Prototype iPhone/iPad Apps with Hype

You’ve got a great idea for an iPad App, but you don’t have the technical skills to communicate that idea through XCode and Objective-C to your friends, so what can you do? Why not try <a href="http://www.tumultco.com" title="Hype">Hype</a> from Tumult. Hype creates HTML 5 webpages with exciting animations and interactions without the need to write any code. Now this isn’t so much a review of Hype, but more what you can do with Hype to simulate a native app running on the iPhone or iPad. Hype includes templates and preferences that help you design interfaces perfectly for the iPhone and iPad dimensions. The issue is though, Hype exports these as web pages. Ok, so that’s not so bad, but you still get the annoying navigation bars associated with Safari across the top of your prototype app that kill the illusion. Fortunately Apple have created a little bit of code you can stick in any HTML file that tells your iOS Device to treat that webpage as a WebApp, so your webpage can be saved to the home screen of an iOS Device, and opened without having to go into Safari, and without the navigation bar across the top of the browser. So here is what you’ll need: 1. A Mac 2. Hype (14-day trial available from <a href="http://www.tumultco.com/hype">www.tumultco.com/hype</a> or you you can purchase it from the Mac App Store) 3. <a href="http://db.tt/geYELbz" title="Dropbox">Dropbox</a> (2GB free account available <a href="http://db.tt/geYELbz" title="Dropbox">HERE</a>) 4. A text/code Editor (something like TextWrangler, Espresso etc) (Hype is super easy to use and you’ll pick it up very quickly) Once you’ve got your Hype project complete you’re going to want to export that to Dropbox. This is a feature supported by Hype. Once your project has exported, Hype will give you the option to copy the link to your exported project. Do that! (You can send anyone that link and they can view your project. Neat!) NOW FOR THE MAGIC CODE! You’ll have to find your Dropbox folder now. It’s usually in your user folder next to your Documents, Pictures, Movie folders. In that folder you’ll find ‘Public’ in there, you’ll find a folder that is the name of your project. In there is the HTML file that your Hype project lives on. (That’s the page the link you copied earlier leads to). We are now going to need to go into there and add one extra line of code so that your iOS Device will let you this is a Web App. Open the ‘projectname.html’ (replace ‘projectname’ with your real project name) with your text editor. (I like Espresso from MacRabbit) In that file you should see some nice HTML code. If you look closely towards the top of that file you should see ‘<head>’ and then a few lines later ‘</head>’ All the code contained within here is the setup code for that page. We are going to define in here that we want this Web Page to be treated as Web App. So somewhere in between ‘<head>’ and ‘</head>’ find an empty line, or make one, and insert this line of code: <blockquote> <meta name=”apple-mobile-web-app-capable” content=”yes”> </blockquote> Now save that file and close it, and you’re done! To open that on your iOS Device, open that link you copied earlier, or right click on your ‘projectname.html’ file, choose Dropbox, and Copy Public Link, and see what the page looks like. This time it should open in Safari just like a normal webpage. To save this to your home screen click on the box icon with the arrow on the Safari navigation bar, then choose ‘Add to Home Screen’. Name this what you like, and it will now be saved to your home screen. If you tap on that icon it will now launch like a native App! (To add stuff like a custom icon, there are lines of code for that too. For example, <link rel=”apple-touch-icon” href=”icon.png”/> will let you choose your own icon. It will have to be in your project folder next to your ‘projectname.html’ file remember! For more advanced information, hit up <a href="http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/html5-iphone-app/"><a href="http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/html5-iphone-app">http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/html5-iphone-app</a></a>)

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Busy Busy!

