Daily Herald: Featured

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Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Three Mental Tricks to Deal with People Who Annoys You!

Something that we struggle with daily, that eats us up and causes stress and anger: annoying people. You know those people. They cut in line, are rude to you in the office or at the restaurant, cut you off in traffic, talk loudly about obnoxious things, play loud music when you’re trying to concentrate, interrupt you, and so on.

These offenses are violations of the way you think people should act. And so it burns you up. Don’t worry, I’m the same way. If you just keep letting these offensive people get to you, you’ll always be mad or annoyed. Life won’t be very good. But it’s something you can learn to deal with.

I have to admit I’m not perfect at this, but here are three strategies I use that are helpful:

Get Big

I learned this one from a person, who uses “Get Big” as one of his slogans that helps him to be mindful. Imagine you’re a 2-year-old toddler who can’t have a toy or some ice cream right this minute. This problem is your entire universe, because you have no perspective, and so you throw a fit. This is the world of a 2-year-old. But as adults, they know that this is a very small problem, and in fact there are lots of other things the 2-year-old could do to be happy.

Sure, that’s easy for us—we have a bigger perspective. But when someone offends us, we have a small perspective. This little offense is the biggest thing in the world, and it makes us very angry. We throw the equivalent of a 2-year-old fit. But if we get a bigger perspective ("Get Big"), we can see that this little thing matters very little in the bigger picture. It’s not worth being angry over. So remind yourself to "Get Big," then widen your perspective.

Float Down the Stream

Give Them a Mental Hug

This little trick can transform the way I feel about someone who makes me angry. Let’s say someone has just said something rude to me. How dare they! Don’t they have any consideration for my feelings? But of course, in this reaction, I’m not having any consideration for their feelings—only mine matter. So I try to empathize with this rude person, and realize that they’re angry, or scared, or both. They are being rude as a coping mechanism for their fear. And so, mentally (and once in a while physically), I give them a hug. I have compassion for this scared person, because I too am often scared. We’re the same. We need a hug, some compassion, a little love. Remember the movie Munnabhai MBBS and his move "Jaado ki Jhappi" just like that!

Try one of these three tricks the next time someone makes you mad or offends you. And then smile in serenity, armed with the comforting knowledge that, like me, you are superior to the rest of the world.

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Introduction to Mobile Prototyping with HTML, CSS and JavaScript

Unknown at 17:57 No comments:

If you are a designer in this day and age you are probably designing for handheld devices like smartphones and tablets. We live in a polarizing world where on one side we have native apps and on the other the web, with responsive sites and web apps. Designing in this environment requires understanding of the context you will be designing for, therefore, testing on devices. There are several ways to create prototypes, from paper to motion in After Effects. For me, basic HTML, CSS3 and JavaScript do the best job because they allow me to test on the phone with an incredible level of accuracy.

In this post I will start sharing some tips on how to create basic HTML/CSS3/JS prototypes. The idea is to enable you to test your designs on phones, tablets or web. I will also assume that you know a little bit of HTML and CSS, but of course you can learn that online or doing the reverse engineer. So in this first post I will show you how to create a simple prototype with a few icons and basic transitions. You can then apply to your own designs. The coolest thing is that you can create a super smooth prototype with this simple technique.

Introduction

The first thing is to start an HTML document and make sure you have the structure done.
For prototypes, the simplest way to create them is by having all screens you want to test in the same file, that way there won't be any lagging between screens. Remember, we are creating a prototype, not a web app.
The way I organized my HTML is that every screen will use a "DIV" tag with an "ID" and a "CLASS='SC". That way I can use CSS to make them work the same way.
For each screen I used the "HEADER" tag to create the header of the screen. Below is the full HTML file of the prototype.

