Responsive web design and low and expensive bandwidth

Some time ago, the Malawi daily newspaper, The Nation, released a new web design. More recently Nyasa Times updated their web design. In both cases, it’s an improvement. And from my current home base here in Switzerland, both sites load promptly. From family in Malawi I hear that the loading times for both sites have… Continue reading Responsive web design and low and expensive bandwidth

My wish list

Inspired by various gift lists that are showing up in my timeline, I thought I need to write my own wish list. On my wish list: New takkies. I’ve started running again on a regular basis. And I noticed I need to replace my Asics with a fresh pair. Bought my current pair in 2010.… Continue reading My wish list

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Google Hummingbird links

The latest addition to the SEO zoo is a hummingbird. The algorithm change was announced in September 2013 but went live a month earlier. Searchengineland has some useful background information: FAQ: All About The New Google “Hummingbird” Algorithm Hummingbird’s Impact On B2B Sites Apparently this release will improve Google’s ability to predict a user’s search… Continue reading Google Hummingbird links

Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset via Hiring for an Agile Team: Look for the Growth Mindset. Interesting use of the term “servant leadership”. I know the term more from its use in Biblical / Christian contexts.

Tracking conversion in single page web apps

Last week I asked for help on using Google Analytics to track conversion in single page web apps: How to add conversion tracking to single page web apps? Use events or model page views? #followerpower — ✁___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) November 6, 2013 Tweet, tweet: #followerpower best practise or background info on adding web analytics such as… Continue reading Tracking conversion in single page web apps

Identity and culture

Somewhere deep inside of me, I have this blog post bubbling up and forming about identity. It is influenced by my own state of being an eternal foreigner, an Auslandsdeutsche. But also influenced by other observations on organizational cultures and the changes within the internet. I started watching this talk by Anil Dash: He says… Continue reading Identity and culture

Moving from Google Reader to WordPress.com

Even though Google Reader showed up prominently in yesterday’s SERPs for “best free RSS reader”, someone at Google has decided to end the product life of Google Reader. It’s time to move on to a new RSS reader. Several RSS readers managed to survive despite Google Reader’s dominance. And some new ones emerged. These tools… Continue reading Moving from Google Reader to WordPress.com

Success theater is boring

I recommended reading this article: Success theater is boring. Directly related to the increasing lack of privacy. All the world’s a stage. Social media featuritis is part of a never-ending cycle. Ironically the author mentions new tools (Snapchat, VidBurn and Facebook Poke) to replace the broadcast tools. Keep calm. Don’t join the rat race. Use… Continue reading Success theater is boring

Ten twenty seven

Sipping coffee. Reading tweets. Faving Flickr photos. And listening to “Klassik-Pop-et cetera” on dradio.de. Some music references to remember: Paul Gerhard “Ich steh an deiner Krippe hier” Mahalia Jackson “Go tell it on the mountain” Pete Seeger Johann Sebastian Bach “Ich lasse dich nicht denn du segnest mich denn” Some ancient poetry that crossed my… Continue reading Ten twenty seven

Somebody forgot to tell the bots

A couple of weeks ago i stumbled across this story: “Unfortunately, the digital restriction management (DRM) robots on UStream had not been programmed with these basic contours of copyright law.” Scary future.

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Scrum and Design

At the day job, I am part of a Scrum development project. Within this context, I was searching for practical experience / best practices on how to manage the web design part of a web application. Before the project started, I asked some people for their advice and googled around. Just like the discussion at… Continue reading Scrum and Design

Multi-headed Drupal

For future reference: Some background links on setting up large Drupal sites: Talk at DrupalCon Munich by Crell Multi-headed Drupal Domain access Organic groups

Building websites with Jekyll, Github Pages

This post has made me very curious. They use a different stack: Jekyll for page templates and static file generation HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files GitHub Pages static HTTP server Supplemented with external APIs where necessary I guess, you can convert WordPress to static HTML. I found this description. Looking a little further, there’s this… Continue reading Building websites with Jekyll, Github Pages

Barcamp Bodensee 2012

I attended Barcamp Bodensee in Friedrichshafen yesterday. Very enjoyable. Big thank you to the organizers. It was worth getting up early. It started with breakfast and an emotional greeting by Oliver Gassner: “The internet is made of people.” And it was truly impressive to see so many people attending and participating. The location at Zeppelin… Continue reading Barcamp Bodensee 2012

Drupal 7: Wrapper for an HTML file

I was looking for a wrapper for an HTML file, like Joomla offers. I found a way to load an existing HTML file into my Drupal 7 site using a module called insertFrame. In /admin/config/content/formats/full_html select the box Include iFrame with auto-height feature. Then add [[[http://www.myurl.com/myapp.html]]] to a page or post. I still have a… Continue reading Drupal 7: Wrapper for an HTML file

Trying out Open Atrium

I started playing around with Open Atrium, a Drupal-based tool for open and closed groups. The install was smooth and easy. Setting up a closed group is easy as well. I would like to remove the introductory video on the dashboard but couldn’t find out where. Documentation: https://community.openatrium.com/documentation-en/

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Installed WordPress 3.0

Message from the Chiperoni admin: I just installed WordPress 3.0. Everything seems to be running smoothly. And I found a new minimal theme to try out: Carrington Text. Me and WP go back a long way.

On digital natives

Using the term digital native to describe all netizens born after 1980 is way too general.  I found this interesting article discussing various findings: Only a minority of students actively created their own content or used emerging technologies such as blogs, social networking and podcasts. And a significant proportion of them had lower levels of… Continue reading On digital natives