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Today I attended MinneBar. MinneBar is an (un)conference aimed at getting those in Minnesota’s tech and design communities together to discuss topics that interest them. I try to go to as many conferences that I can.  What I really like about this one is it isn’t just a presenter with an audience.  At this conference it is all about everyone in the room adding input, the presenter is more of a facilitator of a discussion in the room.

All the sessions were under 5 main categories: Development, Design, Startups, Social Media and Other. Take a look at the schedule here.

Not only is this conference highly informational it also is a great opportunity to network. I met a lot of great people today and attended a lot of great sessions.

3 of my favorite sessions.

1. Success in Software Consulting by Scott K Davis.
This guy was a great speaker and had a lot of great advice for people looking to begin consulting and already consulting.
I was able to obtain a copy of his slides from his site.

2. Paper Prototypes: There and Back Again by John Malone, @john_malone.
He spoke about something I think everyone knows they should do, but few actually practice. Mocking, wireframing your site before you even get into designing it. He discussed 3 very simple ways to do this. Non of which require any artistic ability. The idea is actually to keep it light-weight so everyone can see how the site will be used.

1. Use pencil and paper.  This is something you can do while sitting on the couch.
2. Use post-it notes.  Using post-it notes allow you to move things around, ie. sign-up box, navigation tabs, etc.
3. Use software to do it.  In his example he suggested Balsamiq Mockups. I have also heard good things about this software.  Many others were shouted out as well, the main thing is to just try one out and find what you like.

The group discussed ways that they convince their clients / bosses this is something we need to do.  Some suggestions were:

• The prototypes are very easy to understand
• They’re not intimidating at all.
• They’re very easy to add input to
• Cheap!  What does a pen and paper cost, $1.60?
• They will feel engaged, they get to add their input right away
• The 1/10/100 rule.  If an issue is found in these, it’s only going to cost a buck to fix. If it is found in development it is only going to cost $10.  If one is found in production it is going to cost $100.

** Update**
Slides from the session can now be found on slideshare.

3. How Can Minnesota Be Better? This was a panel discussion with 5 great panelists.

• Robert Weber – W3i
• Jon Dahl – Zencoder
• Marti Nyman – Altavail Partners
• Chris Smith – Coral Group
• Dan Grigsby
• Facilitated by Jeff Pesak & Mike Bollinger of Tech.mn

More information about the panelists can be found at TECH{dot}MN.

I thought the diversity of these 5 individuals were great and they really had a lot of good things to say.  It seemed the dominance of the discussion was about startups getting funding which I was a little disappointed in. I really liked how Dan chimed in and basically said, “you know what you don’t have to have funding to start something.” They also compared the MN culture a lot to the Bay area and pointed out the many differences.

I took video of this session so watch it yourself.  Let me know what you think in the comments. (The first video says Part II as the title,but it is Part I.  If you have created a video before you know how long it takes, I didn’t feel it was worth it to redo it just the title).

Part I

MinneBar Spring 2010 Part I from Joel Dahlin on Vimeo.

Part II

MinneBar Spring 2010 Part II from Joel Dahlin on Vimeo.

Part III

MinneBar Spring 2010 Part III from Joel Dahlin on Vimeo.

Recap: The entire day was great.  Not only did I learn a lot but I meat some amazing people and a few people that I have engaged with on twitter I was able to meet in real life which is always nice.  This conference is such a great place to network.  If you’re looking for a job, many companies are there recruiting. I will definitely be going to the next one.

Thanks to all the organizers and sponsors for putting on such a great event!

Filed under: Conferences,Reviews   Tags: minne*, minnebar, networking, training,
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I’ve been using this pen tablet for over a year now. This is one of those peripherals I could not live without. If you follow me on twitter I am sure you have seen me rave about it.

I originally purchased this because my wrist was really starting to hurt from using my mouse 10 hours a day.  At my former place of employment one of my co-workers swore by it so as a last ditch effort I paid the 100 bucks and gave it a try.

