I’ve been a desktop Balsamiq user for some time now and am finding it more and more indispensable with each project. It’s been replacing project specification docs to the point where I don’t really have to write any other instructions. By linking pages together and viewing it in fullscreen mode, we can see how the home page, section pages, contact pages, and even modal popup windows and AJAX behaviours should work.

I can “knock together” a basic site in a few minutes – and an intranet in a few hours. In each case, the result is much clearer and easier that written briefs or specification docs. Clients can understand them just as easy as programmers and designers!

And when the client approves the mockups, we can refer back to them if there are any additional requests. “That wasn’t in the mockups you approved. We can do it, but it will cost an additional $x…”

The webapp will make collaboration that much easier. Really looking forward to its release!

Often the reason given is that the corporate sector is tied to it through intranets and other applications that rely on it.

So, why not release IE6 as a single-site browser (SSB), like Mozilla’s Prism for example?

1. Corporates can run their intranets via the IE6 SSB
2. The general-use browser can then be updated to the latest version (IE8), which has to make security easier for their IT department
3. Microsoft can then officially drop support for IE6, and only need to support the SSB in its corporate environment
4. The rest of us can breathe a sigh of relief as we watch IE6 usage fall rapidly!

It seems like a simple solution to me, but perhaps it’s not that simple. Otherwise Microsoft would have done it already. Yes?

You see, I dropped using my PC altogether about a week ago. Well, almost. I still have to remote into my server and use Outlook that’s installed there, as we rely on Exchange for our email and calendar.

Which is a bit of a nuisance, as any links clicked in the mail open up in IE on the server inside the Remote Desktop window. And saving attachments? Sheesh.

So apparently my copy of Exchange-supporting Appleness is being shipped on Friday.

I really hope it “cuts the mustard”. I’ll post my thoughts here once I’ve installed it!

I had created an Album, which is a container for mutiple Galleries. Simple enough. But then, once you had selected a Gallery, I wanted to display the Gallery description on the Gallery page above the thumbnails.

In the Manage gallery section you can type a description, but it didn’t seem there was any way to display that on the actual website.

So if you need to, open the file gallery.php which is inside the plugins directory, nextgen-gallery/view/gallery.php

Next, above the line
<div class="ngg-galleryoverview" id="ngg-gallery-<?php echo $gallery->ID ?>">
add this:
<h2><?php echo $gallery->title; ?></h2>
<p class="gallery-desc"><?php echo nl2br($gallery->description); ?></p>

This will give you an H2 with the Gallery Title, and then the description below it.

1. At first I kept getting a “permission denied” error – you’ll need to search the httpd.conf file for the <Directory /> container and get rid of Deny from all. (Or at least comment it out, anyway.)
2. The mod-rewrite wouldn’t work. Two steps to fix this:
   1. Search httpd.conf for mod_rewrite and uncomment the LoadModule line.
   2. Search for AllowOverride. There should be two instances where you need to change None to All. (Source)

Now I can get back to work!

And it turns out that my struggle to get this part of my business right has been based on a bad definition. (Or probably, more accurately, no definition.)

So in order to find the right tool – the question must be asked: “What is project management?”

And the answer is best summed up in explaining what it’s not.

Earlier this year I purchased Sitepoint’s The Principles of Project Management – and on page 8 the obvious truth stood out:

Firstly, project management is not personal productivity. This is an easy mistake to make, however. Most folks’ early experience with project management is on smaller projects on which they’re doing most of the work themselves. It’s easy to start treating the project schedule as your diary, the task list as your to-do list. But as soon as you add anyone else to the project, be it a client who wants to understand the time line or a colleague helping out with some of the work, this approach starts to cause problems.

If you make your project management tools double as personal productivity tools, you’ll almost certainly be including far too much detail. Keep a clean line between what you need for yourself personally, and what the project needs. This way, when you have slightly larger projects with more people involved, your tools will scale.

If you think about it, many of the project management tools pitched at web design businesses are very much focussed on tasks. Way too much detail – and the whole project management things just gets way too hard.

So I have found a solution that is surprisingly low-tech:

A whiteboard.

Yep – that’s it. It happens to be a magnetic whiteboard though. So here’s what I do.

1. The whiteboard is divided up into columns – with each column representing a milestone. “Received Content”… “Design Approved”…  I have about 7 stages I think from memory (I’m writing this from home) but there’s no magic number. Divide your workflow into milestones you can tick off.
2. Each project is represented by a little piece of paper with some essential details. And it’s held to the whiteboard with an amazing piece of technology called a magnet. When you have received the content, move it into the next column!

This overcame a couple of problems:

1. Software wants you to enter due dates for everything, whereas in reality a lot of when something gets finished depends on the client. So due dates regularly got missed, and planning went out the window. The whiteboard has no dates.
2. It’s quite easy to stand back and see any bottlenecks on your process. Got a lot of projects sitting in stage x? Why? Then do something about moving some of those along.

That’s about it. Check the whiteboard once or twice a week with your team and get progress on where everything is at, and what projects can be moved to the next column.

This does not address the question of the detail though. What actually needs to be done during each stage of development? And how do you know when it’s done?

Ah, well that’s a topic for another post…

Found a post that almost explained it all here – but it didn’t quite work for me. I didn’t have an option to convert to AAC! Then I found another post here that helped me figure out why.

So here’s the trick:

1. Go to your Import Settings in iTunes (they are in different places depending on Mac or PC). If it’s not already, set it to import files as AAC.
2. Locate the track you want to use in iTunes. Many songs start out a little quiet – which is no good for a ringtone – so play the track and write down the times where the ringtone should start and finish.
3. Right-click the track and click Get Info. On the Options tab mark the start time and then end time for your ringtone. Click OK.
4. Right-click the track again and choose Create AAC Version. (This won’t be there if your import settings are set to MP3.) This will create a new track based on the times you have entered, in the same folder as the other track.
5. Right-click the track again and choose Show in Finder (Or Show in Explorer).
6. Locate the new file and change the filename so it ends in .m4r instead of .m4a
7. Double-click that file and iTunes should then import it as a ringtone, not a normal track.
8. Go to the settings in your iPhone and the new ringtone should t=be there under the Custom heading (after you have synced it of course!)

Phew! But it saves buying ringtones for songs you already own!

A new feature called Genius looks at your tracks and can suggest playlists based up any track in your library that you select. And the Genius Sidebar links off to iTunes Store where you can purchase other tracks by the same artists that you don’t have, as well as other related suggestions.

It’s optional, but I think it’s a nice addition. Of course, I expect it’s sending info about the tracks you play off to Apple, so if you’re concerned about that then it’s probably not for you.

Hooray! Australia gets the new 3G iPhone!

Bummer… only Optus and Vodaphone announced they’d carry it. Which is no good for those of us not living in a capital city – as Telstra is the only carrier that really offers decent coverage. Sure, the others are represented, but their coverage just isn’t the same as Telstra’s.

So any chance I had of possibly getting an iPhone hinged upon an announcement from Telstra.

And today I discover some good news!

Of course, we don’t know pricing yet, but the normal thing to happen in Australia is for carriers to subsidise the initial cost of the phone in exchange for a contract (typically 24 months).

So as long as the plan isn’t ridiculously expensive, roll on Jull 11! Fingers crossed!