San · HackerTrans

16 years agodiscuss

AnyBots founder and CEO Trevor Blackwell (quoted in the third section of the article) is also one of the Y Combinator co-founders, and I believe both companies are in the same office building.

RiderOfGiraffes lists some relevant HN items here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1562602

San

16 years agodiscuss

Yes, I agree it would be a nice way to do some personal time boxing ("How do I divide my free time between projects A, B and C"). But as I already noted in the parent post, this layout simply does not suit my kind of appointments.

However, I think most people in my situation would be able to use a daily version of this.

Three bars of six hours each: morning, afternoon and evening, for example. The additional height would allow me to write down overlapping appointments, and the extra width gives me room to write down some details. And in case of major messiness, I need to copy only one day to a new page.

re 1) Your example is ridiculous, but I really do need a first or last name and a location. Even for 30-minute appointments.

re 2) But there is quite a difference between changing a five into a six, or somehow moving an appointment in the bar chart.

re 3) I don't actually try to be in two places at the same time. It's usually just meetings and presentations I want even should attend, but simply overlap with other appointments. I do still want to know about them, so I can go but leave early, or drop in at a later time.

San

16 years agodiscuss

While I like the general idea of your 'schedule as a bar chart' solution, I see several issues:

1) There is very little space to write down appointments. I'd like to be able to write down at least a name and a location, even for a 30-minute appointment.

2) What about moved or cancelled appointments? I'm afraid things will get messy very soon.

3) How should I handle overlapping appointments?

Maybe I'm not the target audience, but I encounter these things daily.

San

16 years agodiscuss

Moleskine has something like this, called the Weekly Notebook. Each spread has a page for appointments on the left (one week), and room for notes or to-dos on the right: http://www.moleskine.com/catalogue/diariesplanners/12_month_...

It's a very nice product, and it looks a bit more presentable than your solution. This can be important when you are in a meeting or with a client (or just to yourself -- using a fancy planner motivates me to keep it neat and up-to-date).

San

17 years agodiscuss

That would also allow for a more even wear across the mattress. The center (from left to right) of our current mattress becomes soft and saggy over time, which can not be solved by anything but a quarter turn (or a new mattress).

We have tried to rotate the duvet and pillows to get the same effect, only to find The Boy's head at my feet next morning.

If you really want to rotate your mattress: IKEA used to sell round beds and mattresses. It's a bit too "Playboy Mansion" for my taste though, and it severely limits your options in sheets and duvet covers.

San

17 years agodiscuss

The font rendering varies wildly between browsers: http://i47.tinypic.com/1125ssp.png

From left to right: Firefox (Win), Chrome (Win), Safari (Win), Safari (Mac)

Firefox renders the font way too light, Chrome (this version at least) falls back to a default font, and Safari on Windows uses incorrect kerning and renders the some characters too narrow. Only Safari on Mac renders the font acceptably (except from the heavy diagonal on the capital N and the oversized apostrophe, maybe).

San

17 years agodiscuss

Not YC funded, but the guys from YellowBird, Yunoo, and E (My Name is E) are Dutch, and might have some interesting stories to share.

San

17 years agodiscuss

Nice cycling lanes and impressive statistics, but I don't get the impression that bicycles are as ubiquitous (yet) as they are in Amsterdam.

I wonder how they handle bicycle parking in Copenhagen, because that's a real problem in most Dutch cities. Especially those cargo bikes take a lot of space.

San

17 years agodiscuss

For me, the most important thing is to stick to my daily schedule. Every single day of the week.

Once I skip one or two meals, work long hours, or stay up late, my life starts spiraling out of control. So I live on a fixed schedule now, which includes three hours of exercise per day:

* One hour of swimming at 7AM; this forces me to get out of bed on time, and makes me hungry for breakfast.

* One hour of rowing at 5PM; this forces me to stop working, and makes me hungry for dinner.

* One hour of running at 11PM; this forces me to stop whatever I am doing that evening, and gets me tired for bed.

(In addition I have hundreds of small rules: never go shopping alone, the bed is only for sex and sleeping, dinner must take at least fifteen minutes to prepare, ...)

It does take a lot of time and self discipline (and monitoring by others), but it sure helps me to keep my life under control.

San

17 years agodiscuss

Most of these seem to be easy means to rather shallow ends, to me at least. Paying my sixteen-year-old nephew to do these things for me would be easier, and just as satisfying.

The only activity on this list I actually enjoyed was learning how to pick a lock. Not as a means for breaking and entering, but as a skill and an end in itself.

