Late August is still the height of sizzle season here in Texas. It’s been a good time to get outside and enjoy a river or stay indoors and write code. I found time to do both. Metickulous saw many changes this month:
- Added 41 new resources, and zapped a few outdated links, for a total of 90.
- Gave credit to most of the resource links rather than just a URL.
- Combined several redundant tasks into one.
- Overhauled the color using the Jackrabbits Ran Wild color scheme.
- Added the ability to add and edit custom tasks in a checklist.
- Added the ability to remove tasks from a checklist per project.
- Changed the checklists to opt-in rather than opt-out when creating a new project.
- Tweaked the text formatting and layout.
- Zapped assorted code bugs.
While minor refinements will continue in September, the next round of big changes is already in progress. What’s next?
August 23 |
code, design, progress, seasonal | Comments Off
I’m delighted by the recent attention that this site has gained. Even as I refine the workflow, tasks and resources, Metickulous gains about one new member per week. But signing up doesn’t mean satisfied users, and fewer than half of the new projects see repeat visits.
So I ask you, members and passersby, what is (or was) your experience with Metickulous like? Which parts of this service are the most (or least) useful? What would make it more beneficial?
August 8 |
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Trouble began with Google and ended with a shuffle.
In the process of moving a site from Dreamweaver to WordPress, I moved many pages to new URLs. What was http://sitename/About/index.html became http://sitename/about. It made semantic sense, but caused a problem for anyone who linked to the old pages. This site had more than 400 inbound links, and my changes meant those links produced a “page not found” error.
The solutions, as I can hear developers shouting, are htaccess redirects.
Apache web servers look to files named .htaccess for instructions what to do with browser requests. Among other things, instructions in .htaccess determine which files they can or can’t reveal, how to interpret dynamic URLs and where to send browsers that request files that don’t exist.
That last task kept me occupied for half an hour as I listed where the old site’s content had moved to. For example:
redirect 301 /About_this_site http://sitename/about
The code above says “If someone asks for http://sitename/About_this_site,” send them to “http://sitename/about.” The 301 code means “by the way, this move is permanent. Update your records.”
After listing the pages, I searched the web with Google for the links to make sure it worked. The first two worked. The next two didn’t.
- http://sitename/about went to sitename/program, just as it should.
- http://sitename/about/index.html tried to find sitename/program/index.html, then gave a “page not found” error.
- http://sitename/About (uppercase A) gave a “page not found” error.
- http://sitename/About/index.html (uppercase A) gave a “page not found” error.
The problems looked easy enough to solve. I added redirects to handle index.html and About, and tried again.
redirect 301 /about http://sitename/program
redirect 301 /About http://sitename/program
redirect 301 /about/index.html http://sitename/program
redirect 301 /About/index.html http://sitename/program
All of these redirects should have sent me to http://sitename/program. But they didn’t. After a few minutes’ tinkering I had a hypothesis: Since neither instruction with “index.html” worked, but similar redirects had worked before, then the redirects _might_ be order-sensitive. I moved them around and tried again.
redirect 301 /about/index.html http://sitename/program
redirect 301 /About/index.html http://sitename/program
redirect 301 /about http://sitename/program
redirect 301 /About http://sitename/program
Sure enough, it worked.
The morals of the story: Keep specific URLs higher in htaccess redirect lists, Google isn’t always right, and test with real data.
What’s next?
July 18 |
code, server, url | Comments Off
The concept of a project checklist is not new. I suspect that checklists were invented around the same time people learned to procrastinate. Although the web is relatively new, having the same details to attend time after time is not.
Many website checklist services exist. Some boast slicker graphics, more functional JavaScripts or other bells and whistles than you’ll find here. Yesterday I saw one that rewards users with points for completing chores.
But for those of us who do not produce websites daily, recalling why and how of each bullet item may be as much a task as the task itself.
As Metickulous evolves, I find it a reference as much as a to-do list. Tasks serve three purposes: First, to recall who did what; second, to allow for notes. The third goal was an accident. Out of habit, I included a “notes” field in the database. At first notes were short phrases or reminders, but the more I return to Metickulous for my own work, the more handy full notes are.
This week I’ve added more than thirty new notes and links to twenty services and resource to the Metickulous checklists. More will come with future tasks and checklists. As always, I’m open for suggestions.
What’s next?
July 12 |
content, external, progress | Comments Off
A few changes:
- The project browser’s status bars only report projects that have been signed off, not just commented upon.
