Matthew Lang

Having owned a Spectrum as a kid, I would love to have one of these little beauties. I think I would be simply caving into nostalgia though if I did. Still, it would be nice to see this project succeed.

The Sinclair Spectrum Vega is as simple to use as any of the popular games consoles, but far less expensive. It plugs into a TV, so no computer monitor is necessary, and comes complete with around 1,000 games built-in. The Vega has sufficient memory to allow the user to download the many additional games we will be making available from time to time free of charge.

— Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega by Indiegogo

It's been a while since I reviewed my bookmarklets and since Carl T. Holscher was doing his, I thought I would list mine.

• Markdown Blockquote (bookmarklet) - A recent addition to my bookmarklets collection is the markdown pull quote grabber. I've recently taken a leaf out of John Gruber's blog and started including quotes from posts that I am linking too. This was quite a convoluted task in the past. Grabbing the link and quote, pasting it in and adding the author and title. Using this bookmarklet though makes the process much more easier. In the near future I plan to modify this so that it renders a blockquote in the format that I use for my blog. Special thanks goes to @malanowski who is the author of this.
• Markdown Page (bookmarklet) - I frequently copy whole pages as reference material. Mostly articles on web development and programming. As I prefer to use Markdown documents, I needed something that converted a whole page to Markdown. This bookmarklet does exactly that.
• Markdown Link (bookmarklet) - I'm grabbing links all the time from Firefox and just about everytime I reach for this bookmarklet. I simply need to click this bookmarklet and I get a markdown version of the link to paste into my document.
• Subscribe with Feedbin (bookmarklet) - I use Feedbin as my preferred RSS reader. In a world of streaming posts and updates on all the social networks, I'm glad there's still a way of subscribing to a site's content without having to succumb to just being another follower. This bookmarklet lets me subscribe quickly to any site that contains a valid RSS feed.
• Save to Instapaper (bookmarklet) - Finally there's Instapaper's bookmarklet for saving articles to your reading list. I use Instapaper on a daily basis for queing up what I want to read later on. Click to the page you want to save, click the bookmarklet, job done.

Bookmarklets are a good way of manipulating the pages on your web browser without installing add-ons. Unless you're familiar with JavaScript though, you will have to contend yourself with finding bookmarklets that others have made. With a bit practice though you could start writing your own.

Are killer apps a thing of the past?

I remember a few years back when Twitter was young and great, Facebook was viewed with more positive eyes than it is today and the mobile app stores were just starting out. Good times. It was also about this time that I heard the phrase killer app. For the uninitiated a killer app was often seen as an indispensible app that would help push the sales of the platform the app was run on. Simply put, people would buy the hardware needed to run the app in question. Back then, it seemed that every month there was a new app or service that would be tagged as the next killer app.

Fast forward to today and it's not something I've heard often in the technology press. It's still used to describe some apps but not as much. I still follow the same technology sites I did a few years ago, so what's different?

The world has changed. There's less of a technology barrier now than there's ever been and that due to the small device that you're probably reading this on. Over the last few years mobile apps and services have reduced, or in some cases removed, the complicated steps that would be required to carry out a specific task or action. Along with this simplification comes a growing market of companies and indie developers who all us to use their app. And the demand for apps shows no sign of slowing down. I was browsing through the productivity category of the App Store and there are hundreds of apps in this category. There are just so many choices.

Another factor in this is that the mobile market is not tied to one particular platform. In the past when mobile hardware platforms were getting past their first couple of release iterations, it was certainly clear that alot of people preferred the Apple platform and there were many apps that persuaded people to buy Apple's hardware. Today though the market is more evenly divided. Apple and Google have their share along with others like Blackberry and Microsoft. I would be hard pressed to pick an app that certainly fits the name of killer app and that's due to the fact that many apps are available on not just a single platform.

Which leads me to think that perhaps we're past the stage of killer apps. With such a huge market for applications, there are dozens of apps that let you achieve the same result through different methods. Maybe now we're not looking for killer apps, perhaps we're looking for game changing apps. Not just new ways of doing things, but whole new markets of the mobile apps.

Wearable technology is still fairly new and with Apple's new smartwatch due for release soon, there will be many tech pundits looking for the next killer app for wearable technology. Whether this becomes a market in mobile apps or a completely new market remains to be seen. Given the recent release of similar products by other technology firms though, I don't think there will ever be a killer app for wearable tech.

Is the killer app dead? I would say yes for the foreseeable future but it certainly won't stop business and developers using the title to promote their apps. I think it will take a whole new field of technology before we see true killer apps again. Apple Lense anyone?

... with Nicholas Bate.