<!doctype html>
<html>
   <head>
       <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1">
       <meta charset="utf8">
       <title>Prototype</title>
   </head>
   <body>
       <div id="home" class="sc selected">
           <ul>
               <li class="link none" page-load="screen1"></li>
               <li class="link slideup" page-load="screen2"></li>
               <li class="link slideleft" page-load="screen3"></li>
               <li class="link slideright" page-load="screen4"></li>
               <li class="link slidedown" page-load="screen5"></li>
               <li class="link 3dright" page-load="screen6"></li>
               <li class="link 3dleft" page-load="screen7"></li>
           </ul>
       </div>
       <div id="screen1" class="sc">
           <header>
               <a class="back link none" page-load="home">Back</a>
               <h1>Screen 1</h1>
           </header>
       </div>
       <div id="screen2" class="sc">
           <header>
               <a class="back link backdown" page-load="home">Back</a>
               <h1>Screen 2</h1>
           </header>
       </div>
       <div id="screen3" class="sc">
           <header>
               <a class="back link slideright" page-load="home">Back</a>
               <h1>Screen 3</h1>
           </header>
       </div>
       <div id="screen4" class="sc">
           <header>
               <a class="back link slideleft" page-load="home">Back</a>
               <h1>Screen 4</h1>
           </header>
       </div>
       <div id="screen5" class="sc">
           <header>
               <a class="back link backup" page-load="home">Back</a>
               <h1>Screen 5</h1>
           </header>
       </div>
       <div id="screen6" class="sc">
           <header>
               <a class="back" page-load="home">Back</a>
               <h1>Screen 6</h1>
           </header>
       </div>
       <div id="screen7" class="sc">
           <header>
               <a class="back" page-load="home">Back</a>
               <h1>Screen 7</h1>
           </header>
       </div>
   </body>
</html>

Step 2

For the icons, notice that I created a list using "UL" and "LI". Also notice that there are other classes like "LINK", "NONE", "slideup", "slideleft" and more. I will cover those in a few, but for now let's focus on the design of the screens and the icons.
The first line you can see that I am reseting the CSS, that's an easy way to clear all properties and styles that browsers have. I am using the Eric Meyer's CSS Reset. You can find it at http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/
For the screens, this is the CSS:

@import "reset.css";
html, body{
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
}
body{
   padding: 0;
   margin: 0;
   width: 100%;
   height: 100%;
   position: relative;
}
.sc{
   width: 100%;
   height: 100%;
   position: absolute;
   display: none;
   z-index: 10;
}
.sc.selected{
   display: block;
   z-index: 11;
}

Icons

For the icons, we will use a basic "display:inline-block". We could have used the new and fancy flex model, however it doesn't work in Safari, so for now let's wait till iOS7.

#home ul{
   width: 100%;
   height: 100%;
   text-align: left;
}
#home ul li{
   height: 72px;
   width: 72px;
   background: #fff;
   display: inline-block;
   margin: 22px 0 0 22px;
   border-radius: 6px;;
}

Screens

Each screen will have a different color background. Below you can see the CSS.

#home{
   background: #333;
}
#screen1{
   background: #2C3E50;
}
#screen2{
   background: #E74C3C;
}
#screen3{
   background: #3498DB;
}
#screen4{
   background: #ECF0F1;
}
#screen5{
   background: #2C3E50;
}
#screen6{
   background: #E74C3C;
}
#screen7{
   background: #3498DB;
}

jQuery

Now it's time for the most important part, how to make things work. How to make the links open a different screen. To do that we will use Javascript with jQuery. We will use jQuery because it's easier for beginners to understand how Javascript work.
To use jQuery we will have to make sure we are loading it in our HTML. To do that, use this code withing your "HEAD" tag. We are basically loading jQuery from its servers.

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.10.1.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-migrate-1.2.1.min.js"></script>

Removing the 300ms lag
Every time you click/tap something using a mobile phone, there will be a 300ms second if you use regular Javascript events like "onclick". To get rid of that there are some plugins online. The one we will use is based on Google Fast Button, but it's a jQuery version. You can read more about it at https://github.com/alexblack/google-fastbutton
Download the ZIP file and copy the .js files to the folder of your HTML file. Then add these lines right after the previous "script" tags that you used load jQuery.

