More Google More!

I’m a heavy Google user. Docs, Calendars, Photos, you name it. I also am searching the groups, books, and products. Google appears to be slowing rolling out a universal menu on the top left corner of the screen of their products. In it contains Web, Images, Video, News, Maps, Gmail and a pulldown menu named more. I can’t get enough of “more”.

If you’re searching the web it will extend your search into blogs, scholars, even patents. It seems to be inconsistently applied and less frequent for their .ca (Canadian) products. Google, please keep it up! It’s a real time saver!

List what you want and you shall receive… on Facebook

Last year my wife was given a friend’s iPod mini and ever since she’s been in the market for the accompanying power adapter (which was not included). I’ve been reluctant to buy one new at the Apple Store because they’re $39 so I yesterday I decided to post it in Marketplace on Facebook under “List what you want”. Within 15 minutes I had one response from a friend offering it for free, and by evening there were two more offers. Incredible. I am going to get more stuff on there, including things for sale because it clearly works.

Now if only we Facebookers could be more specific about what we’re looking to sell or looking to buy. UPC code? No. Amazon URL? Maybe. We could then be auto-matched with our friends, our friends’ friends and even people within our network. Sure it would be terrible for the economy, but great for the environment. Buying crap you don’t need isn’t such a sin when it’s second hand is it?

Full screen playback. A basic human right, right now!

5 months later, it happened! My wish is Steve’s command?

The onimoD Effect

Dominoes, originally uploaded by Napalm filled tires.

I hereby submit for consideration into the greater discourse a term to explain an often occurring phenomenon in as condensed a manner as possible.

Have you ever set out to solve a problem, only to uncover an intermediary problem? This happens far too regularly in the world of computers.

“Before you get to him, you’ll have to go through me first.”

It is the opposite of the Domino Effect where a series of events unfolds with ease. Hence, The onimoD Effect.

Compact Versatile Page Turning

You see them everywhere implemented in a thousand different ways. Page turners, also known as paginators, are the interface elements that help you navigate to the next page, the previous page, the last page, and all pages in between.

In most instances “next and previous” is all that’s required. But there are cases where getting to a specific page in a result set of 1,000 is desired. For example, the other day I was looking for icons from the early-iPod 2002 era. I need to get to page 65 but the only way I could do that on interfacelift.com was to manually type 65 in the URL. Not exactly mom-friendly.

Here are some examples of existing page turners on the web.

I’ve been helping my client Masterfile pare down their interface so they can regain screen real estate needed for upcoming features. Their old page turner (pictured here) was spread across in three places. It worked well with the previous functionality, but we had to come up with something smaller that was more versatile.

Rough Sketch

My rough sketches produced this design:

It allowed for next, previous, first, last and all pages in between.

What about large result sets?

The design worked well for up to 200 pages, but when the list exceeded 200 items it affected page load times. We had to come up with a way to reduce the items in the list.

Intervals and a fisheye lens

We decided to show the first page, X number of proceeding pages, followed by intervals every X pages, and then the last page. For example, we first decided to show 100 pages, followed by intervals of 100s, and then the last page. When the user selected an interval, the fisheye lens (a distorted form of a magnifying glass) would be taken to that page and the lens would zoom in, providing one-click access to the pages around it.

Using a bit of math and Apple’s Graphing Calculator (believe it or not), we were able to determine that the optimal size for our fisheye was 25 (and not 100 as originally assumed).

Example

• See the Page Turner in Action.

NOW Magazine Toronto Restaurant Guide for iPod

Get NOW’s Restaurant Reviews of Toronto’s 907 essential eateries in ultra-convenient iPod Notes format. Every restaurant listed on NOW’s Restaurant Guide has been downloaded and formatted as iPod Notes. Never again will you find your hungry iPod-holding self in an unfamiliar Toronto neighbourhood with nary a clue as to where to eat.

• Download and unzip NOW Restaurant Guide for iPod (ZIP, 400K)
• In iTunes, enable disk use for iPod
• Connect your iPod (2002 model or newer)
• Copy the Guide into your Notes folder
• Unmount iPod
• Browse to Extras » Notes
• Wait for it to load
• Select NOW Reviews
• Read’em and eat!

Content by NOW Magazine. Programming by (my Python hero) Jakub Labath. Concept and design (if you can call it that) by me.

If you are new to iPod Notes, check out some of my other creations:

• Foodland Ontario Produce Availability Guide for your iPod
• Sustainable Seafood Guide for iPod

Espresso Steps

Contrary to my own advice, a few months ago I went and bought an espresso machine and grinder. The espresso machine was almost 50% off and, due to both environmental and genetic factors, I am simply unable to resist a bargain. Now that I am able to pull consistently good shots, and steam consistently silky milk, I am amazed at how time consuming the whole process is. For any of you interested in making espresso at home, here are the steps involved, at least with my machine.

1. Ensure machine has enough filtered water, fill if not
2. Press in espresso machine’s power button
3. Get two mugs
4. Remove coffee beans from cupboard
5. Grind beans
6. When espresso machine ready light appears, release an inch of water from wand into cup to prime machine and heat cup
7. When light appears again, pour empty shot into other cup to simultaneously heat portafilter and cup
8. Fill basket full with freshly ground coffee, tamp and mount
9. Place mug under portafilter
10. Press in steam button, wait ten seconds to increase heat
11. Press out steam button and then press in brew button
12. Brew for 22 seconds max
13. Press out brew button, put mugs aside
14. Press in steam button
15. Get a heavy glass
16. When light appears, open wand to release wet steam into glass with towel on top until light turns off
17. Get pitcher from freezer, attach thermometer, fill 1/2 way with milk (below spout dimple)
18. Submerge wand into milk, open wand fully, remain just under surface to hear slight sizzle sound, steam milk until it reaches 160° and turn steam off before removing wand to avoid mess.
19. Bang down pitcher to remove big bubbles, swirl 10 times
20. Pour milk into mugs
21. With towel on heat-proof glass, turn off machine and release remaining steam into heavy glass until near silent. Shut off, enjoy coffee.

Parts

1. Water fill cover
2. Steam valve knob
3. ON/OFF button
4. Brew head
5. Steam wand
6. Water tank with Max Line
7. Power cord
8. Drip tray grate
9. Drip tray
10. Accessory Drawer
11. Tray Base Drawer
12. Ground coffee basket
13. Pod coffee basket
14. Pod coffee pressure insert
15. Starbucks Rapporto filter
16. Brew head cleaner
17. Measuring spoon
18. STEAM button
19. Ready light
20. BREW button

I’m on a Mexican Video

We’ve been back a week from our better-than-honeymooon trip to Patzcuaro Mexico. Here’s a selection of videos hosted on Google Video, which if you can believe it, has been processing one of the videos for a whole week and is still not done.

An almost 360° view of the Patzcuaro’s central square called Plaza Vasco de Quiroga.

Some of traditional dancers on the square doing the dance of the Viejitos (little old fogies?).

Even more.

Some caged chicks for sale. Not what it sounds like.

An almost 360° view from the highest point in town.

The hotel’s security official, an adorable Shar Pei called Vanilla with some nerve problems in his back legs.

During rainy season it rains up to an hour a day but what a cathartic rain it is.

On Vacaciones en Patzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico

Julia and I are guests of Gemma and Didier at the wonderful hotel Casa de la Real Aduana. Here are the best photos in a slideshow, which I will update regularly. Julia, Didier and I all took turns as photographers.

Etymology of Feeley

Actually this is just a test page to see how to use Wordpress as a static site, and not a blog.