Month: January 2008

Categories
Debated Reflected

On Goodbyes At The Workplace

As you may know, I work in the education segment of the technology world. This has taught me a few things.

*One*, very few people are here for the money. We tend to be below market price for base salary, and while the difference is usually made up in fringe, many people are looking at that dollar sign for an indication of self-worth.

*Two*, very few people are in it for the prestige. Despite the idea that you are afforded more lulls (not lulz) by the concepts of winter break, or spring break, or summer vacation, you aren’t. There is a constant, overwhelming pile of work – not only to keep the lights on, but to advance the mission as well.

*Three*, because of points one and two, there are a few types of people who mesh very well into this environment. It takes a very particular mix of multitasking, self-sacrifice, persistence, optimism, and zany madcap humor to feel comfortable here. It takes a person willing to trade the spoils for the stability to stay here.

I’m proud to say I work with a handful of people who fit that description. But today, I have to see one leave – not for money, not out of frustration, but to spread her wings and travel the world for a year with her husband.

This wasn’t a surprise, per se; the employee in question was kind enough to give four months notice. But it only really hit me last week, that this constant source of balance and sanity in my workplace is going to be gone as of 5PM today. The contact won’t be gone – I still expect to be chatting endlessly over IM late at night – but the constant interaction will be.

It’s tough losing someone who’s been so valuable to your work experience. And it’s hard, in an environment you’re so used to be professional in, to realize how much certain coworkers mean to you.

Enough melancholy – Paula, it’s been a dream working with you. Thank you for everything. I am undeniably jealous of your plans, and wish you all the best. New York will be here, waiting patiently for your return.

Categories
Found

Mark Anbinder on the MacBook Air

Mark has penned an excellent post addressing concerns about the lack of Ethernet on the MacBook Air, specifically to how it relates to the environment on the main Cornell campus.

Here’s the crux:

> It’s worth noting that most laptop users EVEN NOW aren’t bothering to plug into wired Ethernet, even when they HAVE the requisite port on their laptops. I strongly suspect we’ve already seen a large chunk of the hit on Red Rover’s capacity from the shift to wireless, and Apple is just giving in to reality by leaving out a port no one is using.

Categories
Best Of Explained

HOWTO: iPhone Webclip Icons

I remember, years ago, I was baffled by the little 16×16 icons that were showing up in my URL toolbar, and it took a surprising amount of searching to find out how to create one. I refuse to let this happen again.

So: if you want to make a custom icon for your website that will show up in the Springboard when a user makes a “webclip”, using their iPhone or iPod Touch, the dirt simple way is:

* Create a 57×57 PNG.
* Name it “apple-touch-icon.png”
* Throw it in the root folder of your website. (Not the root of your server, the root of your web documents.)

Boom. If you add a webclip for vjarmy.com, you’ll see my smiling mug.
If you want more flexibility – perhaps you don’t have access to the site root, perhaps you want to use a different file name or format – you can use a link tag in the head of the document, such as:

<head>
<title>iHelloWorld</title>
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/whatever.jpg"/>
</head>

I’ve tested this with a slightly larger (75×75) JPEG, and it works without trouble – it just scales things down.

If you’re testing this on your iPhone, you may notice a pause of a few seconds before the icon appears when you press “Add To Home Menu”. I’d imagine the icon only downloads when you request to make a webclip, instead of the “request it every time” method used for fetching favicon.ico. (As for why it’s a few seconds – well, that’s EDGE for you. The lag goes away when you use WiFi.)

Apple has more info on their iPhone Dev Center; look at “Create a WebClip Bookmark Icon”.

And don’t worry if your icon design skills aren’t up to snuff, but do worry if you care about the sanctity of your image:

>Safari will automatically composite the icon with the standard “glassy” overlay so it looks like a built-in iPhone or iPod application.

Addendum @ 9PM: I should note another oddity: there’s some degree of clipping off the sides of the icon that can’t really be controlled. I found this by scaling down a circular logo (in EPS format) to 57×57, and there was a noticeable clip on the sides. With that in mind, I recommend adding a pixel or two on the sides if you’re using a circular design. Note that scaling the icon down under 57×57 does not solve this, it merely scales it up to fit the 57×57.

Addendum @ 10PM: Neil Epstein, Technology Director for Gothamist LLC, says 47×47 seems to be the usable area, and that he had best luck with 45×45.

Addendum @ 1/16 7AM: Playground Blues notes that because of the resolution of the iPhone screen, using an oversized image (such as his 158×158 image) may result in a crisper icon. [via HicksDesign]