<script src="google.fastbutton.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.google.fastbutton.js"></script>

Animations

CSS animations are the best way to create silk smooth animations for mobile prototypes. You can create animations using the keyframe technique, however there's an amazing jQuery plugin that helps. The plugin is the jQuery Transit - CSS3 transitions and transformations by Ricard Cruz http://ricostacruz.com/.
Same thing as before, let's load the plugin. Just add the code like the example below.
<script src="http://ricostacruz.com/jquery.transit/jquery.transit.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Basic transition

For the basic transition, that's hiding the current screen and showing the new one we will use CSS classes. Notice that theres a ".sc" and a ".sc.selected". For the basic ".sc" we have a "display:none", that means all screens will be hidden. Then for the one selected ".sc.selected" there's a "display:block". So basically, the idea is, the screen that's visible, it will have a class "selected". By removing the class and adding to another screen, we make a simple transition.
Below you can see the code.

$(document).ready(function() {

   $(".link").fastClick(function () {
       screen = "#" + $(this).attr("page-load");
       if($(this).hasClass("none")){
           $(".sc").removeClass("selected");
           $(screen).addClass("selected");
       }
   })

})

The code above is basically, when the user clicks on a tag with the class ".link" it will get the screen to show, that is in the "page-load" from the link. We will create a variable called "screen" to have this value, but we will add the "#" symbol, that is the one used to represent the "ID".
If the link has a class "none" that is for different animations, we will basically remove the class "selected" to all ".sc" tags. Then we will add the class "selected" to the one we want to show.

Slide from Right to Left

To create a simple slide transition, we will pretty much follow the same idea, the only difference is that we will position the screen to load off the current viewport and then animate it in. Below you can see the code.

if($(this).hasClass("slideleft")){
$(".selected").addClass("previous");
$(screen).css({x:$(window).width() + "px"}).addClass("selected");
$(".previous").transition({x:"-" + $(window).width() + "px"},300,"ease");
$(screen).transition({x:"0px"},300,"ease",function () {
$(".previous").removeClass("selected");
$(".previous").removeClass("previous");
$(".sc").removeAttr("style");
});

}

So the code below will first add a class "previous" to the current screen, that's already selected. Then it will position the screen to show off the screen using "$(screen).css({x:$(window).width() + "px"})" that means, the screen will be position in the width of the window "$(window).width()" to get the value and move it in the X axis to that point. Example, if your screen is an iPhone, it will move the new screen at 640px. Then the class "selected" will be added in order to make it visible. At this point you will have 2 screens with the class "selected".
The second part is the animation using jQuery Transit. So we will basically animate the screen that was on the right to the 0 position using "$(screen).transition({x:"0px"},300,"ease",function ()". The time of the animation will be 300ms and it will use "ease" to make the speed not linear. Once the animation ends, we call a function to remove the "selected" class from the "previous" tag. Then we remove the "previous" class too. At last we remove any "style" attribute to make sure that there won't be any issue in the other animations.

More Animations

Below you can see different transtions type. We have SlideUp, SlideDown, SlideLeft, SlideRight, BackDown, Backup.

