Tips for Twits

We had to setup a EDM/newsletter system for a client. He wanted to consolidated his and his staff email addresses. He sent me a few outlook PST files. We imported it into outlook and found that besides the few thousand emails in the contact list, there’s another few thousand more emails in different folders which held email addresses. I figured it would be easy to extract those emails.

Unfortunately, there’s no built in way of doing it in Outlook or Thunderbird. There’s a couple of paid solutions to extract emails from the inbox folders but I had to try it a few more times. After tinkering around with Outlook and Thunderbird, I found a way to extract emails through exporting to CSV.

Simple steps to get email addresses from inbox. These steps are for Office 2007

1. Import emails into Outlook
2. Export to CSV(DOS) (See Figure 1)
3. Open with Excel
4. Select the email column and copy into a new file.
5. Save as CSV.
6. You have it. Use it anywhere you like. CSV is supported for most applications.

Figure 1

Here’s the instructions to export to CSV file.

Step 1: File > Import and Export

Step 2: Export to file

Step 3: Comma Separated Values (DOS)

Step 4: Select folder

Step 5: Export to CSV

Days of text sites are long over. Nowadays, you can hardly find a good site without the use of appropriate photos, images and artwork. However, some web designer resort into using others’ work by using google image search. Using those images is often illegal and they are not the best images anyway. Here are a dozen sites that are better and legal.

1. Flickr Creative Commons

One of the site which I visited often for good quality photo is Flickr. It has a huge selection of photos mane of which are protected under the Creative Commons which means you can use them legally as long as you attribute the photographer.

2. Stock Exchange

I also frequent  sxc.hu for stock photo as it is the best I have used thus far. But be careful. The first row are premium photos and it cost money. Clicking on them will take you to a different site where you have to pay.

3. IconsPedia.com

If you are looking for icons to doll up your site, Icons Predia is the place to go. If you want to add a cool Twitter Bird to your website, this is the first place to look.

4. EveryStockPhoto.com

Every Stock Photo searches several other stock image sites for you. Well, it literally search all the photos regardless of ‘appropriateness’. Hence, you might be in for some ‘dirty treats’.

5. NASA

At Savant Degrees, many of us are geeks, so we talk about science fiction, spaceships among other things. I’m not sure how this happened but if the U.S. government takes a photo they often release it into the public domain. If you want high quality technology or space photos you can’t do much better than NASA.

6. FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Freedigitalphotos.net has high quality photos but the selection is not great and the terms of use require a link back to use the photo for free.

7. FreeStockPhotos.com

Not only does Free Stock Photos have some great nature photos it also has a list of over a dozen other free stock photo sources.

8. MorgueFile.com

Morgue File has many photos that you are free to use commercially without attributing the photographer. However, they are not exactly stock photos but more of good snapshots.

9. StockVault.net

StockVault has 13,000+ high quality stock photos. The photos are high quality but low selection. The site does not offer safe search so use it at your own risk.

10. HistoricalStockPhotos.com

If you want vintage photos Historical Stock Photos is the site for you. Colorwise, don’t expect too much.

Hope this post help! Do recommend more sites by leaving a comment below!

Something as simple as getting the sql dump of a database in Microsoft SQL Server (2000, 2005 et al) to a SQL file could be quite a bit complicated (atleast more so as compared to the way we do it in MYSQL). SQL Server Management Studio does a good job of creating scripts that can help you recreate Database Schema. But when it comes to recreating the real Database data through SQL scripting sadly it simply just doesn’t have any simple method to accomplish it (as far as I know it).

The best way to accomplish this MS SQL is by using Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard 1.1. It seems to be a pretty good tool because of its simplicity, stability, accuracy and ease of use. Once you download & install it, you can choose either the tool’s GUI or the command line interface to generate a single SQL script file which can be used to recreate a database (both schema and data). What is mire, there is even a bonus feature of being integrable with Visual Studio!

Download it from the Microsoft Download Page for Microsoft SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard 1.1

An important component of my role as UI designer and Project Manager at Savant Degrees involves prototyping application concepts for clients, as well as in-house product ideas. Ever since Savant Degrees started out, we have been working with people from all walks of life – partners who are graphic designer, client who play an active role, new experience team members, etc. I have to admit that working with someone new can really be a pain at times. Especially when the different groups speak in different languages (the design team, the HCI team, the development team and the project managers, etc).

