New Year’s Resolution: Gift Books (don’t lend them)
Posted by Michael Gaigg
I used to have a rule (you know, a rule helps you solving a problem in your life that you then never have to worry about anymore) that said: never lend a book, always gift it!
I don’t know why or when I stopped applying this rule but my thinking behind it is:
- You value the book but somebody else values it more at this time
- Lending it will consume your energy remembering who you lent it to end when
- The other person constantly feels bad for not returning the book to you up to a point when it becomes real guilt and shame
- The other person cannot really enjoy the book in fear of marking a page or paragraph or leaving coffee stains
So the solution is: Gift the book! In that way both parties feel good.
Free online book: Dive into HTML5
Posted by Michael Gaigg
Free online book: Dive into HTML5 by Mark Pilgrim.
The paper version is titled HTML5: Up and Running (O'Reilly, via Amazon).
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Five Things You Should Know About HTML5
- A Quite Biased History of HTML5
- Detecting HTML5 Features: It’s Elementary, My Dear Watson
- What Does It All Mean?
- Let’s Call It a Draw(ing Surface)
- Video in a Flash (Without That Other Thing)
- You Are Here (And So Is Everybody Else)
- A Place To Put Your Stuff
- Let’s Take This Offline
- A Form of Madness
- “Distributed,” “Extensibility,” And Other Fancy Words
- Manipulating History for Fun & Profit
- The All-In-One Almost-Alphabetical No-Bullshit Guide to Detecting Everything
- HTML5 Peeks, Pokes and Pointers
Free E-Book: GIS in the Cloud
Posted by Michael Gaigg
GIS in the Cloud
Matt Artz blogs about Esri's latest release by Victoria Kouyoumjian, Esri’s IT Strategies Architect: "GIS in the Cloud: The New Age of Cloud Computing and Geographic Information Systems".
Download: Download free e-book
Topics covered in the e-book include:
- What Is Cloud Computing?
- Cloud Service Models
- Cloud Benefits
- Public versus Private Cloud
- Risks in the Cloud
- ArcGIS and the Cloud
Go figure: What’s so funny here?
Posted by Michael Gaigg
I can't believe I own this book... and looking back it's really funny that I actually ever purchased it.
Go figure what made me laugh?
Learn Java Now
Web GIS: Principles and Applications [Paperback]
Posted by Michael Gaigg
Web GIS
I'm happy to introduce a new book which was co-authored by my colleague Pinde Fu: "Web GIS: Principles and Applications".
I'm really excited about this, not only because good GIS resources are scarce but also because he used screenshots of applications that I have designed over the past years, e.g. geodata.gov, GeoPortal Toolkit, Loma Linda Medical Center Response System, HydroViewer.
How much better can it get when your design ends up in a book?
Audience
While the content of the book is targeted at readers at all skill levels I can see it as a great teaching source as well as invaluable resource for managers and aspiring GIS developers to understand the principles of web applications.
Content
The content of the book is focused on the conceptual level (you won't find code samples) by trying to be systematic and as comprehensive as possible which I believe was done superbly. Nevertheless the authors do cover important new developments like geospatial Web services (REST), geobrowsers, cloud computing, geoportals, mashups, mobile GIS, Gov 2.0, geotagging, ArcGIS APIs for JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight.
Table of Contents
- GIS in the Web Era
- Technical Basics
- Geospatial Web Services
- Geospatial Mashups
- Mobile GIS
- Geoportals
- NSDI in the Web 2.0 Era
- Web GIS Applications in E-Business
- Web GIS Applications in E-Government
- Hot Topics and New Frontiers
Highlights of Week 44/2010
Posted by Michael Gaigg
- 25 Tools to Improve Your Website’s Usability (by bellefoong) - which is your favorite?
- Book Review — Map Scripting 101 (by James Fee) - exactly what the title says... book review.
- What We Look for in Founders (by Paul Graham) - Determination, Flexibility, Imagination, Naughtiness, Friendship
- SEO for Bing Versus Google (by John Pring) - Google hates Flash... and more!
- Designing Hyperlinks: Tips and Best Practices (by Jake Rocheleau) - the bread and butter of web design, always good to remember.
- Becoming a Better Web Designer (by Alexander Dawson) - this is an awesome resource of resources - reserve some time for reading.
- Announcing the Wijmo Beta! (by Chris Bannon) - Wijmo is an extension to jQuery UI and adds new widgets and features to your arsenal - sweet.
