Omni hör till mina favoritappar och har nu släppt en webbversion i beta. Kolla själv.
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24HBC slänger in handduken, Hackaway gör entré
Ted Valentin grundade 24 Hour Business Camp, eller 24HBC som det oftast kallas, och undertecknad har varit på dem alla. Det blir dessvärre inga fler, men därmed inte sagt att vi behöver hänga läpp – Hackaway ersätter nämligen tillställningen. Jag låter Ted förklara själv:
Hackaway är en serie hackathons där den gemensamma nämnaren är att inget Hackaway är det andra likt. Framför allt sker varje hackathon på en ny och i förväg hemlig plats, vilket gör att varje Hackaway har potentialen att blir ett ganska unikt litet äventyr.
Den första upplagan fokuserar på att hacka nyheterna och går av stapeln den 11-13 april, på en okänd plats. Schibsted följer med, föga förvånande med tanke på att de står bakom nyhetstjänsten Omni (men Aftonbladet och Politism är också representerade).
Vad det kostar? Det är gratis, men platserna är begränsade, så pitcha dig själv/ditt team och hoppas på det bästa vetja!
Den här gången missar jag dessvärre Hackaway, men hoppas kunna medverka i framtiden. Kul initiativ, det är föga förvånande att det kommer från Ted, som ju nyligen även öppnade Knackeriet. Där sitter för övrigt Teds vapendragare för Hackaway, Martina Elm och Jonny Strömberg, om någon känner för att dra igång en konspirationsteori eller så.
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What About Tumblr?
This is a follow-up to my The Allure Of Medium And Svbtle piece. You should go read that first, if you haven’t already.
Thinking about all the great things that make Medium and Svbtle so alluring makes it impossible to ignore Tumblr. If we, for just a moment, try to forget the fact that it’s ridden with GIFs, cats, and porn, this should present itself as a formidable alternative. I’ve got a soft spot for Tumblr, but it’s not so much for the social aspects of the platform as it is for the interface.
Look at that writing experience!
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The Allure Of Medium And Svbtle
I’ve struggled with Medium and Svbtle for some time. Not with the actual services though, their interfaces and stability is excellent and I’ve just got good things to say about the execution. Both services are home to great content, I subscribe to the featured feed on Svbtle and follow several collections on Medium.
Medium screenshot What I’m having trouble wrapping my head around is what these services mean for someone like me. I really don’t need another place to post content, I’ve got this site and a Swedish one too, along with whatever side project that I’m meddling with at the time. Publishing my words were never an issue, and I’d imagine it’s not much of an issue for anyone these days, with tools like WordPress.com and Tumblr at our disposal. Blogging solved the accessible publishing platform issue a long time ago.
Yet there’s no doubt Medium and Svbtle are alluring. When using these services the content look good, everything is really clean. There are no nasty widgets or crappy free themes to wade through. In terms of freedom to publish, less can sometimes be more. With Medium and Svbtle, you’re just writing and publishing.
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Om Flappy Bird
Om du missat hela Flappy Bird-svängen så har jag skrivit en del på Spelbloggen om saken.
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Så ber du om en praktikplats
Det är tydligen så att elever uppmanas börja bearbeta arbetsplatser rörande höstens praktikperioder, i alla fall av min inkorg att döma. Inget ont om det, men genomförandet på många av dessa mejl från eleverna är under all kritik.
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Ted och grötentreprenörerna
Ted Valentin skriver fint om grötentreprenörer och listar sina favoriter. Undertecknad är, glädjande nog, med.
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Odd Alice vill (kanske) ha dig
Det går bra för Odd Alice, webbyrån som jag driver med andra briljanta typer. Vi har roliga kunder och meningsfulla projekt, och en arbetsmiljö så långt från stelbent du kan komma. Just nu är vi sju personer som jobbar med Odd Alice på heltid; fem anställda och två med långtidskontrakt.
Vi behöver förstärkning. Frilansare är bra, vi har en hel del fina sådana relationer, men nu känner vi att ytterligare en anställd hade varit att föredra för att ta oss vidare. Odd Alice har aldrig varit tänkt att bli en storbyrå, faktum är att jag hade en shortlist på personer när vi startade och de jobbar nu i företaget. Verkligheten har dock gjort sig påmind, intressen och inriktningar, samt inte minst behov, har förändrats, så nu står vi här.
