Web Worker Daily

Clearing The Cache - Going Online Edition Posted: 29 Aug 2008 03:00 PM CDT Like many of us, I spend quite a lot of time on the web and come across a staggering number of interesting things. In Clearing The Cache I choose a theme, pull out some of my favorites and share them with you here. Mozilla Labs shakes things up by Introducing Ubiquity Om to Comcast: Show Us The Meter The Vista Team gives us A Comprehensive Look at Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Still using Firefox 2? Expect a nudge to upgrade Share/Send

Mouse vs. Keyboard: The Great Divide Posted: 29 Aug 2008 01:00 PM CDT OK, so you work on the web. That’s a given. But what are you doing when you work on the web? Most likely, interacting with some application on your computer. Now drill down one more level: are you using the mouse (or other pointing device) or the keyboard for most of that interaction? There’s the question that has the potential to bring users to blows. I was reminded of this debate by a blog entry from Hank Williams, who was reacting to the recent launch of Ubiquity (which our sister blog OStatic covered). Ubiquity provides a very keyboard-oriented interface, though it includes some mouse affordances as well. After pointing out that keyboardists and mousers are different, he goes on to admit Now don't get me wrong, I am a fairly fast typist. But my problem is I can't remember commands. Putting a keyboard command in my head is like putting sand in a sieve. The reason I love graphical interfaces is because I can't remember shit. I find this interesting on several fronts. First, as anyone who was using computers in the 1980s can tell you, working with a mouse is not an inborn skill. I can remember agonizing hours in beginning computer classes, teaching people how to point, click, and manage the feedback loop between their hand and the screen. Yet despite that, the overwhelming majority of computer users today are comfortable with a mouse - and from observing quite a few people, I’d suggest that the mouse ends up feeling like the more natural user interface for many. The other thing that amazes me is the amount of sheer invective that Williams got in his comments. Apparently, at least in some developer circles, being a mouser makes one a target of derision. I’m in the same boat here: I use a few keyboard shortcuts in my most frequent applications, but by and large I’m a mouser. This hasn’t hampered my ability to write software, but perhaps I should stop admitting this in public. As a web worker, the obvious question is which is better for productivity: mouse dependency or heavy keyboard usage? Unfortunately, the research on this is far from definitive. There’s an Ask Tog article that gets bandied about, purporting to show that mousing is faster than keyboarding. But this article is from 1989, from an Apple advocate, at a time when Apple was trying mightily to make the case for the mouse - so it’s at best suspect. Others have argued just as strenuously that keyboards are big time-savers. Ultimately, of course, what matters is what makes you more productive, not what works for the mythical average computer user. Very few (if any) people are exclusive mousers or exclusive keyboardists. In today’s world of switching between multiple complex applications, I suspect most of us have found our own level of learning a few important keyboard commands that really help us, and rely on the mouse for the rest. How about you? Where do you come down on this debate? Share/Send

