting to turn the corner and get back to feeling better once again.

I wish people would return to self-hosted websites, aka blogs. The fact that everyone seems to be publishing their content in newsletters is driving me bananas. I want to stumble upon your content when I am strolling through my favorite bookmarked gardens. Not in my inbox.

— Tina Roth Eisenberg on Threads

Amen. Bonus points for websites that also provide an RSS feed.

Over the last few weeks, my Feedbin account has been filling up with more feeds from blogs and communities I’ve started following. While I miss the Twitter of old, the silver lining is knowing that there is lots of great content to follow outside the birdhouse.

Kurt Harden shares his essential mix for Christmas. Perfect background music while I finish work today and get the house into some order.

First thoughts on iOS 16

It’s been 24 hours since I installed iOS 16. The update process took quite some time to complete on my iPhone 12, but it still took longer on my wife’s iPhone XR. That aside, the update process was straightforward.

Being able to edit a message and undo the sending of a message is new to the Messages app. Undo the sending of a message? I don’t think I’ve ever had to undo the sending of a message; however, I don’t live in my messages app. Many other iPhone users have sent a message they wished they could un-send.

Being able to edit a message, though, that’s a nice feature. Most of the messages I can see myself editing will result from typos. Even with the auto-correct, I still manage to make some typos when sending messages.

Aside from all the other features new to iOS 16, the most significant change is what you first see on your iPhone when you pick it up. The Lock Screen.

There are several new features here that I’ve enjoyed messing about with. You can now create more than one Lock Screen and Home Screen pairing and switch between these throughout the day. I’ve got several screens set up now, but I’ve yet to examine how changing your focus affects these screens. However, using the different focuses is something I plan on doing to try and curb the number of times I reach for my phone throughout the day. The widgets on Lock Screens are also a nice touch, and hopefully, we’ll see more of these added in the future.

Overall the iOS 16 update is pretty good so far.

Deer on the 11th tee

There I was waiting on the final match tonight when I noticed a nice bit of light through the trees from the 11th tee. It wasn’t until I got home and I realised I captured a deer almost in the middle of the shot.

If today’s venture into the office was anything to go by, then you can keep it. Commuting in was fine, but the office was such a dark and grey environment when compared to my home office. Long may working from home continue.

When we moved into current house, we had three oak trees across the street.

A few years ago, they had to cut one down as it was dead. Today, they’re cutting down the remaining two for the same reason.

I know they need to be cut down for safety reasons, but still sad to see.

A productive Saturday

It was one of those Saturdays where everything through the day just fell into place.

A code and coffee session early this morning yielded another milestone met. I managed to close off another couple of widgets for my CMS product. There's just one more to go to switch out the old widgets for my new ones that offer better flexibility when it comes to putting pages together.

It was then off to the hardware store to get a few things for the garden. We missed out on a few things last year as we left it too late to get a couple of things, so we were quicker off the mark this year.

Back home, I spent a couple of hours getting the back garden into some shape for the summer. The next few Saturday's are going to be similar as we get a few more things done, but the hope is that we put in the work now, to enjoy the fruits of our labour when the sunshine and good weather really kicks in.

It not often a Saturday just falls into place like this, but its been great having a productive day. I can kick back a bit tomorrow knowing I've got a few things done today.

We had a new deck put in the back garden to give us more seating space. Up until that time, Scotland had been enjoying a wonderful sunshine. Since the deck was finished, and coincidentally lockdown restrictions eased, it’s been pretty much grey and wet.

That’s Scotland for you.

The 3 x 5 card

Nicholas Bate gives us a productivity system so simple it can fit on a single index card.

A fresh 3 by 5 card taken from the stack. One side is work. One side is home. Each side is divided in half with a vertical line. On the LHS side are things you need/have to do. E.g. at work return a client’s call; at home buy some pasta. On the RHS are things you don’t have to do but you will do because they will make your future life easier by reducing the things you have to do on the LHS.

— The Tools of Excellence for a Brave New World, 8: The 3 x 5 card

It’s been a horrible week of colds, coughs and flu in our house. Today was a major turning point though with everyone back at school and work. Planning for a quiet weekend now so that we can all recuperate.

Apologies for the radio silence over the last few days and the days to come. The flu has swept through our house. 🤒

I’m hoping to return back to normal blogging service next week.

Mind map to curated list to final plan.

It took an hour to do but I’ve managed to outline 12 blog posts for 2020 that I’ll publish at my main home page. These will be longer posts than I publish here at Micro.blog.

