SOME RANDOM DUDE

It has been around a week since I wrote that this blog was going through a redesign. Unfortunately, until then, I was most likely be writing about the its progress. Still, I thought it may be interesting for some to read snippets of where it is in the process.

At this moment, wireframes are around 80% complete - which sounds good - however, because of the 80/20 rule, that means that I am still a long way off. I have tried to scatter my work around so as to diminish the potential for tunnel-vision on some aspects of the design, so I took some time to begin on some necessary icons. Up to this point, the vast majority of traffic to this site funnels through two icon sets I made a while back. Ironically, those sets took all but 2-3 hours to make whereas this set is taking much longer.

Here’s a preview of some icons:

(more…)bitcons, blog, icons, launch, personal project, redesign, sansons, small pieces, snippets, traffic tunnel vision

As I mentioned not too long ago, this site is in the process of being redesigned. I really did not go into any details about what to expect from the new site, so I wanted to drop a few ideas of what I am working on.

Here are a few things to you will be seeing from the new blog:

• There will be tiered content - large scale, medium scale, small scale and (possibly) micro scale.
• Each tier will be viewable separately or together.
• Publishing will be decentralized with content siphoned into this blog.
• Posts will be much more frequent because of the tiered, decentralized nature (and yes, I have been testing this to make sure it is the case).
• Daily blog statistics/metadata will (hopefully) play a larger roll in the general experience.
• Comment Love will play a larger roll and be more integrated into the blog.

I could get into the design and other details, but frankly that is not too important in the big scheme of things. The content is what really separates the mediocre blogs from the good ones. The way I see it, if I can make creating content excruciatingly easy, there is a much better chance that I will do it more often. Since I already do in fact “publish” a lot of content outside of this blog, I might as well take advantage of that.

But enough from me, the reason why I posted this is because I want to hear about any ideas you think would be great to see in the new SRD. Ultimately, I will only be able to do so much, but I am certainly still in the “open to new ideas” stage. I have been looking at other blogs to see how this site could improve, but at the end of the day I am only one person with limited knowledge. Please lend me your experience and thoughts. I have no doubt it will make the new blog better in the end.blogs, decentralized nature, love, micro scale, opinions, redesign, srd thoughts

This post will have been the 8th blog entry in two months. To put that into perspective, in the month of March 2007 this blog had 34 posts alone. Frankly, this is not surprising - updates have slowly trickled downward for the past 3 or 4 months now. There are a few reasons for this - which I can get into in a later post. However, it has been clear that the current model of how I have blogging up to this point on Some Random Dude is not sustainable, nor is it smart. The effort/reward ratio is just not high enough - and while I was willing and able to a year ago, I am no longer.

The thing that has gotten to me the most is the amount of manual labor it takes to publish frequently. I would post 3 or 4 times a week and the traffic would frankly not reflect what I think it should have. Make no mistake, I am not in the camp that believes traffic is the sole measure of success and value - however, it is important. About one year ago, I started setting goals for what I would like to achieve with this blog - goals that I concluded would only be possible with a relatively high frequency of postings. That notion then put me into the pattern of regular weekly posts which became more of a chore than it should have been. I do not think that there’s no coincidence between the fact that some of my most popular posts were written before I started posting weekly content. In retrospect, I sold-out quality for quantity and I am kicking myself now for that.
(more…)blog, blogging, cms, goals, redesign, some random dude traffic

I have been holding off posting this for a while for a few reasons, but considering how lack-luster the frequency of posts have been on this blog, I thought it may be a good thing to write about. While my blogging has gone down, I have found I have been publishing in short format much more frequently. My Twitter account is updated pretty frequently thanks to some good tools. I found that the short I-only-want-to-spend-10-to-15-seconds-to-post-something format is something I can handle even when I am busy as hell. Why? Because it is completely valid to write “Busy as hell” as a Twitter post.

This very reason is why I got interested in Tumblr. I feel as though Tumblr can be just like Twitter except with the additional media aspects. Luckily, Tumblr has a couple nice tools for posting as well. I find that Tumblr is the best balance of ease/speed and features that I have found up to this point. As free time diminishes, I see Tumblr (or a Tumblr-esque format) becoming a bigger part of my daily postings as time goes by.

Up to this point, my Tumblr is pretty low-brow and is all over the place in terms of content. Additionally, the site is still rockin’ the default style (which I hope to change soon). However, if you can forgive the above shortcomings, I think you may find it entertaining.

somerandomdude.tumblr.com

blog, blogging, free time, good tools, lack luster, low brow, postings, some random dude, tumbling, tumblr, tumbr twitter

I just got back from my vacation from Boston and it was a blast. I have a lot of energy that I would like to devote into writing as well as finishing up some projects which are 95% complete and just need a little extra love to get out the door. I (theoretically) will have more free time on my hands - so if I actually use that time well, I could get these projects out in the near future.

Vacations are always great to pull your head out of the fog and look at what is going on around you with a bit more clarity. With some of that free time, I put a lot of thought into what I have been up to for the past couple years and what I want to be up to in the next couple years to come. I have realized that a lot of changes probably should occur. I have a fairly strong feeling that I will be spending less of my free time working in Processing and Flash and more so in Django, jQuery and AIR.

Lastly, I am deeply interested in finding some folks interested in general collaboration. I have worked in a very solitary manner for the past 3 or 4 years now and I think the benefits which I felt it has brought me no longer apply. While I am interested in spending more time in the technologies I mentioned above, I am just eager to work together with some smart folks on some good ideas. Drop me a line if you’re interested.

air, boston, clarity, collaboration, django, flash, flex, fog, jquery, smart folks, strong feeling time on my hands