- HOW TO: Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Strategy (by Josh Peters) - Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action + Loyalty and Advocacy.
Highlights of Week 30/2010
Posted by Michael Gaigg
- How Web Designers Can Adopt a Global Mindset (by Christian Arno) - Cultural differences are shamelessly overlooked, depending on your audience that might be ok but you should know... read the article.
- User Interface Design Framework (by webalys) - a really nice set of flexible GUI elements, free icon library and a graphic style library.
- The Hackday Toolbox – getting you started faster (by Chris Heilmann) - wow, what a great set of resources to get you started with YQL for PHP and JavaScript.
- How to Navigate Design by Committee (by Andrew Follett) - Andrew outlines a feasible approach to steering design discussions into a successful direction.
- Accessiblity Forum 2.0 (by buyaccessible.net) - promising blog to follow if you are into accessibility.
- 10 Free Online Books for Web Designers (by Henry Jones) - add to your never ending supply of good stuff.
Highlights of Week 04/2010
Posted by Michael Gaigg
- Win 5 Copies of “Fluid Web Typography” (by WebdesignerDepot) - leave a comment with your favorite typography link for the chance to win a copy of Jason Cranford Teague's book (I hope this trackback counts as a comment
. - Finding the current location by IP and with the W3C Geo API (by Chris Heilmann) - nice writeup on how to read the IP in PHP and call the API with cURL.
- Web accessibility myths (by Ian Pouncey) - accessibility isn’t a target to aim for, it is a goal to aspire to.
- 13 video player UIs in 24 hours (by Jason F.) - form follows function, or not? What do you think about these media players?
- There are always more than two options (by Derek Sivers) - couldn't agree more. Counting choices means limiting yourself, like "all flights to Europe are too expensive therefore I cannot go to Europe" - how about taking a cruise?
- Resist the urge to punish everyone for one person's mistake (by Derek Sivers) - another great by Derek, on how to stay positive when your thinking is clouded.
Free book online: The Principles of Successful Freelancing
Posted by Michael Gaigg
I know this might be a little off-topic but nevertheless useful to many of us. The book 'The Principles of Successful Freelancing' of Miles Burke is available for free to download (only valid for the next 10 days starting today), so get it now!
Contents
- Considering Freelancing?
- Prepare for the Transition
- Manage Your Money
- Set Yourself Up
- Win the Work
- Give Great Service
- Achieve Work–Life Balance
- Where to from Here?
About the author
Miles Burke has been creating web sites since 1994. In 2002, Miles founded Bam Creative, an award-winning Western Australian web company. Miles serves as Chairperson of the Australian Web Industry Association, and has been awarded for his entrepreneurship in recent years; he’s a recipient of the Contribution to the Web Industry award in 2005, winner of the WA Business News’ 40under40 award in 2007, and appears in the 2008 edition of Who’s Who in Western Australia. Miles can also be found writing at Miles’ Blog.
Links for freelancers
- 85+ Tools & Resources for Freelancers and Web Workers by Sean P. Aune
- 7 Productivity Tips, Plus Tools for Freelancers and Web Workers by Elliott Kosmicki
Have more useful links? Post them in the comments section.
Free book online: Search User Interfaces
Posted by Michael Gaigg
Marti Hearst generously made her upcoming book "Search User Interfaces" available for reading online. She is definitely not a newcomer to the scene and the book for sure not a Best-Of compilation, moreover the book is written in an academic fashion that backs up its theses usability studies, log studies, or some other form of proof (like it!) - like Harry Brignull states: "Caution: actual thought may be required when reading this book."
Contents: Search User Interfaces
The book has two main parts: search fundamentals (Chapters 1-7) and advanced topics (Chapters 8-12).
0: Preface
1: Design of Search User Interfaces
2: Evaluation of Search User Interfaces
3: Models of the Information Seeking Process
4: Query Specification
5: Presentation of Search Results
6: Query Reformulation
7: Supporting the Search Process
8: Integrating Navigation with Search
9: Personalization in Search
10: Information Visualization for Search Interfaces
11: Information Visualization for Text Analysis
12: Emerging Trends in Search Interfaces
References
Index
About Me
I'm Michael Gaigg, Lead UI Engineer at Esri's Prof. Services.
I have over 8 years of experience in designing map interfaces and can't stop thinking about improving them.
Help me by sharing your thoughts, ideas and comments.
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