Morning routines for the rest of us

Curtis McHale offers an important reality check when it comes to emulating the routines of the successful.

It’s important to remember that many of these famous people are entirely divorced from anything resembling the reality of the rest of us. At one point before they were successful they didn’t have this routine and had to rush through the laundry at 5 am so they had clean pants in the morning. Yoga and cryotherapy weren’t even a thing they knew about and wouldn’t have cared about if they had heard of it.

— The morning routines we idolize are often from people divorced from reality

My morning routine isn’t anything to write home about at the moment. Wake up at 5:30 am, spend a few minutes doing some stretches to loosen my back, shower and get ready. Have a quick breakfast and then head out the door to work.

It’s not the ideal morning routine that I would like to have, but I’m prepared to take the hit in the short term.

I always love the superb view at my parent’s garden in the winter.

Over the years, I’ve taken a few pictures like this, some with leaves everywhere, some with frost, and even a couple with snow. I’ve yet to capture the deer that sometimes wander into the garden, though.

Yip, e-sport stadiums are now a thing

Philadelphia Fusion, the city’s Overwatch League team, are having an e-sports complex built that will become the team’s home ground. Effectively, their home stadium.

But an arguably even more important milestone happened earlier in the week — and it took place across the street. On Wednesday, the Philadelphia Fusion — the city’s OWL team — held a groundbreaking ceremony for Fusion Arena, a $50 million e-sports complex that will eventually become the team’s home ground.

— After the Overwatch League grand finals, the league prepares to finally go global

Who would have thought e-sports would reach the heights where team’s are having statiums built?

That’s the garden sorted for the winter. Time to reward myself with a couple of hours watching the Solheim Cup. Go Europe! 🇪🇺 ⛳️

Laptops. Allowing people to take their work home with them since the 90’s.

Prefabricated future

Prefabricated and self-contained homes are becoming increasingly good alternatives to traditional homes. These homes are often cheaper and quicker to build and are usually more environmentally friendly than conventional homes.

There’s a new housing development down the road that is being built on the grounds of an old industrial site. Looking at the foundations being created, the timber frames being put up and all the disruptive roadworks that come with it and you wonder when these style of homes will fall out of favour with people. I think that time is coming as people are increasingly more aware of the environment.

I don’t know what the majority of people’s perceptions are of these prefabricated and self-contained homes, but I am curious to see one up close.

I can see the environmental benefits of downsizing your home to something smaller, but I’m not sure that I can give up the feel of a traditional home. Ideally, I’d like something in between. A prefabricated and self-contained home with just slightly more space.

Also, wouldn’t hurt if it was zombie-proof as well.

Fallen friends

Kurt Harden shares some thoughts on his connection with nature.

Over the past 24 years I have grown attached to everything that has lived on this property. This place is a sanctuary for me. It is home. It is where I regularly refuel for the daily battle.

— A fallen friend

While our home does not benefit having a large garden with decade old trees, across the street, we did have three trees that this area was built around. In the last few years, we’ve lost one tree, and now there’s a second not looking too healthy.

Over the years, the boys have had great times playing around these giants across the street. I hope the last one remains standing long enough for our youngest Drew to enjoy.

It's Earth Day today, so go find a cave

However, if you haven’t yet made plans and wish to take a stand, there is one activity that you can do alone at home that will help you and the planet. It ensures that ever-so-briefly you are not contributing to climate change, and are doing what you can to save endangered species. Don’t drive or fly. Don’t buy anything. Do no laundry. Turn off the lights. Avoid going online. Depending on where on Earth you are, shut down the air-conditioning or heaters (unless you’ve got solar panels!).

— The best thing you can do on Earth Day is sit perfectly still

I appreciate that doing nothing can help climate change, but I’m reading this article on the day of Earth Day and if sharing it means I can get a few more people to increase their time offline, then it’s worth that little burst of me being online today.

BritBox, the UK rival to Netflix

It would be “one permanent, comprehensive home where anyone in Britain can get all of our library content - both the ITV and BBC library - in one place and they can watch it anytime, anywhere,” Dame Carolyn told Today.

— BBC and ITV set to launch Netflix rival

An attempt by the two big broadcasters in the UK to build a streaming service to rival Netflix seems like a lost cause to me. Streaming services are global, so any attempt to compete with the likes of Netflix and even YouTube is a going to be a massive task for the new streaming service.

