Is the Office Really the Best Place to Get Work Done? — This might be a long discussion. But, I personally think that everyone should create his/her working moments.
Personal Experience: Does Find My iPhone really work? For me, it does.
Having some Apple products, I read lots of news regarding the products or the company like product updates, rumors, etc. One of them is about the story about stolen/missing products. Today, I almost lost my New iPad. I was lucky to have in back within hours. How?
Today, it was just like regular day. I went to the office in the morning. Since I’m now in Jakarta, I take taxi almost everyday to reach the office. I like spending my time reading using Flipboard, checking Twitter timeline using Tweetbot, or reading emails. After few hours, I just realised that I didn’t have my iPad with me. I was panic. The first thing I did was remembering the taxi number. Usually, I remember the taxi number, or even taking its picture. But, today I completely forgot about it. The only thing I remembered was taxi company. It was Express Group.
There are many opinions regarding Express Group services. I also have my experiences with this company. In most cases, I have positive experience with them. For today, I have a good and nice service. Thank you, Express Group!
The first thing I did was opening Find my iPhone app on my iPhone. I tried to locate my iPad. And, I found its location. Nice. But, I was not sure whether it was still with the taxi driver, or someone already had it. I located and activated the “Lost Mode” from iCloud website, and created a message asking to contact me. I gave both my cell numbers. I also hit the “Play Sound” button.
Searching…
I called the customer service number, and explained the situation. I told the operator about the situation. After that, I refreshed Find my iPhone on my iPhone. When I was in the taxi, I told the taxi driver — still from the same company — that I left my iPad. When I checked my iPad, it’s not far from my location. I asked the taxi driver to drive me to my iPad location. I was sure that the taxi driver kept it for me. I kept thinking positive. Almost every minute, I always check the latest location. And, it was moving. The “problem” with checking the position from mobile device is that it’s not real-time. So, within 30 seconds, it was moving from one location to another pretty fast. Especially, because the traffic was good.
So, how’s the location history? See the screenshot below.
When I tried to reach a destination, I realised that the taxi (which brought my iPad) was passing. Taking another turn? Way too late. At least I tried. Again, I only hope that: the taxi drive had my iPad, he kept it with him, and — more importantly — he would bring it back to the station and contacted me. I decided to go back to the office after knowing that the taxi went to Sudirman area.
I checked again from my MacBook Pro. It’s still moving. I had to admit that I was amazed with the location report.
I tried to hit the “Play Sound” again. In the next few seconds, I got a phone call. I picked it up. And, he asked me whether I was the one who left something in red case in the taxi. Voila! The taxi driver called me telling that he had my iPad with him!
I talked to him, asking about his position — of course I already knew it from my iPad’s location. I quickly asked him about the taxi number. It was: BC 5713. I told him whether he was able to drive to the office, and I also told him to keep my iPad with him. He agreed to bring it after his lunch.
I was happy. I am happy, of course.
Lessons learned
It was the first time I used Find my iPhone feature — and I hope I don’t need to use it again! — in real case scenario. Here are few things I learned:
- Turning Location Service on the device is useful. Yes, it consumes more battery power.
- Apple Maps did a great job.
- Checking the device location from iPhone does not give you the real-time location info. But, from my MacBook, I have almost real-time respond. That’s what I found. Not sure whether it happens this way, or not.
- Turn Auto-Lock ON.
- I have to be more careful.
When I was in the meeting, the taxi driver called me. I run from the second floor, and met him. He handed me the iPad. I promised myself that I would give him something for his effort and honesty. He said sorry because it took time for him to arrive because of the bad traffic. I said thank you. I gave him some money. He refused to accept it. But, I insisted.
Few minutes later, I texted him to say thank you for his kindness. Then, I called the taxi operator asking for information about the taxi driver’s name, and his station. I also told the operator about the good experience — especially about the kind and honest taxi driver. Thank you Pak Heru!
Happy ending? Yes. Want to be in the same situation again? Definitely not!
Paypal’s Credit Card Verification
When I had my credit card for the first time, the first thing I did was adding it to my Paypal account. After having my credit card verified (linked) to Paypal, I never touch it again. But, recently I just realised that my credit card was no longer valid. I lost it few months ago, and I got a replacement.
