Matt points out why I need some Ambition in my life (or, well, in my programming).
focus!
Back and at it in San Diego. Thank the Lord that Disk Utility fixed my broken OS X partition without any real hassle, saving me 8-10 hours of mind-numbing maintenance. You can be sure I’m running some extra backups!
Finding myself too worn out from the drive to settle in properly, I spent the evening socializing with friends and playing around with my new Zoom H4. Its audio quality is beyond even what I hoped and looks to be perfect for my needs.
I’ve got a vague plan to start shooting quick five- and ten-minute expository sermons or newsletter-style updates to friends and family. A weekly grassroots sermon series would be fun, and I’ve got friends who are already excited about being involved. Now all I need is to save up for a decent digital video camera.
Over the next few days my main priority is simple: focus! I need to get back up and running at 100%, finishing up and paring down my excess workload, and being a good steward of my time and life. That includes deliberately limiting work to work hours and filling the rest of my time with good stuff. It’s good to have vision for a time like this.
Why I Don't Like Drop Down Menus
- You probably don’t really have that much data and would be better served to simplify and streamline what you do have.
- It’s harder to hit a moving target. Two decisive clicks can actually be faster than precision targeting.
- Shove stuff in a drawer and you make it harder to find. Guide your users one click at a time, don’t force them think or look around.
- How is anyone supposed to know that there is something hiding and waiting to jump out from behind that other thing?
- First time visitors don’t have your entire website memorized like you do.
- All that Javascript and CSS is buggy and unpredictable which means more expensive to write and test.
- They’re kinda gimmicky and overused.
Drawing Parallels in Proportions
Courtney’s last blog post was two months ago, but it was a doozy. Maybe she’ll write again soon… (nudge, nudge)
As a designer, wherever possible, I avoid drop-down menus.—Jeffrey Zeldman 29 June 2004
Secretariat Belmont Stakes 73’ Win (Kottke was right, that was definitely worth the watch. Inspiring.)
Hanging out in the rain in Colorado
What single book is the best introduction to your field for laypeople?
Here’s a decent reading list. For the next eight years.
Styling File Inputs with CSS and the DOM
For my own future reference.
Schedule disciplining
- Early morning: Project management: correspond, touch bases, review next action lists, send email and participate in meetings.
- Late morning: Do some writing then brew some coffee and spend a couple hours putting out fires and tackling the big, ugly tasks. Or just keep rolling with a productive morning meeting.
- Early afternoon: Sheer, in-the-zone productivity to meet this week’s development goals.
- Late afternoon: More coffee, more coding, and follow-up project management: demos, meetings and emails.
- Evening: Get a life! Unplug, invest in hobbies and relationships. Experiment with new tech for the fun of it.
Each day focuses on a single project. Morning development will only vary from that when an urgent issue needs addressing or a big hairy project needs some extra initiative. Afternoon will be as unplugged and isolated as possible.