Though I was one of the original Kickstarter backers for Frank’s book, it wasn’t until this past summer that I finally read The Shape of Design book while relaxing in Breckenridge, CO. The book is absolutely fantastic and sparked quite a bit of inspiration and ideas for my own audio book, Delight is in the Details.

Frank has done a reprint of the hardcover edition (using blue in place of red now). Alternatively, you can read it online or in eBook format for free.

Daniel Jalkut:

These days, people who are confident they can do good work face one primary obstacle: the challenge of doing that good work.

Madhur Dutta, writing for our latest app review on The Sweet Setup:

The best app in any category must be easy to use, have a well-polished design, and offer a solid set of features at a reasonable price. Riposte comes through on all of these aspects, and it hits the ball out of the park when it comes to design, ease of use, and price. This is why we recommend it without hesitation as the best App.net client for iPhone.

Obviously, I agree. But I’d add that I think Riposte is more than just the best App.net client for the iPhone. I think it’s one of the finest apps on my iPhone, period. Though I can’t put my finger on precisely what it is about Riposte that I like so much, if I had to try and explain in one word then I’d say the app is just easy.

This week’s quick tip on The Sweet Setup is something I do each month to help keep my OmniFocus database running a bit more efficiently.

Chris Gonzales:

The funny thing I’ve noticed is that it seems like each pro is also its own con.

Bingo. For example, working from home means no commute, but it also means no “transition” after the work day.

The fact that I cannot, for example, buy an iPad app from my iPhone baffles me.

At Pencils.com, we believe that creativity is the greatest of all virtues. And, with our selection of unique, high-quality pencils, notebooks, and creative tools, we’ve got everything you need to unleash yours.

Whether you’re a pencil nut who knows all the brands (Caran d’Ache, Blackwing, Faber-Castell, we stock them all), or a casual doodler looking for something to inspire you, there’s something for you on Pencils.com. Combine that with our legendary customer service and fast, reliable shipping, and you’ve got some serious creative potential.

So, go ahead and read the story of the $40 pencil, learn about the pencil company that has been around since the French Revolution, and find the perfect notebook to capture your ideas. If you’re in the giving mood, we also have gifts for artists, writers, musicians, and anyone else on your shopping list.

Above all else, stay creative.

* * *

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

This iPhone-app-slash-Mac-utility came out a few weeks ago and it’s quite spectacular. Your iPhone and Mac pair up via the low-energy Bluetooth 4, and then when you come into proximity of your Mac and see the lock screen, you just knock twice on your phone. And presto! Your Mac is unlocked.

(Remember when we had to type our user passwords in like animals?)

I’ve been using Knock since it first came out, and it works right away about 95% of the time. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for the iPhone and Mac to pair up before I can knock to unlock. And as for the drain on my iPhone’s battery, it’s been negligible.

Update: Since posting this link last night I’ve received quite a bit of comments from folks on Twitter who haven’t had as much luck with the app that I have. Apparently it can be hit and miss, and some folks frequently have to toggle bluetooth of and off on their iPhone to get Knock to re-connect their Mac and find that it’s just easier and faster to type their password in. So, alas, I guess your milage may vary.

A few months ago I published my first book. Well, it’s more than just a book. Delight is in the Details is an audio book, eBook, and interview series for people who make things. Quite a few people have bought it (if that’s you, thanks!) and I’ve received a good amount of positive feedback.

If you haven’t yet picked up a copy, it’s still on sale from Thanksgiving weekend, and today is the last day to grab a copy of the whole bundle for 25-percent off the normal price.

This week’s Sweet Setup interview is with my pal, Matt Legend Gemmell. Matt is a consultant user experience designer, software engineer, and speaker. He’s also one of my favorite writers.

The Sweet Setup’s latest app review is up just in time for Thanksgiving. It’s our pick for the best recipe app on iOS and Mac. (And those mushrooms you see in the pictures? Well, I’ll be eating them for dinner tonight.)

Barley is a new WordPress plugin that lets you edit the text and content of your posts and pages from the front end of your site, rather than going into the back-end editor.

This workflow makes a lot of sense. And Barley does a very good job at implementing it. For me, the vast majority of edits I make to my site are fixing typos and broken links. And, usually, I find myself on the front-end permalink first (because someone pointed out the typo via email or Twitter, giving me a link to the page).

I’ve spent some time with Barley over the past week and it’s very well done. You just click your cursor in the text and you can write, edit, and more — add in links, change text to bold, write whole paragraphs, etc.

However, I have one quibble that I think is a deal breaker for me. After a post has been edited in Barley, the back-end text of the article gets converted from Markdown to HTML. I use a different Markdown plugin here on shawnblanc.net than I do on The Sweet Setup, and Barley converted my markdown text to HTML formatting on both sites. It’s not a destructive change at all, and I fully trust Barley. But, I also like to keep my posts in Markdown. So, we’ll see.

Barley is on subscription pricing plan. It’s $12/year to use it. If it sounds interesting, I definitely think it’s worth checking out. It could remove a lot of friction in your typo-maintenance workflow, and more (like the fact you can write whole posts right there in the browser!).