Nur Ahmad Furlong

Tag: Online Tools

  • HTML 5 and digital generative art ALA Joshua Davis

    Heard the name Joshua Davis? If you’ve been into any kind of digital creative for some time you might have encountered the legendary digital artist who’s inspired some of the biggest brands out there to make use of his computer generated abstract art in their marketing efforts. Some of these Brands include – BMW, Motorola, Nike, Volkswagen, Sony, HBO, Canon & Nokia to name a few.

    Hillman Curtis has done an excellent video piece on the BMW project to give you an insight into the world which Joshua Davis inhabits

    The HTML 5 <canvas> element

    Onto the scene steps HTML 5 and more specifically it’s Canvas element, turning the blank screen into a virtual blank canvas of 2D vector expression which allows artists like Joshua to unleash their special Brand of digital creativity. Add the brilliance of the Mix Online development team and you end up with a blend of creativity and modern web technology which allows the rest of us to enter the realm of the digital art space.

    The Mix Digital team has developed a Javascript framework which plugs into the HTML Canvas element

    Okapi is an open-source framework for building digital, generative art in HTML5 brought to you by Joshua Davis Studios and MIX Online. Mix Online Labs – http://visitmix.com/Lab

    Okapi.js was commissioned by Microsoft to celebrate the launch of their latest and most HTML 5 compliant browser IE9. Finally a step in the right direction for Microsoft in the browser battles.

    endlessmural.com

    Using the Okapi.js framework, Joshua Davis created the Endless Mural project, where the drawing platform can be used by anyone with an HTML5 compliant browser to generate their own unique artworks to contribute to and enter the drawing competition.

    The Interface allows for manipulation of vector symbols and pictograms, and controlling the patterns and textures they create by setting their speed, angle and rotation in various ways. The results are very random and abstract right down the alleyway of Joshua Davis’ unique style.

    Here’s what I muddled together

    You can watch my creation process online by visiting – http://endlessmural.com/#8833 to see how the elements spiral and grow, sprout and burst into the final chaotic vector garden which I created.

    The Digital Space is surely getting really interesting with these new technologies opening up untapped avenues and making it more accessible to the rest of us. This is just one example of how HTML 5 is being leveraged. I’d like to hear what other interesting examples you’ve come across recently.

  • New tools for my digital nomad belt

    For the longest time now I’ve been agonising over how to manage my collaborations with partners and clients online. Many of the popular web workers swear by Basecamp, and I believe it is a great product. I’m not big on the monthly payment model for software as a service(Saas) and have instead opted for using tools which I can purchase once and own outright, run on my owner machine or servers and own my own data. I’m just weird like that. I also have a limited budget, which is probably the main motivating factor.

    A Few great new tools I’ve started using

    So, Recently I’ve had the pleasure of finding a few really great apps, which include The Hit List (awesome Mac task management) which I now use to keep track of all my projects and to do’s & iClockr (time capturing tool now known as Lumina) which I use in conjunction with Invoice 3 (invoice/billing app) to keep track of time spent and generate invoices from billable hours. These are great for my own personal use, but I was still without a crucial component of this mix, something I could use remotely, to keep track of interactions with clients and other partners.

    Pay once or open source, no monthlies for me please

    I don’t own a credit card and probably never will, so continuously having to pay for services online on a regular basis becomes a little tedious. I’ve tried out a few self hostable solutions like the new collabtive, open goo and a while back active collab, all of which seem to have the makings of a really good web office for the location independent web worker.

    It was only a couple of weeks ago that something else caught my eye. Seems I’ve had quite a few of these in the last few months which is great.

    Hello Open Atrium, goodbye basecamp

    Say Hi to Open Atrium, a drupal based online collaboration system which could be used as an on the fly intranet or for many other purposes depending on your way of thinking of your ability to customize it.

    Picture 1

    I’ve been wanting to get into using drupal for a while, and this little beauty has pushed me a little closer to that point. It’s quite simple to install, not as simple as WordPress, but then WordPress doesn’t do exactly what this does out the box.

    Open Atrium allows you to create mutliple private or open online spaces to which you can invite as many members for each group as you like. The groups allow creation of blogs, uploading and discussion of documents, posting of micro messages like twitter, creation of projects and tasks through it’s case Tracker as well as creation of events on a calendar. Each person’s profile has the ability to add profile specific versions of each of those tools as well.

