Marco Barbosa

Powered by a Macbook Air

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:05:00 -0400

Finally got a Macbook Air!

This hardware is a piece of beauty.

Do you also get this feeling that we could be a little bit further ahead in terms of technology?

Well, go check a Macbook Air.

It’s one of those gadgets that reminds you that we actually are in 2011.

Hardware aside I must say I’m also quite pleased with Lion.

First I was a bit reluctant that I would have to follow the way it’s supposed to be (like with iOS).

However, being able to set global shortcuts and giving Alfred a try instantly met all my expectations (I come from Linux).

The only think I miss is to be able to send a window to a specific desktop from the keyboard (do you happen to know how?).

But that is not important. And hey, I get the chance to call Missing Control by swiping 4 fingers down because I want to organize windows around.

Man, these gestures are so-damn-cool.

Oh and the Lion scrolling makes total sense to me. I find myself using the touchpad more and more just because of it (even when it’s on my left hand and I’m right handed) It’s just irresistible! So intuitive.

Apps that impressed me so far:

Alfred. Absolutely-must-have. Dock is pretty useless to me.
Sparrow. Very very nice email client. Love the UI and Gmail integration.
Reeder looks very nice. Not sure if I’d use it though after the Google Reader UI revamp.
Twitter and Evernote. I always wanted to use these native apps and now I finally can :)
Github. I was looking for a good (and free?) Git App and this might be the one. When I use Git is probably with Github anyway.
Kuvva. Because I like nice wallpapers.
CloudApp. Useful for sharing things.

The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our...

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 14:28:15 -0400

The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.

Ace Combat - Cinematic Trailer

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:50:23 -0400

Ace Combat - Cinematic Trailer

Hey man,
nice blog...which template are you using?

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:05:24 -0400

Hi!

The name is Effector. The best free tumblr theme you will find!

http://www.tumblr.com/theme/17403

"Give up on the guesswork. Decide what you’re going to do this week, not this year. Figure out..."

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:21:41 -0400

“Give up on the guesswork. Decide what you’re going to do this week, not this year. Figure out the next important thing and do that.”

- Rework

Gotta love Dropbox :) I came up with a plan to be able to work from anywhere without depending on...

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 06:56:00 -0400

Gotta love Dropbox :)

I came up with a plan to be able to work from anywhere without depending on my laptop. Pretty Dropbox standard, but with a minimalism in the mix.

The inspiration was this Google Chrome app called “Sourcekit”.
It’s a “textmate” like editor that allows you to code from your Chrome browser by saving the files in your Dropbox account.

So that’s my start point. I can code without having my laptop. Just open a Chrome Browser in another computer or in a cyber café and I have all my work there available instantly.

No Chrome browser around? Then I could grab any device that has a Dropbox app: Ipad, Android, Iphone…these should also have a code editor app.

And that gives you many possibilities.

That idea that you may get while in the shower, that bug fixing you thought about while listening to music..You ought to be prepared!

You could code with an Ipad while sitting in a train, for example.

But wait, how about testing? I want to see the changes I made in the browser. And I don’t want FTP, I want instant gratification.

Just install Dropbox in your VPS as well! And it’s pretty easy.

Then you just symlink your files to your http server.

So here’s the plan:

Mount bind your source files into your Dropbox folder, making a “mirror” of it. Careful! this is not like symlinking. Deleting something on one folder will also delete in the other.

mount —bind <source> <your Dropbox folder>

To make it mount for you every time you boot, you should add this in your fstab:

<source> <your Dropbox folder> none bind

Install Dropbox on your VPS and symlink your Dropbox files to your httpdocs folder (or whatever folder that is):

ln -s <dropbox folder> <your httpdocs folder>

To finish, just make sure you have Dropbox installed in your other devices (ipad, smartphone, etc) and install SourceKit in any Google Chrome browser you have around.

So now I’m at home using my girlfriend’s laptop to write something I thought about, I code from Google Chrome and save it. It updates in the VPS instantly and it will update in my laptop. Just waiting for me in the next day.

No extra programs or computers required. Totally independent.