I don’t know what happened to the time, but almost already 1 month into semester 2! I suppose times flies when you’re having fun! So what’s been keeping me busy? Well work the <a href="http://www.themagdalen.co.uk" title="The Magdalen">The Magdalen</a> is never ending. One magazine ends, another ends. (Not to mention planning the next again magazine too!) I’ve been doing some fun work with one of my older clients, <a href="http://www.domenicamoregordon.com" title="Domenica More Gordon">Domenica More Gordon</a> (she’s expanded her range of cards recently…check them out!). Finally my latest client is <a href="http://www.singderella.com" title="Singderella">Singderella</a>. They have some exciting new stuff in the pipe line, so if music is your thing, then do check it out! Well actually that’s not all there is to life right now…there is that little thing called ‘Uni’. Third year is without question the most fun year yet. Last semester we were developing complex data visualisations using processing and arduino, and this semester i’m designing two different iPad Apps. If the above list of activities doesn’t say ‘heaven’ to you then…well you’re not me! F

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Only dullards crippled into cretinism by a fear of being thought pretentious could be so dumb as to believe that there is a distinction between design and use, between form and function, between style and substance. If the unprecedented and phenomenal success of Steve Jobs at Apple proves anything it is that those commentators and tech-bloggers and “experts” who sneered at him for producing sleek, shiny, well-designed products or who denigrated the man because he was not an inventor or originator of technology himself missed the point in such a fantastically stupid way that any employer would surely question the purpose of having such people on their payroll, writing for their magazines or indeed making any decisions on which lives, destinies or fortunes depended.

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Recent Work: Hugh Buchanan

http://www.hughbuchanan.co.uk

I’ve been doing more and more freelance Web Design recently, and here is my <a title="Hugh Buchanan" href="http://www.hughbuchanan.co.uk">latest</a> creation. It’s the site for a Watercolourist <a title="Hugh Buchanan" href="http://www.hughbuchanan.co.uk">Hugh Buchanan</a>. Have a look, and let me know what you think. If you are interested in hiring me, please do get in touch at f@finlaycraig.com F

Dynamic CSS without using JavaScript

Let’s say you want some dynamic graphics on your website, but you don’t want to, or don’t know how to use JavaScript. Well PHP might be the answer. The first thing I thought was, ‘How do a I get PHP into my CSS File?’. Well you don’t! Inline CSS - most people hate it, but in this case, it can be useful. <blockquote> <style> #testdiv { height: 50px; background-color: red; <?php echo “width: ” . 250 . “px;” } </style> </blockquote> Stick that in your <head></head> tags, and PHP will write the width command for you! Now this is a very, very simple example, but use your imagination, and you’d be <a title="Progress..." href="http://www.finlaycraig.com/progress">surprised</a> what you can do!

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Rankiac Review | Keyword Tracking, Link Statuses, & Backlink Monitoring

If you wanted to find your website in Google, what would you search for? Possibly your sites name? Well that is one way of people finding you, but they are only going to find you that way, if they are actually looking for you. But if you want people to find you because of what you do, then you need to start thinking about your keywords. Your keywords, or keyword phrases, are the words and phrases that you would like to appear in Google for. For example, if you search ‘Embed Tumblr Into Your Website’ this blog will come up in the top few results. That’s because it is optimised for those keywords. So how do you track where you rank for those keywords? Well <a href="http://rankiac.com/">Rankiac</a> is the answer to your prayers! Rankiac is a tool which you can use to track all the keywords you could possibly need for your site, or even your competition. By using their comprehensive tools, you can receive daily updates on your sites performance, so you can optimise your site, in real time, for the phrases that you are interested in. Rankiac gives you the piece of mind that your site is in the place that you want it to be in Google, without you having to do the hardwork every single day. The system also provides the functionality to monitor links pointing at your site. These are called backlinks. Backlinks are one of the major factors in Googles rankings, and is used to determine how popular your website is around the internet. Rankiac allows you to monitor these links, so you can ensure that your site is still relevant, and ranking well. I’ve found Rankiac to be an invaluable tool in keeping on top of my rankings. Rankiac gives me more time to work on creating great content on my site, without having to keep going back to check my results. I strongly recommend that you go and try it out, even if keywords are not something you think about much at the moment. Head over to <a href="http://rankiac.com/"><a href="http://rankiac.com/">http://rankiac.com/</a></a> to start your free trial now!