I’m sure many of us know what a wireframe is, but how many of us use a proper software to work on a wireframe? For the benefit of people who are new to the term, it simply meant a visual presentation used in web design. Previously, I build simple HTML or drew simple shapes in word document and run through the process with the web developers. After some time, I turn to mockup softwares. I was happy with some but not as much as with Axure.

Before I talk about the tool, I like to explain why it is so important to use mockups.

1. Designing wireframes the right way the first time, cost no more than doing it the wrong way. Creating a paper prototype adds no cost, either- simply print out the wireframe diagrams for the pages a visitor will use to complete the tasks most closely related to achieving his goals and meeting the site’s business objectives.
2. Web Prototyping saves costs of any marketing communication that may be necessary to undo brand damage resulting from poorly functioning web site and a frustrating user experience. Expensive site redesigns are often undertaken to correct those kinds of problems. Adding a few days to create a wireframe and test a prototype ensures that the redesigned site won’t introduce any new causes for user frustration or further erosion of brand equity.
3. Using simple shapes lets you focus on the information design first, to make sure it meets users needs, before moving on to the pretty pictures. For an existing site, wireframes are abstracted from screen shots, with new content, functional, and navigational elements sketched in.

Usually, your client will want to see visual designs as early as possible in the project. If possible, try to delay giving them a design, not before them the mockup.

Why?

One very important reason is to save money and time. Why spend on graphics before the underlying information design is complete?

Equally important, colors, fonts and stylistic treatments of logos and other graphical elements can invoke emotional responses (“I hate this pink”; “I love that blue”; “That version of the logo makes me ill”) that distract from the task of determining the best information design for the page.

A wireframe diagrams lets everybody focus on what’s important at this step: clearly understanding what goes on each page, where it goes, and why it goes there, so you can achieve the best overall balance and structure for each page. A wireframe is a sketch of a page-layout idea. The sketch may be rendered in the computer using an illustration application or hand-drawn on paper. Either method is fine, as long as it clearly communicates your ideas.

The information design will evolve as wireframe diagrams change, incorporating results from the usability test at the end of this step, to reflect placement of page elements in ways that better meet user needs. Keeping the information design flexible at this stage will help you create a more positive brand experience over the long term, so you don’t want anyone to develop partisan attachments to a particular look this early in the game.

Despite all that was said. Its sometime hard to say no to your clients request when they have more power over you. Hence, how you manage your project depends on the type of project, your relationship with the client, and your company’s work culture.

Note for Visual Designers

At this point in the process, visual designers should conduct exploratory meetings to understand the client’s visual preferences and the visual elements of the client’s brand. Wait until wireframes are set before showing visual-design treatments of the pages to the client.

Note for Clients

For clients who insist on seeing visuals earlier rather than later, you can ask visual designers to design page mock-ups representing possible colors, imagery, and look and feel – possible styles of what is being considered – at this stage. However, you should do this only if absolutely necessary – that is, if they won’t take no for an answer – and be sure to emphasize that these mock-ups in no way reflect the final designs (repeat this warning early and often).

Caution the people in the site-owning organization against developing any attachments to these mock-ups, because such attachments will make it difficult it change the visual design later on. Chances are these people will not be happy when they see the final design with text, links and information added to it. Focusing only on wireframes at this stage helps you avoid building unrealistic expectations about the site’s final look and feel, guarding maximum flexibility to evolve the site’s information design as necessary.

What I use

Now, let’s go on to why I personally choose Axure and what it can do for you. Do check out their website, www.axure.com for some videos. Do note that there are many mockup software out there and you should check them out before making a decision. For a good list, check out http://www.sitepoint.com/print/tools-prototyping-wireframing/

Axure RP Pro

* Price: USD$589 – Single User License (Discounted to $539 for 5+ Licenses)

* OS Compatability: Windows 2000, XP, 2003 Server or Vista

Axure allows the tagging of elements with functional specifications, which is excellent when a wireframe itself will not provide adequate information to allow a programmer to code the feature. Having said that, a programmer will normally prefer to receive specifications whether they be tagged to an element or written in a wiki, rather than code based on an interpretation of a wireframe.

