website tools
Transparent App Development – the Panic Board
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | API, Business, Mashup, Project Management, Tools, Tracking, Utilities, WebApps, computer graphics, visual effects | No Comments
While there are probably a good number of apps that I use on a daily basis, there are only a few dvelopement companies behind these tools that I actually have a strong admiration/nerd-crush for. One of these companies is Panic, creator of my all-time favorite FTP client and Web Development tools Transmit & Coda. On their blog they typically show-off upcoming features, status updates on various projects and just all-around random shit that they find interesting online. Trust me, while it’s definitely a company blog they’ve got a loyal following thanks to the interesting posts that pepper the typical product/marketing dev. updates. This is a prime example. They just posted a pic/feature-list on a new project that they’ve been working on that’s an easy-to-digest project status-board, or as they’ve called it “the panic board.” Primarily using AJAX this status board will give any team member privy to their internal network a one-screen update on where in the development cycles any number of projects might be in. Not only that but according to the blog it also incorporates streaming twitter updates, email announcements, the company calendar and even the local Tri-Met Bus Arrival calendar for employees who rely on the bus to get to and from work (hey, they’ve got an API, why not use it?!). The blog post then goes on to make any data nerd squeal with the admission that they’re using a 46″ Samsung LCD Video Wall Display to keep the team within eyeshot of the status board. Very cool.
Now by no means is this the first or even one of the first examples of global ‘status board’ type pages that have been setup for both internal and external use. One of my favorite examples of a public project status page is the one featured on the right in the header image, found over on the Culture Code company website. These are the guys behind the OSX & iPhone to-do application called “Things.” They’ve created a project status page in the form of an airport arrival/departure screen. What’s cool about this is as the user you’re able to see not only the status on various product updates, but also see who in the company is working on that particular issue and when they last updated the sheet.
Other notable one-page project update tools is one recently put in place by the Boulder office of ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, shown below.
It’s a quick way of seeing how far along any given project is in the office, sorting by account, due date, job-type, Creative Director or Producer assigned to the piece. It’s also got a status bar so if you’re across the room you can see at a glance whether or not something has already started (or is about to be finished). They apparently have this sucker projected on the main wall in the inner-depths of the office. Having been forced to deal with so many archiac ways of managing projects at advertising agencies, this is definitely a step in the right direction (if you’re a project manager/producer/in the traffic dept.). I’m sure the creatives will hate this visual reminder of what work they haven’t done yet….so bonus points are awarded there. What it needs though is some color, maybe even little avatars/graphics to help people find specific types of projects without having to scan the entire board…just a thought.
your.FlowingData – Collect Data About Yourself With Twitter
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 | Marketing, Research, Tools, Twitter, WebApps, analytics | No Comments
Now you can track all your twitter movements automatically with the latest FREE research tool just released by FlowingData. Appropriately named your.flowingdata, it’s only a quick 2 minute setup and then the webapp will start collecting all of your twitter data for you to later explore with built-in tools that resemble IBM’s Many Eyes dashboard. As with any behavioral analysis tool, the more data you have the better the results will be so I can easily see this tool being widely used by researchers and interactive planners alike for a seriously long time (I wonder if they have any personal database limitations that would prevent one infinite 365 day data-stream?). Worried about exposing your private twitter habits? Have no fear my friend, all the data collected is automatically set to ‘private.’ If at a later date you’d like to release it to the masses then that’ll be up to you, but for all you tin-foil hat wearing twitter users – you’re secrets are still safe.
Here are some screen shots showing a sampling of the reports that are built-in to the dashboard, they look amazing!
Recent Finds – NinjaFollow, The Fish Puzzle, Ajax Effects + More
Sunday, December 7th, 2008 | Hack, Open Source, Tools, Twitter, Utilities, Yahoo, photo-manipulation | No Comments
NinjaFollow
Need to unfollow or follow Twitter users in bulk? This website is for you. Quick and easy tool that utilizes Twitter’s API to mass-follow/unfollow
Coudal – The Fish Puzzle
Have some time to waste? Good, you’ll need it!
20 Ajax Effects You Need To Learn
Tutorials and source code, just how I like it.
Smush.it Image Optimizer
Quick and easy website that will optimize your images for viewing on the web. It’s an open-source project run by one of the members of Yahoo!’s “Exceptional Performance Team” – The same group that put out their YSlow Firefox application!
Enjoy!
Domain, IP, and Hosting Tools – Find Out If Your Webhost Is Just A Reseller
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 | Site Information, Tools, Utilities, tests | No Comments
Here’s a collection of tools that come in handy when researching domains, hosting providers, or even just checking up on the rank of your own website:
Who Is Hosting This? -
Find out who is hosting your hosting provider! It’s a great tool to see if you’re getting ripped off by going through a re-seller. Why use a middle-man when you can go straight to the source?
MyIPNeighbors.com – Find out what other domains are hosted on your IP. Perfect for seeing who else is on the same shared-hosting server that your account uses.
BustaName.com – Fast domain searching, including the ability to check a bulk list of domains to see what is available!
Popuri.us – A great tool that with one click can tell you the link popularity of any domain based on its ranking (Google Page Rank, Technorati, Alexa, etc..)
BuiltWith.com – Website and SEO analysis. Find out what technology/software a website is using, even what type of server and advertising programs it has in place!
Find out who your neighbors are! You can use the above tools for a variety of purposes, including checking up on your competition as well as making sure your webhost isn’t just a re-seller. Instead go to the source for cheaper rates!
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