This is a fantastic update to WordPress, and the hallmark feature is the redesigned admin area. At The Sweet Setup, we have a lot of custom CMS wizzbangery going on that pretty much necessitates we work within the WordPress backend. And today’s update to WordPress has made things so much better for that. Not only is the admin area updated with better graphics, icons, and typography, it’s also fully responsive.

Speaking of Tools & Toys and lists, our 2013 Christmas Catalog is up and it’s pretty great.

Something we didn’t include in our list this time around is games. My current favorite board game is Dominion. Earlier this year I bought Dominion the card game, and was instantly hooked. I’ve since picked up the Prosperity, Seaside, and Guilds expansions. It’s great with just 2 players (Anna and I play it often) but is also great with 3 or 4 (we play when my sister and brother-in-law come over for dinner). More than 4 players the gameplay can begin to get a little slow, but it’s still fun.

The Tools & Toys staff shares a few of our favorite… ahem… tools and toys from 2013. It’s not too often you find a badger hair shaving brush, a USB bicycle light, and an iPad Markdown editor all in the same list.

Rene Ritchie:

Here’s an idea: Right now, right this very second, please take a moment to go and rate your five favorite, most-used App Store apps. […] We all want more great apps and the only way to get them is to help make them successful.

I did this over the weekend; I rated Day One, PCalc, Milage Log+, 1Password, Fantastical, Tweetbot, and Check the Weather.

Great article by Chris Gonzales. If I were going to write a piece about this issue, it’d be pretty much exactly what Chris already wrote.

David Hieatt, founder of Hiut Denim Co.:

II) You are not an artist. You make things. You make things in order to sell them. The difference between you and an artist is you can’t wait years to be discovered. […] Makers are here to make. Makers are here to sell – Van Gogh had to wait till he died before he sold his first painting. You can’t. Sales after you die don’t count.

Gotta love his candidness.

Later on in his interview, Hieatt talks about the importance of quality but also that quality alone is not enough for a successful business around what you make. I agree. As I was writing and recording my audio book, or as I work on my sites day in and day out and record my podcast every day, my focus is on doing things the best that I can. And to me, that is art; that’s craft.

Slopping something together is not art, and if I allowed myself to do sloppy work then I wouldn’t consider myself an artist.

But the quality alone isn’t what brings me new readers to my site, new members, nor new buyers of my book. Quality is for the sake of my current audience. I do what I can to spread the word about my work to attract new readers, and I do my best work day in and day out so that current readers stick around because the quality is there.

Something I’ve said before regarding Apple and word-of-mouth marketing: good marketing gets people in the door the first time, but it’s a great product that gets them back in the door the second and third times.

What’s the point of an agile standup meeting?

Gone are the days of 30-minute status meetings where most people are half-asleep or pecking away on their laptops, oblivious to what’s being said. Agile standups are the leaner, more efficient cousin of status meetings where attendees actually stand up. On our feet, we’re more focused, attentive, and concise. It’s science!

Whether you need robust tools for planning and tracking projects, communicating with coworkers, deploying products, or just some general tips on how to run an agile shop (and how to run them Rong?), Atlassian is here to offer you the tools and advice you need to get the most out of your agile practice.

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My thanks to Atlassian for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

David Sparks regarding the iBookstore, iBooks Author, and how they have equipped and empowered him to publish his media-rich MacSparky Field Guides. Also, he does the math on what it would cost him to sell his Field Guides on Amazon, and, well, wow.

This week’s Sweet Setup Interview is with my friend, Chris Gonzales, talking about his iPad. Chris writes Unretrofied and is a daily contributor to Tools & Toys. He does all of his work just on an iPad. Pretty rad.

The NanoPad attaches to the bottom of the ElevationDock, and uses “thousands of microscopic suction cups to stick to smooth, non-porous surfaces.” After reading Duncan Davidson’s positive review of the new NanoPad, I ordered one as well. Mine arrived the same time as Marco’s and I mimic both of these guys’ thoughts: it works extremely well.

I’m using this 3D-printed, $4 adapter from Shapeways that works perfectly for fitting my Lightning Cable in my Elevation Dock. And now, with the NanoPad, the ElevationDock no longer requires two hands to remove my iPhone 5s.

Reminds me of this one question and answer from my interview with John Gruber back in 2008:

Shawn: Are there any other weblog articles which have stood out to you over the years as being an exceptional display of online writing?

John: I object to the adjective “online” in that question. Why not simply weblog articles have stood out as exemplary displays of writing, period? The idea that weblogs are a bastard or lesser medium holds many writers back. I find, in fact, that the opposite is true. Most magazines I read are filled with bland, tepid prose. There’s only one New Yorker, and only a handful of other magazines in the same ballpark.