I fashion myself a bit of a web designer, and sometimes after slaving away on a client’s web design proof for hours, I run into a wall of uncreative energy or as I call it “shit out of ideas”. I have found that many times the path around or through this wall is not always that complicated and can sometimes be as simple as a random one-line suggestion.
So as usual I had an idea for a very simple web application that web designers could bookmark, and when completely out of ideas they could visit and get a quick suggestion that they could could then apply to their design proof.
The humor in this comes in two areas: the web application has no idea what the designer is working on, nor does it care. It’s simply pre-loaded with canned/design specific suggestions that may or not apply to the designer. The point is that sometimes this may be enough, or the suggestion may re-enforce an idea you were already considering in your head or on the screen/paper. The other humor angle is the suggestions themselves which can be as simple and benign as “It needs more red” to as wacky and insulting as “Throw it out and start over you idiot” or whatever else we (or you, see below) may think up.
Check out the demo version of this web app we call I’m Stuck over at josefresco.com/imstuck.
But wait, there’s more …
The demo I whipped up at josefresco.com is simple, ugly, took less than an hour to make and really is just the basis for a site that could be much more fun. Here are some ways that someone could expand on the idea and provide more functionality and humor:
1. Social Rating: Give users the ability to rate the suggestions and allow the user to filter to show top rated suggestions.
2. User Participation: Allow users to submit their own (crazy) suggestions and give them a weblink as an inventive.
3. Filters: Categorize the suggestions and give the users a filter to further tailor the now less-random suggestion to their project.
Those ideas are fun, but what if we took it further:
4. Community: Allows users to upload proofs of their work and have other users give their own customized suggestions. Integrate a way for authors to thank users (PayPal/badges etc.)
5. Mobile: All the cool kid are doing it, and I could see a I’m Stuck mobile app being useful for those designers on the go needing inspiration.
6. Beyond Design: This idea and web application could be expanded beyond just design to encompass other subjects such as; Pick Up Lines, Economic Policy, Sitcom Plots.
So there you have it. Not only a working proof of concept but some basic ideas for 2 or more generations of a web application and service just begging to be made.
In case you missed it above check out the demo of I’m Stuck and leave me your feedback.
So I recently purchased a classic Xbox game (which ended up sucking, more on that later) on Ebay and while the transaction went perfectly smooth, I noticed a small glitch in their post-purchase ‘leave feedback’ follow up. It’s been almost 5 weeks since the auction ended and while I paid immediately and received the game quickly, I was being lazy and hadn’t left feedback for the buyer (feedback is an Ebay tradition since inception and a ‘good citizen’ thing to do). Conveniently In my Gmail inbox was an email from Ebay asking me to leave feedback with a handy link to my auction page.
Here’s the page I saw after I had to login, see if you can find the ‘leave feedback’ link. Hint: I made it easy, the link is purple.
Not so easy huh? My main problem is that this closed auction page which belongs only to the seller and I, should have a very clear call to action for something Ebay finds important enough to email me almost 5 weeks later about. A small text link amongst a ton of graphical elements is simply not enough.
Solution:
Ebay should simply highlight better the feedback call to action for closed auction pages similar to how they show “View order details”.
The Game: I wanted to purchase the latest NBA 2K game (2007 was the last year) I could for my classic Xbox and sell the 2003 version I already had as it wouldn’t be needed. The 2K7 version however has modified controls that so far have me completely baffled. Maybe I’m just getting old but besides a small graphics update and some nice new animations I’m not impressed.
I follow a few hundred local Cape Codders on Twitter to give me a sense of what is happening in my geographical region (something I can’t get via the web/newspaper). By and large most of the Twitter streams that I see are a good mix of personal notes, self promotion and other random subjects. What I also see from watching this stream pass me by daily are trends of behavior that cause me to go out of my way to unfollow the offending users.
Which led me to create this quick list of 11 easy ways to piss your Twitter followers off and possibly cause them to stop following you no matter how interesting or popular you may be.
