Creating workflow diagrams

I haven’t seen any good examples recently of workflow diagrams, at least not more technical ones based around software, services and workflow.

Creating a diagram like this its always nice to see other examples of how people have approached the problem but in this scenario I have yet to see anything. Even Edward Tufte came short on this, though the diagrams and illustrations he provides examples for are excellent.

So this is what I came up with to illustrate a workflow with our software in a newsroom environment.


My top ten OS X applications

Its been a year with this Mac Book Pro that I am using so I thought that I would round up with my top ten Mac software - the software that I would install first of all after a crash.

1. Quicksilver. This is a must have on the Mac. I find out something new about it every week if not everyday and it makes using OS X even easier and more streamlined. For instance, finding a contact and then sending an SMS through Skype can be achieved in a few keystrokes, far faster than clicking around in the GUI.

2. NetNewsWire Pro. Now free to download, I had a paid version of this and its the best way to read newsfeeds that I have come across. It syncs with a web version so I can still access the my newsfeeds when I am away, and there are clients for other platforms including Windows Mobile.

3. Knox. I use this to keep all my important documents and things that I don’t want to go missing. It backups to my USB thumbdrive everyday, and its easy to backup online.

4. SSHFS and MacFuse. Easy easy way to mount external SSH shares onto the desktop.

5. Address book, Apple Mail and iPhoto. At first I stayed away from the integrated applications, but they are REALLY integrated, and work so well together the extra functionality that you get from using them together is well worth the switch.

6. Adium. The best chat client that I have found for instant messaging on OS X. It doesn’t have all the features that individual applications might have (voice and webcam for one). But sometimes you just don’t need that, and really Skype running along side is better for this. If it had all the features of Skype it would be really the true all rounder.

7. Unison. I use Usenet alot. Its a great news client. Perhaps the best on any platform at the moment.

8. Textmate. Perhaps the best editor on OS X - I tried many until I paid up and bought Textmate. Its strong bundles and integration with SVN plus the nice support for Django wins for me.

9. MarsEdit. Great blog posting tool.

10. Versions. This is quite new but it makes working with SVN just a little easier.


Back from England - part1

Last weekend we arrived back from a all-too-short week away in England.

Its the first time that I have been back in quite a while and one of the ones that I have most enjoyed. Firstly we flew in to London City Airport dodging the bad luggage of Heathrow, the bad connections of Stanstead and the general grottyness of Gatwick.

Its a map!

It only took about 30 minutes to get to our hotel, the Hoxton situated nicely on Great Eastern Street. Upon arrival the hotel lived up to our expectations, and generally exceeded those of you would expect of a cheaper hotel in London. Clean silky beds, nice big shower and bathroom and all quite modern and well looked after.

Slightly urban london

On the first night we met up with some old work colleagues of mine at Liverpool street, a short walk from the Hoxton and had a good time.

Saturday was introduced with brunch at Smiths on Smithfields - a great English breakfast, though I think K was rather surprised with people already having Pints and champagne so early but I rather enjoyed the Bloody Mary that they served up! Then we went on to the V&A museum - perhaps my favourite because of the sheer variety of exhibits on offer, and after a short train ride some shopping and coffee and other things. We met up with Eric and Ellie at this point, and after a brief visit to some more shops, we all went back to have a drink at the Hoxton.

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Jem, Katherine and Matt soon joined us for more drinks and then we went to a Vietnamese where I tried the frogs legs. Surprisingly good.

Hat

Sunday was spent at Spitalfields market - much better than the tourist trap of Camden, then Bricklane for a breather before going to Neals Yard and Covent Garden to be socked in the July rain.

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Next update will be soon, when I have time to write basically!


Decorating.

So now we have moved in the decorating is in full swing. There has been lots that we have done, but much still to do. K and I have been talking about building a floating wall for the living room, I think that needs some more thought but first off its the easy things like curtains. So last night we went to Marimekko and chose a design by Erja Hirvi called Lumimarja.

lumimarja_620_big.jpg

There are plenty of other really nice fabrics and designs in there, but this will probably go really well with the Sofa, floor and the colour we are thinking of having in the room.


Fat Bastard redesign

Is this the greatest wine bottle design ever? (from thedieline.com).

Fat Bastard redesign: “

Fatbastard_3

A redesign by Turner Duckworth for Fat Bastard wines. I love that they integrated the name and visuals in a witty and sophisticated solution for a wine that is affordable yet has a lot of weight behind it.

(Via TheDieline.com: The Leading Package Design Blog.)


django one form, two models

This post is a work in progress is now working I am glad to say. I have been working on a django site which needs two models updated for one post. It is actually using models very close to that on django-forums and I have created a forms.py file:


class ThreadForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Thread
exclude = ('forum', 'sticky', 'closed', 'posts', 'views', 'latest_post_time')

def clean_title(self):
title = self.cleaned_data['title']
if not alnum_re.search(title):
raise forms.ValidationError(ugettext("Titles can only contain letters, numbers and underscores"))

if len(title) < 1:
raise forms.ValidationError(ugettext("Please enter a title"))
return title

class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
class Meta:
model = Post
exclude = ('thread', 'author', 'time', 'related_item')

def clean_body(self):
body = self.cleaned_data['body']
if len(body) < 1:
raise forms.ValidationError(ugettext("Please enter some body text"))
return body