I never had problem with my Paypal account and my credit card. Yes, my Visa card could not be used for transaction few months ago, but that didn’t involve Paypal. So, I decided to add a new credit card. In my previous verification, I waited for the credit card billing statement to get my Paypal verification. If you’re not familiar with Paypal, when you verify your card, Paypal will take $1.95 USD from your credit card. But, it will be returned to your Paypal balance once you have your credit card verified.
Rather than waiting for the credit card billing statement from the bank — you should see transaction detail there — to see the verification code, you can see the transaction detail directly from your transaction history in your bank account. My Visa card is issued by Bank BCA, anyway. I simply logged in to my internet banking account, see the credit card transaction history, and found the 4-digit verification code there.
After that, I just need to login to my Paypal account provide the verification code. Easy.
Expedia: Bad for the Traveler, Bad for the Hotel — An interesting read about how a hotel owner and Expedia.
Dropbox for Teams — tips and tricks about using Dropbox for teams, groups, and organizations.
Photo Sizes on Flickr
I’m not sure when Flickr started to generate more sizes for uploaded photos. If you upload a photo, it will be uploaded to Flickr, and will be processed to generate multiple image sizes. Here are the sizes for reference — based on a photo taken using iPhone 5:
- Square 75 (75 x 75)
- Square 150 (150 x 150)
- Thumbnail (100 x 75)
- Small 240 (240 x 180)
- Small 320 (320 x 240)
- Medium 500 (500 x 375)
- Medium 640 (640 x 480)
- Medium 800 (800 x 600)
- Large 1024 (1024 x 768)
- Large 1600 (1600 x 1200)
- Large 2048 (2048 x 1536)
- Original (3264 x 2448)
Merry Flickr: Free Flickr Pro for 3 months (current Pro users included)
Flickr — Yahoo-owned photo-sharing service — offers 3 months free account for its users. Currently, Flickr has two types of accounts: free and Pro ($24.95/year). I’ve been using Filckr Pro for years, and happy with it. Especially, when Flickr released its new version of Flickr for iOS. For the reminder, by having a Flickr Pro account you can get these advanced features:
- Unlimited photo uploads (50MB per photo)
- Unlimited video uploads (90 seconds max, 500MB per video)
- The ability to show HD Video
- Unlimited storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Archiving of high-resolution original images
- The ability to replace a photo
- Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools
- View count and referrer statistics
- Limitation of maximum image size available to others
- Ad-free browsing and sharing
To get Flickr’s Holiday Gift, you only need to visit flickr.com/holidaygift and get your account upgraded. For existing Flickr Pro customers, your accounts will be extended — additional 3 months will be added to your account. For example, my Flickr account previously will be expired on March 16, 2014. Now, it had been extended until June 16th, 2014.
1136px – How iPhone 5 sees your sites/apps.
Inside The Huffington Post. An office tour.
Too Much To Read. A Universal Readmill Library. Books from Project Gutenberg. Created by Johannes Wagener. It’s Readmill-friendly.
Readmill: Another reading experience
One of the reasons I bought an iPad this year was that about books. I have to admit that my reading habit has changed in the last few months. I read more books and magazines on my iPad. But, it does not mean that I don’t read real books. It’s easy to mentioned two last books I bought: Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs and Listomania.
But, I bought more digital books. I subscribed to National Geographics Magazine for iPad, and purchased some other books directly from iBook Store. I have some editions from A Book Apart and Smashing Magazines, too. My reading experience has been shifted.
Recently, I moved some of my books to Readmill. iBooks and Readmill share the similar reading experience. But, after using it for few days, I think I’m falling in love with Readmill. I like the idea that it’s not only about reading. I like its social features, and I love the way the site is designed.
Readmill is a curious community of readers, highlighting and sharing the books they love.
We believe reading should be an open and easily shareable experience. We built Readmill to help fix the somewhat broken world of ebooks, and create the best reading experience imaginable. (source)
In short, it happens like this:
- Buy some books, and you usually you will get them in some formats like PDF or ePub.
- You can easily open them using iBook app (on your iOS devices). If you’re using Readmill, you upload them to your Readmill’s Library.
- Start reading.