I use Axure when I am planning a medium to large scale application which requires documentation (Axure exports all tagged specifications into a neatly laid out document – a big time saver!), functional specifications and HTML prototype (Axure will generate an HTML prototype for you – another time saver, however if you take a look at the code you’ll realise that there is no way it could be used as a basis for the actual production application. Use the prototype to display UX concepts and provide clients with a realistic and tangible model for feedback.)

I could go on for pages about what the product accomplish, but I believe their website, www.axure.com, do a better job in selling their products than in I do. Furthermore, it is not the purpose of this article to review this particular software.

By the way, did I mention I got my copy of Axure for free back when I was a student? Axure gives out free licenses to “good student”. Just email Axure and show them your transcript. See http://www.axure.com/learnMoreBuy.aspx for more info.

Frontend – List
Let us revisit our frontend controller. Surely by now you’ve gotten a better grasp of the controller and models. So we’ll be revisiting those concepts here. So lets say you want to allow users to view you current Twits as well as create a new Twit.

1. Some new file structure loving

   app/
     design/
       frontend/
         default/
           default/
             template/
               twit/
                 - twits_list.phtml
     etc/
       modules/
         - SavantDegrees_All.xml (Or what ever your company name might be)
     code/
       local/
         SavantDegrees/ (Or what ever your company name might be)
           Twit/ (Or whatever your module name might be)
             Block/
               Admin/
                 - Main.php
                 Main/
                   - Grid.php
                 - Edit.php
                 Edit/
                   - Form.php
                 - New.php
                 New/
                   - Form.php
               - Index.php
             controllers/
               - AdminController.php
               - IndexController.php
             etc/
               - config.xml
             Helper/
               - Data.php
             Model/
               - Twit.php
               Mysql4/
                 - Twit.php
                 Twit/
                   - Collection.php
             sql/
               twit_setup/
                 - mysql4-install-0.2.0.php
                 - mysql4-upgrade-0.1.0-0.2.0.php

   We’ve added a whole nasty branch of subdirectories under app/designs. Read on to understand what its all for…

2. Let us return to our IndexController.php

   <?php
   class SavantDegrees_Twit_IndexController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action
   {
    
       public function indexAction()
       {
   	$this->loadLayout();
   	$this->getLayout()
   		->getBlock('content')->append(
   			$this->getLayout()->createBlock('twit/index')
       	);
           $this->renderLayout();
       }
   }

   Hold your horses, this code is EXACTLY the same as the Part 1. Its just a revision. However, that being said, we see that in Part 1, we made the system create a Block called index. That’s an opening…

3. So let us modify our index.php block:

   <?php
   class SavantDegrees_Twit_Block_Index extends Mage_Core_Block_Template
   {
       public function __construct()
       {
           parent::__construct();
           $this->setTemplate('twit/twits_list.phtml');
       }
    
       public function getTwits()
       {
       	$model = Mage::getModel('twit/twit');
       	$collection = $model
       	    	->getCollection()
       	    	->load();
    
           return $collection->getItems();
       }
   }

   What the difference here? We made the block load the template from twits/twit_list.phtml. We can create/find this file in /app/design/frontend/default/default/template/twits/twit_list.phtml. Some explanation is due here:

   • When you say setTemplate in the block, it means, use this file as the presentation/view
   • This file exists in the some subdirectory of /app/design/frontend/default/default/template. That is the path to your default template. Even though you may have other templates, this is the default 1. So when Magento cant find your template file in the other template directories, it always reverts back to this folder. Its a directory form of inheritance/ancestory/precedence.
4. Lastly, the twit_list.phtml file:

   <?php
   $_twits = $this->getTwits();
   if ($_twits) {
   	$count = 0;
   	foreach ($_twits as $i=>$twit) {
   ?>
   		<div class="twit">
   			<div class='name'><?= $twit->getName() ?></div>
   			<div class='summary'><?= $twit->getSummary() ?></div>
   		</div>
   <?php
   	}
   }
   ?>

   Since the whole purpose of twits_list.php is to prepare the view for the list of twits, it obviously needs to get the data from somewhere. It turns out, the Template is the extension of the Block. So by calling $this->getTwits(), we’re calling the Block's getTwits() method.

