Quick Look: ReadQuick App for iPad
Published on May 08, 2013
This is one app I’ve been meaning to play with for a while now but never had the opportunity. It’s called ReadQuick and it is an iPad only app that helps you become a speed reader.
ReadQuick lets you read your news or other articles (pulled in from your Instapaper or Pocket queue) one word at a time. The default pace for ReadQuick is 250 words per minute but as you get better at speed reading you can increase that pace. I’m still new to ReadQuick so I’m sticking 250 wpm for now.
ReadQuick is a free download from the App Store and I recommend you check it out.
Here’s my short overview of the app:
Quick Look: Workflowy iOS App
Published on May 03, 2013
It’s time for another quick look at an app I’ve recently tried out. This time it’s the iOS app for the web-based outlining and list making tool Workflowy.
Both the web app and the iOS app are free to use. The free version is limited; you can only create 500 lists and items per month.
Quick Look: Anvil for Mac
Published on May 02, 2013
I’ve recently started using Anvil for Mac, a simple Mac OS X menubar app that provides a simple interface to the Pow server.
Here’s a quick look at the app and how simple it is to use for localhosting static web sites.
New Video: Basics of Git
Published on April 10, 2013
Today I’m happy to announce the availability of the newest training video from Mijingo: Basics of Git.
Basics of Git is aimed at people who work building the web. In 54 minutes, I give you the foundation you need to start using Git. If you already use it but aren’t sure exactly what you’re doing then this video will help you, too.
Being well-versed in modern version control systems like Git is quickly becoming expected, right alongside knowing HTML and CSS. It’s not a “nice to have” skill any longer; it’s a must-have. Sit down for an hour with me and add Git to your toolbox. You’ll be glad you did.
As always, this video is available as both a downloadable video file and a version you can stream right here on the site.
Digital PM Summit: Oct 14-15
Published on April 08, 2013
Today, The Bureau of Digital Affairs (in association with Happy Cog) announced a brand new conference for project managers who work on web projects: Digital PM Summit
All too often, discussion within the digital design community is centered around the end product, not the journey that leads to it. The processes and practices used to manage projects, people, and relationships are crucial. It’s time to start sharing ideas.
The two-day conference will take place in Philadelphia in October and will be limited to only 150 people.
If you want to go, be sure to sign up for the newsletter, as subscribers will get the first dibs on tickets.
New CMS: Craft by Pixel & Tonic
Published on March 05, 2013
My friends at Pixel & Tonic released a new CMS today. It’s called Craft (formerly called Blocks) and it is now in public beta. Craft core is available for free and there are several awesome add-on packages you can buy to expand the capabilities of the CMS.
I’ve been working with Craft almost daily for the last two months. In fact, I’m almost ready to launch my first website built on Craft. And, yes, I also have a video in production covering how to build websites on Craft.
For now, however, go download the free version of Craft and give it a spin. If you don’t have time to do that, I do a very brief walk-thru in the video below. I don’t touch on everything that Craft can do; it’s just a quick look at the very basics.
Enjoy and more soon!
Happy Cog + Mijingo
Published on February 26, 2013
Today I am delighted to announce that Mijingo is partnering with Happy Cog to create and publish even more training materials for you. With Happy Cog as my partner I now have direct access to the talented people at the company and I am able to dedicate more time to working on Mijingo. Happy Cog, at its core, has a passion for sharing, teaching, and learning. Together we will bring the best practices of building for the web to screencast training videos, ebooks, and more.
In 2008 I started with a series of videos on ExpressionEngine published through my friends at the Pragmatic Programmers (and then later wrote a book with them). Working with the Pragmatic Programmers team taught me that authoring can be fun and that publishers can be thoughtful, fair people who truly care about what they’re creating. I’ve taken those experiences and made them core to Mijingo and its mission.
After 2 years publishing as Mijingo the business entity, in 2010 I officially launched Mijingo.com, the website, where I started selling my videos. What started out with just one product very slowly grew into a collection of tutorials for people who work building the web. The entire time between 2008 through 2012 I worked on Mijingo on my own time: evenings, weekends, and even sometimes on vacation. The new partnership with Happy Cog now allows me to spend more time on Mijingo. I am really, really excited about that.
I couldn’t imagine a better fit and I am beyond excited about sharing my passion for Mijingo and teaching with the brilliant team at Happy Cog. An extra special thank you to Happy Cog CEO Greg Hoy and President Greg Storey for working with me on the partnership and for investing in Mijingo’s success. I am thrilled to be working with them in this new role.
Read the announcement from Happy Cog: Meet our newest partner, Mijingo
Meeting Notes Workflow with Drafts App
Published on February 20, 2013
I’ve become a big fan of Drafts, an iOS app by Agile Tortoise. This seemingly simple–and very understated–app has become the main way that I capture text. This text may end up as a Twitter post, an ADN post, a grocery list, an article draft or, as I demonstrate in the video, meetings notes.
In the short video I walk-thru how I use Drafts to capture meeting notes and then append them to a running file of all notes from a specific meeting type. Watch the video for all of the details.
In the video I mention Markdown. If you’re not familiar with the Markdown, check out this Mijingo video I did on the basics of the Markdown syntax.
For more information on Drafts, I recommend these good reads:
- Capturing Text with Drafts by David Sparks
- Entire Drafts arrchive at MacStories. Lots of great stuff in there by Federico Viticci
- Append to Dropbox Note with Drafts by Gabe Weatherhead
Ryan on The Non-Breaking Space Show
Published on February 17, 2013
Last month I sat down for an hour and talked to Christopher Schmitt and Dave McFarland of The Non-Breaking Space Show podcast about the work I do here at Mijingo, at Happy Cog and elsewhere. I shared some nerdy stuff I like to do and a little bit about how I get started in the web business.
If you fancy learning more about Mijingo and me, I hope you’ll give the podcast a listen.
CriticMarkup: Plain Text Syntax for Editors
Published on February 13, 2013
Gabe Weatherhead and Erik Hess put together a markup format that makes it easier to do to editing changes and comments in plain text documents.
CriticMarkup is a way for authors and editors to track changes to documents in plain text. As with Markdown, small groups of distinctive characters allow you to highlight insertions, deletions, substitutions and comments, all without the overhead of heavy, proprietary office suites.
CriticMarkup works with Markdown, MultiMarkdown and even just good ol’ HTML. But, really, it’ll work with anything plain text documents.
Also available are text editor plugins to help you get started and make writing the syntax faster. Everything is available on the CriticMarkup site.
If you want to learn more about using Markdown (my preferred way to write everything, even this blog post), our 30 minute training video on Markdown will teach you everything you need to know to get started, including some popular tools.