In our home, we’re not big watchers of either of these channels. For us, other streaming services and cable channels replaced the BBC and ITV a long time ago. This isn’t representative of the UK as a whole, but I’m sure that there are plenty of other households like this.

I think the BritBox might just be too little, too late.

A few scrappy thoughts on buying online instead of locally

As I picked up our New Year’s Day order from the butchers this morning, I was reminded of how little I have used my local butchers and other local stores since I started working in an office.

When I worked from home, I shopped locally every week. Very rarely did we have to do our grocery shopping online. I was able to pick up most things from local stores during my lunch break. It was a good time to get away from my desk and get some air. Now that I commute to an office though, I don’t have the time in the day to continue to shop locally, and the stores where I work aren’t convenient too within my lunch break.

My thoughts on this are still a bit incoherent despite having tried to write this for close to an hour now, but here’s what I have in raw form.

  1. More people should be allowed to work remotely. Working from home gives you more time to run a few errands as well as shop locally and support local businesses.
  2. More people should be allowed to work fewer hours. Is a 40 hour work week really necessary anymore? Working fewer hours would allow us the time shop locally as opposed to just feeding more and more orders into the Internet retail giants.

I’m not an economist, and I’m sure there are holes in these thoughts, but if I could have seen the damage that internet shopping has caused to my local town, then I would have been a bit more selective about my spending habits over the years.

I’m usually the first person to defend the march of technology, but it’s come to a point where even I’m not sure that the change has been for good.

As great as it is to be on holiday and having a change of scenery, there’s always the familiar comfort of getting home after a holiday.

Vivo getting one up on Apple?

Vivo also achieved another technological feat. Unlike Apple, it managed to incorporate a fingerprint scanner into the screen itself. The reader sits directly below the glass, and you can can just rest your finger on the front of the phone near the bottom to unlock it, with no need for a dedicated home button or fingerprint reader anywhere else on the device that would have reduced display size.

— A new smartphone found a novel way to make the entire front of the phone one giant screen

Sure, a slide-out camera is nice, but I’m pretty sure we’ll see both the camera and the fingerprint scanner sitting behind the display in the near future. Just a question of who’ll get there first.

Spent the afternoon getting the garden into order today. There’s something to be said for a little bit of grafting.

The best map in the galaxy

This morning, the European Space Agency unveiled a new, highly detailed sky map of the Milky Way Galaxy that showcases the brightness and positions of nearly 1.7 billion stars. It’s the most comprehensive catalog of stars to date, and it includes precise details about many of the stars’ distances, movements, and colors as well. With the map’s release, astronomers are hoping to use this information to learn more about the structure of our galactic home and how it first formed billions of years ago.

— New galactic map shows the positions and brightness of 1.7 billion stars by The Verge

The numbers are just mind boggling, precise positions of over 1 billion stars.

The 360 degrees view of what the Gaia spacecraft mapped is worth clicking through for.

RSS Update

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates on my blogging habits and where you can find me. Now is as good a time as any to update these.

Here’s the short version for those who just want the links.

Here’s the extended version if you’re interested.

Main blog

This blog continues to run but will focus solely on long-form posts now. It will also remain my central site where people can find me and get in touch.

There have been many changes over the years on this blog. I started doing smaller micro-posts a while back, but lately, I felt that perhaps this blog was not the right place for these posts. More on where you can find the new home for these posts later.

This blog will now only feature daily posts that sit around the 500-word mark and will become more of a regular logging blog. Expect posts on the topics of bootstrapping products, productivity, writing and a few other minor topics. The goal isn’t to be a blog only on a single subject, but instead, focus on topics that I enjoy writing about and am interested in. A public journal might be the aptest description for the blog now.

Microblog

Last year I started using another blog for shorter posts. I mostly use it for links, quotes, thoughts and the like.

I’m using a new blogging platform for this called Micro.blog. It’s a micro-blogging platform that allows you to not only easily run your own blog, but also has timelines where you can follow other Micro-bloggers and converse with them using replies, much like Twitter does.

As painful as Twitter is with it’s muddled timelines, I do still find it of some value. Micro.blog allows me to syndicate my content to Twitter without the added pain of having to post the content myself or get sucked into continually checking my timeline.

Another great feature of Micro.blog is that it posts your whole post as a tweet if it fits within Twitter’s 280 character limit. Otherwise it will post a link to your blog post on Twitter. You get the best of both worlds.

I’ll continue to post to my micro-blog at least a few times a day over the course of 2018.