5. There you have it! check your twits list at http://127.0.0.1/magento/index.php/twit
 
read users' comments (6)

Hi all its us again, In the past few months we’ve been asked many a times to help improve the progressbar code. We’ve also been referenced by several websites as THE progressbar to use. In all, we felt we owed it to you guys to make it better.

So here we are, after all those emails and bug reports, we finally got down to it. Always good to take a couple of months to have a fresh prespective of things. We ripped out the old code and made it much better and more extensible than its predecessors. So much that we decided it was enough to qualify as a major revision.

Let see whats been done…

• Cleaned up the code, yes its lighter, cleaner faster. (Still lacks documentation though)
• Callbacks! Everyone’s favourite
• Max values, you can now set it to be 150/2000 instead of just a percentage
• Text formats. Show 75/100 or 75% by toggling the textFormat accordingly
• Steps, how many steps to get to your target value
• Step Duration, how long each step lasts
• Webkit (Chrome/Safari) compatibility. More like, Webkit Hacks

Once again, many a thanks for all those who have so generously provided the feature requests as well as bug fixes every now and then. And thanks for all your patience in waiting for this new release.
If its working for you, drop us a comment and tell us where we can see your stuff!

Download the new jQuery progressbar here: jQuery progressbar
or view the demo here

Having a good UI is 30% of your customer won. No i dont know, 30% was completely arbitrary but absolutely believable. As such, please dont try to make those icons yourself! As all developers know, we try our best not to reinvent the wheel. Unless the wheel sucks and we have the budget, then we knock ourselves out.
So its time to share those little icon secrets! Where do you find nice icons!?

• famfamfam. If you dont know this site, you should be SHOT. Mark James spent good time making a fantastic set of icons so that everyone else could use them. Kudos to him!
• crystal iconsAnother awesome job done by Everaldo. Download link’s not working. Use this instead. Made primarily for the KDE workspace. Which brings us to my next point
• Any other Linux icons sources. These includes kde-look, tango, interfacelift, deviantart
• Iconfinder. Its new, its awesome and apparently they’re license-friendly! If everything’s as promised, they’re gonna kick some serious internet butt! We’re fans already!
• Ok we admit, sometimes we’re really tempted to use existing packages icons. Joomla has a really nice set.

All in all, plenty of icons. And if that doesnt work out. Go buy some from istockphoto and stock.xchng! They’re the pros for a good reason!
And a final word in licensing. Respect it. Not so much for the hard work, but more for the fact that designers can do what we cannot. Even if we tried, we probably wouldn’t have as much flair. Just like magicians.

In our work we like to create Google Maps links for our client’s (offices, stores, etc). However, the larger our clients presence, the more random links there are bound to be. When it comes to using Google Map’s javascript API to control the map, thats still perfectly fine. But how do I create a google maps link that only shows 1 entry? Turns out, there are several ways to do this:

1. Manipulate the request such that it only shows your entryHow? For example, searching for “Holland, Singapore” will lead us to about 1,356 results. See here. So lets tweak it a little:
   • Append &mrt=yp to the url – That returns us all the business listings. (852 results)
   • Append &start=16 to the url – That skips the first 16 results (Shows results 17-26 of 852)
   • Append &num=2 to the url – That returns us only 2 results (Only shows 2 results)

   For a more complete listing of Google Maps Parameters, consult mapki.com. Kudos to those guys for compiling that list. Really useful stuff
   So there you have it, a simple way to link your business such that its the only entry there. However this method is relatively dangerous. Why? Cause you’ve got no idea of the exact ordering that Google maps may return. Today you could be entry 17, surely not in a year (hopefully for the better). As such, this is not the recommended solution.

2. Use the address with your long/lat coordinates to generate your entry.
   • First get your GPS coordinates, there are a number of ways to do this. Check our this link
   • Then create your link via the following structure: http://www.google.com/maps?&ie=UTF8&hl=en&q=[urlescaped address]&ll=[GPS lat,long]&z=[Zoom]&iwloc=A
   • Still too troublesome? We’ve created a simple tool for our clients to use. Save yourself some time. Try it!