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Fantasy Confession
I fancy myself a writer, with several books published. Most of the stuff you can buy written by me these days are technical literature. I’m doing alright with that, although I write (and wrote) a lot of other stuff too. Like fiction, which I’m focusing on at the moment (alongside the revision of The Writer’s iPad of course). I’m mostly writing short stories and novellas at the moment, but I’ve got larger things in mind too. There’s a novel that I need to revisit, rewrite, and then ship off to an editor and/or agent. Then there’s all of those ideas, the thrillers and the quirky stuff, the horror and the love stories. The things I write.
Image by Torley (CC) But I have a confession to make. The thing I write best, or at least the thing that’s easiest for me to write, is fantasy. You know, swords and magic and dragons and stuff like that, although not necessarily in the straight-forward flippant way I just said it. Fantasy can be quirky and dark and weird and mature and sad too. I’ve been so engrossed in fantasy literature and pen and paper role-playing games as a kid that it’s made such an impression on me. I get ideas constantly, I have no problems whatsoever building worlds or creating creatures and outlandish characters. It’s a bit weird, because science fiction is further off, although I think I’m pretty good at that too. At least if I take a step from the scifi cradled in today’s science, into the abstract, weird and twisted. Science fantasy if you will, although that’s another beast altogether, come to think of it.
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Stephen Fry Got It Right
The Mac turned 30 years old a little while back, sparking not only articles and blog posts of nostalgia, but also this awesome Apple site celebrating the Mac. Among all the pieces, Stephen Fry’s post is the one I like the most. I especially like this part:
What cannot be denied is that the first Macintosh changed my life completely. It made me want to write, I couldn’t wait to get to it every morning. If you compare computers to offices, the Mac was the equivalent of the most beautifully designed colourful space, with jazzy carpets on shiny oak floors, a pool table, wooden beams, a cappuccino machine, posters and great music playing. The rest of the world trudged into Microsoft’s operating system: a grey, soulless partitioned office, with nylon carpets, flickering fluorescent lamps and a faintly damp smell.
Whatever tool you choose, the one that you’re happy with is the one that’ll let you perform best. I Stephen Fry’s case, back in the day, the Macintosh was empowering him, making him want to write. Today lots of writers dream of MacBook Airs because it just seems like a sexier way to churn out words than the black fat plastic Windows laptops they’re stuck with. It’s nothing special really, we all want better tools.
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Some Things That Happened Since Last We Spoke
This is something of a status update, because I’ve got a handful of stuff that I need to put online, and as this very site still is less suitable for short status updates, I’ll employ the bullet list once more.
- Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog is now in its fourth edition, done and delivered. The book turned out well, and is available for pre-order. I’ll update the book page later next week with additional information, along with the final cover.
- I was in the Financial Times recently, pertaining to my iPhone novel writing project. The piece is behind the paywall, but you get eight articles for free if you sign up, so go do that.
- Speaking of iPhone writing: The MobNov project is progressing (fifth outline revision?), and I’ve got something else somewhat related in store for you guys in the coming months.
- I’ve finished a short story, I’m editing another short story, and I expect to finish a novella next week. It’s great getting back to fiction writing.
- And finally, Odd Alice (still without a proper English site, sorry) is keeping me busy as always. The coming week involves a trip to Norway to talk to clients, and we’re building really cool stuff that I’ll no doubt write extensively about in the future as it’s related to publishing.
That’s it for now. Enjoy your Sunday.
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Nu kan du förhandsboka Smashing WordPress 4th Edition #wpse
Men se där, nu går det att förhandsboka den fjärde utgåvan av Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog hos Amazon
. Utkommer den 24 februari sägs det.
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Du prenumererar väl på Appmagasinet?
Visst prenumererar du väl på Appmagasinet? Det är gratis och en given godisbit i inkorgen varje torsdag för dig som är intresserad av appar till iPhone och iPad.
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Byt ditt lösenord i dag
I dag är det stora lösenordsbytardagen, så passa på att byta ditt lösenord. Här finns lite tips för hur du väljer ett bra lösenord.
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The Preferred Device
There’s a lot of talk about how the iPad is almost the PC replacement that we all seem to crave, but not quite there yet. Famous tech writer MG Siegler broached the subject recently, stating that although he would like to not buy any more computers, he didn’t think the iPad (his primary tablet of choice as far as I can tell) was ready yet. In fact, he thinks the iPad’s years away from replacing the computer for all tasks, obviously painting i very broad strokes.
Promo image of the iPad Air In some cases he’s right. I don’t see myself developing high end websites on my iPad anytime soon, although it is theoretically possible already. Siegler’s example, what a nuisance it is to publish (primarily) text content online using the iPad, compared to using the web browser, is a moot one. The comparison with the web browser workflow is also moot, because the tablet offers a different view altogether.