FnordMetric and ChartSQL: Create Charts Directly From SQL
FnordMetric is an interesting new software package that allows you to create good-looking charts (in SVG format) directly from SQL using a query language called ChartSQL. The are quite a few examples...
View ArticleAnother take on the 4-Hour Workweek
Tim Ferriss’ seminal book on rethinking work and living an independent, self-determined life always is worth another look. On his blog SpartanTraveller Clayton Cornell wrote a rather lengthy but very...
View ArticleThe How: Learn From Entrepreneurs
If you’re an entrepreneur building upon the insights of others, learning from fellow entrepreneurs is essential. Learning from past experiences, mistakes and failures probably is the best way to...
View ArticleUX Check: Identify Usability Issues On Your Website
Recently, I came across UX Check, a Google Chrome extension that allows you to annotate usability issues according to Nielsen’s ten heuristic usability evaluations. If you’re dealing with website and...
View ArticleTimothy Dexter – The man who carried coals to Newcastle … and turned a profit
Timothy Dexter was a colourful 18th century American businessman noted for his eccentricity and his eerily acute business sense that in most cases flouted common sense. Among others his business feats...
View ArticleEmail as a Personal API
Some time ago I came across a concept by Marc Bevand advocating email as a Decentralized API to Personal Information. In this post he outlines the idea that – email being such a pervasive tool to the...
View ArticleGoodUI Datastories
GoodUI Datastories is a new service that promises to provide companies with tried and tested UI concepts. Not every company has the time, resources and sheer number of users required to do proper A/B...
View ArticleCaring
Recently, I’ve read two interesting stories about people who genuinely care about helping others and how as a consequence everyone involved benefits. One of those articles is titled “How my life was...
View ArticleRegular Languages Are … well … Regular
A few weeks ago I came across an article describing “A regular expression to check for prime numbers“. I was intrigued because processes defined by formal regular languages have an inherently linear...
View ArticleEko: A Digital Stethoscope Add-On
At times you come across novel designs and solutions and instantly think “Of course. Why hasn’t anybody thought about this before?”. One such moment for me recently was finding out about Eko, a digital...
View ArticleAntiwork – Rethinking Work Ethic Or: Hard Work is Not Working
In a highly interesting recent article Brian Dean calls for a a radical shift in how we view “jobs”. He poses a seemingly radical question: “Over a decade into the 21st century, we seem as...
View ArticleI don’t want an app for that
Scott Adams of Dilbert fame recently posted an article on why your phone interface is a legacy train wreck. He argues that the way we interact with our smartphones goes all the way back to the...
View Articlefavico.js – Dynamic Content For Your Favicon
favico.js (source code on GitHub) is an interesting and possibly quite useful library that makes it possible to show dynamic, animated content in your web app’s favicon. While it allows you to display...
View ArticleSheetJS – Parse And Manipulate Excel Spreadsheets In The Browser
SheetJS (source code available on GitHub) is an extremely useful JavaScript library that enables you to have Microsoft Excel spreadsheets parsed directly in the browser without any backend interaction...
View ArticleSome Free Design Resources
Pexels (a free stock photo site) have published a small but useful list of free design resources on their blog. From typography, icons and colour palettes to free design tools such as GIMP or Inkscape,...
View ArticleJHipster: A Spring / AngularJS App Generator
You’re a boring, hoary Java developer but secretly always wanted to belong to that hip JavaScript-Single-Page-Application crowd? Well, with JHipster now you can! On a more serious note, JHipster is a...
View ArticleThe Turing Exception by William Hertling
About a year ago I wrote about the “Avogadro Corp” by William Hertling, the first book of his Singularity Series. A week ago I finished reading “The Turing Exception”, the fourth and final instalment...
View ArticleUX Time: Responsive Tables and Smoothly Scrolling Through Large Datasets
Today I’d like to introduce two nifty and very useful tools and techniques for better visualizing tabular data on the Web: Responsive Tables in Pure CSS: This technique (code available here) makes...
View Articlebeyond tellerrand 2015
Last week I attended beyond tellerrand 2015 in Düsseldorf. This year marked the fifth iteration of the event. It was once again a fantastic two days filled to the brim with a wide range of inspiring,...
View ArticleFreelance Developers: Get Your Act Together!
Time and time again I get emails starting like this: Good morning Harvey Nash Business Partner, I would like to make you aware of a new contract that we have open at the moment [ … ] I didn’t bother to...
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