1. Blah, Blah, Blah
This one might be met with some backlash from the true hardcore Tweeters out there that believe in a constant stream of useless updates. But a tidal wave of information every day all day drowns out the streams from other infrequent posters. These tweeps, albeit less prolific than you are still important to me, and it makes me very angry to have their voices drowned out. If I open Twhirl and all I see if you, all the time. You’re gone.
2. Are You Alive?
Crazy I know given my disdain for too-frequent Teeters but if you’re not posting at least daily (hell weekly) then maybe you should be running a blog instead. [insert you're doing it wrong internet meme photo here] You also run the risk of being pruned by people who think you’re either dead or missing in action.
3. Me Me Me!
If the only tweets you post are quick blurbs with a link to your latest garbage blog article then the value of your stream is dramatically less. Unless you’re running a news organization (you’re not) your followers will want to see more than just shameless self promotion even if it’s good stuff (and trust me, it isn’t).
4. Hello & Goodbye
I have a hard time really faulting anyone for this because I know what it’s like to be busy, and try to maintain a reliable Twitter stream all day but it’s annoying enough it’s worthy of being pointed out. If you post 5 tweets in 5 minutes and then nothing the rest of the day, most of your followers will miss your updates, completely. The very nature of Twitter is about what is happening right now, and if stuff only happens to you 5 minutes once a day (or so it would appear to your followers) you won’t be part of the conversation. Use a Tweet scheduler if you only have 1 chunk of time a day to use Twitter.
5. What? @replies
@josiahcole see you tomorrow – This does not help your followers who may have missed our original tweets that explained said meeting. Even though you may not be able to direct message the person in question because they don’t follow you back (how dare they!), you should take effort to make sure your replies at least make sense to everyone else not in the know.
6. #toomany #hashtags
Hashtags (or poor man’s search as I call it) are great and all, and everyone is very proud that you figured out how they worked (yay you!). But every tweet you post does not need to contain them.
7. http://bit.ly/nSukw
I’ll openly admit I’ve been guilty of this a few times in the past, but that’s exactly the point. Most of your tweets with URLS should contain some explanatory text, otherwise with URL shorteners your followers are clicking completely blind. For those hilarious web videos that need no explanation just rock the URL, but make sure it’s something that doesn’t happen often, so your trusting followers know what to expect (awesomeness).
8. I didn’t want to know
This has a variable built into it that can eliminate some potential violators from this list. If your followers do not know you (that well) personally, you shouldn’t really be telling people how you slept on the couch last night or how big your latest bowel movement was. They probably don’t care. It is OK to slip in the occasional person nugget, but like URL posts keep them to a minimum. If you only follow, and are followed by your inner circle of friends than by all means continue tweeting about your cats.
9. Is this a robot?
You probably saw this one coming but along with #8, if your followers can’t discern any real personality behind your tweets, they probably won’t stick around too long. Try to sprinkle in some personal flavor along with your self-promotion.
10. Hi, Hi, Hi
This is not so much a daily tweet faux pas as it is a general Twitter guideline. I know your inner marketer is dieing to DM every new follower but you must resist the temptation. Not only is this annoying if all the DM says is “thanks for following me”, it makes you seem too eager to your shiny new follower who doesn’t know you’re a skeezy social marketer .. yet. Keep the illusion alive by not DMing-on-follow at least until they can start reading your tweets.
11. I have no taste
Another general Twitter guideline that’s worthy of a mention. Some people employ scripts to do this and others simply do it as a social networking habit but if you follow everyone who follows you it makes your ‘follows’ worth nothing (and also means you should probably be on MySpace). I follow only those that I’m interested in and while I’m generally flattered when anyone chooses to follow my drivel it would be silly for me to simply reciprocate every time (it’s not you, it’s me). I value my decision to follow and you should too.
With all the recent WordPress security (or lack therof) news I was reminded of an SEO video talk I recently watched put on at WordCamp 2009 in San Fransisco by the one and only (SEO-God Spokesman) Matt Cutts of Google. One of the takeaways I got from the 45 minute online presentation was that Matt uses an htaccess file to protect his WordPress admin directory (/wp-admin/) using an IP whitelist.