if($(this).hasClass("slideup")){
    $(".selected").addClass("previous");
    $(screen).css({y:$(window).height() + "px"}).addClass("selected");
    $(screen).transition({y:"0px"},300,"ease",function() {
        $(".previous").removeClass("selected");
        $(".previous").removeClass("previous");
        $(".sc").removeAttr("style");
    });
}
if($(this).hasClass("slidedown")){
    $(".selected").addClass("previous");
    $(screen).addClass("selected");
    $(screen).css({y:"-" + $(window).height() + "px"});
    $(screen).transition({y:"0px"},300,"ease",function() {
        $(".previous").removeClass("selected");
        $(".previous").removeClass("previous");
        $(".sc").removeAttr("style");
    });
}
if($(this).hasClass("slideleft")){
    $(".selected").addClass("previous");
    $(screen).css({x:$(window).width() + "px"}).addClass("selected");
    $(".previous").transition({x:"-" + $(window).width() + "px"},300,"ease");
    $(screen).transition({x:"0px"},300,"ease",function () {
        $(".previous").removeClass("selected");
        $(".previous").removeClass("previous");
        $(".sc").removeAttr("style");
    });

}
if($(this).hasClass("slideright")){
    $(".selected").addClass("previous");
    $(screen).css({x:"-" + $(window).width() + "px"}).addClass("selected");
    $(".previous").transition({x:$(window).width() + "px"},300,"ease");
    $(screen).transition({x:"0px"},300,"ease",function () {
        $(".previous").removeClass("selected");
        $(".previous").removeClass("previous");
        $(".sc").removeAttr("style");
    });

}
if($(this).hasClass("backdown")){
    $(".selected").addClass("previous");
    $(screen).show();
    $(".previous").css("z-index","24").transition({y:$(window).height() + "px"},300,"ease",function() {
        $(".previous").removeClass("selected");
        $(".previous").removeClass("previous");
        $(screen).addClass("selected");
        $(".sc").removeAttr("style")
    });
}
if($(this).hasClass("backup")){
    $(".selected").addClass("previous");
    $(screen).show();
    $(".previous").css("z-index","24").transition({y: "-" + $(window).height() + "px"},300,"ease",function() {
        $(".previous").removeClass("selected");
        $(".previous").removeClass("previous");
        $(screen).addClass("selected");
        $(".sc").removeAttr("style");
    });
}

Using the animations

With this basic code you can simply add a class "link" to any tag to make it clickable. Once it's clickable you can choose the transition by using another tag. In our case you can use:

slideup - eg.

slidedown - eg.

slideleft - eg.

slideright - eg.

backdown - eg.

backup - eg.

Conclusion

It might look confusing, but as any new thing we want to know there's a learning curve. The secret is to go little by little, with small little achievements in order to get easy and quick rewards, that way we keep ourselves motivated.
You can also download the files and check on your phone (recommended)

Download Files

Saturday, 5 October 2013

Featured Home & Garden

Your home reflects your personality

Unknown at 20:44 No comments:

It is a well-known fact and an accepted society norm today, that the way you dress, your lifestyle choices and the home and environment you live in, reflects your social standing. It is therefore not unusual that the concept of 'luxury living', an ever evolving concept is definitely here to stay. At the end of the day, everyone strives to achieve the perfect home and lifestyle that not only becomes your comfort zone and an extension of your personality, but also a special space that can be flaunted to friends and family.

In the current times home design and styling has become intrinsic to this expression of the self, almost becoming a story told through design. The home space is being passionately converted into an 'object' or possession reflecting the social status of the owner and his personality. To cater to this new-age demand, developers, architects and interior designers are continuously raising the bar, by adhering to international standards in terms of architectural and landscape design, amenities, facilities and services offered to the consumer.

There is no doubt that an increase in the trend of luxury living has lead to an influx of high end projects, luxury brands and cutting edge designs. In fact, this is one sector which was least affected during the economic slump, in the past couple of years. One of the most encouraging outcomes of this 'hip and new' mindset, has been the development of innovative concepts in interior design.
Homes have graduated from being just comfortable living spaces into the luxury segment that was earlier associated only with the hospitality industry. Newer and innovative materials are being explored in ways never done before. Furniture has been transformed into pieces of art, while art is increasingly used and adapted to define and help modify the space to add elegance, chutzpah and style to the end-product.
When it comes to luxury homes, it has become essential to design and finish one's space as per the latest, trendiest and most exclusive finishes, fixtures and fittings, furniture, furnishings etc. Easy availability and access to hi-end, custom- made designer furniture, furnishings, modular kitchens, a wide range of bath fittings and concepts and latest technology ensure that one's home can be modified into an ultra luxurious space, created to reflect one's social standing.