Programming blog

My programming blog is seeing some changes over the next few weeks. The focus is on more content and I’m gradually getting there.

The DigitalBothy blog was largely ignored last year, but I’ve got plans for groups of content over the next six months and I’ve got a few posts lined up already for January. With a bit of work I hope to keep a head of my scheduled posts on this by a couple of months to give myself some breathing space.

So there you have it. A complete RSS update for all my digital homes on the Internet. Subscribe to whatever takes your fancy.

Better blogging

I love this manifesto for blogging. Lots of good points to use. Also, why wasn’t I already subscribed to Hugh’s blog?

All content must be on your own platform. You must own your own domain, and it must have a monopoly on your best work. Other people’s platforms like Facebook or Twitter can only link to the content, they mustn’t duplicate it. In other words, if people want to hear from you, first they have to come to YOUR house.

— The Dogme 17 Manifesto: a guide to better blogging by Hugh McLeod

Twitter's house rules

I can understand the joy on Twitter when a certain account was removed by a member of staff who was leaving.

De-activating an account out of your own personal agenda isn’t playing by Twitter’s rules though, and it certainly wouldn’t be as funny if it was your own account that was deleted.

Once again though it throws into question Twitter’s “house rules” and what constitutes playing by these rules and breaking them.

This is the most restraint I’ve had to show in my life.

This tub contains the awesome trio of nuts, peanut butter and chocolate. I don’t know how they’ve lasted 24 hours in this house.

It’s that time of year again! Next year will be my third year using a Techo. It’s proven to be so popular at home that Jennifer has ordered one as well! 👍

Coffeeshop etiquette

Some essential coffeeshop tips and etiquette from the peeps over at DNSimple.

When you order your first drink ask for it straight away. Having a good relationship with the staff is important so give a good tip. I usually give 40%-50% on the first visit. That really helps get a good start with the people working there.

— Working in coffeeshops by DNSimple

I need to breakout from the home office a bit more often now that the good weather is just around the corner. Paisley only has a couple of good coffee shops worth working in though.

Cement factory to home

When Ricardo Bofill stumbled upon a dilapidated cement factory in 1973, he immediately saw a world of possibilities. La fábrica was born, and almost 45 years later, the structure has been completely transformed into a spectacular and unique home.

The factory, located just outside of Barcelona, was a WWI-era pollution machine that had closed down, and came with many repairs to be done when Ricardo Bofill and his team purchased it. After years of partial deconstruction, the determined architect proceeded to lace the exterior of the property with vegetation, and furnish the interior as a modern living and work space.

— Architect Turns Old Cement Factory Into His Home, And The Interior Will Take Your Breath Away by BoredPanda

Amazing.

The turkey is in, the kitchen is stocked. Just a few presents to wrap and we’re all set in the Lang house!

Time To Replace Twitter?

Not a month goes by now without criticism of Twitter and it's walled garden network.

I really don’t like that we are all putting our content, including those golden joke tweets, into someone else’s silo. You’re giving Twitter full control over all of your content. That’s a huge price to pay for the exposure, especially in the light of the fact that there are user-controlled alternatives.

— Let’s replace Twitter with something much better by Charl Botha

I don't think Twitter needs to be replaced, but it certainly needs to be improved and Twitter is actively doing that. It's a long-term goal so we the people should be patient.

So, should we replace Twitter? I don't think so.

While I agree that Twitter isn't considered an open part of the Internet, you only have to sacrifice a few privileges to use it. I say a few privileges because you can still create and run your own blog and focus on hosting your more premium content there rather than on Twitter.

Twitter is many things to many people, but if you're a blogger it should be thought of as a delivery platform for your blog. Share your blogs posts on Twitter and have people come to your blog to read the rest of your content.

Twitter doesn't need to be replaced it just needs to be used in a way that makes your life easier.

Drew’s chasing the window cleaner round the windows of the house. I hope he doesn’t make him fall off his ladder.

A Father's Advice

A wonderful piece highlighting some life lessons from a father.

Begin conversations with people on airplanes when you hear “We have begun our descent.” If they prove to be fascinating, you will broaden your world; if they prove insufferable, it’s only 15 minutes. Uber rides and chairlifts provide a similar opportunity — exposure to people you would not otherwise meet in controlled time periods.

— Unsolicited Advice for My Three Sons, In No Particular Order by Rufus Griscom

It's writing like this that I love to read but going through the thousands of posts on Medium is a real problem. Another walled garden of potentially great content I guess.

