The last website I’d think of reviewing would be a newsletter system but Toddle is just too good an example of good website design to pass on by. It is also part of the Tuesday Push series.
Registration is simple; enter your email address. It takes you straight into the system. No passwords, no confirmation emails or age, gender, favourite movie and colour boxes to tick. Toddle does not really need a password, it works by sending the entered email the newsletter which you then forward on. So anyone “hacking” in would only send an email to themselves or to one other person.
Once in you can start creating your newsletter straight away. There is no save button or listings of previous newsletters to choose from (though you can have that if you want). From beginning to end you are working on one newsletter and it is all done from one page. Each template has a few sections with an image, header and body text. Fabulously simple and eminently usable.
Toddle isn’t for power users; it doesn’t have an address book (you send the newsletter from your email client), the templates are set and there is no scheduled sender mechanism. Toddle doesn’t need any of these nor should it ever complicate itself with further features.
For someone like me Toddle does everything I could want in a newsletter system. Beyond being a newsletter system Toddle is an excellent lesson in good website design.
I have finally upgraded this blog from WordPress 2.0.2 to 2.6. Over the next week or so I hope to move the hosting over to my Slicehost server and sort out the DNS. TextDrive have been good to me but I want more control and flexibility.
Leah and Fi came home from hospital yesterday and we spent our first night at home together. The night didn’t go too well at first. If you had been at the 24h Tescos in Waterford around 3am you would have seen a red Volvo wandering around the parking lot and a sleepy dad looking for Aptamil infant milk. Fi had been breast feeding since birth and Leah seemed to be doing well but last night she just wasn’t getting what she wanted. After two hours or so of fretting and crying we brought in the bottle. Leah nearly inhaled the 90ml and promptly fell fast asleep at 4am. She woke again at 7am for another good feed and passed out till 10am for another feed. Hopefully this means a 3 hour cycle which isn’t too bad. She is sleeping now and by 1am should be good for her lunch.
At 13:58 today the 18th of July 2008 I became a father. Fiona gave birth to a perfect baby girl weighing all of 6 pounds and 6 ounces. Ten fingers, ten toes, all good.
Well done to the MUZU.tv lads for getting on RTE news last night. The MUZU dev. team lives and works on the floor beneath me and I can testify to the long hours they have put in.
It has been a week with our Volvo V50 and all is going well. We’ve taken it to Carlow, Cork and back without a fault. Cruise-control has completely spoiled me by now, even on my daily commute to work. The rain sensor works well for the Irish summer while the heated-seats and dual-zone aircon heat, cool and soothe. The turbo-diesel engine is taking some getting used to but it doesn’t lack for power when needing to overtake and ticks over smoothly under cruise-control. The 1.6l diesel is on target for 900 kilometers on a 52 litre tank. Having previously owned only small cars I am impressed with how much more relaxed, and safe, a “premium” car feels. You don’t notice the miles going under the wheels and there is far less road and wind noise in the cabin. The leather seats are mighty comfy too. Scandinavian design has made for one of the nicest dashes I’ve seen; the “floating” center console is uncluttered and very easy to use. In comparison I test-drove a Ford Kuga the other day and honestly could not figure out how to turn the radio on. The V50 interior is elegant, functional, simple and solid.
I haven’t yet had a chance to properly test the Bi-Xenon lights as Irish days are long and bright this time of year. No doubt during winter I will be grateful for Xenon.
We bought it from Autoboland in Waterford. A nicer car sales experience I’ve not had. Nick answered all our questions and entertained us as we test-drove the maple red Volvo while Pat made short work of the finance and trading my Ford Fiesta in. Once again, compared to the Ford garage down the road Volvo is a class above (and yet Ford owns Volvo, odd that.)
Some specs for the years to come; 2008 style-model Volvo V50 SE 1.6l diesel (registered September 2007.) Maple red with winter pack. Bi-Xenon lights. Rain sensors. Calcite leather interior with heated seats. 17″ alloy wheels with Pirelli tyres.
With less than two weeks till Fiona is due I am shocked to read that kids may not be the bundles of joy I was told they were. They cause stress? Responsibility? More work? Surely not! The rabbit run in the yard is ready and I don’t see why junior won’t be perfectly happy there, ready to entertain us at a moments notice and leave us alone the moment Top Gear starts on telly or the pub calls.
In all seriousness; of course a newborn, infant, toddler, adolescent and teenager is going to cause stress. Pregnancy alone should have given you enough warning that life with a child is not one long, blissful, narcotic trip.
Sleepless nights, social pressures, grumpy wife or husband and earning a living alongside, all this and much more one can hardly be less aware of before undertaking such a journey. Didn’t your parents tell you what a terror you were?
In our case we made the decision and took on the responsibility long before the first cells began to multiply.
Apple’s App Store for iPhones and iTouches launched today through an update to iTunes. You can’t yet load the apps. onto devices as the latest firmware isn’t out yet but you can browse the store, buy apps. and have it all ready.
To be honest the store itself is underwhelming. They’ve kept the iTunes music store look and feel but application listings just don’t have the same visual appeal as the latest Cold Play or QOTSA album. The app. information page, as in above, look a bit better. The apps themselves seem alright so far, nothing spectacular yet but there are some handy extensions of online services you know and love. Bomberman Touch looks fun but it isn’t available on the Irish iTunes App Store yet. I know music is geographically restricted but since when did software follow borders?
Saying that, I am looking forward to getting my iPhone 2.0 tomorrow and giving this a proper whirl. It will be nice to develop an app. and see it get into the store and onto phones too.