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Embed Your Flickr Photos On Your Site

Here is any easy way to embed your photos from your flickr on your website in form which you can style. I’ll even show you how to intergrate this into the famous <a title="Lightbox Plugin" target="_blank" href="http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/">Lightbox</a> plugin. We are going to use a little bit of PHP here, so you’ll need end your files with .PHP instead of .HTML, .HTM, or .XHTML. Alternatively you can go behind the scenes a bit more at <a title="Add .htaccess file to Server" target="_blank" href="http://finlay.tumblr.com/post/453497562/adding-a-htaccess-file-to-your-website">this post.</a> 1. Embed Latest Photo On Your Website Things you’ll need to do - <ul><li><a title="Get Flickr API Key" target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/services/apps/create/apply">Get an API Key</a> (Quick, easy & free!)</li> <li><a title="Get your Flickr ID" target="_blank" href="http://idgettr.com/">Get your Flickr ID</a> (Not your username)</li> </ul>Here is the code that you will need to return your latest from your Flickr. <blockquote> <?php $flickr_id = ’ ‘; $api_key = ’ ‘; $size = ‘s’; //this can be ‘s’ for small, ‘t’ for thumbnail,’m’ for medium, ‘b’ for big, ‘o’ for original, or empty for 500px wide. // EDIT NOTHING UNDER HERE. $xml = simplexml_load_file(‘http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?method=flickr.people.getPublicPhotos&api_key=’.$api_key.’&extras=tags&user_id=’.$flickr_id.’&page=1&per_page=1’); $photo = $xml->photos->photo; $farm = $photo->attributes()->farm; $server = $photo->attributes()->server; $photoID = $photo->attributes()->id; $secretCode = $photo->attributes()->secret; $tags = $photo->attributes()->tags; $tags_array = explode(” “, $tags); $title = $photo->attributes()->title; echo <img src=”http://farm’.$farm.’.static.flickr.com/’.$server.’/’.$photoID.’_’.$secretCode.’_’.$size.’.jpg”/>; ?> </blockquote> So you need to fill in the gaps! First your Flickr ID, then your API Key, then the size that you would like your picture to be displayed at. That’s it! 2. Embed All Your Photos On Your Website So we are taking what we learnt above, and adding a for loop, and a foreach loop. The for loop cycles through every page of photos you have uploaded. The foreach loop then goes through each page and returns each photo on that page. Simple! <blockquote> <?php $flickr_id = ’ ‘; $api_key = ’ ‘; $size = ‘s’; //this can be ‘s’ for small, ‘t’ for thumbnail,’m’ for medium, ‘b’ for big, ‘o’ for original, or empty for 500px wide. // EDIT NOTHING UNDER HERE. $xml = simplexml_load_file(‘http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?method=flickr.people.getPublicPhotos&api_key=’.$api_key.’&extras=tags&user_id=’.$flickr_id); $pages = $xml->photos->attributes()->pages; for($page=1; $page <=$pages; $page++) { $xml = simplexml_load_file(‘http://api.flickr.com/services/rest/?method=flickr.people.getPublicPhotos&api_key=’.$api_key.’&extras=tags&user_id=’.$flickr_id.’&page=’.$page); foreach($xml->photos->photo as $photo) { $farm = $photo->attributes()->farm; $server = $photo->attributes()->server; $photoID = $photo->attributes()->id; $secretCode = $photo->attributes()->secret; $tags = $photo->attributes()->tags; $tags_array = explode(” “, $tags); $title = $photo->attributes()->title; echo ‘<img src=”http://farm’.$farm.’.static.flickr.com/’.$server.’/’.$photoID.’_’.$secretCode.’_’.$size.’.jpg”/>’; } } ?> </blockquote> 3. Adding a LightBox Effect So you’ve got all your photos onto your website, but now you want to display them in an attractive LightBox. Well first of all head over to <a title="Lightbox Plugin" target="_blank" href="http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/">Lightbox</a> and download the Scripts and CSS which you need to embed on your page. (Their instructions are great, so i’m not going to take you through that bit!) For LightBox to reconise pictures you need to add an attribute to a <a href> tag. So we are going to have to generate another URL. You need to add ‘rel=”lightbox”’ into your link. Here is the code you need to swap - Swap this <blockquote> echo ‘<img src=”http://farm’.$farm.’.static.flickr.com/’.$server.’/’.$photoID.’_’.$secretCode.’_’.$size.’.jpg”/>’; </blockquote> For <blockquote>echo ‘<a href=”http://farm’.$farm.’.static.flickr.com/’.$server.’/’.$photoID.’_’.$secretCode.’.jpg” rel=”lightbox” title=”’.$title.’”><img src=”http://farm’.$farm.’.static.flickr.com/’.$server.’/’.$photoID.’_’.$secretCode.’_’.$size.’.jpg”/></a>’; </blockquote> Hey presto! You have embedded Flickr on your website! Now I don’t want to give too much away, but you this should be a pretty good place to start! Enjoy, Finlay.

