Okay… I think I’ve linked Twitter successfully into this site. You can see my latest Tweet in the right column. And there will be an automatic Tweet when I put a new posting on the blog.
Twitter Reboot: JarrettUX
When I last used Twitter, I was really just playing with it, getting a feel for what it could do and why I might use it. I ended up deleting it because it was getting an obnoxious amount of flow from everyone I was following. Now, a couple months later, I think I’m ready to get back in the water and use it more directly. Follow me at JarrettUX.
Posted in Weblog
Leave a comment
Marc Canter is Moving to Cleveland
I read this morning that Marc Canter is leaving California, so I did some more reading to figure out where he’s going. Holy cow! Cleveland and NEO (Northeast Ohio). He wants to kick up some dirt and make some stuff happen in that area. Seems he went to college in Oberlin and has been working with some interesting folks.
This is GREAT for Cleveland, great for Ohio, and great for the mid-West. Maybe he can catalyze a sustainable change in the high tech environment there. Teresa and I lived there for 12 years, and every year there were initiatives to find the “next big thing” for the area. But none of it seemed to stick, and every year it was something else (IT, biotech, polymers, etc.).
For all my friends in the tech industry and economic development in Cleveland: Get on board the Canter train! Help make something of this.
Posted in Interaction Design
Leave a comment
Balsamiq Mockups Has Changed My Life
A few months ago, I discovered that one of our dev teams was using a new little tool for developing their UI mockups. They looked great, as if they had been sketched by hand by someone talented with a medium-nib felt pen.
When I looked into it, I discovered Balsamiq Mockups, by Peldi Guilizzoni. He (and his small team now) are constantly developing the tool, adding meaningful features but keeping it very simple and very focused.
It is simply the best UI mockup tool ever created. It has changed my (work) life. Thanks, Peldi!
Posted in Interaction Design
Leave a comment
Build a Salad Table for Your Garden
One of Teresa’s coworkers was on Martha Stewart last week describing his invention of a movable Salad Table for growing lettuce and small vegetables in your backyard.
Here is a picture of the one we built and planted this weekend:
You can also watch the Martha Stewart clip and get the instructions to build your own!
Posted in Gardens
Leave a comment
R.I.P.: 9 Year Old Dell Dimension 8100
A few weeks ago, our (nearly) nine-year-old home PC died. It froze up and wouldn’t even show the bios. Nine years ain’t bad for a PC… I had only ever upgraded memory, the graphics card, and a hard drive. I think we paid $2K for it back in the day. Luckily, everything important is hosted on network drives, so nothing lost.
We now have a new Dell Inspiron 530. I bought it with just integrated graphics and purchased separately an XFX GeForce 8800 GT graphics card. That required a power supply upgrade, so I got the Dell-compatible PCPower Silencer 500 power supply.
For the first time ever, my expectations of a computer’s performance are easy to meet. It’s just a computer. Our lives haven’t changed as a result of the new PC… previous ones did change how we did things. It’s a good computer, but it’s just a computer. This time, everything was only $600.
Posted in Personal
Leave a comment
Fireplace Makeover
Over the weekend, our good friends Walt and Barb visited. Barb came up with a great color scheme to make over the ugly, white-painted brick fireplace in our living room, and we all worked out the details. On Sunday morning, we executed the plan.
Here are the results! The fireplace is now a dramatic focal point of the living room. The red stripe on the mantle really makes this a unique piece.
Thanks so much to Barb and Walt!
Now all we need is a new sofa, chairs, throw pillows, etc.
Posted in Houses
Leave a comment
Running Toward the End of Winter
I did my first run in a month today. I’m trying not to be a fair-weather runner, but when it’s below 30 degrees F, I just can’t stand it, so I’ve restarted this week.
It wasn’t too bad. I didn’t lose all the fitness I had built up, and I should be back in full swing within a week. And I love that it gives me an excuse to go outside every day (above 30 degrees anyway).
Posted in Personal
Leave a comment
Stumbled Upon: LoudLit.org
Over the holidays, Teresa and I spent a bunch of time organizing the house. We moved in almost four years ago, and we found places for our stuff, but we hadn’t reorganized as we discovered what worked and what didn’t over that time.
One of the things I (finally) organized was our large CD collection, about 1/3 of which I’ve managed to digitize in iTunes. Reorganizing the collection allowed me to rediscover some of my favorite albums.
The album that turned me on to Heavy Metal (specifically, British Steel style heavy metal) was Iron Maiden‘s Powerslave, with the cut Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
I listened to that album again today, and that spurred me to search for the original text on the web. Not only did I find the text, but audio recordings of people reading it aloud.
The best of the recordings was made by the Gutenberg project, and is available at a really cool site, LoudLit.org. There are a number of other writings available, read aloud along-side the text. What a wonderful resource!
Posted in Personal
Leave a comment
Welcome, President Obama!
And welcome to everyone who is swamping our region to be a part of today’s historic events. Those of us who live and work here are watching on television and avoiding a multiplication of the normal traffic, but that doesn’t change the elation I feel in so many dimensions.
Private message to Pat: 1-20-2009 has finally arrived!
Posted in Personal
Leave a comment