The Essential Eight Returns

A couple of years ago I took the decision to limit my home screen to eight apps. The goal was to limit my the apps I use on a daily basis to just the essential ones.

With eight apps on my home screen I wouldn't be spending time looking for those apps I rarely use or being distracted by other apps. I would unlock my phone, do what I need to do and then put it down.

It started well but over time, the number of apps on the home screen gradually grew and grew until I had two screens filled with apps.

Since the start of the year I've been trying to get the number of apps on my home screen back down to just eight apps. Last weekend I finally got down to my target number. Here's the list of apps I have now on my home screen:

  1. Timepage
  2. Todoist
  3. Path
  4. Overcast
  5. Day One
  6. Twitter
  7. Instapaper
  8. Instagram

I stick to Apple's own offerings for communication using Messages, Phone, Mail and Safari. I've tried different apps to do each of these, but Apple's own apps are proven apps that meet all my needs. These sit on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen.

Technology is great, but it can start becoming a hindrance if it isn't kept under control. For me, eight apps is enough.

Kurt Harden loves the family life at home and makes it a top priority.

At lunch, I was able to drive home for a sandwich. The kids were off school so Libby and Henry were added to the lunch conversation at the kitchen table and I ran Libby to a friend’s house after lunch. I am fortunate enough to live close to work. The break in my workday often keeps me fresh, adding perspective to problems and opportunities that might otherwise be seen differently.

— Home by Kurt Harden

I'm also lucky to be in a position where I work from our home and I can take the kids to school and nursery and pick them up at the end of their day. Working from home is hard work, but the value in being nearby for the family is too good to give up on.

Dave Winer on the drawbacks to hosting your writing in the newest walled garden, Medium.

Medium is on its way to becoming the consensus platform for writing on the web. if you're not sure you're going to be blogging regularly, the default place to put your writing is Medium, rather than starting a blog on Tumblr or WordPress.com, for example. I guess the thought is that it's wasteful to start a blog if you're not sure you're going to post that often. It's something of a paradox, because blogs are not large things on the storage devices of the hosting companies. If they're doing it right, a blog is smaller than the PNG image in the right margin of this post. They're tiny little things in a world filled with videos and podcasts and even humble images. Text is very very very small in comparison.

— Anywhere But Medium by Dave Winer

Medium's walls are actually not that high at the moment. Access to the network is easy but I can't help but wonder if in the future they'll get it wrong and piss off a good chunk of their user base. I'd rather not take that chance.

Given the option between Medium and a hosted blog at Ghost, Tumblr, Wordpress or Blogger, I would definitely go with a hosted blog.

A shocking state of affairs. There are no biscuits in the house. How I am supposed to get any work done now?

Me and Jen have talked about emigrating to Canada, but the houses prices have always put us off. Would need to consider living further out.

Stop Hurting the Web

From time to time friends ask me what they should use if they want to start blogging, and for a while I was considering adding Medium to my list of suggestions, especially for non-technical writers. But I can’t support this kind of anti-web architecture.

— Dear Medium: Please stop hurting the web by Avdi Grimm

I want to like Medium but it's fast becoming just another walled garden.

The USA Freedom Act is Passed

The Intercept summarises the recent passing of the USA Freedom Act. Good to see change happening as a result of the work of Jon Snowden, Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald.

The USA Freedom Act passed the House in an overwhelming, bipartisan vote three weeks ago. After hardliner Republicans lost a prolonged game of legislative chicken, the Senate gave its approval Tuesday afternoon as well, by a 67 to 32 margin. The bill officially ends 14 years of unprecedented bulk collection of domestic phone records by the NSA, replacing it with a program that requires the government to make specific requests to the phone companies.

— One Small Step for NSA Reform, One Giant Leap for Congress by The Intercept

Big Food is Out

I can't say if this trend is happening in the UK, but in the Lang house we've almost completely eliminated processed foods in favour of fresh home made meals. The simple pleasure of cooking with fresh ingredients is hard to give up when you've mastered a few basic dishes.

The joys of home delivery from @asda. Ended up with two bags from someone else’s order which included three sirloin steaks.

Don’t get me wrong, my straps are secure and keep my feet planted, but sometimes getting my feet out can be a bit of a hit and miss.

I've always been the quiet type, often electing for the quiet corner of the room rather than being the speaker on the platform. Paul Dessert's guide to getting noticed as an introvert though has me thinking I need to shake up this behaviour if I'm to push my career forward as a freelancer.