Downloading takes Forever!

Today has been a great day. Managed to get dug into some PHP in WordPress. What has been really interesting though is that I’m developing a WordPress site, but also using WordPress as my change log. So for it’s worked really well as a change log. I can title posts, tag them, categorise them, embed code snippets and more. But what I an really looking forward to is being able to share everything I’ve learnt you you, the Internets! If it’s already on WordPress (in a private capacity) it shouldn’t be that difficult to bring it across to a live blog with more generic examples, right?! Writing about what I’ve already learnt this year (I’ve only been coding HTML, CSS and PHP since January 2010) has already proven very useful. I can remind myself of how I did certain things, and share that with people with a simple link. Awesome! Anywho, back to the PHP!

I can haz ham?

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Embed Tumblr Into Your Website

In my exploration to learn on how to Embed Tumblr into my website, I came across the Tumblr API (Application Programming Interface). As I am no expert in coding, and having very little experience with PHP, XML etc, I wanted to find out how I could Embed Tumblr with the Tumblr API on a basic, and easy to use level. If you’ve read my previous post on how to Embed your latest Tweet into your website, then you may have heard me ranting and raving about SimpleXML. Essentially (from what i’ve learnt so far…), lets you extract specific ‘bits’ of information from XML files, and do ‘stuff’ with those ‘bits’. Very handy if you want to Embed Tumblr on your website! If you don’t know what an XML File is then that’s ok. An XML file is just a really organised way of structuring data. For the likes of the Tumblr API, XML files are used to store all the information in your latest blog posts, so that you can go in and take out only the essential information and do ‘stuff’ with that. So let’s begin! 1. Retrieving your latest post from Tumblr To tell Tumblr you want to return your latest post you have to give Tumblr a few pieces of information. <ul><li>That the post is on your blog</li> <li>That you want the latest post</li> <li>The type of post (text, photo, quote…)</li> </ul>Lets get our Tumblr XML Feed up then. We do that like this: <blockquote><a href="http://finlay.tumblr.com/api/read">http://finlay.tumblr.com/api/read</a></blockquote> If you stick that address into your browsers navigation bar, that will take you to the XML file where all my Tumblr posts are. Because we have not defined any parameters for what we would like Tumblr to return, it will just go ahead and send back everything I’ve ever written. So we’ve got to do something about that! To tell Tumblr what we want back, we had information onto the end of the URL above, and it will send back that information. We start this by adding a ‘?’ to the end of the URL, and then list of the parameters one by one, separated by a ‘&’. To tell Tumblr you want to bring back the latest post you have to tell it which post you would like to start at, and and how many posts to return. So as with all things computing, we start at 0, and tell Tumblr to return 1 entry. This is done like this: <blockquote><a href="http://finlay.tumblr.com/api/read?start=0&num=1">http://finlay.tumblr.com/api/read?start=0&num=1</a></blockquote> So we’ve told Tumblr that we want to read from my blog (through the API), from the first post (denoted by ‘start=0’) and that we want to return 1 post (denoted by ‘num=1’). Easy! We’re one step closer to Embedding Tumblr on your site! Now we tell Tumblr what kind of post we would like to return. For the purpose of this demonstration we will return a text post. This is done like so: <blockquote><a href="http://finlay.tumblr.com/api/read?start=0&num=1&type=text">http://finlay.tumblr.com/api/read?start=0&num=1&type=text</a></blockquote> So