Also, with increasing double income, nuclear families, it has become much easier to afford designer homes. Additionally, the present generation has the ability to recognize, acquire and put together an ideal collection of unique, hand-picked objects (furniture, artifacts, art, knick-knacks, furnishings etc) that reflect ones personal style, taste and hence social status. Subtle yet classy personal touches not only enhance the home interior, but speak volumes about your actual personality, profession and position in society.
For example, little knick-knacks collected from all over the world immediately portrays the fact that the owner of the house is a well travelled, informed individual who would not hesitate to loosen his purse strings if the object of desire were to enhance his social standing amongst his peers. The younger generation are not afraid to live comfortably, flaunt their eclectic style and explore new aspects of design. They are well-informed and would not hesitate to go the extra mile to express their lifestyle choices.

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Featured Home & Garden Life

Eat well: The ayurvedic way of life

Unknown at 18:50 No comments:

Ancient wisdom suggests if you start your meal with heavy and sweet food, then move on to the savory part, and finally finish off with salad, you'll digest better and also manage to keep the flab away.

Ayurvedic cooking is about foods that suit your dosha (constitution). It involves a balanced meal, which nourishes and fulfills the requirements of the body, builds immunity, heals the body, aids digestion and eliminates waste. To avoid contracting season-specific illnesses, ayurveda recommends seasonal diets to help the body acclimatise to the season; warm spices and heavy grains on cold winter days and lighter foods such as fruits and vegetable salads during summer.

How to Start....

To start with an ayurvedic way of life, have a good look at your current diet and try consuming foods with fewer preservatives, artificial colours and chemicals. Check out how much of frozen, fried and fermented foods form your diet and find out if you can replace them with freshly-cooked meals.
Identify your dosha (vata, pitta, kapha) based on your physical attributes and emotional strength. Doshas define the requirements of your body and lifestyle. If you have a thin, long frame, are lively, chatty and always on the move, you have a vata constitution. Try to include warm, moist ingredients like ghee, oils, ginger, garlic and eggs in your meals. People with a pitta dosha are intense, intelligent, and goal-oriented and have a vibrant complexion. They require cooling foods like coconut, lots of fluids, salads, greens and fruits to pacify their fiery nature. People with a kapha constitution are lazy, often bulky, calm and patient by nature. They benefit from warm, dry and light foods like besan, hot spices like cloves and black pepper, pungent flavours like ginger-lemon, garlic chutney and teas.

Ancient wisdom for modern minds

To achieve good health, it's essential to digest the meal and assimilate the nutrients well; mealtime plays an important role here. Eat when you're hungry, and follow the rhythms of nature. For instance, the digestive fire is weak late at night and stronger in midday and around sunset. Have an early dinner. Replace coated aluminum cooking vessels with pure iron or brass vessels.
Moreover, use spices that ignite the digestive fire but only in the amount required to induce hunger and digest the food. Excessive is again against nature and health. Eat heavy, sweet foods at the start of a meal, sour and salty in the middle, and bitter astringents, like salads, towards the end for easy digestion. Because sweet and heavy oils ignite fire, salty and sour flavours process the foods eaten, and bitter astringents subside the ignited fire to complete the process.

Monday, 30 September 2013

Featured

Amazing Facts

Unknown at 20:03 2 comments:

If you are struck by lightning, your skin will be heated to 28,000 degrees Centigrade, hotter than the surface of the Sun.

The average distance between the stars in the sky is 20 million miles.

The Earth weighs 6,500 million million million tons.

Honey is the only food consumed by humans that doesn’t go off.

Every time you sneeze your heart stops a second.