Becoming a Stronger Web Working Couple Posted: 29 Aug 2008 11:00 AM CDT As if working with others wasn’t hard enough, working with your spouse sometimes proves to be harder. You live together, work together, and do almost everything else together - it’s the perfect recipe for a heated argument. Is there a way to live and work together without letting your relationship, and your careers, come crashing down? Before you start building expectations of your partner, yourself, and your relationship, it’s important to focus on what you know about each other first. Sometimes, men expect to perform the more technical tasks, but what if the wife is better at fixing or installing new hardware? Conversely, some women might assume that they’ll take on more nurturing roles, but what if it’s the husband who’s good at helping irate clients to calm down? What will make things work is not how you fit yourself into certain cookie-cutter roles or preconceived notions of what you should do, but how you both create roles that you actually can do. These roles will accommodate your respective skills and interests, rather than forcing you to take on tasks that you’re not comfortable with. Business and money. Although competition can be healthy, it might prove to be destructive to compete with your partner. It might be especially tough if you’re working in the same field or niche, yet you keep separate businesses. After all, how do you reconcile that you’re a team at the end of the day if you spend your work hours competing with each other? What usually helps is to each have side projects which are completely different, or to work together occassionally. This way, you’re not directly competing all the time. If you work under the same business name, it’s important that you manage separate aspects of the business. For example, my partner does the accounting, as well as research on possible ventures we might be interested in. I, on the other hand, handle client communications and most of the marketing. This kind of job distribution allows us to work in the same business without interfering in each other’s work. Money is said to be the number one reason why couples argue. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t risk talking about money. In fact, honesty and openness is especially important for couples who own a business together. Establishing some money rules to begin with will allow you to discuss your business finances more objectively. Defining boundaries. Discussing boundaries should be done as early as possible, especially if you’ll be working as a team for some projects. Without discussing boundaries, it’s much easier to get into a fight. What you intended as a kind suggestion could easily be perceived by your partner as scrutiny or micro-managing. The first step in defining your boundaries is to each have a dedicated workspace. This ensures that you both get privacy, as well as the freedom to do what you want with your work hours. Having separate spaces will allow you both to work without having to deal with your different working habits. In a previous article here at WWD, Pamela Poole talked about respect for ‘The Bubble’ - that mental zone you’re in when you’re completely immersed in your work. My partner and I know from experience that it can be annoying when we’re interrupted while we’re in ‘the bubble’. To prevent this from happening, it helps to actively look for visual cues to see if your partner is open to interruptions or not. A shut door might be a good enough sign, or it could be something more subtle like the focused look on your partner’s face, or their typing speed. Making the relationship and the business grow. It’s also important to make the time and effort for your relationship without all the business. If you’re mostly discussing invoices and cold calls, the business might be growing but your relationship risks being stagnant. You should be a couple first, and business partners second. Acknowledging this will give both of you the feeling of security knowing that if the business fails, your relationship still lives. Do you and your partner telework together? What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so? Share/Send

Signs of Life at Jaiku: Does it Matter? Posted: 29 Aug 2008 10:00 AM CDT Microblogging service Jaiku is suddenly showing signs of life again - for the first time since its acquisition by Google back in January. After a few days offline, they returned with a blog entry and a couple of announcements: Jaiku is now running in one of Google’s data centers (though apparently the long-promised port to App Engine is not yet done), and they’ve opened up invitations. Though there’s still no open signup, any Jaiku member can invite an unlimited number of new members. But the question has to be asked: does it matter? If Jaiku had managed to reopen with fanfare a month or two back, when Twitter was having severe uptime problems, it might have stolen the microblogging spotlight. Now, though, with Twitter humming along smoothly, it seems destined to be just another also-ran. While I won’t rule out the possibility of exciting innovations (or the traffic boost that could come from things like integration with existing Google accounts), it remains true that the leading service is the one where conversations are already taking place. Share/Send

3 Top Open Source CRM Solutions Posted: 28 Aug 2008 06:00 PM CDT If you and web workers you collaborate with have been considering using customer relationship management (CRM) software, it makes sense to look not just at proprietary solutionis such as Salesforce.com, but at open source solutions. Open source CRM solutions are now very competitive with proprietary alternatives. Over on the OStatic blog, we just rounded up some good tools to consider. If you’re unfamiliar with SugarCRM, it’s considered by many people to be the best open source CRM product. In fact, it was recently named best open source CRM technology by CRM Magazine. SugarCRM supports sales force automation, marketing campaigns, support cases, project management, calendaring and more. It also works with both MySQL and SQLServer. Concursive’s ConcourseSuite 5.0 is offering free CRM for up to 100 users as a promotion at the moment. You can find a case study on the suite’s capabilities midway down the page here. Finally, I’ve written about SplendidCRM before.  It’s hosted on the web and based on both SugarCRM and Microsoft’s .Net framework. I particularly like its charting features, which you can annotate in many ways. For more on these CRM solutions, check the OStatic story.  If you’re leaning toward trying SugarCRM, this TWiT podcast also has some good input on it, and the online demos are worth watching. Share/Send

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