Shut up. I'm talking.

Laps led, on the pace and 3rd overall

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:50:11 +0300

It was an interesting weekend in Durban as I took part in a “Pre-National” event to gauge my pace against some of my main opposition.

Friday testing was awesome as I was clearly the fastest in my class but Saturday did not go so well.

The pace was upped by the other drivers and for various reasons I just couldn’t match them. It was a big dose of reality and to be honest I was a bit down by the end of the day. I definitely went the wrong way with my setup though but luckily we worked that out on our way home that evening.

Come Race Day and I was raring to go, we made a huge setup change to my kart for morning warm-up (literally going the way opposite to what we had on Saturday) and it worked a charm. Even though I was still 2/10ths off the pace I knew that with the new setup I could race hard at the front.

Qualifying has always been my week point and it was no different this weekend. I was way off the pace and only managed 4th place but since I’ve been here many times in my life it didn’t get me down, I just had to work harder in the races.

The aim of this weekend was to test and fly below the radar but when you can sniff victory it’s incredibly difficult to let it go.

In heat 1 I got a so-so start but by lap 5 I found myself leading a pack of 4 karts literally running nose to tail. The sensation of leading a race again was just so satisfying but unfortunately I couldn’t hold on to it for too long. I ended up 3rd in that heat after taking the lead twice but felt that it was a matter of timing if I was to win.

Come heat 2 and I made a massive mistake when doing a routine check on the motor. When I put the parts back together I managed to literally put something upside down and it cost me dear in the race.

At the start I slotted into 2nd place but going up one of the steep hills I realised something was wrong and lost out hugely. From then on it was a matter of survival to try and hang onto 4th place while the leading three stormed off. I somehow managed to keep my place through the race and was happy to gain some experience in blocking like crazy to survive.

In heat 3 the problems were fixed and we decided to make another change to my setup. I was hugely skeptical about the change but my mechanic/engineer insisted we try it. He turned out to be right and a huge battle ensued for the race win between myself and local-guy Mitchel Licen.

I led the race multiple times but somehow managed to miscount the laps. I slotted into 2nd and planned an attack for the final lap but it turns out we were already on the final lap!

No to worry though as technically I should have stayed in 2nd in the first place.

With a 3rd, 4th and 2nd in each heat I finished 3rd on the podium in the final points count. Hugely satisfying for my first race back in karting in over three years.

Bring on the African Champs!

Pre National - Day 1. We're getting quicker!

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:24:26 +0300

Just a quick update, the day could not have been better. We obliterated our best time from the previous test with a 44.7 and did consistent 44.8 - 44.9 second laps during most of the day.

Some of the main competition was also testing but they couldn’t seem to match our pace. We will see on Sunday whether they were playing games or if we are genuinely as quick as it seems.

Other good news is that the GoPro camera is working magically, I have some really cool footage from today which gives you a sense of how quick these karts actually are. Hopefully we can get some good footage on race day.

The end.

I don’t think there is a car on this planet which sounds...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:24:51 +0300

I don’t think there is a car on this planet which sounds like this.

The new Pagani Huayra.

Source

Back to Durban I go

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 22:18:06 +0300

On Thursday I get back on a plane to Durban for some more testing. Since I’ve been back I have tried to do as much exercise as possible but my ‘other life’ (read: work) seems to be getting in the way!

This weekend is a regional race event but because it’s the last race before the main African Championship event I expect to see many of my competitors entering this race to do some testing.

In Karting we call it a “Pre-National” because you use the non-championship event to gauge your competition.

On a side not I am excited as I’ve managed to get a GoPro HD Camera (thanks @bernarddeclerk!), so look forward to seeing some rad onboard footage for this site :)

The schedule is basically practice Friday, Saturday and the race taking place Sunday.

The main event consists of a morning practice session, qualifying and then three heats. You earn points depending on which position you finish in each one and then the person with the highest score overall wins the day.

The most important thing this weekend is not to win though, it is purely to see where I stand against the competition. Even though last week went really well it’s nothing like performing when the pressure is on.

This event will be a real acid test. Can’t wait.

Fourty Five Dead.

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:56:00 +0300

While I wait to board my plane back to Cape Town.

14 hours later…

So I’m back and, wow, what a trip. One thing I forgot about motorsport (actually sport in general, no doubt) are the highs and lows you can experience in just one day.