stick that into your browser and that will return my latest text post. 2. Finding what we want to Embed and Spitting it Out! Now that we’ve got the right information back, we now need to know how to get into that, and bring back only the bits we want. To do so, you need to be able to read the XML file in it’s pretty, organised way. Now if you go to that URL we made earlier for returning my latest text post, it won’t look that neat. But if you right-click on that page and select ‘View Source’, your browser will show you the raw XML File. We can then look through this and take out what we want! So let’s assume we want to first return the Title of the Post (but this will work for anything in the XML File). So after a quick inspection we can see that the Title of my latest post is stored in the tag: <blockquote><regular-title></regular-title></blockquote> So, using SimpleXML in PHP, we can tell our PHP look through for that tag, and then return it’s entire contents. (Because that partiucular tag has a hyphen in it, we have to put {’ on either side of the tag so that SimpleXML can read it) We do that like so: <blockquote>$title = $xml->posts->post->{‘regular-title’};</blockquote> In this example i’ve created a variable called ‘title’ to give me somewhere to store the title. We then use the echo command to print that out on my webpage. On my site I wanted to have the title of my latest blog post be a ‘<h1>’ so I concatenated (stuck together) my ‘<h1>’ tags with the title of the blog post in my echo of the title. Like this: <blockquote>echo ‘<h1>’.$title.’</h1>’;</blockquote> So now you can do that with the title, just do the same thing with the ‘<regular-body>’ tag to bring back the body of your post. That is, almost, all you need to Embed Tumblr on your website. But what if you want to only bring back a taster of your latest blog post? Good question! If you want to Embed Tumblr into your site, it may be useful to give the user a snippet of the blog instead of the whole thing. Well what we can do is take the contents of the ‘<regular-body>’, and tell our PHP that we only want to use X number of characters from that in our webpage. Do that like this: <blockquote> <blockquote>$post = $xml->posts->post->{‘regular-body’};</blockquote> <blockquote>$small_post = substr($post,0,320);</blockquote> <blockquote>echo $small_post; </blockquote> </blockquote> So what we’ve done there is we’ve taken the contents of the tag ‘<regular-body>’, and we’ve then used the substr() function in PHP to take only the first 320 characters from the post. Then we saved that into a variable called ‘small_post’ and then we printed that. Easy! SO HERE IS ALL THE CODE YOU’RE GONNA NEED TO EMBED TUMBLR WITH THE BLOG TITLE, REDUCED BLOG BODY, AND THE LINK TO THE ORIGINAL POST! <blockquote><?php</blockquote> <blockquote>$request_url = “http://finlay.tumblr.com/api/read?type=post&start=0&num=1”;</blockquote> <blockquote>$xml = simplexml_load_file($request_url);</blockquote> <blockquote>$title = $xml->posts->post->{‘regular-title’};</blockquote> <blockquote>$post = $xml->posts->post->{‘regular-body’};</blockquote> <blockquote>$link = $xml->posts->post[‘url’];</blockquote> <blockquote>$small_post = substr($post,0,320);</blockquote> <blockquote>echo ‘<h1>’.$title.’</h1>’;</blockquote> <blockquote>echo ‘’.$small_post.’’;</blockquote> <blockquote>echo “…”;</blockquote> <blockquote>echo “<a target=frame2 href=’”.$link.”’>Read More</a>”; </blockquote> <blockquote>?></blockquote> So there you have it! Everything that you could need to get started if you want to Embed Tumblr into your website. If you have any questions please leave a comment below or email me directly - hello@finlaycraig.com Happy Blogging! ps… Have you used this to Embed Tumblr into your website? If so, let me know in the comments below!

