Dan Romero

I recently decided that it would be a good idea to actually give my blog a unique look and feel. So I redesigned it from scratch.

While the overall minimalist theme hasn't changed all that much, the design is somewhat different. Three columns rather than two, adding some navigation, using an actual grid-based layout - all of these are big improvements over the previous version.

I would like to thank a number of people for their help in making the design happen: Blueprint (grid), 37 Signals (link color), and most importantly Rob Goodlatte for lending me his copy of The Elements of Typographic Style (and all the other advice).

Today I finished the initial version of the official K-Ville Facebook application. Check it out and let me know what you think.

I was actually quite surprised by how easy it was to build it. It took me only a couple of hours. I guess FBML. for all its limitations, forces you to focus on content and functionality rather than design.

I would also like to thank the Pear PHP people as well as anyone who contributed to the Facebook Developers Wiki.

Yesterday, I tested the online photo editing application Picnik. Let me say first that it was truly a delight to use and it allowed me accomplish my task (making a photo black and white) in less than five minutes. In addition, as an aspiring web and user interface designer, the application's interface was both intuitive and impressive. The abundance of features did not seem overwhelming, and in fact, I was surprised at how much Picnik allowed me to do with my photo. From the basic resize and color change, to adding it to my Flickr and Facebook accounts, Picnik had everything I could possibly want to do available in a couple of clicks.

So if you haven't already given Picnik a look, you should. And if you are one of the Facebook application types - they have one of those as well.

UPDATE - So it turns out that they also have a number of other cool mini-apps for Picnik. Firefox/IE extensions, a bookmarklet, and even a Yahoo widget. Talk about easy access.

I figured that I would resolve some housekeeping business with a post:

• Facebook does have some RSS - I stand corrected. After complaining about Facebook's lack of RSS a few weeks ago, I discovered today that your notifications can be read as an RSS. Unfortunately, I already get most important notifications sent to my mobile via SMS. This also doesn't address the Newsfeed RSS problem either.
• Wider blog design - Unlike the NYTimes, which seems to be getting more narrow every time I visit (more on this in a later post), I increased the width of the blog by about 60 pixels. The non-designers reading won't care, but I did this to increase my line lengths.
• New domain names - So I now have a whole bunch of domain names that I own: danielwromero.com, blazamos.com, dratius.com, coupondj.com, he.rodot.us, milliondollarhillary.com, feehanbooks.com. And now I have two more: danromero.tv and kville.tv. What they will be use for, that's still up in the air.
• Upcoming birthday - A much less pertinent piece of info, I will be turning 20 on the 12th. Scary.
• iPhone typing speed - I have been using the iPhone for over a month now and I just want to say that I can type very fast on the keyboard (with thanks to the auto-correction software). I will be doing a complete "one month after" analysis sometime next week.
• Next week - Expect some posts about Twitter/Pownce/Facebook next week. I also think a post about the new MMOG company Multiverse and Indiana University's The Synthetic Worlds Initiative. Exciting stuff.

Plain and simple: Facebook needs to implement RSS all over the site. Rather than spamming users with email updates (I have Gmail automatically delete them), Facebook could allow them to subscribe to a authenticated RSS feed. They could be customizable, such as new pictures feeds and individual user feeds.

As of right now, Facebook is a data black hole: information goes in but hardly ever comes out. Obviously at the end of the day, it's their data that's valuable, so it makes sense to keep more of it coming in than going out. But as the RSS adoption slowly inches higher, an increasing number of people would benefit from an RSS-enabled Facebook.

I have now been using the iPhone for a little more than a week and it really is the most incredible piece of technology I have ever used. But that doesn't mean I don't have improvement suggestions.

• The default package of 200 SMS messages are definitely not enough. The SMS interface is so elegant, I found myself approaching the 200 message limit within 5 days. Make all plans $5 - $10 more a month and give everyone unlimited.
• Not as much an Apple problem as a Google one: Gmail support is horrible. When I log on to Gmail on my PC, I have most of my email sorted and filed using Gmail's labels and filters. On the iPhone, I get all my email lumped in a single inbox. For me, I am subscribed to a number of mailing lists that I browse occasionally, but on my phone they overwhelm my important email. I also receive email from (no lie) 7 different email addresses in my main Gmail account. Google needs to allow users to selectively choose which email should be sent to the phone. They could solve this problem by allowing IMAP access instead of POP, but I don't think that is happening any time soon.
• Make the Home button have a double-click function that allows me to instantly jump to my phone contacts.

I bought a case, DLO's Jam Jacket, in an appropriate Duke blue. I am also planning on ordering a cheap Go Phone to use when I am in iPhone-unfriendly environments (boats, beaches, ski slopes, pools, backyards, etc...).

I got my iPhone the Saturday morning at the Palo Alto Apple store.

• The UI is incredible. Like everyone else out there, I am in love with the "flick." It is natural feeling, like how you sort through mail or CDs on a shelf. The "zoom" feature is also well done.
• The keyboard is not as bad as I thought it would be. Like Jason Kottke, I too feel that the predictive text entry system works quite well, and typing with two thumbs is quite feasible.
• The camera takes great photos for a phone.
• The AT&T EDGE network is slow. Really slow. But browsing with Safari makes up for it. It's incredible to use when connected to a WiFi network.
• You really can move as quickly as the big hand does in the Calamari commercial. Yum, calamari.
• There are two things that I am craving: an integrated RSS reader (reader.mac.com is nice, but it only handles one feed at a time) and games. I can only imagine the fun and interesting games that developers could produce for this thing. Bejeweled anyone?

Alright, back to playing with my new toy.

I just signed up and started using 37 Signals's online CRM application, Highrise. I already use Basecamp for Dratius and have been quite happy with the functionality included in the basic (free) account. Anyways, upon logging in for the first time, I tested out adding a fictional contact, Joe Smith. The contact creation process was simple and intuitive. I immediately wanted to add every person I knew into it.

Like the good web geek that I am, I then began to explore around the various tabs and menus within the application. Specifically, I was looking for method to link my Highrise account with my Basecamp account (in the way you can link 37 Signal's group chat application, Campefire, to Basecamp). Unfortunately, this was nowhere to be found.

Although not a crucial feature (I will still probably use it), it would be nice to see 37 Signal's integrate their applications better. Joyent's Connector is a good example of what they could do (something I have for life but not currently in use), but without the excruciating slow performance of the Connector.

What is most surprising to me however, is why 37 Signals has not been bought by Google/Microsoft/Yahoo. Personally, I think their software would enrich Google's Apps for Your Domain.