And then in my views (after importing in the correct models):

@login_required
def groupnewthread(request, slug):
thegroup = get_object_or_404(GroupsOfUser, slug=slug)
if request.method == 'POST':
f = request.POST.copy()
tdata = {
'title': f['title'],
}
pdata = {
'body': f['body'],
}
t = ThreadForm(tdata)
p = PostForm(pdata)
if t.is_valid():
newthread = t.save(commit=False)
newthread.forum = thegroup

if p.is_valid():
newthread.save()
newpost = p.save(commit=False)
newpost.thread = newthread
newpost.author = request.user
newpost.save()

strmessage = 'has created a thread %s‘ % (newthread.get_absolute_url(), newthread.title)
usm = UserStatus(user = newpost.author, message = strmessage)
usm.save()

return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse(’groupdetail’, args=[thegroup.slug]))

else:

t = ThreadForm()
p = PostForm()

objContext = RequestContext(request, {’threadform’: t, ‘postform’: p})
return render_to_response(’groups/group_thread_add.html’, objContext)

Now the bit that is in progress is the returning part of dealing with the form data being bound, but I am going to write a custom handler. This is obviously going to be much easier to handle than an update, which I will have to deal with at a point.

The form HTML looks like this btw:

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% load i18n %}
{% block title %}
	{% trans 'Add a new group thread' %}
{% endblock %}
{% block body %}

{% trans ‘Create a new group thread’ %}

{% if t.errors %}

{% blocktrans count t.errors|length as count %}Please correct the following error:{% plural %}Please correct the following errors:{% endblocktrans %}

{% endif %} {% if p.errors %}

{% blocktrans count p.errors|length as count %}Please correct the following error:{% plural %}Please correct the following errors:{% endblocktrans %}

{% endif %} {{ threadform.as_table }} {{ postform.as_table }}
{% endblock %}

Another week

Time seems to be flying by as I get even closer to my next birthday, with the minutes rolling into hours, the hours in to days and so forth.

Last night we had a friend over and I cooked a meal, of recipe for which is conveniently on the internet: Roast Pork with Rosemary and Caramelised Apples. I added some peas and some Roast Potatoes for good measure. Was quite good, though probably not the best thing that I have cooked.

Nina after a meal

And of course I was playing with my latest purchase a Nikon SB-600 flash with my camera. I used a unnatural whitebalance setting and a really old lense (which might or might no be a Nikon) from Kristin’s old Nikon film camera and it gave this kinda hazy shot. Well I like it.

The eating out continues, this time with friends on a Friday night at Helenes Krog, St Eriksgatan. The main thing that impressed everyone was the portion size, its apparently “their thing”. Well not quite sure that I agree with the concept but it wasn’t bad.


Värmland



Värmland, originally uploaded by timc3.

Went to Värmland this weekend, and it was beautifully sunny and green so we spent quite a bit of time outside and relaxing..


Good eats, bad eats

So another week goes by and some more food eaten. First up is Östgöta Källaren on Östgötagatan, and basically we didn’t eat here because of the extremely rude service we received upon trying to find a table. I would avoid this place in the near future as there are so many other places worthy of your business in the area. Vampire Lounge underneath though can be recommended for the great cocktails available.

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Back A Yard on Folkungagatan 128 is the exact opposite, the service was great, the hostess extremely friendly and as long as you are not in a rush for the bill (perhaps to give an authentic Jamaican feel) its very good. They serve a nice range of Jamaican style food like Jerk Chicken and Ital Stew, though Curried Goat was off the menu they did manage to serve up a very tasty Curried Lamb stew which went great with Red Stripe. This is definitely one I would go back to and try the Red Snapper.

Koh Phangan was a slightly different affair, but again very pleasant experience, this time Thai food which went down well with sitting outside on a sunny day. Can’t exactly remember what noodle dish I had but it was good, and if I feel like Thai I might be inclined to visit again if I was at Skånegatan 57 Stockholm.

Stiernan at Renstiernas gata 22 - as they say in other reviews about this, don’t look for the name - just a star above the door and you will find this restaurant bar. Again a pleasant well priced experience, I like the beer menu with Newcastle Brown Ale on tap, and the food menu for the restaurant looked great, both of us choose Pork Medallions mine with port sauce and the other with Chilli Bernaise. I say I would prefer the port sauce if I could choose again but that largely down to personal choice. Service was good enough to leave a good tip. If you are tight for money the bar menu is very cheap.


Stockholm congestion tax and roads in general

Have been borrowing a couple of cars quite recently and I have just noticed that its cheaper to take a car from inside the city and pay the congestion charge than to pay the average day car parking fee, now I am not sure how that helps matters. Surely it would be better to leave the car at home and just use public transport until I need the car. I haven’t looked at how much a monthly permit is but I wonder whether it is cheaper than the 25Kr a day it costs in congestion charge at the times that I use it…

And speaking of driving, Sweden is fairly safe particularly when compared to England perhaps due in some part to not having so many cars per square kilometre but I am fairly stunned that most of the roads that I have driven on at night do not have Cat’s eyes. Of course these would be completely useless in the winter due to snow, but they have additional road markings then anyway, but I really miss them in normal driving.


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