Embed Twitter In Your Website

Recently Twitter has become the main outlet for Social Media on the Web, so it’s only logical that people want to embed twitter on their personal websites. But what if you are one of those people who doesn’t want a nasty Widget on their site? Well here is the solution to embed twitter fast - 1 line of PHP: <?php echo simplexml_load_file(“http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/yourusername.xml?count=1”)->status->text; ?> It’s really that easy! Simply substitute your username into the PHP to embed twitter into your website! There are three small points to make though. <ol><li>If you have your Twitter feed set to private, you won’t be able to embed twitter.</li> <li>You will have to change your webpage to .php instead of .html. … OR</li> <li>You need to have a ‘.htaccess’ file in your root folder (where you store your website). Otherwise rename your file with .php at the end instead of .html.</li> </ol>Check out <a title="Add '.htaccess' File." href="http://tumblr.com/xy17i00yi">this</a> post on how to create a ‘.htaccess’ file if you don’t already know. Thanks to <a title="Mike Vanis's Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/mikevanis">@mikevanis</a> and <a title="Pablo's Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/hellopablo">@hellopablo</a> for help on how to embed twitter. And that is how you embed twitter on your website. Happy Tweeting! Finlay ps…Use this on your site? Leave a comment below and tell me how you got on!

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Adding a '.htaccess' File To Your Website

Now let me just start by saying I am no expert in Web Development, or programming for that matter. But I know a nice piece of code when I see it! It was when I was experimenting with PHP that I learnt about the power of SimpleXML, and immediately thought how useful that could be for Twitter. So I wrote one line of code that would <a title="Embed Tweet with 1 Line of PHP" href="http://tumblr.com/xy17hzj7c">embed your latest Tweet</a> in your website. To get that working you need a ‘.htaccess’ file. Essentially this files let you run PHP script inside your HTML/XHTML Webpages. <ol><li>Create a new file names ‘.htaccess’ (without the inverted commas) in your favorite text editor.</li> <li>Put this line of code in that file, save, and close the file ‘AddType application/x-httpd-php .html .htm .xhtml’</li> <li>Upload this to your Web Host, into your root folder (the folder where your website lives)</li> </ol>Hurray! Your ‘.htaccess’ file should now be up and running! If in doubt, contact your webhost. I take no responsibility if this does anything nasty to your website, so on your head be it! (But it really shouldn’t!) Enjoy! Finlay

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The Really Really Easy Way to Host Your First Site

Are you trying to make your first Website, but you can barely even code, let alone host your website on a web server? Well if that’s you then i’ve found the perfect, FREE, solution for you! <ol><li>Head over to <a title="Dropbox" target="_blank" href="http://www.dropbox.com"><a href="http://www.dropbox.com">www.dropbox.com</a></a></li> <li>Download and Install the free software. (This should place a folder called ‘Dropbox’ in your user folder. Usually can be found at eg /Finlay/Dropbox/)</li> <li>Copy your website into the ‘Public’ folder located in your ‘Dropbox’ folder </li> <li>Right-click on the HTML file that is your website, go the option ‘Dropbox’, and choose ‘Copy Public Link’.</li> <li>Now you have copied the web address where you can find your website to your clipboard.</li> <li>Head over to your web browser, paste the address in, and Hey Presto, that’s your site!</li> </ol>The best thing about using Dropbox to host your website is that every time you update your files, your website gets updated instantly! How easy can it get! If you have any more questions please leave a comment below and I will be more than happy to help you if I can! Finlay

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http://vimeo.com/8851579

Wow. So simple, yet so mesmerising. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. F

I am a firm believer that anyone can do anything, you just have to work hard enough at it.

As part of my Design Studies in the first semester of my 2009 studying at the University of Dundee, I was given the assignment to write my own G2 (Guardian Newspaper supplement) article. I wrote about my experiences since leaving school. I thought i’d share this with the world. So if you would like to read, feel free to download the PDF from <a title="Finlay Craig G2 Article" href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/826240/Finlay.pdf">here</a>. F p.s - Please take this article with a handful of salt, and enjoy.