    My Open Atrium

    What’s even better is it’s open source, easy to install and allows for integration of your own custom features as well if you’re into drupal development. I’m looking forward to seeing how the community extends this one. Check out a list of features as well as a nice intro video on their Feature Page at http://openatrium.com/features

  • Twitter Power User Series – Part 1

    By now most people have at least heard of twitter.com, though don’t assume that everyone knows what twitter is or how it can be used. Research has shown that most twitter users rarely tweet and usually have very few followers. Mention the word twitter in a public space and you might still get a few odd stares. Many people still seem to have a somewhat skeptical approach to the web app/revolution which has sidelined even major players like Facebook, to become one of the most talked about & exciting communications platforms the web currently has to offer.

    A quick intro to twitter.com for Newbies

    twitter-videoTwitter is what some term, a micro-blogging platform. It’s also a multi-user micro-blogging platform. Micro-blogging? It’s like the sms of the blogging world, where you only have 140 characters to convey a message to the other twitter users who have decided to follow your feed. Have a look at this excellent video explanation called Twitter in Plain English developed by commoncraft.com. This video explains the entry level understanding of twitter though, so if you’re a twitter power user you’ll be digging much deeper than sharing your breakfast with your followers.

    Ways twitter can Benefit you

    So what’s the real craze about twitter then? Surely there’s nothing special about being able to update your status with 140 characters?

    Take a quick step back and hear me out. Twitter is anything but simple status updates, even though at a glance it may seem that way. The thing which makes twitter 100 times more beneficial than facebook is relevance. On twitter you follow those who are sharing information you find valuable, people who share interesting links, who pose challenging questions and who answer many of your braintwisters as well. Twitter can be much more of a Collaborative Networking tool than a social networking tool, which is where the real value add lies. A few benefits of using twitter to stay in touch with your industry or niche:

    • Network with those you aspire towards
    • Learn from those in the know
    • Conduct Twitter Polls
    • Distribute links to your posts and projects
    • Find Business Partners & Clients
    • Be notified about the latest industry trends
    • Get the news while it’s still fresh

    Of course twitter could end up being a purely social thing for you if that’s what you’re interested in, but those who benefit from twitter the most, and who are probably the most active are using it for a completely different purpose than sending cute cuddly messages to their college friends.

    Who to follow

    This is truly the crux of the matter. Having a good follow strategy is where it all starts. It’s the difference between reading about people’s breakfast and the latest industry specific trends. Unlike facebook, you can follow just about anybody on twitter, including some really well known personalities within your niche. People who you may never get to accept a facebook friend invitation from. This doesn’t mean you can become a cyber-stalker as you may be blocked very quickly. The beauty of following the professionals or gurus is that you get an insight into what some of the top people in your niche are thinking, reading, learning, asking etc etc.

    Some tips on choosing who to follow

    • Shared topics of interest
    • Post frequency matching your preference
    • Full profile so you know they’re legit
    • High percentage of valuable tweets
    • Uniqueness in tweets
    • High percentage of value adding tweets
    • No Spam or hard selling(unless you’re buying)

    I’ve found I’ve benefited hugely by following & conversing with some of the top names in the Web Design & WordPress spaces, something I may not have been able to achieve on pretty much any other “social” network.

    Check them out before you follow

    A Great tool to help with your following strategy is Foller.me which I wrote about a short while ago when it was launch by @kovshenin, a Russian tweeter I’ve become twitter friends with recently. It helps you see what your potential followee is tweeting about through keywords of their most tweeted topics as well as being able to see their geographical breakdown of their own followers. All this at a glance.

    You’d want to make sure that the person you’re planning on following is tweeting down your alley way so to speak. Checking out their recent tweets on their actual twitter page or by using one of the many twitter follow management tools like www.tweepular.com, to get a quick glance at what the potential tweep is tweeting about.

    Who not to follow

    Don’t be tempted to follow every tom dick or twarry who follows you. You’ll soon find out that there are a few twitter spammers out there, as well as people who are only interested in telling everyone else how great they are. Be selective but don’t be a snob either. You’ll be surprised what people have to offer if you give them a chance on twitter.

    Don’t be tempted into the many scaly, “get loads of followers” applications & programs which are popping up all over the place. With twitter it’s less about quantity and more about quality. You can benefit tons from only 10 people and waste your time on the rest. Of course more quality wouldn’t hurt anyone.

    Sometimes checking out the twitter profile will show up a fake or spammy tweeter immediately. I don’t follow tweeps without avatars as a standard, it means they couldn’t really be bothered yet, so they’re probably still wet behind their twitter ears. I’m also suspicious of tweeters who have little or no profile info on their twitter page.

