eriksmartt.com/blog

Erik Smartt

User Experience and Creative Technology

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arduino art austin automotive blogging books business code design diy django experience film gadgets games garden green hack hardware hci iphone life lifehack linux living make media mobile news osx outdoors photo productivity python quote security society software syndication technical technolust transportation travel ubuntu web

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Popular Posts:

• Using the Python for Series 60 Bluetooth Console from OS X
• Arduino development on Ubuntu PPC (and command-line Arduino)
• Passing JSON via the X-JSON HTTP header with Django and Prototype
• Ubuntu + Hildon UI = in-Car PC UI
• Moving my blog from WordPress to Django; Part 2: Migrating the data
• Cold weather fuel leak (2002 Subaru WRX)

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Recently read books:

• "Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life", by Neil Strauss -- An engaging, first-person account on transforming from an urban writer into "Jason Bourne."
• "Little Brother", by Cory Doctrow -- A high school hacker fights the 'Department of Homeland Security' to reclaim American civil liberties after anti-terror tactics are taken to a new level.
• "Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design" -- Techniques-for, and the value-of sketching interactivity before developing products. Good ideas. OK book.
• "Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant" -- About finding untapped opportunities in your market and repositioning yourself to capitalize on them. Easy to grasp; Longer then it needed to be.
• "JavaScript: The Good Parts" -- A thin book with some good best-practices, but a little disappointing. Perhaps it's JavaScript's fault, not the author's ;-)
• "Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks" -- Good overview of usability issues in designing HTML forms, backed by examples and eye-tracking research. I bought the digital edition, which was slightly cheaper. (You can use code: WFDDE to get an extra 10% off any purchase on the publisher's site.)
• "What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful" by Marshall Goldsmith -- Discusses interpersonal skills (and how to identify and fix them) that most commonly hold executives back in their career advancement.
• "The Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways To Do Less And Accomplish More" -- Lesson: Cut the corporate B.S. and stop wasting your time. Focus only on what matters most.
• "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High" -- Lessons on handling tough conversations: firing people, relationship problems, hostage negotiations (well, maybe not that last one.) Wasn't an exciting read, but I've been paying more attention to "turning points" in conversations since reading it.
• "Practical Django Projects" -- Lessons in building reusable ("pluggable") Django applications. Assumes you know the basics of Django and Python.
• "Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People 2nd Edition" -- I really enjoyed this one. Lots of suggestions and strategies for negotiating.