Upcycling

Today in Design Studies we were given our latest brief - UPCYCLED STORIES The aims of this project are: • To deepen the understanding of the design process • To develop the drawing ability of students to allow them to express their ideas more effectively • To explore the roles of typography and storyboarding in design • To develop the ability to create artefacts that communicate predefined aesthetic values • To develop an understanding of the importance of drawing as a medium for the expression of ideas • To develop an understanding of sustainability in relation to design The idea is to take old or broken house hold objects and to create four creatures from them. After returning from the Dundee Recycling Centre we realised that we had, subconsciously, returned with lots of objects that were round. So we’ve decieded to take follow the theme of of ‘Nocturnal Creatures of Dundee’. Check of these pictures below. We were going for the wide eyed look. I think we pulled it off quite nicely! F <img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kwhjmwZ1g81qzgaaz.jpg"/><img src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kwhjnarxTB1qzgaaz.jpg"/>

design studiesvisual expressiondundeedundee universityuniversity of dundeeuniversity of fundee blogIMDInteractive Media DesignInnovative Product Designrecyleupcycle

How to Effectivly Run a Group Project Online

Since starting my Interactive Media Design Degree in September of 2009, I have learned the importance of running group projects well. So today I thought I’d share with you the way I like to keep a project on track using two online tools. 1. GoogleWave Imagine Email and Instant Messaging combined into one super communicator. That’s GoogleWave. It takes the best strengths from Email, and those from Instant Messaging and gives you an environment where you can work collaboratively with other people, in real time. Instead of sending around lots of messages, reply’s and forwards your conversation is held in one central place. This is the fundamental idea behind GoogleWave, you start and reply to ‘Waves’. You don’t have to make sure you have included all the correct people in an email conversation. Everyone who is part of the Wave will see all the updates as soon as they happen. What you type is sent out in real-time. So if you are reply to someones comment from earlier, other people in the Wave could be watching at the same time. What this means is you don’t have to wait around to think about what your reply will be. In a conventional Instant Messaging Conversation you have to wait to read what the other person is saying. With GoogleWave you can see what they are trying to say, as soon as they start typing. Think how much time you waste waiting to receive an IM. GoogleWave gets rid of that. So why does this help your project organisation? Because each person involved in the project can keep everyone informed in what is going. If you begin using GoogleWave like an Instant Messaging Client, then the other users in your project can see what was said, and understand how the conversation went, thus keeping everyone in the loop. 2. Dropbox Imagine having a folder on your Desktop, that whenever you changed its contents, those changes were uploaded to the Internet. Ok, sounds like an easy way to back up some files. Dropbox is unique because you can share the contents of any folder in your Dropbox so others can view or edit its contents, as well as receive any updates you make. A very simple idea, implemented perfectly. For example, say your working on a website with a friend, but you would like them to be able to see all the changes you make the code and design. With Dropbox, you would simply share the folder where the website was contained. The other person would then download its contents, and their computer would be updated everytime you made any changes to your files. So why does this help your project organisation? Put simply, it means everyone has the same files, and every knows where the project is at. Whenever one person changes or adds a file, every other computer sharing that folder gets those updates. So with both of these tools, you can keep in contact, and up to date with any number of projects over the Internet, in real-time. That’s the important bit - real-time. No waiting around and everyone is kept in the loop so the project can move forward without having to worry about everyone having the most recent files. Oh yeah, and they are FREE! <a href="http://wave.google.com">http://wave.google.com</a> is currently in Private Preview state, but if you want an invitation drop me an email to hello@finlaycraig.com and i’ll send one your way. <a href="http://www.dropbox.com">http://www.dropbox.com</a> is free up to 3GB, or you can upgrade if you really want. I hope this come in handy, and helps you keep on top of those projects! What are your tips for keeping on top of big projects?

google wavegooglewavedropboxcollaberativecollabworking in groupsworking with other peopleworking onlineup to datein the loopfile backupemail alternativeinstant messaging alternative

It was worth the work. The summer of 2009 was definitely my toughest summer yet. Everyday was mad, but I enjoyed it. But I’m already planning my Summer 2010. At times working was tough and lonely, but boy was it worth it! In the end I made it to Dundee, and I would never have achieved as much as I have if it wasn’t for my trusty MacBook Pro. It was what I was working towards, and it is better than I could ever have expected. ‘Live by the  - Die by the ’ F

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