    Do’s & Don’ts

    Try not to

    • Rant too much
    • argue
    • insult
    • be obsessive about topics in an irritating way
    • sell products without adding value
    • just take and not give
    • Twitter is not for long conversations!
    • I tend to unfollow people who use profanity.

    Try to always

    • Be nice
    • Share and generally be of benefit
    • ask questions
    • answer questions
    • give advice
    • introduce people
    • post great links

    There is such a thing as Twitter Karma. I’ve found solutions to major problems have come many times from tweeps who I’ve just helped on twitter.

    Twitter Apps Galore

    There are more twitter apps than the amount of tweets I’ve ever posted, and I’m quite a frequent tweeter if I must say so myself. Check out this monster list of apps and tools on the Twitter Fan Wiki. They’ve now organised these based on platform and type and the list is constantly growing. Twitter apps range from plain and simple tweeting tools, to follower management apps, even twitter games as well as a few really cool alternative uses for twitter. I’ve just received a test version of something called #tweem which is being developed by @netizensmedia which is a WordPress theme built just to create a custom twitter home. I hope to integrate it into my own theme once it’s ready for public release.

    Twitter apps On your Desktop

    Picture 3TweetDeck – My first choice for managing my main twitter account/s (open source). It now also has facebook status updates, an iPhone version, twitter searching, twitter trends and loads of other twitter power user features.

    Twitterific –  Low cost elegant solution for desktop, iPhone & iPod touch

    Twhirl – A little lighter but feature rich, built by Seesmic and connects to loads of different online services

    Seesmic Desktop – for Multiple Twitter accounts as well as Facebook in one place, very similar to Tweetdeck but just not quite there yet.

    I’ll be posting more about non-desktop twitter apps, plugins & services in part 2 of this series on twitter.

    Integrating Twitter with your other online spaces

    Integration is the way the web is moving currently. To get the most out of the many tools and services you use and subscribe to in the digital age, they need to interact with each other in ways that bring out the best in all of them. You also don’t want to be spreading yourself too thin by blogging on one space and tweeting in another, while adding content and connections in yet another. By having separate, disconnected social/collaborative spaces, you fragment your focus and your time considerably. Integrating these entities helps keep a consistent flow going, no matter which online space you’re occupying.

    On your site

    If you have your own website or blog a great idea would be to insert a widget or plugin to pull some of your latest twitter posts in. This could be as simple as the single most latest tweet. Accompanied by a follow me link it’s a good way of building your following. Some twitter savvy peeps have taken twitter integration to the next level with like Jaan Orvet of Noded with his site www.sharpenr.net which is split half way between his tweets 7 his blog posts.Jaan Orvet's Sharpener.net

    There’s also your twitter favorites, which lists your tweets you’ve labeled as favorites and can be fed into your site through a widget as well. This is a great way to share what you deem to be only the most valuable twitter content with your website’s visitors. I haven’t done this on my own site yet as I’m due for a complete overhaul of my site but it’s very much in the pipeline.

    To give your followers a punt you could also embed a list of your followers which displays their avatars or their twitter usernames. Go on, give something back!

    Get your twitter name out there

    Lastly make sure wherever you are online or off that you’re always sharing your twitter username. Besides placing links on your site, make sure your little birdie is also found on your:

    • other social network profiles
    • Your IM profiles
    • comments you make on blogs & forums
    • email signature
    • T-shirts
    • hey why not even your business card.

    I know of some entrepreneurs looking into developing twitter stickers for laptops and even cars, so get your twitter name out there tweeple.

    More than just characters – Sharing Pictures & Videos on Twitter

    Links

    Sharing Links on twitter can sometimes be a bit of a probem when you’re linking to dynamically created links which are really long. This is where the link shortening services step in. Many of the desktop applications have built in link shorteners. Tiny URL is one of the better known url shortening services currently available.

    Pictures

    Of course there are times you’d want to post more than just 140 characters, or even more than just characters for that matter. The most well known of the picture posting twitter services is Twitpic which allows quick posting up of pics for your followers to check out. This could be used in a collaborative manner to brainstorm ideas and discuss designs or other project imagery as well.

    Videos

    Twit Vid is a video posting service which allows you to either upload a video, email one or record one directly from your webcam. It’s serves to cut down the time it takes to upload to another video service making posting of video content via twitter way quicker. Voicemail anyone? Another such service is 12 Seconds which also integrates with Facebook.

    And for documents, there’s twitdoc.

