January 2010 Archives

On The Lack of Flash

0 comments Filed in Tumbling Tagged with Experience•Flash•Ihnatko•Internet•iPad January 30th, 2010

Months ago, I installed a browser plugin for Safari called “ClickToFlash.” It blocks all Flash content. You’ll see a placeholder image in the webpage and if you want to view the content, give it a click and it’ll load in. I have not noticed any drop in my ability to enjoy the Web. What I have noticed is that my browser is faster and more responsive, and that I can leave a couple of dozen tabs and windows up for weeks without having to force-restart my Mac.

I also use ClickToFlash and a Flash-less internet has positively improved my browsing experiences.

Goddamn This Dusty Room, All My Life I’ve Been Dreamin’ of Something

3 comments Filed in Real Life Tagged with Believe•Faith•Life January 23rd, 2010

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
(Martin Luther King Jr.) Read more

Love. Hate. The Future Belongs to…

0 comments Filed in Real Life•That's Me Tagged with Life•Life's Nice•Love January 14th, 2010

As life moves on and the years start adding up, people tend to sit down and reflect more. This is probably still my weakest point, I like moving forward too much to really sit down. Nevertheless I have learned to not always immediately react on things anymore, sometimes I even know when to shut up. Occasionally I still fail at the latter.

Generally though, I tend to live a quiet background life all while being the dynamic me people know. While trying to still be prolific I really enjoy living in the shadows. It is nice there, not too hot nor too bright.

Believe me when I say that I do know how it feels to live in the spotlights and the three people who have followed this blog since years do know that I do not shun these spotlights either. But I’m getting old and people change.

Suffice to say that I was very surprised today to find myself in the crossfire or rather the line of fire from someone I do not know. In the middle of a very hostile and spiteful attack. Read more

Content Baby. Content, Yes

1 comment Filed in Blogging Politics•Online•Real Life Tagged with 9rules•Content January 13th, 2010

Now more than 25 years ago I first discovered the Internet. Soon it would start to take a main role in my life. I was only a kid. But from the first day I discovered the Internet I knew this was my thing. Never had I dreamed I would be able to make a living from the online world but today I realise it was an unknown dream.

A dream which became reality.

As a kid I have always been a reader. I would read more than 100 pages per day already when I was only 7 years young. I loved my parents’ Winkler Prins. On rainy days you could find me in my room, on bed with most of the time at least six tomes around me. I was a knowledge leech as kid already. My parents had a Wikipedia without online connection.

I was a reader with an unsatisfied hunger for knowledge. My life seemed complete. Read more

WordPress vs. Bloat. Introducing Habari.

18 comments Filed in Geekery Tagged with Habari•Notesblog•WordPress January 10th, 2010

I have been using WordPress for around 4 years now and all in all it has been a fun ride but time has come for a change in my quest to simplify life, to refocus on blogging.

Focus on content and not how great and powerful a platform is or how I can play with the header image in every post. Refocus on content. Cut out the bloat. I love WordPress but the platform, a very powerful option which everyone should consider in their quest to run a blog, has grown beyond my personal needs.

What I want here for iFranky is a blog; I don’t need a full-blown CMS. Read more

On Showing and Sharing Early

0 comments Filed in Advice•Tumbling Tagged with Ed Catmull•Pixar•Process January 9th, 2010

More bloggers should listen to this advice. Starting early and daily being confronted with the minor issues, or work still to be done at a site, is a great way to make sure you actually do actively work at your project and constantly improve.

In the process of making the film, we reviewed the material every day. Now, this is counter-intuitive for a lot of people. […]

Suppose you come in, and you’ve got to put together animation or drawings and show it to a famous, world-class animator. Well, you don’t want to show some thing which is weak or poor. So you want to hold off until you get it to be right.

The trick is actually to stop that behav ior. We show it every day—when it’s incomplete. If everybody does it, every day, then you get over the embarrassment. And when you get over the embarrassment, you’re more creative.

It’s not obvious to people, but starting down that path helped every thing that we did. Show it in its incomplete form. There’s another advantage to that. When you’re done… you’re done.

Pixar president Ed Catmull, in a speech to Stanford’s business school.

Do You Really Need Windows on Mac?

0 comments Filed in Tumbling Tagged with Liam Cassidy•Mac•Windows January 8th, 2010

Apparently I am not alone not being interested installing Windows (7) on my MacBook:

But apparently, that’s unusual, and most Mac owners in the world not only use Windows, they need Windows and, more than any other version, they absolutely must have Windows 7, so Apple’s missed deadline is nothing short of scandalous.

True? Because if that’s not true, all of that breathless reporting over the weekend about missed deadlines and Apple’s ‘fears’ would prove a tad silly, wouldn’t it?

Actually, I have had one issue since switching to the Mac; my friends don’t use iChat. They’re stuck with Skype or — horror of horrors –Windows Live Messenger for video conferencing and collaboration. I pity them. It’s the one thing I wish Apple would release for Windows. The world would be a better place then, I’m sure.

At some point, I think after 6 months on Mac, I stopped caring about Windows. Unless I really need to work in MS Access for a client, I will not install Windows and if, Windows XP has a much smaller footprint.

On Hiring People; Making People Feeling Wanted

0 comments Filed in Real Life•Tumbling Tagged with Employee•Hiring•Links•Rands January 4th, 2010

Rands explains the importance of making the desired candidate feel wanted. Both to make sure the candidates becomes the ‘new hire’ but also because every great hire is a new award for your own career:

If you’re hiring well, you’re hiring people not just for this job, but for your career. These are the people who, for better or worse, will explain to others what it is like to work with you. They’ll explain your quirks, your weaknesses, and your strengths. When they eventually leave the group, they’re taking your reputation with them. You may never talk to them again, but they’ll continue to talk and my question is: what stories are they going to tell?

One of the most important things to make this double-edged sword highly successful is to assure that the employees still feels wanted after joining; the hire is an important pilar of the department.
How long does it take you to settle in a new job? That period is arguably even more important than the actual ‘chase’; it’s when the new hire grows roots.

2009, A Year in Movies and Music

2 comments Filed in Music Tagged with 2009•2010•last.fm•Movies•Music•Reviews•Stats January 3rd, 2010

Every year people excel in making new resolutions for the next year and outperform themselves breaking every single resolution even faster than the year before. The blogosphere is swamped with resolution posts and year review entries.
If one is needed, it is the ultimate proof that people will never change and no year will bring change to this. What will the next year bring us? The same as last year and you will still complain about the taxes you have to pay. The government will continue to annoy you and of course you will not consider if you could do better when being responsible and deciding for millions but at least there’s a football World Cup in South Africa this year.

I have given up on resolutions and symbolic, commercially abused dates. I will not stop smoking and I know that the world will not be saved by some superhero politician. Instead I have ambitions, personal and life ambitions and they are high. Very high.

For one the biggest hope is that I will be able to abuse all the potential I think having and I certainly do hope my bosses will challenge me enough to release this potential. But this entry is about last year’s movies and music. Read more

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