For day two of testing we got to the track nice and early as we had some work that we still had to do on the kart. Once preparation was done I went out to do a short session to warm up the body and check that everything was ok.

Straight out of the blocks I was relatively quick which is always relieving because I sometimes tend to worry that my performance is a fluke or once off.

After three morning sessions we decided it was time to stick on some new tyres. The day before we had set a best lap of 45.2 on new rubber so today we planned on at least doing 45.0 and hopefully some high 44’s.

Pics from the test

The biggest nightmare as a driver / team is that when you put on new tyres you don’t actually go any quicker. Generally tyres are guaranteed to find you time so if you put them on and stay at the same pace (or worse, go slower) then you worry.

Unfortunately I was blessed with that honour on this second day of testing. Instead of doing 45.0 I juuuust managed to squeeze out a 45.2. I personally felt that it was down to me, the driver, as our setup was really good.

So with that in mind I sat down in a quiet corner and gave myself a fat lecture. I have experienced these moments while competing in Gran Turismo competitions, so I know the drill. It is usually a case of me over driving or over compensating. I thought to myself, if I just pull it back slightly and then build up pace again I should be able to do a good time.

By now it was already midday and the bruising around my ribs was taking serious strain. It took me about 1-2 laps just to get over the pain and shut it out so that I could drive flat out.

During the second session after putting on new tyres it seemed that my little pep talk did it’s trick as I started dipping into the 45.1 range. As the session progressed I felt that I could push a little bit harder and the next thing I see that on my lap timer is that I have hit 45.02.

The racing lap record around the circuit is a high 45.0 however I didn’t know this at the time. I stayed out and pushed harder in the hope of breaking into the 44’s but it wasn’t to be.

When I came into the pits I was told that I had matched and then broken the lap record. That, my friends, is a competitive pace and something I wasn’t expecting when I got on the plane to Durban 2 days prior.

With 45.0 as our new benchmark we experimented with a few things on the kart but as the day progressed I was in more pain. It eventually took me 5 laps to get over it and through some of the really fast corners I was gritting my teeth as hard as I could to just get through the corner.

Eventually I decided to call it a day as we were losing time due to the drop in track temperature and the pain I was experiencing.

All in all it proved to be a very successful test, I will be back next Thursday to take part in a Regional Race meeting as preparation for the big race in August. Everyone who will be there in August will be there next week, so it will be a fairly accurate acid test of where I stand.

I am cautiously optimistic but also apprehensive because going fast in testing is one thing but racing fast is quite another!

Here are some pics from the test

Some pics I took over during the two day test. I wish the images...

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:53:40 +0300

The kart I'll be driving

The track I'll be driving on

Kart. Again.

Steepest corner on the track.

Blind corner #1

Kart close up :)

Blind corner #2

Some pics I took over during the two day test. I wish the images did this track justice in terms of gradient. It is truly a spectacular track to race on.

Day two: Do I still have it?

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 23:24:58 +0300

It’s been a super long day but I finally have a chance to fill you in on my first day back on a kart track in three years.

The long and short of it is that things went really well.

In karting, pace/lap times are measured in the 1/10th of a second. That is juuust faster than the blink of an eye.

If you are three to four tenths off the pace of the fastest guys then you are considered slow and going nowhere fast.

When we arrived at the track early this morning we agreed that if I did a 45.5 second lap time we would be satisfied. The ultimate lap times around the circuit are in the region of 45.0 and 45.2. So if we were three tenths off after being out of karting for over three years then it would be an excellent result.

We started the day on some really old tires to scrape off the driver rust and the first few laps back in a kart were absolutely awesome.

There is an indescribable sensation when driving a kart. The steering is so sharp and the manouverability so quick that it takes a short while to get your bearings straightened. You have to be so precise and gentle with steering, braking and throttle that it’s a bit of a shock to the system when you get back into it. The karts we race are capable of +/- 150km/h but about this track we ‘only’ get up to 115km/h, so they are by no means slow!

Adjusting to the braking points and turning points was the biggest challenge in the first two sessions but once in the groove we decided to stick on a new set of tires to start doing some meaningful setup work.

The first session with new rubber proved a bit underwhelming and my best time was only 45.8. We weren’t put down by this however and kept pushing. By the 3rd session (on new rubber) we managed to get down to 45.2 while consistently lapping in the 45.4 range.