Here's his take on going to meetups:

Seriously, do it. I know what you're thinking, "screw that, why do I want to talk with a bunch of random strangers? Most people that go to those are greasy salespeople". Guess what, you're right. Most of them are filled with people handing out business cards. Ignore them. Find people that are interesting. They don't have to work in the same industry as you, in fact, I'd suggest seeking out people in industries other than your own. You spend most of your time at work or school associating with like minded people, step out of that bubble and understand the needs and pains of others.

Want to know the secret to a good conversation? Shut the fuck up. Plays right into our wheelhouse, right! People LOVE to talk about themselves. Let them. Just listen and learn. You'll make new friends and gain a potentially valuable contact you can lean on in the future.

— The introverts guide to getting noticed by Paul Dessert

Kids & Technology

Last weekend our son came home with the school quarterly bulletin. As always we familiarised ourselves with everything that was coming up in the next few months, asked him what events he would like to go to and made sure there was nothing else that needed our attention. One last thing caught me wife's eye though as she read through the bulletin. The school are looking for volunteers to help re-vamp their school website.

The next day I phoned the school to let them know I would be willing to help out. I got a call back a few minutes later with a date and time to speak to the assistant head teacher at the school who will be handling the website. All good so far.

The school's website is okay as an information portal but it definitely falls short in terms of how it looks. Well, when the site says that the school kids contribute to the look and content of the site, you're not exactly going to be expecting something that wins web design awards. Looking at other web sites in the area, and it's clear that the school web site isn't a primary concern for some schools. There is more an emphasis on getting the school children involved and that's not a bad thing.

Today's school children though are far different in terms of technology exposure than school children have been in the past. In the last ten years, mobile technology has become so engrained in day to day life that homes often have two or more mobile devices with kids often having their own tablet or even smartphone.

It got me wondering about the approach to take in getting the school children involved in the new school website. Is it better for them to know how to edit and update web pages by hand or will the kids be more interested in maintaining the school website through something like Wordpress?

I might be jumping the gun here a bit, but I've been keeping a list of questions like this to ask at my meeting with the school this week.

The main good thing to come out of this though is the chance to do something for an organisation in my local community. Yes, I'll be doing the work for the school for free but with our oldest already a pupil there and our youngest due to start there in a few years, the chance to contribute something to their school can't be a bad thing.

Worst movies of 2014

I would have to say that the Jack Ryan reboot was by far my most disappointing movie of 2014.

Chris Pine seems suffocated to be playing the straight-man hero (he is more at home in Stretch and Into the Woods), Kenneth Branagh is really not Russian, and really you just want to weep for Keira Knightley, whom everyone assumed would have a secret role to play in the film but is merely there to have a light bulb shoved in her mouth while she tearfully waits for her man to save her.

— 'Exodus,' 'Maleficent' And The Worst Films Of 2014 by Forbes

My own cinema going experience for 2014 was limited, but I'm glad to see there's a few must-see movies for 2015. Roll on 2015!

Bootstrapped: Under Armour

From small beginnings to billion-dollar sports apparel giant, the story of Kevin Plank and Under Armour is proof that bootstrapping your business can succeed.

If it doesn’t sell, there’s probably something wrong with your business. If it does sell, then you don’t have to give half your company away and you can be the one making the decisions for the long term. We did that, we bootstrapped, and my first year in business, we did $17,000 in sales out of a little townhouse on the corner of 35th and O Street in Georgetown.

— When we were small: Under Armour by The Washington Post

App.net No More

I'm stepping away from App.net. It was a hard decision but I think I made the right move.

When I first read about App.net I was already in the Twitter doldrums. I was annoyed with the lack of post length, the lack of a business model and the growing number of spam accounts that automatically followed you. I was disliking Twitter more and more by the day.

The 22nd of August 2012. That was the day I signed up for App.net. It was heralded as the social network for those that want more control over their data, a service that isn't afraid to charge it's customers for the privilage of using their service. At first it was seen as a great move. A sustainable social network. It sounded so great. I promptly signed up.

It started out so promising. There was already a micro-blogging client, an API and the promise of more to come. More did come. With a better API, developers shipped clients for all the major mobile platforms. There was a number of nice services that were born off the back of the App.net API. After the initial launch hype, subscriptions tailed off and the App.net community carried on. For the first year things looked so great. It was all going so well.

Over the course of the second year there were a number of new features including a notifications system for everyone as well as a crowdfunding platform for people to validate their product ideas. In the community there was a lot of discussion about the future of App.net. So many people were interested and cared for the future of it.