    Follow Management Apps & Services

    Keeping control of your followers and who you’re following can become a really tedious task, and the standard twitter homepage doesn’t make this any easier. Thankfully some really clever twitter nerd have created a range of tools to help us wade through the crowds to find the best tweeps to follow. Foller.me is one of these gems which I mentioned a little earlier on in this post.

    Tweepular is another services which pulls some interesting info about who’s following you and who you’re following so you can keep your twitter neighbourhood in check.

    You may also be interested to know who unfollows you, so you can keep yourself in check and stay relavent to your followers. Sign up with Use Qwitter be notified when someone unfollows you.

    Topify is a service which enhances your twitter follow notifications so you get a little more detail about the person who has just followed you and can make a quick decision whether to return the favour.

    So that’s it for part 1 of my twitter power user series, this was a bit of an introduction so hopefull the next few parts will focus a little more on specific areas individually and with more detail. I’m interested to know:

    • what you think of twitter?
    • do you use twitter?
    • how do you use it?
    • what’s your favourite twitter application or service?

    Picture 4If you’re interested in diving deep into the world of twitter, Mashable has a mega list of twitter tips, guides, tutorials and other helpful bits to get you going.

    I’d love to tweet you some time so follow me @nomadone.

  • Foller.me – The Sherlock Holmes of the twittersphere

    As most of us know twitter has very much entered the mainstream with just about every kind of web user setting up their own account. New twitter apps seem to be arriving on the scene on a daily basis and the platform has seen it’s fair share of extension and adaptation of late.

    To Follow or not to follow, that’s a good question

    One really frustrating part of keeping your account updated with relevant tweeps(twitter peeps) is having to scratch through their tweets and see whether it meets with your criteria.

    Enter onto the scene http://foller.me

    A really cool Russian guy I’ve recently been following on twitter is @kovshenin, has released an extremely useful little twitter app which allows you to quickly have a look see what your prospective followee has been tweeting about so you know whether to add them to your list. I always hate having to follow and then unfollow soon after when I realize @so&so just isn’t tweeting down my alleyway.

    Here’s how Foller.me works

    Foller.me is a Twitter service that can provide you with the most detailed information about a specific Twitter user in the least amount of time! Here’s how it works.

    picture-11

    You input a Twitter name into the searchbox and hit enter. Foller.me gets access to the profile of that user via the Twitter API, scans all the public info and the latest 200 tweets!

    You can decide within a few seconds whether to follow back, making it super easy to build a realy solid twitter network without all the hassle of being a private investigator. I’ll call it “The Sherlock Holmes of the twittersphere”. Give it a whirl, I’ve tried it a few times and you’ll be surprized what you find out about certainer tweeps! I’ve even ran it on myself just to see what I’m interested in – LOL.

    Here’s what I look like in twitterspeak –

    @nomadone's twitter portrait May 2009

  • Custom Word Cloud images, using Wordle

    I’m very much a fan of tag-clouds and have noticed a trend in typographic design to make more interesting use of them in experimental typographic designs. Wordle.net is a free online tool you can use to generate a custom coloured Word Cloud using either word’s of your choice, your site’s RSS feed to pull your site’s tags or your delicious feed. I’ve played with it and generated the following images, and with a few flexible tools you can create even more interesting versions of your selected list of keywords.

    picture-3

  • Online Doc/Note storage, Google docs & Evernote

    As you can tell by my last post I’ve suffered a bit of a dilemma relying to heavily on locally stored data. Sure backing up would help, but that’s one side of the story, sometimes you need more than a huge clunky usb harddrive to retrieve lost data quickly.

    I use 2 solutions, google docs and evernote. Google docs is alot more powerful as an Office suite though for me evernote is alot easier to deal with and it just saved me huge amounst of time with it’s online synced account storing data added through the desktop app. It also helps having an browser add-on to quickly grab snippets from the web. Only problem I have is my paranoia with the reliability of giving away your data and needing a web connection to access it. Have a look at what the 2 solutions have to offer.

    Google Docs

    Create and share your work online

  • Upload from and save to your desktop
  • Edit anytime, from anywhere
  • Pick who can access your documents
  • Share changes in real time
  • Files are stored securely online

    • Evernote

    On the web

    Create, clip, and share notes on the web and see them everywhere

    On your phone

    Take snapshots, read to-do lists, record audio whenever and wherever you like

    On your desktop

    Search through all your notes, even find text within images, whether online or off

    Evernote have posted a tutorial on exporting your notes from google notebook which is no longer being developed by google. You can also email notes to your evernote account using a special address generated in your account. Nice one.