Jon Aquino's Mental Garden

Engineering beautiful software jon aquino labs | personal blog

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Benjamin Franklin's "Schedule For The Day"

I love looking over Benjamin Franklin's "schedule for the day" -

THE MORNING. { 5 } Rise, wash, and address
{ } Powerful Goodness! Contrive
Question. What good shall { 6 } day's business, and take the
I do this day? { } resolution of the day; prose-
{ 7 } cute the present study, and
{ } breakfast.
8 }
9 } Work.
10 }
11 }

NOON. { 12 } Read, or overlook my ac-
{ 1 } counts, and dine.
2 }
3 } Work.
4 }
5 }

EVENING. { 6 } Put things in their places.
{ 7 } Supper. Music or diversion,
Question. What good have { 8 } or conversation. Examination
I done to-day? { 9 } of the day.
{ 10 }
{ 11 }
{ 12 }

NIGHT. { 1 } Sleep.
{ 2 }
{ 3 }
{ 4 }

I'd like to do something similar, although I couldn't get by on 4 hours of sleep, at least not at this stage of my life. I'll try for something like the following:


THE MORNING.

Question. What good shall { 7 } Rise, wash, and address
I do this day? { } Powerful Goodness! Breakfast.
8 } Work.
9 }
10 }
11 }
NOON. 12 }
{ 1 } Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine.
2 } Work.
3 }
4 }
5 }

EVENING. 6 }
{ 7 } Supper. Read, meditate, exercise.
Question. What good have { 8 } Examination of the day.
I done to-day? { 9 }
{ 10 }
11 } Sleep
12 }
NIGHT. 1 }
2 }
3 }
4 }
5 }
6 }

Friday, December 23, 2005

Create 37 Signals style graphics using free tools and fonts

Today I decided to sit down and figure out how they do those snazzy Web 2.0 gradient boxes, like those on 37signals.com. And I didn't want to shell out $750 on Photoshop.



And here's how I did it:
* Download Inkscape (free graphics program)
* Make a rounded rectangle with a very subtle gradient
* For the font, use Blue Highway (free)

Incidentally, Blue Highway is a fairly good approximation of the pretty 37 Signals font. You be the judge:

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Using IE to remain signed in as different users

I have found something cool about IE. You can use multiple browsers to remained signed in as different users. Web developers will find this useful for testing.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Getting multi-monitor-like docking out of a single monitor

At 2:34 AM today, quite by accident, I discovered an easy way to simulate the "docking" power of multiple monitors, on a single monitor. And surprisingly it's all thanks to a chat client (Trillian).

Simply download the Trillian chat client, and dock the contact list by dragging it close to the edge of your screen. Make it as wide as you want:

1

Now when you maximize windows, they confine themselves to the left portion of the screen:

2

And you can put whatever windows you want on the right side of the screen. The beauty is that these things on the right side won't get covered up when you maximize a window.

3

It's kind of like having two monitors. And even if you do have two monitors, it's nice to have this "third monitor" as a little place to put things you want to keep an eye on, like chat clients, or windows that you want to keep visible without covering up other windows.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

RSS is the new Did You Know ... ?

The company I work for recently started a new public tech blog, and it struck me how similar the idea is to those helpful "Did You Know ... ?" windows that appear when you install a new piece of software. I love Did You Know windows because they teach me about the new software in bite-sized pieces.

Every complex web app or service would do well to have a Did You Know feed to teach people tips and tricks. Here is a little DYK icon that you can use for feeds for your new products and services:


Friday, December 02, 2005

Random Product Name Generator

I stumbled upon a cool random generator for product names -- perfect if you're looking for inspiration for a name for a new blog / album / product / company / etc.

Here are some interesting ones it spit out:

  • appletwee

  • tweelet

  • scalic

  • spideric

  • protprop

  • brayyl

  • spitebon

  • tropoleo

  • trager

  • atomic

  • atomizic

  • stotod

  • cheganamania

  • spinach

  • snaposis

  • travelspig

  • spigeled

  • stibclawed

  • clawibic

  • trimeton

  • trimon

  • eleveter

  • chapanatum

  • granon

  • tripchut

  • chutipedal

  • spiritid

  • prevalus

  • premixis

  • isotopelet

  • frimyl

  • unilan

  • spired

  • dhanyl

  • trimit

  • czaricabot

  • chabotic

  • etalon

  • klaxonalon

  • orinases

  • prebasic

  • prebasalic

  • troged

  • troggled

  • etypis