Note that any time you save in your browser/device, it will update instantly in your server and that’s what I want, because I’m just developing something that is not in production. If you don’t want that to happen, and you want it to update in your VPS only after you’re “done” with something, just add git to the mix! So instead of mount binding you could use git clone for example. Then something like “git push dropbox master” would push it to your Dropbox and eventually update in the VPS.

“But hey, you can already select the folder you want to sync with Dropbox, so what’s the point of this again?”

Because:

I want to keep my folder structure. I don’t want everything under the “Dropbox” folder. That gives me flexibility to organize the way I want and just tell “Dropbox” what should be in the cloud.
I don’t have a desktop computer. And I don’t have plans on buying one, it’s pretty useless to me.
I don’t like to depend on my laptop. I actually leave my laptop at work on Mondays and bring it back home only on Fridays.
That’s so I don’t have to carry it around all the time and so I stay away from the screen a little on the evenings.
With SourceKit I can get a good editor to let me code from anywhere (if I can find a Chrome browser).
I want it to sync with my VPS as well. Automatically. And with git goodness.

Want to push this even further?

How about git bare repositories hosted in a Dropbox folder, shared with your team for a ridiculously easy collaboration? Also doable. And there’s even a little script that fixes that for you.

Hopefully this will be useful to you to!

Right, almost forgot the basic disclaimer: if you mess up with your computer, it’s not my fault! It can’t be, how could I? So be careful! :)

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates...

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:18:17 -0500

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us (via theRSAorg)

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:22:00 -0500

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Official Trailer

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 07:06:50 -0500

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Official Trailer

Photo

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:15:00 -0500

The story behind Minima

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:06:00 -0500

I want to share a story behind a passionate work.

It started with an idea that has been building up for months.

Seeing this great CMS (Joomla! doh!) with this weak interface made me die a little inside every time I’d have to use it.

It was imminent. I had to do something about it.

On one hand, your growing passion for the User Experience subject.

On the other hand, a CMS you love to work with but that delivers a weak User Experience.

Excellent!

The eXperiment.

It needed a goal, not just nice features.

Making it minimal was easy - I personally love simplicity.

But the thing is that the experiments were working better than I thought.

Joomla’s back-end was getting sleek and easier.

The positive energy.

So I mailed a few people I’d trust to give me their first opinion.

I would try not to mention much about it - I wanted their first reaction. (Thanks Amy and Jeremy!)

I still remember Amy’s email ending paragraph:

(…) But In my opinion, I think you are nailing it!

Then I posted on the Google groups. Is it really good? Should I go on with this?

Since I’m doing this alone and in my “spare” time (<- insert late nights of sleep here) I needed the feedback more than ever.

The little (big) push.

My idea was to release an “alpha” version of Minima as soon as possible. But I got some work ($) and other things to fix so it was not possible.

On top of that Joomla! 1.6, was (very) uncertain with it’s release (with updates that were breaking Minima all the time..).

Align that with my weak time management skills then and you get Minima almost halted for nearly two months.

The little (big) push that I needed happened in J and Beyond 2010.

My Swedish friends were pushing me to do a lightning talk. But to talk about what? That I’m Brazilian and that I love soccer?

If I’m presenting something it has to be interesting.

Plus, the best of the best in the Joomla! sphere was sitting right there.

All together. Staring at you. After having drunk a few beers.

You know when this nervous-ism shows up inside you, for no reason (hey I’m not that shy) and it grows more and more because of some totally unreal thoughts in your head?

It gets worse with time until you nearly freeze - so you better cut it out as soon as possible.

They wouldn’t (kindly) stop pushing me to go up there and I was nearly freezing on the chair then.

Me: But I don’t know..<blablabla>

Martin Blodau: <calls Robert>

Martin Blodau: Robert, I was wondering if he can use the projector to show something?

Robert Deutz: Sure sure.

Me: Ok, I’ll be next then <freezing nervous>.

Me: <gives Martin a “thanks you bastard” look :)>

So I walk towards the projector feeling these interrogative looks around me. Skepticism of what the heck I was going to show since I had a laptop under my arm.

