Blog from the Loft

Turns out, 007’s new multi-touch comm device has nothing on the decades old index card. Index cards are a great communication tool. Use them to present website designs, create conceptual layouts for applications, and brainstorm ideas in general. These two pictures were taken from one of our client meetings, when we are trying to organize [...]

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Check out the NYTimes article on WilsonDailyPrep. We at Imperial Consulting did the application, using Django and Python. It is a great service and a lot of fun to work on (my own vocab and grammar has gotten better, the Math quizzes are too easy). I am glad it is getting the big time publicity [...]

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True story, metaphorically speaking:
Client: Our customers expect us to meet them in San Francisco to run a in person workshop with all of us in a week.
Me: Great. I looked and found a great cheap flight for all of us. Let’s work on what gear to bring and get there one day before to [...]

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OpenID is a great implementation of a great idea. Vendor agnostic single sign-on with multiple persona may finally happen. For a good intro, watch Django’s Simon Wilson’s presentation here:

 
I am planning to add openID support to all my projects, www.kindneighbor.com and www.geardesk.com soon. Currently there are few sites that support it. But today I had [...]

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From the book Organized for Success : Top Executives and CEOs Reveal the Organizing Principles That Helped Them Reach the Top:

Top Priorities — time-based must do tasks

Medium Priorities

High-payoff priorities — task’s outcome is uncertain, but if successful, can result in major gain

negative Priorities — negative consequences result if you do not finish these tasks

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This is a funny and true post about software Framework. I have built them, I have used them, and it is hard to find a set of tools/framework that does the job and not get in the way. A good framework has to balance between the learning curve, flexibility, depth of services, and productivity.

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Mort, Elvis or Einstein, there types of programmer. Useful classification of programmer (that’s programmer with a small “p”). Read the references below for more info (yes this is just a meta post):

Wesner Moise’s thoughts,

Roger Jennings’ thoughts,

The original idea from Nikhil Kothari

And an interesting analysis by Rockford Lhotka

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Hiring a web designer is difficult. Hiring a good one is down right near impossible. What exactly is a good “web designer”?
A lot of companies incorrectly lump several very different roles together and pin it on the “web guy/gal”. What kind of work do you expect this “web person” to do?

redesign the web site/web application’s [...]

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I use basecamp. I like basecamp. I like the 37Signal designs. I read their blog. They are certainly pioneer in the newly revitalized ASP + Web2.0 biz.
But I also find basecamp inadequate, as a paid user. Specifically:

While it is nice that the include their writeboard function in basecamp, it is not integrated. If you want [...]

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Inc. Magazine has an article on Time Management. It talks about corporate rythm(s). Some companies are monochronic, 9-5 M-F, some are polychronic. My company is very much a polychronic company. There are multiple rhythms in different periodicies. Time zones differences between our international offices dictates the daily rhythm. Different holiday schedules between countries dictates the [...]

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