Not only did we beat our target time but we also matched the race pace of the top competitors. There is a huge amount of satisfaction and relief when you find out that you can still mix it with the top drivers.

The only issue from here on is getting to a fitness level where I can lap consistently for 25 laps +. Karting is incredibly tough on the body and the bruises and blisters are already showing.

Tomorrow is my last test day before I head home and back to work. We still have another set of new tires and are hoping that we can get as low at 45.0 or even break into the 44 second lap times.

If we do that. We are in the game.

I'm going racing.

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:38:00 +0300

In a few hours I’ll be on plane to Durban.

The reason for my trip is to climb into a kart to see if I still have what it takes to compete at the highest level.

Once upon a time, my dream in life was to have a career as a racing driver. The pinnacle of my ‘career’ was competing in the World Rotax Max Championships in 2007. I ended up 6th at the race but wasted an opportunity of actually winning. That fact haunts me to this day.

To compete in the World Champs you need to become the SA champ. To do that you have to dedicate 110% of your time and focus, as well as every cent of any money you may have, to even stand a chance of winning. It took me 6 years to eventually achieve it and is still by far the most difficult thing I have ever done.

In early August is a rare opportunity to qualify for the World Champs without having to win the SA Championship. There is a once off event called the African Championship, taking place in Durban, and the winner will qualify for the World Finals.

It is a fast track method to qualify and even though it still costs a bucket load of money it is less than the truck load you’ll have to spend to win the SA’s.

When I finally stopped racing in 2008 I had nothing left, both in terms of money and motivation. I started to focus on Obox with my brother and said that one day I will come back to racing on my own terms. Just over 3 years later I am at a point where I can afford to do this race on my own terms and with my own money. It’s a big moment for me and I plan on maximising every second of it.

With the race itself on the 8th August I have planned to fly to the track that we will be competing at to practice and prepare. Karting requires sharp reflexes and intense focus and having been four years out, there is no doubt that I will be a bit blunted.

So over the next 5 weeks I will be plowing all my extra time, and attention into getting fit, more focussed and most importantly, believing again. This will include wearing a helmet in my pyjamas while I exercise my neck before bed time.

It is no in way an easy task and I am under no illusion of how steep this mountain is to climb. Of the 32 people who will take part there will be at least one European Champion as well as numerous SA Champs and competitors who’ve finished in the top 10 in the World Champs. South Africa has some thoroughbred karters who give nothing away.

The aim is to win and qualify but the reality is that even if I finish in the top 10 it will be impressive. Winning is the ultimate goal though and that’s why I’ll be on that plane.

This is day one.

Re-designing Motribe

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:52:45 +0200

Re-designing Motribe:

Earlier today the new Motribe site was launched. The design is done by Obox (yours truly) and I could not be happier with the outcome.

It started with a phone call from one of their co-founders, Nic Haralambous. Nic and I have known each other for a while and we both respect each others businesses considerably.

My initial thought when he asked me to redo their site was “WOOHOO!”, however it wasn’t until I sat down to think of what I was going to do did I realise the pressure I had put myself under.

Let me explain why.

Motribe is one of the hottest startups to come out of South Africa. They are approaching 1 million users and only launched this venture in August 2010. It’s exploding in growth and, in my opinion, is by far one of the best SA Start Ups that I have seen. I didn’t want to disappoint and I definitely didn’t want the new design to be the weak link in the chain.

On top of the pressure to deliver ‘the awesome’ was also the timeline. Nic and Vince leave for SXSW tomorrow - I was asked to design the site 5 weeks prior.

For me personally, to come up with something decent I need a long time to think about it. No pen, no paper, just thinking.

Luckily through the whole process the ‘Mobros’ were open to all my suggestions / opinions on where the design should go, what colours to use and even what the copy should say. It was a special experience to have that much freedom with a client project.

At the end of the day the first design iteration got rejected but to be honest I sent it to them way too soon, but did so knowingly to gauge their initial reaction. Once that was out the way some of the pressure resided and I was able to do what I knew best.

The new designs focus was on clear typography, a clean and very professional feel (white space, font sizes) and nothing too playful. So the colours couldn’t be too vibrant and the icons I chose were from the solid vector side of life.

The 960 grid was used with a bit of ‘poetic license’ when aligning the elements. I have learned that some pages require a 16 column whereas others need a 12 column grid - I’m perfectly fine with that as long as it serves its purpose.