Here’s what his htaccess files looks like, or rather what it did back in January 2008 when he published it:
AuthUserFile /dev/null
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName “Access Control”
AuthType Basic
order deny,allow
deny from all
# whitelist home IP address
allow from 00.000.000.00
# whitelist work IP address
allow from 00.000.000.000
allow from 000.000.000.000
# IP while in Kentucky; delete when back
allow from 000.000.000
The first four Auth lines are just basic htaccess commands and can be ignored when crafting your own version. The real meat is the “deny from all’ and the subsequent IP whitelist. Make sure you know how to get your own real IP address, and if it changes don’t freak out when you cant’ access your blog. Just login and update the htaccess file with your new IP via ftp/file manager.
Another security tip related to securing WordPress is to remove the ‘admin’ account, and use your own custom admin role login with a unique username.
Free stock photography websites are very popular these days, and there are literally hundreds if not thousands to choose from. Besides selection, quality, and featureset the one factor that is critical in evaluating these websites is the image licensing or terms of use.
It doesn’t matter how many images, or what quality the images being offered are if you can’t use them in your personal or commercial work (the way you want.)
What we found from analyzing the terms of each of these sites is that most; allow unrestricted use for personal works, restrict or do not allow redistribution, do not allow the use of the image to sell the item depicted, and do not allow the user to take credit for the image. The most important point to take into account is their policy towards commercial use.
Without further adieu, I present to you a list of 10 free stock photography websites (gathered and ranked by Google) with a quick reporting of their respective image licensing terms to help you decide which one is best for your creative work.
You may use the Image
* In digital format on websites, multimedia presentations, broadcast film and video, cell phones.
* In printed promotional materials, magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, CD/DVD covers, etc.
* Along with your corporate identity on business cards, letterhead, etc.
* To decorate your home, your office or any public place.
You may not use the Image
* For pornographic, unlawful or other immoral purposes, for spreading hate or discrimination, or to defame or victimise other people, sociteties, cultures.
* To endorse products and services if it depicts a person.
* In a way that can give a bad name to SXC or the person(s) depicted on the Image.
* As part of a trademark, service mark or logo.
* SELLING AND REDISTRIBUTION OF THE IMAGE (INDIVIDUALLY OR ALONG WITH OTHER IMAGES) IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN! DO NOT SHARE THE IMAGE WITH OTHERS! Read the complete terms…
* Every FreeStockPhotos.com photograph must retain the domain name FreeStockPhotos.com when used on the Internet, in a web page, in publications, or in any product, advertising, or packaging. This credit, however, may be cropped out or digitally removed from the photograph if it is included in readable type either near the photos, in the text or in the credits. Films and videos are considered publications for our purposes.
* FreeStockPhotos.com images may be used for both personal and commercial applications. Any publication or product they appear in may be sold or distributed in any way an unlimited number of times as long as the photographs alone are not offered as single, stock, art, or news photography. Photos must appear as part of a page with text or product with text, not alone.
* A limit of 10 images may be used in any one publication, web site, or product without charge. Read the complete terms…
* to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
* to Remix — to adapt the work
* Under the following conditions:
* Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Attribute this work:
Information
What does “Attribute this work” mean?
The page you came from contained embedded licensing metadata, including how the creator wishes to be attributed for re-use. You can use the HTML here to cite the work. Doing so will also include metadata on your page so that others can find the original work as well.
* Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
* Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. Read the complete terms…
* A link (or textural credit in non-web applications) to this site is required where an image is used. Acceptable credits include ‘image: www.freeimages.co.uk’ or a hyperlink to the URL ‘http://www.freeimages.co.uk’. The credit shall be located in a suitably readable font on the same page as the image; Alternatively you may credit ‘size-isnt-everything.co.uk’ if you prefer. See Link to Us for banners, buttons and more information on linking from a website. View an example of how to link here
* When images are used in printed material or non internet-connected electronic media, a credit is needed on each page (or a facing page) where an image is used. The credit can either be at the bottom of the page or near the image i.e. in a caption. Many designers find the credit is less intrusive when it is printed sideways or at the edge of the page near the gutter.