I believe the majority of people that purchase this with the intent to draw and take notes with it.  My intent unlike most was to use it for every day computer use.  I now use the pen about 95% of the day. It may sound funny because really, how much effort is it to use a mouse? But, with the pen it is much less effort and you don’t use your wrist the way you do with a mouse.

Bamboo Fun comes with the tablet, the pen and a wireless mouse. After you hook the tablet via USB you need to install the driver for it.  I am running Windows7, Wacom had the driver I need for download on their site.  The thing I like most about this is the area of the tablet represents your screen.  In my case both of my screens since I run dual monitors.  So if I move my pen to the upper right corner of the tablet the pointer will be in the upper right corner of my monitor.  You end up flexing and expanding your fingers more than moving your wrist because of this.  It really is nice.

The system offers some other nice features too.  You get pen flicks with it.  This is nice for  when browsing.  If you just  quickly tab your tablet moving from right to left it will be a back command.  Likewise Forward is just quickly tapping the tablet left to right.  You can customize the pen flicks for other features too such as delete, copy, paste, undo, and a whole lot more. The tablet also has a few buttons on it that you can program to do whatever you like. I have two set up to automatically launch programs.  One shows the desktop and one set up to do the equivalent of Win/Start  + Tab.  I really don’t use these but there are there if you want them.  Then there is one big button in the middle.  I have this one set up to do my window scrolling since you can’t really scroll with the pen. The missing scroll wheel is probably what I miss most from the mouse. This is really the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with the pen tablet but it is all I use it for.

The pen tablet does take some time to getting used to.  It took me about 4 days before I really felt comfortable using it.  It is weird, you know how when you see an older person use a mouse for their first time?  They just aren’t that accurate.  That is how you’ll feel when first using this.  It takes a little practice.  You also have to get used to just moving the pen to the correct position on the tablet to move the pointer where you want it  instead of looking at where it currently is and then moving it in the right direction like with a mouse. If you do use the mouse that comes with the tablet though it does function the same as a regular mouse. Clicks and double clicks are a difficult task at first as well. For double clicks you have to make sure to tap in the same place twice.  Seems simple, but at first it is easier said then done. Just stick with everything though and you soon won’t be even thinking about it.

There are a few cons I have found.

1. The scrolling as I mentioned above. It would be nice if there was a little scroll wheel on the pen.  I find it very cumbersome to use the scroll wheel on the tablet and in fact find myself quickly grabbing the mouse and using the wheel on that if I for see myself having to scroll a lot. For example reading a long article.
2. You have to drop the pen to type and pick it back up when you need to move the pointer.  At first this really feels like you’re wasting a lot of time doing this. If I am going to type something quick like a url, I have found that I can type with the pen in my hand.  Really though, after using it for a while you don’t even realize it and in fact get very quick putting the pen in the stand and grabbing it.  I do it without even thinking about it now.
3. I have found that some applications don’t respond well to clicks or double clicks.  One program that comes to mind is TweetDeck.  If there is a link in someone’s tweet for some reason I can never seem to click on it.  I always end up grabbing the mouse to click on it.  It seems this only occurs in a few apps, but none the less it is annoying.
4. Ironically Photoshop seems more difficult to use with the pen then the mouse.  I really only use Photoshop to slice up PSD’s.  In my experience I have found my hand isn’t steady enough to slice exactly where I want so I end up using the mouse mainly in this app.

In conclusion, even though there are a few cons I still highly recommend the pen tablet.  I do suggest getting one with a mouse to cover the cons mentioned.  I think the less expensive ones come without a mouse.  My wrist is extremely thankful I have made the conversion and I actually feel more productive using this now that I am used to it.  I really couldn’t go without it any more.

Do any of you use a pen tablet?  What is your experience with it?

Filed under: Reviews   Tags: peripheral,
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