- Worked around a bug in the footer that prevented links from displaying correctly.
- Added next/back links on the checklist page.
- Fixed a bug in the checklist navigation.
June 30 |
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So I keep running into a problem where my daily list doesn’t fit my day. Sometimes I just can’t be bothered to keep updates. Other times I do something that can’t be shoehorned into my fixed categories. If OO3 supported tags… but it doesn’t, so either I need a new app (not likely!) or the list has to change.
I’ve modified my working to-done list with a new category and a new timeline. First, a new “contributions” tag answers my question about how to best use Twitter. It’s simple. Not a link to something I read or a retweet, but something that I’ve created and want to share. It’s a gift.
Second, in addition to done-today I’ll have done-this-week tasks. Contributions may fall under that, since I don’t create a tweet-worthy image, post or PDF every day. Ditto maintenance. One benefit of not having much *stuff* is not having much to clean, tune or otherwise look after.
At this rate, though, I’ll need a done-this-month set with a standing task: Tinker with to-done list.
June 20 |
experiment, workflow | Comments Off
In the beginning of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, 13 visitors invade the protagonist’s home. If they had all barged in at once, he might have rejected them. But they arrived one or two at a time. In small doses, the large problem was easy to accept.
As part of a website process, I started keeping track of both the accomplishments and the setbacks. The accomplishments included finalizing the home page text, debugging some PHP and running spell check. Some setbacks were so subtle that I almost missed them. But they happened, and the launch date slipped past.
My list showed that distractions were the chief problem. No single task was too difficult, but more important (or more interesting) things interfered. Call them anti-tasks: events or tasks that work against the final goal. They’re small, lasting a minute to half an hour. Phone calls were made, emails were answered, ideas about other work sprung to mind. Have you seen this video? That article sounds interesting.
Personally, it takes about 30 minutes to “get into” a job—half an hour to find the mindset, or change gears and become involved in the work at hand. Any distraction during that time is hard to avoid. But anti-tasks that occur after 30 minutes are easier to put off. Maybe that’s why I can do so much work after 1 a.m. and especially if I started working at midnight. Lao Tzu advises:
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts;
avoid Twitter and email
and music with lyrics.
Well, my translation isn’t perfect. But that’s the idea. Now, what was I doing?
June 16 |
progress, workflow | Comments Off
Ever wonder why you’re doing what you’re doing? Seems to be a recurring theme. Answers, not so much.
June 3 |
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My daily task list is failing me. Or rather, I’m failing to use it—a checklist is just a tool, and tools don’t do work. I’m at fault if certain jobs go untended, procrastinating stuff I know I should do. But it’s getting worse. Last week I barely launched my to-do app at all.
So this month I’m trying something new. Instead of having tasks to complete, I have a daily list of categories to fill with tasks. Twice a day I compare each category to what I’ve done so far. A well-rounded day has at least one complete task per category.
The original concept had 15 categories; the second draft had four. Today I’m up to:
- Chores & maintenance
- Business projects
- My projects
- Friends & family
- Creative
- Health
They’re not finalized. They’re not in order. They’re not even all nouns. But they roughly sum up what might be a “balanced” day for me. Ben Franklin had a similar goal. His daily list didn’t mention specific tasks, but was a framework for getting things done. (He also didn’t use OmniOutliner. But I’ve never built an odometer, so we’re even.)
So far, so good. Instead of putting off a task for “write Metickulous blog post,” “clean the bathtub” or “finish HTML for Project World Overlord,” I have questions: “How have I exercised today? What have I done for a friend or family? Have I done something creative yet?” Instead of crossing items off the list, I add items to the list. It’s backwards, but it works.
Of course, I still have specific tasks with deadlines to do. One of them is to review this system after two weeks. If all goes well, I should have at least one task accomplished in each category for 14 days. If not, I’ll invent something else.
What’s next?
May 30 |
experiment, workflow | Comments Off
John Pozadzides on “how I’d hack your weak passwords.”
So, how would one use this process to actually breach your personal security? Simple. Follow my logic: You probably use the same password for lots of stuff right?… How do I know which bank you use and what your login ID is for the sites you frequent? All those cookies are simply stored, unencrypted and nicely named, in your web browser’s cache.
Interesting how a six-character password would take just over a week to crack, but an eight-character password would take more than two centuries.
What’s next?
May 27 |
advice, external, hacking | Comments Off