To me, it is all about learning to create something, preferably with a certain artistic value. Over the last few years, I have:

* Designed and built a clock (out of wood, steel and ropes).

* Designed, printed and bound a few notebooks and diaries, and two books.

* Improved my writing skills; both fiction and non-fiction. Wrote several short stories and started a working on a book.

* Bought a fountain pen, re-learned proper penmanship and developed a personal script.

* Learned how to run correctly and started running barefoot (I run 50 miles per week now).

* Borrowed my uncle's SLR camera, learned a lot about photography.

* Wrote, recorded and edited a short movie with some friends.

* Studied music theory and started playing the piano, albeit with to much ambition. I'm just not able to express myself through classical music. These days, I prefer to play blues on my guitar, or jazz standards (1930s-1940s) or stride piano when the mood is right.

San

17 years agodiscuss

Sure his method sounds easy, but are the results actually worth anything? It looks like an over-simplified version of ACT-R, with some made-up cost values. To me, this has no advantages over my gut feeling on usability; it's just that the numbers add some false sense of reliability.

For actual design decisions, I'd much prefer a method that has developed for thirty-some years, is based on actual cognitive models and has been empirically validated.

Besides, it's not that difficult to use. Building and testing your interface in CogTool would take you about an hour the first time, but it is easy to learn. You can even import HTML and record your actions. The results are pretty accurate, and you get automatic interface optimization (e.g. on widget size, location, types) too boot.

So, the author had a nice idea, but it has been done already. (At least for the user testing, the accurate results, the "codification" and the books; I don't know about the consulting company.)

San

17 years agodiscuss

Let's not reinvent the wheel and use a framework that has been developed since the seventies. Anderson's ACT-R framework is based on cognitive theories and models, and can deliver pretty accurate results.

For a more user-friendly tool, take a look at CogTool. You can build or import a prototype UI, create tasks (sets of actions: click this, type that), and let the software evaluate or automatically optimize the interface. Last time I checked they used ACT-R as the cognitive engine, so the results should be accurate.

San

17 years agodiscuss

It's the cheap kind ($5 or $10) you can get at sport outlet stores or even large super markets. They have a TPR (rubber) outsole and an EVA (foam) insole (which I removed). The upper part made from nylon mesh and some thin neoprene.

But going barefoot allows my feet and toes to flex freely and feel the surface. I am able to use parts of my feet and legs that used to be constrained by my running shoes (most notably my arches and calves). Because of this, my running gait has changed a lot. After years of pounding the pavement (striking heel-first) I am able to run smooth and easy, and it feels great.

Thanks to this new running style, there is hardly any wear to the soles. I think they will last around 500 miles. After that, I'll just spend $10 on a new pair.

San

17 years agodiscuss

About two months ago, one of my shoelaces broke. I was still three miles from home, and walking wouldn't get me back there in time. So I took off my shoes and socks, and continued my run. It felt a bit awkward at first, but after twenty strides or so my feet started to figure out the proper technique. After half a mile, I was able to really start running, and boy it felt great! (I made it home in time without any problems, except for some pretty sore calves the next day.)

Because it was such a great, joyful experience (and I still didn't get new laces), I've continued my barefoot runs. Yesterday morning I ran 10 miles (6 miles brick sidewalk, 4 miles sandy forest path), without any problems whatsoever. You do have to watch out for broken glass trough, so when I go between dusk and dawn I put on my aqua socks. But otherwise, I've found my bare feet to be incredibly resilient and wear-proof. Also, I am running completely pain-free for the first time in years. It does require some changes to your stride, most importantly not landing on your heel. But not being constrained by rigid running shoes anymore, your body is able to figure out the rest as you go.

In a few weeks, I'll be running the half marathon in my city. The self-conscious part of me wants to wear shoes and avoid the questions and strange looks. (You will get those, anything from people shouting "Hey, you forgot to put on your shoes" to others nearly walking into trees and lamp posts while staring at your feet in amazement.) But the Dvorak-typing, trackball-using part of me just want to do what feels best, regardless of any social standard, and go barefoot: zero pain, maximum joy.

San

17 years agodiscuss

Here's an anagram-sorter. (I'm no Python ninja, but I quite liked my idea.)

  def sort(s):
    listt = list(s)
    listt.sort(cmp=lambda a,b: cmp( ord(b)%len(s) , ord(a)%len(s) ))
    print ''.join(listt),

  sort('Oh,well')
  sort('lord')

And this is the rather succinct Ruby version:

  def sort s
    print s.split(//).sort_by.with_index{|a,i|[-(a.ord%s.length),i]}.join
  end

  sort 'Oh,well'
  sort 'lord'

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