   Done! Whats the downside to this? You can only show the address for the business. Because searching by business names returns us way too many results. So instead, we have to search for an address, Google interprets this as an address and only returns 1 result (which is the whole point of geocoding). At this point its easy to the map to what we need. We’d use this typically for this nifty little “Find us on a map” links (instead of embedding the actual map on your site).

Once again, if you’d rather embed Google maps directly into your site via the JS, then your options are much more open.
Good luck! Let us know if it works for you, of if you find a better way of doing things!

After a few years of doing freelance consulting for Wit.sg, we incorporated a new company, Savant Degrees in February 2009. We have since been trying to get people on board. It wasn’t the easiest job to do. Yes, sure, there’s that part about getting sales, talking to clients who wants it their way (even though we are the consultants) and everything else, but hiring gives us the biggest headache.

Most people tells us that the current economy is bad and people are graduating right now.  I hear all the time that it’s going to be easy picking someone out of that pool, but I totally disagree. It seems like there’s more noise from people that won’t fit in our company. We were discussing about it one day and was told by one of the new guys  that we were picky and we had to be realistic. “Who starts work the same day they finish their exams?”, he asked. The entire team raised our hands.

People

I learned that most fresh graduates look forward to that so-called graduation trip.  Most of us  in the company graduated twice from a polytechnic then college, and both times we dive straight into work. Perhaps we were a little different, perhaps we are weird. We all agreed that it takes someone a little different to work in a start up. Someone who wants to do something to leave behind a legacy. I started thinking about it and noticed a few things about us.
Insanely optimistic

We have to be. We gave up cushy job offers, Ivy league school offers, inheritance and other more certain opportunities to be here knowing we can get more.  Can we finish 3 projects in a week. Yep sure. Can we do something better than the bigger boys. We’ll beat them. Of course, there’s a thin line to thread between being optimistic and being delusional and we make sure we don’t cross that line.

“next working day”
Where “next working day” is literally the next day. Our social and work lives becomes intertwined and colleagues become friends and vice versa. Even without overtime pay or big bonuses, we get people here on Sundays. The average sleeping time of the team is probably 6 hours. I figured it’s the waking up to something bigger than ourselves that gives us that boost.  Also, hanging out together so often gives us time to bond and plan for crazy stuff like booking fifty tickets for Wolverine opening night where we got all our friends together. Nothing beats having a mass movie hang out for one of the best 2009 movie.

Penchant for DIY
When we first got our office, every one started playing music and very soon it becomes a cacophony of songs and discussions. We wrote a jukebox with an unbiased(sometimes i doubt it) queuing system tied to the main speakers. We are engineers at heart and we like to solve problems, big or small. Visit t.wits.sg and you might get some of our gems and great products we use in the office. We wrote it, we use it and we will made sure it’s good.

Guns, guitars and wolverine

Before we moved into our office, we knew that this will be our second home, and we rightfully made it so. Big screens, big tables, comfortable chairs and the lot. We started bringing stuff from home to the office. Piano, guitars, weights and personal mugs. Stuff that makes a place a home. Stuff that gives us  a little fun once in a while. That said, every one in the office gets a nerf air gun when they join.  It’s just not safe without one when there is a gun rack and the occasional all-out nerf gun war. Perhaps a little work culture is forming, a culture that will give us that energy and drive to strive for more than we should and to challenge the status quo.  One of the reasons why we want to work in our own start-up is so we can have the opportunity to work with smart, excited and motivated people. The people that will constantly challenge us to make things that we are proud to use and potentially make a positive difference. With that in mind, we told our new guy, we will continue to be very selective about who gets on board.

peek

Yeah i just love seeing the awe on my student’s faces when i use my phone and my geek geeky geekiest green laser pointer to teach a class. The software is really simple. After trying out Phonepoint and Wireless Presenter (comes preinstalled in my Nokia E66), I’ve come to pick out Phonepoint as the winner!

Its really simple. Bluetooth connect, open the software on ur PC, open the app on your mobile. Hey ho presto! you’re ready to go! Try it! its free to try but $19.99 for a license. I’d say thats worth the money if i get to walk the room looking good.