In space, astronauts cannot cry because there is no gravity.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Children grow faster in the springtime than any other season during the year.

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone back in 1876, only six phones were sold in the first month.

By the Ideas and motivation of Shaurya Sharma, the Amazing Man

Friday, 27 September 2013

Featured Hacking Life

How to Make Waking Up Comfortable and Pleasurable (Instead of Punishing)

Unknown at 20:44 No comments:

This is no way to start the morning, though it's probably the most common way: Hit snooze over and over until you're aggravated enough to get up or play mean tricks on yourself, like placing the alarm clock across the room or shredding money if you don't get up. But instead of punishment, what if you made it more pleasurable to get out of bed, even as the weather's getting colder? Consider these (often automated) alternatives.

To be clear, getting yourself out of a warm bed into a cold house to start the day is kind of the definition of what the folks on Twitter like to say. Just because it's kind of a luxurious problem doesn't mean you should just suck it up and not do anything about it, if you've got the means to.

Add More Comfort To Your Mornings

The most obvious recommendation is to set your automatic coffeemaker for the morning, because, frankly, it works. There's the sound of the coffee brewing (even louder if your coffeemaker grinds your beans first) and the irresistible smell.

If you're not a java drinker, you can still put your automatic coffeemaker to use: Boil hot water for tea in your coffeemaker or brew the tea in the machine itself.

Consider spa-ifying your home to make it more enticing to arise to. Think Red Envelope stuff to tempt you out of bed:

Warm, fuzzy slippers
A velvety bathrobe
A scented oil diffuser (perhaps put on a timer) with oils that are supposed to be energizing, like citrus
A towel warmer for after your shower

All definitely worth the price, if you consider the cost of being late or being stressed about being late, versus getting up relaxed and refreshed in the morning. On the other hand, you could do the opposite: Lower your comfort level in bed to make you so uncomfortable in bed you'll be ok with getting up (as a fellow sleepyhead, however, if you're skeptical about that, I don't blame you).

Not enough? Here are some other suggestions:

Heat your room: Whether you use an automatic thermostat or a space heater on an outlet timer, you can eliminate one of the biggest obstacles to getting up: The difference in heat between your bed and just outside your bed. Time your heaters so they blast at you just around wakeup time.
Stretch: As soon as your grumpy self awakes, try an energizing, delicious (yes, delicious) full-body stretch. While still lying in bed, raise your arms above your head and stretch your legs out, then take a deep breath in and out while (inevitably) yawning. Repeat a couple of times, think about stuff you have to and, importantly, want to do today, and you may find getting up easier.
Let the sun shine in: Rising by the light of the sun may the most natural way to wake, but many of us may prefer simulating the rising sun on our own terms. You can create a DIY Sunrise Simulator with a halogen lamp or simply adjust your curtains so that in the mornings they let in a little sunlight (but not too much).
Set up a great music alarm: The best trick in your wake-up routine might be a more moving song than the default buzz.

Give Yourself Something to Look Forward To

Prepare a warm breakfast or treat: Perhaps the smell of warm coffee doesn't get you up. How about a warm breakfast? Make oatmeal in a slow cooker or rice cooker to be ready just as you wake. If you don't care for oatmeal, you can instead set a treat (e.g., chocolate chip muffin) on the counter the night before as an incentive with similar purpose.
Treat yourself to something that feels good: Got a massage pillow or foot massager? Use it as an incentive, so instead of resisting getting up, you have a ritual morning massage to look forward to.
Postpone something you want to do: So far, we've noted physical things that might make waking up more pleasant—a warm cup of coffee and oatmeal waiting, a heated room, a big robe. Besides those physical things, think of psychological motivations that might get you up early: the chance to have the house to yourself (instead of your family members), a jump start on some project you're interested in, 10 minutes working out, checking your favorite website (e.g., DAILY TIMES), and so on.

What are your get-out-of-bed tricks?

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