Ever since the App.net State of the Union post from the App.net blog though, the future of the social network has looked uncertain. Prominent subscribers to App.net have stopped posting or in some cases just completely deleted their accounts. For the last few months my timeline has appeared to be less and less active. While most days you might get a conversation on a particular topic, some days it feels like you're just talking to yourself. The buzz around App.net has died and what's been left behind is the remnants of a what could have been a great service.

For the last couple of weeks I've been weighing up whether I should continue to dedicate my time to using App.net. "You get what you put in" is a popular opinion of why you should continue to use any social network and it does hold true, but sometimes you just have to quit regardless of how much you want to participate. For me it was just a lack of interaction that made me decide to leave. People did participate in conversations but it just wasn't as frequent as it previously had been on App.net.

Over the last two years, App.net has been home from home. A stream of people I've connected with on a daily basis. Posts, links, images, polls and stories all shared in a little corner of the Internet. I don't regret the time that I have spent there. It's been a great experience and I've connected with some great people but it's time to move on.

Interesting new idea for home security. I would be interested to see how accurate it is.

Communication is important when establishing a relationship with a potential client. It can be won or lost in just a couple of minutes.

We have an area in our front garden that is shaded for most of the day and the soil is terrible for growing anything in. For the last five years we've covered the ground with tarpaulin and gravel just to make it more presentable. It still looks bare though so I called a couple of landscape gardeners to come out and give me quotes to put a rock garden in to make the front of the house a lot nicer to look at.

The first landscape gardener that came out had a professional looking website with examples of his team's work. I started to explain the situation and what I had in mind. He agreed with everything I suggested and I mean everything. There were no suggestions or ideas from him not even a question about plants, colour of stone or anything else for that matter. The price he gave us was cheap but then he didn't give me the impression that there would be anything eye-catching about what he would produce. His lack of discussion didn't boost my confidence either.

The second landscape gardener arrived a few days later. I actually got his number from a neighbour and he's done a number of gardens in and around the area so it's easy to see his work. I told him my idea for the front and what suggestions he had. After taking a couple of minutes to look at the ground he said that he could do what I asked but he made a number of suggestions that would make the rock garden more natural looking as well as ensuring that the plants would grow with the right amount of drainage under them. The conversation went on for about 15 minutes until we both agreed what I was looking after. He couldn't give a price there and then as he said he would need to do some price checking to get the best deal. A week later and he called with a quote that was more than the first quote we got but still within our budget.

The second was different though. Conversation, engagement, sharing ideas and collaborating. He explained the options that I had, possible problems with solutions and even made a number of suggestions to improve the rock garden. This is why I will be going with the second landscape gardener. It was clear from our conversation that he had the knowledge and he explained exactly what he had in mind.

It was all in the communication. It was two way and simple. It's worth remembering that when talking to potential clients about project work to be honest and helpful in that first conversation. When other factors don't come into it, it might just hinge on that first conversation.

After the Ice Storm

After the ice storm that hit the Toronto area before Christmas, I managed to get a few shots of the fields across the road from my in-laws house just as the sun was setting. These were taken over two days which explains the change in the clouds.

My iPad Setup

I wrote last week about finding purpose for my iPad, a tool that I feel was underused. Over the weekend I managed to sort out the various apps that I needed and re-arranged my screens so that the apps I use on a day to day basis are on my home screen and other apps are just a slide away.

In a departure from my iPhone, I have foregone the use of folders for grouping applications. I did this for two reasons. There's more screen space on the iPad and I don't need to use as many apps as I do on my iPhone.

Another change I made that is different from my iPhone setup is the number of apps on my home screen. I almost filled the screen with apps. Om my phone I just use the top two rows for apps on my home screen, but I don't mind having so many apps on my iPad's home screen,so I just fill the screen with the apps I need and pick a pleasing wallpaper.

One of the key decisions in picking apps for my iPad was whether to use the same apps on my iPhone for my iPad. The devices run on the same platform, but the bigger screen on the iPad means that I can afford to pick apps that offer more in terms of functionality, even if it does come at the cost of some screen estate. So I ditched PlainText for Editorial and of course there is no Reeder support on the iPad yet, so I have opted to use Mr Reader to read my RSS feeds.

My iPad Home Screen

So there we have it, my iPad setup. Simpler than I thought it was going to be, but it did require a different approach if I wanted to get the most from using it. And if you're questioning whether it will work for me or not, I'm writing this on my iPad in a cafe. That's got to count as a good start.