Silence got even deeper with a blurry projector. They can clearly see that I’m nervous.

After a familiar Administrator login screen pops up on the projector, I can hear some buzz of relief.

Direct to the point I start saying who I am and what I’m up to.

I mentioned UX and this new experiment I was doing.

And that’s when everything suddenly changed.

I’d be one of the guys with the arms up on the back

Having asked for feedback, hands wouldn’t stop raising.

Comments, questions, compliments. Madness! It was so cool!

A small pink elephant was flying on the back of the room. Or so it was in my head.

Hearing that nice applause afterwards just makes you be somewhere else.

When I sat down I was high (literally).

I looked to Martin and he was smiling. His “mission accomplished” smile.

Sarah was happy and impressed.

Henrik was speaking/cursing in Swedish probably more excited than I was (and I still don’t know what he said - but it was in a positive way for sure!).

Looks like I just started a small Usability movement. Oops :)

Maybe if you were there you didn’t notice all this. But from a point of view from somebody who was nervous it was REALLY cool :D

Moving forward.

Having absorbed all that positive energy I had a lot to do.

Long story short, here’s Minima today. With delays of course, but better than ever. And I’m just getting started!

By no means I think Minima is the best solution or near perfection.

And I can’t nor want do everything alone.

So I invite YOU to help me build one of the best, free, open source back-end you can find.

There’s still work to do and every single feedback or help I receive is highly appreciated.

Conclusion

The text above is just a little history behind the Minima release and hopefully will also give you some inspiration if you have something nice going on.

Maybe what you’re working on is much bigger than you think.

And so I suggest you to use the community to give you some reality checks.

Now it’s 2011 - Minima is out, Molajo is next and this year is just getting started.

RARE pic! Taken by Fotis Evangelou

(Oh and thank you Martin, Henrik and Sarah!)

Good fucking design advice.

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 06:09:59 -0500

Good fucking design advice.

Minima beta released!

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:32:00 -0500

It’s with great pleasure that I can (finally) announce the immediate availability of Minima beta to download.

Minima is an Joomla! 1.6 administrator template that aims to give you a minimal and sleek administrator interface.

Give it a try!

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:51:36 -0500

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

- Sun Tzu

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:19:00 -0500

Spread the love for UX design!

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:00:07 -0500

Spread the love for UX design!

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:30:00 -0500

Started playing this horror game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent and it happens to be the scariest game I’ve ever played.

The game is totally focused on “immersion” in the story. It tries really hard to make you feel “inside” of it.

And that’s where it gets really good.

First off, kudos for their innovation. The control is very interactive.To open a door you have to actually “push” it with your mouse. Something is on the way? You have to grab it and set aside.

With only the left button of your mouse combined with a movement you can grab, pick, push, pull.

There is no combat. So you feel defenseless during the whole game.

If an “entity” finds you, you have to hide (or run!). Sometimes you get just a few seconds to find a closet or to barricade yourself somewhere.

On top of that you have an insanity level. Staying in the dark, hearing noises - all that will make you insanity level high. You have to actually NOT look at the thing or you go crazy.

Add smart puzzles and beautiful graphics and you get this horror masterpiece.

The game costs only $20 and it was made by a small Swedish company called Frictionalgames that has only 5 people working from their own homes.

Another case of passionated work beating big and empty productions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M627-obxNzg

"Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but learn to do so without..."

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:00:00 -0500

“Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but learn to do so without attracting attention.”

- Paulo Coelho

Marco Barbosa

Powered by a Macbook Air

The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our...

Ace Combat - Cinematic Trailer

Hey man, nice blog...which template are you using?

"Give up on the guesswork. Decide what you’re going to do this week, not this year. Figure out..."

Gotta love Dropbox :) I came up with a plan to be able to work from anywhere without depending on...

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates...

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Official Trailer

Photo

The story behind Minima

The eXperiment.

The positive energy.

The little (big) push.

And that’s when everything suddenly changed.

Moving forward.

Conclusion

Good fucking design advice.

Minima beta released!

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

Spread the love for UX design!

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

"Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but learn to do so without..."

Hey man,
nice blog...which template are you using?