Blog
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Wrong way round
Yesterday morning a cyclist decided to cycle thru one of the roundabouts the wrong way round. During early morning traffic to work. If you’re thinking probably a bicycle courier: This cyclist was a woman in her 30s or 40s.
Nothing happened. No accident followed.
But it still had me shaking my head. Road traffic rules are there for our own safety. A lot can happen at 30km/h. We’re vulnerable. More than we think.
There are enough occasions when we make unintended mistakes. No need to wilfully ignore traffic rules.
(Sorry. Turning into an activist.)
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I went photo-walking today
I hope you like some of the snaps I took today:
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Moz on overall SEO strategy
For future reference:
Questions to consider before you delve into the details
"What does our organization create that helps solve searchers' questions or problems? " http://t.co/tPTJq5Z6FB
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) February 4, 2015
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Herbie
At the dentist on Friday:
A Herbert Grönemeyer song played on the radio and my dentist started whistling along while I was on the dentist’s chair.
Too funny.
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WordPress alternatives
I briefly started talking about WordPress alternative with @persillie the other evening.
Downsides of WordPress:
- It’s slow
- It’s not easy enough to use for non-techies
- Adding a shop could be a lot easier
She mentioned Squarespace:
I like the user interaction of #squarespace – but you need to be a US, Canadian, Irish or british resident to use the shop.
— persillie (@persillie) December 15, 2014
I found two articles with further ideas to explore:
5 Modern WordPress Alternatives to Keep an Eye On
Goodbye WordPress: 2014 Will Be the Year of the Flat-File CMS
Statamic, Craft, Ghost, Kirby, Perch, Jekyll
I looked at Jekyll very briefly some months ago. But I didn’t dig in enough. It’s for techies. I don’t think it will solve the user interaction issues that non-techies have.
BTW, way back in 2009 somebody used WordPress to generate flat files.
I’m looking at HTML5 templates. I played around with some of the designs at HTML5UP last year. I found this site, based on the HTML5 Boilerplate, yesterday.
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Secure Email
I’ve signed up for Protonmail.ch:
Security https://t.co/ashHNTGLfU at @ProtonMail
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) January 25, 2015
And I noticed another company called Tutanota:
next secure email app @Tutanota_de https://t.co/HVa7Foggis //cc @mllea
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) January 29, 2015
I think this is a great development. Instead of trying to get people to use PGP… maybe this will catch on.
Try and get an account!
Update, 5 May 2015:
There’s another company in this space called Lavaboom.Secure email provider @LavaboomHQ
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) May 5, 2015
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Michiru
The outline of Michiru mountain in Blantyre.
The Wikipedia page for Michiru mountain needs some more info.
What is the altitude in meters? 1470m? -
Winter cycling
Apparently 80% of all Copenhageners cycle in winter. There’s a Tumblr site called Viking Biking which shows photos of people cycling in snow.
No snow in Basel. I don’t cycle in icy road conditions. But apart from that, I also cycle in winter.
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Best snapshot of 2014?
It’s December 2014 and I’m still taking snapshots.
Last year I selected 1 photo for each month. I will try the same for 2014. Here we go.
January 2014
February 2014
March 2014
April 2014
May 2014
June 2014
July 2014
August 2014
September 2014
October 2014
November 2014
December 2014
Most productive month was November with over 200 uploads. Least productive was June 2014.
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Jog log: Early bird
Achievement of the week. I managed to go running twice this week – in the morning before work.
It’s cold and dark. Getting outside and getting started is the challenge.
Running is fun. And overcoming my inner pig dog (only Germans have this) is even better.
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Autumn storm
The first autumn storm has made it to Basel. Strong wind. Cold air. Rain.
A great opportunity to post old Flickr photos related to autumn.
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Card sorting
For future reference.
I just quickly wanted to post a useful background link on card sorting that I found today on Smashing Magazine.
Improving Your Information Architecture With Card Sorting: A Beginner’s Guide
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Four Flickr faves for a Chiperoni.ch snapshot
I took this snapshot on Friday evening on my way home from work:
Since then it’s received four Flickr faves.
Hope you like it.
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UX and Scrum
For future reference:
UX Oxford: Roman Pichler on “UX and Scrum: How do UX and Scrum fit together?” from Oxford Computer Consultants on Vimeo.
Via UX and Scrum.
It’s good to see some discussion of this topic.
It’s a challenging topic. Especially if you have a distributed team with team members in different geographic areas and time zones.
If you prepare designs too far in advance, there’s a high probability that the feature will evolve and change. The designs you make are outdated by the time the developers get there. And all you’re doing is creating waste.
If you’re designing too close to a sprint (e.g. in the week before it will be implemented), there is a high risk that the designer and UX questions show what’s missing in the user story. This starts discussions with the product owner and other stakeholders. In my experience, it’s the wireframes and the screens that trigger more and deeper responses and discussions from product owners and project leaders, compared to their own written business requirements.
In general, the UX discussion gets very difficult if there is not enough information on the end-user and how they will use the app; no direct access to real clients for questions and surveys.
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HTML5 link re-surfaces
It’s fun when a fave re-surfaces an old tweet of yours about an HTML5 template.
"HTML5 template" http://t.co/9PBAnooJUH
— âœ___CollectThisTweet (@nchenga) July 27, 2013
HTML5 projects:
I’m currently working on building a small website based on a template by HTML5 Up. Progress is somewhat slow.Before I tried Aerial. And Parallelism.
HTML5Bones looks useful.
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On creating networking opportunities
Here’s a useful link if you’re a shy introvert.
Click-bait heading. With a heading like that, it’s bound to get some clicks.
I’ve tried some of the tips mentioned in the article. Sometimes they’ve backfired. Especially, if the other person is shy, or answers all of your conversation openers with a monosyllable.
Related links:
Personal Branding for Introverts
Learnings:
My networking abilities depend on the format of the event. Some events are more difficult and closed. If you’re planning an event, think about how to encourage networking and interaction.
Creating and hosting my own event or speaking at an event has been a good way to network for me. When you’re the organizer, the host or the speaker, the networking part is different. People come up to you with questions, or you specifically need to follow up with them. Speaking in public about topics that I am passionate about has helped me a lot.
Listening carefully is important. You can do more research and then follow up at a later stage.
Doing something together, e.g. going on a photo-walk, or building a website, or going jogging together is an easier way to get to know someone. I have a common social object to talk about which makes interaction a lot easier. And in the meantime, I can discover if there’s more common ground.
Be yourself. Don’t worry if you fail at networking today. Learn from mistakes. Don’t give up. There will be better events ahead.
Maybe one solution is to avoid the term networking. I like this answer on Quora:
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About myths and legends
For future reference
Recommended reading – The Myth of Google’s 200 Ranking Factors.
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A quote to keep
This is how much time you have to get your message across:
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10 years WordPress
On 6 September 2004, I posted my very first entry on this site.
Many thanks to my 5 regular readers for being so faithful. You rock!
Big thank you to the WordPress community and Automattic for keeping WordPress.org open source and free. More than ever we need independent and free web publishing software.
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Embedded Flickr photos not showing in Chrome
I’m seeing some unexpected page views:
Flickr photos embedded in the old way are not showing in Google Chrome on Mac. But they are showing in Safari on the same machine. I disabled all my Chrome extensions except Lastpass, but the photos are still not loading.
This is how they are embedded:
Any ideas why the photos are not showing in Chrome on Mac?
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Guide to setting up Twitter cards
Buffer published this article on setting up Twitter cards.
I started experimenting with Twitter cards a couple of weeks ago.
Via Leumund, I learnt that you can use Twitter cards for lead generation.
