Kim Heintz

I come across various content and trying to keep track of what I find and being able to search/filter/find them again has been an interesting experience.  I’ve been using a combination of Delicious, Zootool, Zotero, Tumblog, and WordPress to keep track of them.  Each of these app started with a different intention and has involved into something else.  It is now to the point where my bookmarks are spread across various apps and is getting hard to manage and navigate.  The various apps that I have been using has pros and cons after using them I’ve managed to come across a list of things that I wish a bookmarking app would have.

Things I wish a bookmarking app would have:

1. Easy to search and filter.
2. Easy to organize.  A drag and drop feature would make life easier.  Something along the lines of iTunes or iPhoto where you have a library and you can create folders/albums.  Tagging is not necessary
3. Visual representation – image snapshot of the website is wonderful and makes it easier to remember what it is you are looking for.
4. Aesthetically pleasing to the eye and simple.
5. Easy to bookmark.
6. Snapshot of the entire page or selection .  Things disappear on the internet quite easily.  A year from now that post I bookmarked will be gone.
7. Meta data – information of when I added, last accessed,  if the website is still active, and let me know if the link still works!

Honestly, it would look something like this….(part 2 coming up…)

I saw this wallpaper on the website: Good Fucking Design Advice. It now displays on my work laptop.  In the past, I thought I commented well, but now, I realize that there is room improvement.  So here is my guide/mentality that I follow when commenting.

The Rules:

1. Comment readability – if there are methods/classes that work together, make it easy to identify it.  For example, if there are 3 methods that work together for a component, it would look like this:

/** Alert Popup - this function will do something */
/** Alert Popup - this function will do calculation something */
/** Alert Popup - this function will do clean up stuff and is used with this and that */


2. Comment like you are going to die the next day!  If something should happen to you, and someone had to pick off where you left off, will they be able to?
3. Would you be able to understand your own code (or even remember what you did) a year or two years from now? No? Then add more comments.
4. If you are working on a complicated piece of code (ex. lots of complicated logic), write down your thoughts as you code.   If you have pseudocode, leave it!  Here is an example:

protected function somethingComplex():void
{
// 1) Need to check to see if the value is not null
.....
// 2) Loop and cross reference this variable with that function
.....
// 3) If by chance something should fail or error, then do this.
}

As always remember, commenting is another terms for notes!

I wasn’t always a geek/computer savvy.  I didn’t turn into a computer savvy geekette till 2005!  I am fortunate enough to remember a world without Google, Facebook, and YouTube.

I love technology for the sole fact that it makes certain things easier for us.

I hate technology for the fact that we rely on it so much.

Remember the blackout that happened many years ago?  There was no electricity for hours!  Can you imagine if it were to happen now?

Journalism in the Age of Data.

A co-worker pointed out to me that Gmail has no sort.  I never realized.  (Maybe that’s why my inbox is always full?)  As I thought about it more and Google search itself, it got me thinking about how we sift through information.  Google has changed the way we look for things on the Internet and has in a way defined how we search for it. Unfortunately, not everyone searches and filters the Google way.

Think about it.

When you Google, you enter a phrase and are then displayed tons of listings.  You can then filter, however the options are filtered by Google.

Maybe that’s not enough, maybe you need something Advanced, like this:

But that looks scary to me, and I’m tech savvy! I can only imagine what my parents would think if they saw that page.   As each day passes, there is more information and currently how we search especially on Google isn’t going to cut it.  To efficiently navigate through the information, we must be able to search, filter, and sort.  In my opinion, these three are essential.  So why did Google limit sorting?  And I am talking sorting beyond date or alphabetical.

We are all different.  How we organize things is different.  So why can’t we customize our own way of searching, filtering, and sorting?