Curtis McHale talks about his change from solo freelancer to business owner and why it's necessary.

As their leader, it’s now your job to make sure your team members do their jobs well. Coders stay up-to-date on code and technology. Designers continue to hone their skills. And you’re responsible for knowing enough about your entire organization that you can have good conversations with your clients without sounding like an idiot. This is how you earn trust and credibility.

— Evolving into a Business Owner by Curtis McHale

I'm still comfortable with my solo freelance career, but I do know that in the future that next natural step is to lead.

I haven't reviewed my bookmarklets in a long time. Definitely think there's room though for one or two of Carl's recommendations.

Another glorious day for the junior section at Elderslie Golf Club.

At last!

Looks like JJ kept the lens flare to a minimum.

And that's not a bad thing in Michael Wade's eyes.

Finally. A parent with the sense to not hold their children's hand in everything they do. If the kid forgets their homework, tough. They'll learn soon enough.

Letting your kids fail is real parenting.

I read David Allen's GTD book a few years ago. It seemed a lot to take in and while I did try it, it just didn't stick for me. Fast forward to today and I've read Erlend Hamberg's pragmatic take on GTD. Everything you need in one single post. Tempted to implement this in Todoist.

via FGGT

I'll save the criticism for when I've seen the movie, but I suspect that I will love this movie.

from Nicholas Bate.

The digital interrupt is relentless, often trivial, sometimes insufferable, cunningly finding new channels, often repetitive, poorly constructed and lacks sufficient courtesy to recognise that you are busy.

— Jagged Thoughts for Jagged Times by Nicholas Bate

This will be my first week without any social network interaction. It will be interesting to see what the lack of digital interruptions will do for me.

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.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who packs a mean lunch for their kids.

The researchers have clearly not experienced the spread I provide my kids. Only the highest quality peanut butters. Exotic jellies. The finest meats and cheeses in all the land. A surprise ingredient in every submarine sandwich. Figs, dates, grapes, cornichons, chips of potatoes, cakes made by none other than Little Debbie.

— Precursor to Nanny State action? by Cultural Offering

Odell Beckham Jr shows the world how it's done.

And in case you think there's a stroke of luck here, you're wrong.

Nicholas Bate's Wrong Question series continues with How do I get more time?

Read on and subscribe for answers to this and more of life's mysteries.

We need these bike paths everywhere.

Love the look of this new notebook on Kickstarter. Looks like it has a place for everything.

via Well-Appointed Desk

I've not used Evernote for a while now but Seth Clifford's setup in Dropbox still was intriguing to read about.

via FGGT

Amsterdam seen through the sketchnotes of Mike Rohde.

When it comes to working with clients, there's a shared responsibility to ensure that both parties are using the right tools to work together.

For the last few weeks I've become increasingly uncomfortable in how I work with a client. In the past we've used a particular collaboration tool to manage projects and communicate through, but in the last few weeks this tool has been abandoned in favour for development requests through a chat room. At first it was minor requests like tweaks to the UI and changes to the messages that were displayed to the user when a form was incorrect. Steadily though it's increased to bigger changes and feature requests. Instant Messaging Driven Development if you wanted to put a label on it.

After explaining an issue in the code with the client I took the chance to talk to them about the increasing use of the chat room for requests rather than the collaboration tool that we originally used. I explained my worries about the trend towards this and the drawbacks that the client will inherit as a result of the continued use of the chat room for sending requests for software changes.

The issue was heard loud and clear from the client and for the next hour of the call we discussed plans to move back to the collaboration tool as well as guidelines for using the tool and what we can do to reinforce its place as the go to point for projects. It was a successful discussion.

When you and your client agree on a particular tool to use for collaborating on projects, then it is important that you stick to this. These tools are initially picked for a reason and that's because both you and the client are happy to use the tool and it will serve both your needs. When either side of this arrangement doesn't use the tool then that's where things can go wrong.

Collaboration tools such as Trello, Basecamp and other tools are there to ease the burden of remote parties working together. Parties can share information, assign tasks, check overall progress and much more. Other tools for communicating like IM, phone, text and email are best at communicating but they're a bad choice as collaboration tools.

Who's to blame? Well, in this case both myself and the client. On one hand the client should be adhereing to the agreement of using the collaboration tool. On the other hand, I could have mentioned this to the client sooner rather than let it continue for the few weeks that it did. I admit I was hesistant about bringing this issue to the client, but they were understanding about my concerns and promised to start using the collaboration tool again.

The next time a client deviates from the collaboration tool we've chosen, I'll politely remind them of our preferred place for such things. And yes, I would expect them to do the same to me.

via PEDAL Consumption