Nur Ahmad Furlong

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  • Selling my Web, Strategy, Creativity, Productivity Books

    I’m not a big reader when it comes to novels and function in general, I just find the fantasy a bit of a waste of time to be honest. But when it comes to books covering practical knowledge on the stuff that matters to me, I’m a bit OCD.

    So i’ve been trying to clear out some of the books I haven’t been using in a while and I found a set of real gems from my Web, Strategy, Creativity, Productivity collection. Each of these books has played a major role in helping me get to grips with the range of subjects I need to keep myself informed on as a Web & Creative Professional.

    These books cover a wide range of subjects from Coding & Coding Standards, to Productivity, Time Management, Marketing & Communications Strategy, Web Strategy, Usability, Creative Thinking. The information contained in these books should be enough to get any web novice up to speed with the principles and methods needed to dive straight into the web industry. They’re also a great resource or reference for anyone working in this industry or teaching/presenting on these topics.

    1. The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World
    2. Six Thinking Hats – EDWARD DE BONO
    3. Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity – Edward De Bono
    4. The 4-Hour Work Week and Timothy Ferriss
    5. The Truth about Email Marketing – Jenkins
    6. rework – 37 Signals
    7. don’t make me think – Steve Krug – New Riders
    8. building findable websites – New Riders
    9. Introducing HTML5 – Lawson Sharp – New Riders
    10. Designing for Web Standards – Second Edition – Jeffrey Zeldman
    11. The Ultimate CSS Reference – Sitepoint
    12. A Designer’s Research Manual – Jenn + Ken Visocky O’Grady
    13. eMarketing eXellence – Chaffey Smith – Third Edition
    14. Starting & Running a Successful Consultancy – How To Books
    15. The Art & Science of CSS – Sitepoint
    16. Logo Lounge 2 – Rockport

    I’m planning on selling this entire stash to the highest bidder to make space for some new material.

  • Impressed with WordPress 3.3 UI changes

    I must admit I’ve only been following the latest round of updates to WordPress from a distance, but when I received the official 3.3 release notice this morning from Matt Mullenweg I upgraded immediately. I’m really loving the UI enhancements, and little dialogues as I go through the upgraded interface.

    First off the welcome message, and pointer tips, though not needed for my experience of WordPress would most definitely enhance the newbie’s experience. And the ability for developers to hook into this feature with their own tips and helpguides takes the ease of use of WordPress to another level.

    The reductions of clicks in using the interface which include instant flyout menus and drag & drop uploader for media, as well as media detection during upload shows that the developers at WordPress are pushing further and further to make it the ultimate user experience.

    Quoting Matt Mullenweg at one of his state of the Word addresses.

    “So easy even a caveman can do it”

    They’ve really put their actions behind this statement, integrating a number of help features including an enhanced help slideout menu with contextual tips and guides to make the user’s experience pleasurable.

    You need look no further than the WordPress.org homepage to know that ease of use, and minimal distraction free content creation is a fundamental part of the direction they’re moving in.

    WordPress does certainly keep us WP professionals on our toes though, especially so those developing training materials and guides, their regular UI updates means we need to re-create our materials regularly to reflect the changes.

    [box type=”alert” size=”large” style=”rounded” border=”full”]Before you upgrade though, make sure you’re fully backed up and that any themes or plugins which power your site are compatible with the latest release. [/box]

    I’m generally more trusting of the upgrades so I wildy go about upgrading this site specifically as soon as upgrades appear.

  • Co-Working Spaces Hit Cape Town at TheiPlex.co.za

    Having designed the website for TheiPlex.co.za recently, and being a solo artist working from home, coffee shops etc, I decided to give their co-working spaces a bash out of desperation to find a space to concentrate better on work.

    TheiPlex is situated in the newly developed Boulevard Complex in Woodstock just outside of the CBD in Cape Town. Woodstock has become somewhat of a buzz in the last few years with creative, tech and corporates moving out of the city centre.

    A Business Idea much needed in “Silicon Cape”

    I really love what TheiPlex have gone about setting up and blogged about something of this nature way back in 2007. That was just before I decided to go solo and what a roller coaster it’s been since then. I’ve never fully mastered the art of confining myself to my work space at home and to be honest I doubt I ever will, so having the chance to catch some quiet time in a clean, clear workspace was really refreshing.

    I called them up in a frantic rush, with deadlines hanging over my head and anxiety boiling up from the need to get things done.

    TheIplex has been designed to set an atmosphere conducive to creative work and innovation. You’ll see form the get go colorful backdrops, themed meeting rooms & clean workspaces.

    The Reception Area

    The Iplex Cape Town rception

    Jts outside the building you’ll find a nice little Vida Cafe, one of my favorite coffee shops in Cape Town, though they are a little pricy. The iPlex offers some pretty decent coffee themselves at quite a good price and you can give the reception/concierge team a buzz when you need some caffeine to keep the engines firing.

    The Workspaces

    I Grabbed a spot in the corner near the window and plugged in. Wifi on tap and coffee a few meters away got me in the mode to get some serious work done.

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    Later on after feeling a little more relaxed i decided to poke around a bit and check out some of the meeting Rooms. My favorite one was the war room, which comes with whiteboard style wall paint so you can brainstorm directly onto the wall surface, take some pics when you’re done, if I’m not mistaken they take snaps of your ideas for you as well. I was alone so would probably have been a bit strange to test it out on my own, really looking forward to the change to brainstorm with a team in a space like that.

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    The War room is fitted out with netting and camouflage hang in from the ceiling, color coded seating and some really great little army figures running about to get you into combat mode.

    After a couple of days of driving into Woodstock I needed to take a break from driving, LOL. But the cool thing is it’s flexible so if you buy some hours you can choose when to make use of them.

    Some other meetings rooms and pics form the rest of the space below. I’v been planning on running my WordPress theme Dev course here as well, it’s a great venue and caters for events as well with a largish events room.

  • nomadone in the mountains, escaping city madness

    I’m a true nature lover, which is strange considering the majority of my time is spent huddled in front of a screen and bashing away at a keyboard day and night. I suppose it’s what’s kept me appreciating what nature has to offer. The last few months have been really taxing on my mind and body to the point that I’ve hardly had any time or mindspace to focus on things like blogging and social networking or even some of the product development ideas I have floating around in the back of my mind.

    I needed a serious break from this daily grind to refresh myself and reconnect with the elements. Ok I must admit I did have some technology with me, but only so I could remember this memorable trip and show others some of the sights we enjoyed.

    I highly recommend getting away now and then to refocus and put things into perspective