* Images may also be used in other forms of digital and video media (games, demos, presentations, interactive systems, films etc.) a credit is required either where the image is used, or at the start of the presentation/film or on a ‘welcome screen’. Read the complete terms…
General premise
* If you use a free version of a photo you must credit FreeDigitalPhotos.net
* If you purchase the photo you do not need to credit FreeDigitalPhotos.net
* Photos may be used for personal, educational and corporate use
* Photos may be used in products that are sold, but only where the photos are used for illustration or decoration
* Photos may not be used on products where the image is the sole reason someone would buy the product – for example greetings cards, mugs, calendars, T-shirts and so on Read the complete terms…
* You may use any of files downloaded from Free-StockPhotos.com free of charge or obligation for any commercial or personal design work (Please pay attention to point 3,6,7,8 regarding commercial/personal work).
* Credit for the use of materials downloaded from this site such as a link back to Free-StockPhotos.com is much appreciated. You can copy the following code and paste it on your website:
Image by Free-StockPhotos.com
* You MAY NOT resell or redistribute images downloaded from Free-StockPhotos.com in any other way, modified, unmodified, standalone or combined with another product without prior written (email) consent from us. Using the photos in website templates
, on postcards, mugs etc. doesn’t count as selling or redistribution, however you are not allowed to build a gallery using the photos you downloaded from here. Read the complete terms…
You are free:
* Remix — to adapt the work.
* Commercial — to use this work for commercial purposes.
* Without Attribution — to use without attributing the original author.
Under the following conditions:
* Stand alone basis — You can not sell, license, sublicense, rent, transfer or distribute this image exactly as it is without alteration.
* Ownership — You may not claim ownership of this image in its original state.
* Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the contributor.
* Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author’s moral rights Read the complete terms…
Dedicator recognizes that, once placed in the public domain, the Work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, used, modified, built upon, or otherwise exploited by anyone for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and in any way, including by methods that have not yet been invented or conceived.
Read the complete terms…
PERMITTED USAGE
* In digital format on websites, multimedia presentations, broadcast film and video, cell phones.
* In printed promotional materials, magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, CD/DVD covers, etc.
* Along with your corporate identity on business cards, letterhead, etc.
* To decorate your home, your office or any public place.
UNAUTHORIZED USAGE
* For pornographic, unlawful or other immoral purposes, for spreading hate or discrimination, or to defame or victimise other people, sociteties, cultures.
* To endorse products and services if it depicts a person.
* In a way that can give a bad name to Pixel Perfect Digital or the person(s) depicted on the Image.
* As part of a trademark, service mark or logo.
* In website templates that You intend to sell or distribute.
* For creating printed reproductions that You intend to sell.
* On “print on demand” items such as t-shirts, postcards, mouse pads, mugs (e.g. on sites like Cafepress), or on any similar mass produced item that would contain the Image in a dominant way.
* SELLING AND REDISTRIBUTION OF THE IMAGE (INDIVIDUALLY OR ALONG WITH OTHER IMAGES) IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN! DO NOT SHARE THE IMAGE WITH OTHERS!
Read the complete terms…
Copyrights & Author Ownership
Any photos/pictures posted by the author “freephotosbank” are free to use as long as you are using them for a website, book, magazine, etc. You cannot download our photos to sell as is or modified from any source. To use our photos/pictures you must accredit us on the work that you used the photo/picture on/in for the use of them or we will consider it a copyright infringement.
Any photos/pictures posted by other authors remain their property and it is their decision to license the photo to you. We at FreePhotosBank.com do not retain the right to license other photographer’s/author’s material at this time. Please feel free to use our “contact” function within the photographer’s profile to contact them and ask permission. Read the complete terms…
Next Page »
|
|
|