While you’re reading, you can take notes, highlights. Readmill has a nice approach about the reading behaviours. Readers can interact each others by sharing highlights. Try to visit a book profile called “Designing for Emotion” by Aaron Walter.
But, what about the reading experience itself? On my iPad, I have a pleasant reading experience. Readmill app offers a simple and key features readers really need: adding highlights, bookmarks, etc. And, not to forget its social features, they’re just great.
LESS Compiler
In my previous post, I mentioned about using Bootstrap for my works. One advantage of using Bootstrap is that we can easily work with its .less files. But, instead of using less.js, I prefer using LESS compiler to generate the real static stylesheet file. For now, I’m using LESS.app on my MacBook. The CodeKit looks interesting, anyway.
It’s easy. Basically, I just need to include my custom .less file, and @import it from bootstrap.less file, so my bootstrap.less file looks like this:
// Components: Misc @import "thumbnails.less"; @import "media.less"; @import "labels-badges.less"; //@import "progress-bars.less"; //@import "accordion.less"; //@import "carousel.less"; @import "hero-unit.less"; // My custom CSS @import "custom.less";
I commented some lines there because I don’t need them. It will generate smaller stylesheet file. If you download Bootstrap, you should find many .less files under less directory. Some files are needed for certain components. Using LESS.app is so easy because:
- I can set the output path. My HTML file will call a specific stylesheet file. I have it replaced automatically with a new compiled file.
- After saving my
custom.less— I use Coda, anyway — LESS.app will compile it automatically. So, actually I don’t need to look at the LESS.app. - LESS.app can minify the output.
Nice. What is your favorite compiler?
Secrets: A database of hidden settings for Mac OS X.
Solved: Apple’s App Store Purchase Using Visa
Last week, I got problem with my purchase at Apple’s App Store. I didn’t tried to purchased any paid apps after that. Today, I tried to purchase something on my iPad. I was curious whether this problem had been sorted or not. And, it’s back to normal now. Fixed!
Twitter Bootstrap, LESS CSS, and Caching Problem
I’m working on some works right now with a small team at the office. We decided to use Bootstrap as the front-end development framework. We came up with this solution for some key reasons:
- We need to do it fast.
- It’s easy to maintain, especially for a collaborative project
- Bootstrap is cool.
There are lots of similar frameworks to choose like Skeleton, 960.gs, Blueprint, Foundation, and more. It didn’t take long discussion to take Bootstrap. Its features and flexibilities are just perfect for our need. The next thing is that we need to do some customisations, for example on the font sizes and colours. Since Bootstrap might release updates in the future, it’s better to leave the core files untouched.
LESS
Basically, it’s easy to customise them by using its own customisation tool. But, I prefer another method by using LESS. And yes, Bootstrap works great with LESS. The installation works straight forward. After downloading less.js file, add these two lines in the <head>
<link rel="stylesheet/less" href="/path/to/bootstrap.less"> <script src="/path/to/less.js"></script>
Inside bootstrap.less file, there is a little note that we can easily modify the font color and size by working on the variables.less file. I decided not to edit it. I created another .less file — for example: mycustom.less — and import it from bootstrap.less file. So, my bootstrap.less file looks like this:
... @import "accordion.less"; @import "carousel.less"; @import "hero-unit.less"; // My Custom LESS @import "mycustom.less"; ...
And, this is what I have for mycustom.less:
@baseFontSize: 13px; @tableBorder: #ddd; @navbarInverseBackground: #faa141; @navbarInverseBackgroundHighlight: #ec8b22; @navbarInverseBorder: #d77c1b; @navbarInverseLinkColor: #fff;
It should just work. But, does it work as expected? No.
Caching
Editing and saving mycustom.less file, and refreshing my page does not load the latest variables. It takes time to refresh/load the latest changes. It’s not good. It happens because less.js caches the .less files called using @import.
I tried to modify the web server setting by adding these lines in my httpd.conf file:
<FilesMatch ".less$"> Header set Cache-Control "no-cache" </FilesMatch>
But, it didn’t work. After searching for solutions, there is a method offered for this issue. I added this line of code:
<script>localStorage.clear(); </script>
Now, whenever I make some changes on my .less files, reloading the page will give the latest changes. It works.