Matthew Lang

Do you remember Backpack? If you don't, it was a knowledge base web application where you could store notes, images, drafts, attachments and other gubbins. Since 37signals changed their name and focus to Basecamp, Backpack has been left to quietly sit on the sidelines. There was a time that I loved using Backpack but after a while I tried a few others. Overtime though nothing compared to the functionality that Backpack offered.

Frustrated, I've been looking for alternatives to Backpack. Here's a few I've tried in the last few days.

Trello

I use Trello mainly for managing clients projects but I do have a couple of other boards here that I use. I tried to create a board that would serve my needs as a knowledge base board but there's two dislikes I have about Trello. Sharing individual cards isn't possible unless you share the board the card belongs to and viewing a card on it's own has too much clutter.

FAQT

I signed up to FAQT when I first seen it on Hacker News a few weeks ago and initial impressions are good. Markdown based 'cards' that can be categorised and shared. Fulfills most of my needs as a knowledge base and there is a few features I would like to see but my biggest bugbear is that FAQT is currently free and therefore there's a chance the service won't be around forever.

DailyMuse

Lastly there's my own DailyMuse application. It's comprises of a collection of snippets with a single snippet being sent to you daily. It's nice for things like quotes and lists that I like to review periodically but as a knowledge base application it lacks a few features that FAQT has. For a while though DailyMuse has been trundling along as a micro-service with a very focused aim, but maybe it's time to turn that on it's head and make it into some more that appeals to more people. It would offer the same functionality that it offers today but would also include the ability to create and share information in the form of pages. It's an idea I've been thinking about but reluctant to act on.

There's probably more in terms of knowledge base applications out there that do the same thing, but to be honest I would rather be using an existing service for this rather than using another service and having more of my data spread out on the Internet.

The amazing story of a family living deep in Siberia without contact with the world for 40 years.

It was a clearing, 6,000 feet up a mountainside, wedged between the pine and larch and scored with what looked like long, dark furrows. The baffled helicopter crew made several passes before reluctantly concluding that this was evidence of human habitation—a garden that, from the size and shape of the clearing, must have been there for a long time.

It was an astounding discovery. The mountain was more than 150 miles from the nearest settlement, in a spot that had never been explored. The Soviet authorities had no records of anyone living in the district.

— For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II
by Smithsonian

A little reminder that the Internet is simply a facade into people's lives. You need to actually know a person to know the life they lead.

What I share online only represents a tiny portion of my life. Sure, I live a pretty decent life, and really don’t have anything to complain about, but still — it’s not nearly as interesting as a lot of folks assume. And conversely, I’m sure a lot of folks I assume have an amazingly awesome, super interesting life are exactly the same.

— No one on the Internet is living the life you think they are
by Paul Jarvis

I can't wait to get through these. The great thing about these episodes is that they're all fairly short. Easy to watch while you're having a coffee break!

Pearls of wisdom from JavaScript laureate, Thomas Fuchs.

Don't follow the hype

Use what works for you. If you’re productive in PHP, by all means, use PHP. Of course, sometimes technologies come along that actually measurably increase productivity or have other huge advantages, but it can’t be overstated how few and far between those are — perhaps one or two happen in a decade.

— How to actually ship software that actually works
by Thomas Fuchs

I'm not adverse to trying out different programming languages, but the steady stream of new languages and frameworks that appear along with their evangelical users about why theirs is the next big thing is wearing.

I like Adam Keys advice on this.

I couldn't agree with Matthew on this topic more.

Having a personal website is something most people my age don’t do. However, most millennials have a web presence via social networks like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Having a web presence is very important, and is almost a requirement in this digital world. Using social media for your web presence works wonderfully, but you don’t own and control your content. At any time your social media account could be deleted, and then your long time web presence is gone.

— Everyone Needs a Personal Website
by Matthew Dilulio

Moleskine. Black.

Two words that many people might associate with each other and with good reason too. When Moleskine notebooks started becoming popular a few years ago, black was the only colour available. I've owned a number of them over the years, but a couple of years ago my wife bought me a burgundy coloured Moleskine that was released to tie in with the release of the first The Hobbit movie. Instead of a plain black cover, it's burgundy with embossed detailing from the original maps that Tolkien created for The Hobbit book. I didn't give the colour change much thought although I did like having something a little bit different.

Having finally finished this notebook and in need of a few more notebooks to fill the gap I went straight to Amazon to order up a couple of Moleskine notebooks in black. Then I remembered Matt Gemmell's piece on colours that I read the previous day.

Black is boring. Dark grey is boring. Even white is boring now, after a brief few years of distinction.

— Colours by Matt Gemmell

Matt is right. Black is boring. So I clicked through to see what other options there were and decided on a couple of packs of Moleskine Volant notebooks. One emerald set and one blue set. They arrived over the weekend and have been assigned their seperate roles. As you can also see they are definitely not black and definitely not boring either.