Old Town Niagara Falls

Me and Jen took the bus home from Niagara Falls on Thursday, a first for us as we usually drive back. We've been to Niagara Falls countless times over the years and this is the first time we've seen the old parts of town. A lot of interesting buildings here that have sadly seen better days. I'm glad we wandered off the beaten track this time. We wouldn't have seen these buildings if we hadn't decided to take the bus.

When to Use Database Constraints in Rails

Yesterday I was working on a new feature for a client when I ran into an issue. The ActiveRecord model I was working with had a number of constraints on the table that prevented me from creating a record. I removed the constraints from the table, as I decided that in this case they were unecessary. Unfortunately decisions like this aren't always as straight forward.

I tend to avoid using constraints when possible in my applications, especially when I am using Rails. I can rely on validations and associations to act as 'soft constraints' to my data and ensure that my data is valid. These are also backed up with tests for each model and its validations and associations to other models. This is by no means a perfect solution, but it has sufficed in the past.

Now, a lot of developers might think that constraints are not required as ActiveRecord provides all the necessary plumbing for validating and joining tables together with relationships. That's fair to say if your application is thoroughly tested and doesn't house critical information, but we all want to be good developers so really we should be using constraints where required.

In the past I've worked on a number of healthcare systems that required certain fields to be populated in specific tables. Domains that are directed by rules and regulations on what data you should persist are a great place to use database constraints. Enforcing the data integrity rules on your database reduces the risk for having missing information that could potentially land you in trouble. Domains such as healthcare, law and even education are all examples of domains where by database constraints could be needed.

Applications that also share their data are another good case for database constraints. While you do have validations and associations for your Rails application, can you make the same assumptions about other applications that can access your data? Using database constraints here can ensure that your data remains valid.

In Rails it's all too easy to assume your database is simply a place to hold data, but your database can provide extra validations and checks when needed. I tend to favour not using database constraints until a feature or bug requires that I absolutely need one in place. I find it's much easier to work with code that isn't restricted by countless constraints that have been placed on a table from the start merely because the developer at the time thought that field 'x' was a required field and should have a constraint on it.

A day away

I'm in between work at the moment. It's an odd place for me to be. I've worked in the full-time job market for over 10 years. If I wasn't working, I was on holiday or I was made redundant and I was looking for another job. This freelancing lark is different though and with some time in between gigs and I want to use the time I have wisely.

With a few days free in between gigs I had two choices today:

  1. Work on products
  2. Get some chores done

I opted for the chores.

It was a lovely day here in Scotland so I thought it would be a good idea to simply step away from the computer and let my head rest while getting a few things sorted around the house and the garden.

We're not all fortunate to have a day away from out desks like this, but I'm so glad I'm in the position where I can do this and not worry about the implications on my income by taking a day away.

Back on a regular reading schedule

The last couple of months have been a bit hectic in our house with an unscheduled job hunt for myself and the holidays were just coming up. With everything that was going on during this time, I stopped reading for a while. What's surprising about this is that I'm a pretty consistent reader, maybe making my way through a couple of books a month.

Things are settled down now so I've started getting back on track with my reading again. I picked up where I left off with Post Captain, and I'm digesting a couple of freelancing books this month. I'm sticking with one fiction book and one or two non-fiction books every month.

In the future I'm hoping to publish my progress through the books throughout the year, so watch out for posts on the blog and possibly reviews as well.

A gathering place

An impressive collection of books by Cultural Offering. Makes me wish I had a larger house for a collection of my own books. Unfortunately our pokey little house in the UK will only allow me to have a small collection of books next to my new office at home. Still, a small collection of my favourite books is better than none at all.

Your words are wasted

You are not blogging enough. You are pouring your words into increasingly closed and often walled gardens. You are giving control - and sometimes ownership - of your content to social media companies that will SURELY fail.

— Your Words are Wasted by Scott Hanselman

The near opening paragraph to Scott Hanselman's latest post has been resonating in my head for a day now. In it, he champions the blog over the increasing walled gardens that social networks have become.

I've been thinking long and hard about leaving the world of social networks like Twitter, and just pouring out all my thoughts here. Writing has been something I've neglected in the last few months yet I really enjoy doing it. Rather than checking my Twitter timeline countless times per day, perhaps I should spend the time writing through the day.

I'll keep you posted on this one next week, however it's increasingly looking like I will take some time out from Twitter.