These will be definitely more interesting over time as I fill these notebooks and order others in different colours.

NB is back with essential skills for the new semester. Number 6 on the list is strictly enforced in our house on a Sunday from September to the end of the year.

Relaxation: the ability to easily let go of the deadline for 8 hours and get some quality sleep, to watch the game without guilt, to know what is truly important at this point. Do less, achieve more.

— Back to School II by Nicholas Bate

During this time the rule is that Sundays are for home cooked meals, everyone sitting round the table to enjoy it, taking the boys for a walk on their bikes and then sitting down for a couple of hours of NFL.

Loved this. So many times I'll say I don't have the time but it's not actually true. I do have the time, just not the attention.

But really, as I thought about it, I realized I had the time. Every day is the same 24 hour cycle. Every workday around 8 hours. Surely I could have found even 20 minutes a day to work with him. But it wasn’t that. It wasn’t that I couldn’t find the time. I couldn’t find the attention.

My mind fills up with a few key projects and that’s it. I’m absorbed by those. That’s where my attention is. Had I made 20 minutes here and there for him, I’m be physically present in that moment, but mentally I’d be elsewhere. And that’s not fair to either of us.

Time and attention aren’t the same thing. They aren’t even related.

— The difference between time and attention by Jason Fried

Brought to you by Nicholas Bate.

An extremely interesting and yet haunting visualisation of all the nuclear weapons that have exploded on Earth since 1945. The silence of the visualisation with the intermediate pings to denote each explosion is quite eerie.

Trinity from Orbital Mechanics on Vimeo.

via kottke.org

Nicholas Bate advises you write. A lot.

... with our man from Arizona, Michael Wade.

Don’t be afraid to challenge prospective clients with goals. Make them work to prove that they’re really the right clients for you. Be bold.

— Curtis McHale by Curtis McHale

Read on for the full background story.

... here's The Art of Manliness with their take on kaizen.

The Kaizen approach to self-improvement completely circumvents the unproductive ups and downs all too common to the quest. By breaking down big, overwhelming goals into super small, discrete pieces, Kaizen encourages action. The small successes you experience with your baby steps feed on each other and start building some momentum, which leads to taking bigger and bigger actions.

— Get 1% Better Every Day: The Kaizen Way to Self-Improvement
by The Art of Manliness

Nicholas Bate with more thought provoking lists of wisdom.

Darker nights mean no more sun blessed evening rides, well at least until next year. Going to make an effort to get a few more bikes rides under my belt in the evening and enjoy the last days of summer.

Ever since I heard about the word kaizen used in Scrum, I've been fascinated how Japanese words can signify more in one word than the English translation can.

These Japanese words are more examples of this. My favourite is ikigai.

via Swiss Miss

Ethan's back at school today. Having to adjust to the house being quiet again. Back to work for me as well I suppose.

Patrick's journey on the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path continues with the right livelihood.

I use the concept of Right Livelihood to remind me to keep my focus on doing work that contributes to the greater good, that is meaningful and helpful to those that choose to purchase my products and services, to humbly realize that any failures or successes will be fleeting, and that the most mindful path is to simply continue to do good work.

— Right Livelihood
by Patrick Rhone

It’s a question that I’m seeing on an increasing basis as I venture through the Internet. I’ve seen it appear on a few forum sites and it has appeared in a couple of newsletters that I subscribe to.

Before we answer the question, let’s take a brief look at the history of Rails. 10 years ago the first version of Ruby on Rails dropped. It caused a stir due to the ease with which web applications could be made. In that time it’s moved on through four major versions, had hundreds of releases and has been the collective work of hundreds of software developers who have devoted their free time to making Ruby on Rails what it is today.

Since then there’s been a search for the next killer web framework that will replace Ruby on Rails. 10 years on I’d say we’re still waiting. No other web framework has had the impact that Ruby on Rails has.

So is Ruby on Rails still relevant?

Definitely yes. While a lot of developers have adopted and then moved onto other languages and frameworks, there is still a large amount of developers that specialise in Ruby on Rails. The market for Ruby on Rails developers for full-time and contract work is still healthy. There’s also still a large amount of companies and organisations that need Ruby on Rails developers to maintain web applications and there’s still a demand for these developers with Greenfield projects as well.

It’s not as highly a sought after as it was maybe five years ago, but it’s still a relevant technology as well as a mature technology. It’s been tried and tested by many developers and it’s benefits for building web applications is well known now. Given that companies would rather not risk building an application in a new and unfamiliar technology, Ruby on Rails is now seen as a mature web framework that has grown up over the years.

Ruby on Rails will be relevant for at least the next five years and possibly the next ten years. From there, who knows. As long as it is a low-risk technology for clients, I’ll keep recommending Rails for projects that it is a good fit for.

While I would love to commit to a steady stream of fresh and interesting content here, I'm just too busy. So if I'm not posting as much, it's because I'm busy. And that's a good thing, right?

Distraction free wallpaper by Joe Darnell.