Flow and focus points were carefully considered which can be seen on both the home page and sign up page. A lot of questions were asked when it came to the layout of those pages.

My favourite pages:

Features Page

Brands Page

And so, the end result is what you see today. There were minimum tweaks along the way, especially the sub pages - which got approved almost right away. I would say the home page got the most love and attention.

If you have any opinions please @obox me.

I also want to thank my main man Gavin Elliott for some invaluable help along the way. I think everyone needs an Elliott in their Skype contact list.

Is this the start of the second dotcom bubble?

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:05:22 +0200

Is this the start of the second dotcom bubble?:

The arrival of a “New Thing” that cannot be valued in the old way. Dumb-money companies start paying over the odds for New Thing acquisitions.
Smart people identify the start of a bubble; New Thing apostles make ever more glowing claims.
Startups with founders deemed to have “pedigree” (for example, former employees of New Thing companies) get funded at eye-watering valuations for next to no reason.
There is a flurry of new investment funds catering for startups.
Companies start getting funded “off the slide deck” (that is, purely on the basis of their PowerPoint presentations) without actually having a product.
MBAs leave banks to start up firms.
The “big flotation” happens.
Banks make a market in the New Thing, investing pension money.
Taxi drivers start giving you advice on what stock to buy.
A New Thing darling buys an old-world company for stupid money. The end is nigh.

That thing on the right

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:22:01 +0200

If you look to your right you will see an advert by Carbon Ads.

We have advertised on the Carbon network before and the results were quite favorable.

This, however, is the first time I have ever been on the receiving end of advertising. When I was younger I always dreamed of making money from ads off my site but it never happened.

Even though this Ad will only bring a tiny amount of $ a month I am more than happy to support the Carbon Ad network and also finally have a 3rd party ad on one of my very own sites :P

So be kind, click on the good ones and yea, keep reading my blog I suppose ;)

The wallet

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:16:48 +0200

My spare wallet has been ‘taken’ from my desk, I can still see a square mark around the area that it was lifted from. So to make light of this dire situation we are coming up with titles for its disappearance:

The nomadic one

My wallet has been crowdsourced

My wallet is crowd sourcing users hands and pockets to come up with a better, ergonomic design.

But, the best one so far though has to be @marcperel’s:

The Time Traveller’s Wallet - “A tale of money, love, and betrail”

If one of you beat that I will give you a free theme. @obox me

More on sign up forms

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:02:59 +0200

I read a good analysis on 37signals earlier about their sign up form redesign.

This is quite an interesting clip:

We’ve been watching a lot of Clicktale recordings of form usage and we noticed that just about everyone scrolls down to the bottom of the form, then back up, before they start filling out the form. So we wanted the redesigned form to be markedly shorter than the one it was replacing.

Interesting how so many clients stress about fold this and that when the first thing that happens is people scroll up and down to check the actual form length before committing to sign up.

Let that be a lesson friends.

Discussing a sign up form design and user path

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:40:53 +0200

Gavin Elliott: It's a self contained form, my eyes are on the form. etc. I'd fill that form in. I'm wondering though, "Create an Account" ...can I click on style your site (Tab 2)?

David Perel: I'm considering how to sort that out because, no it wont be clickable, so the button at the bottom maybe has to say "proceed to step 2" instead of "Create your Account" OR I must put everything on one page (but I'm not sure they can do that with their current system).

Gavin Elliott: Are the top three things steps?

David Perel: Yes.

Gavin Elliott: Can you create an account without styling your site? Why is there a finish button if you've already created the account?

David Perel: The finish button will confirm your details

Gavin Elliott: Ok, just getting you thinking.

David Perel: If I change that 'Create my Account' button to 'Proceed to Step 2' I think a lot of these questions will no longer be questions. Also I think that the tabs at the top either need numbers or arrows to signify steps or something to that effect.

Gavin Elliott: Yeah they do, or you somehow need to talk them through it.

David Perel: No, it needs to be intuitive. If I can remove the steps and make it all on one page, then all these problems are solved.

Gavin Elliott: Maybe even hide the process? So create my account, once you hit it takes you to the style your site bit. Then people won't be like... oh for fucks sake there is a process to this?

David Perel: Or I can remove the tabs and say: "Step 1 of 3: Create your Account"

Gavin Elliott: Because you technically don't need a "Finish" tab.

David Perel: Yea, agreed.

Gavin Elliott: Because finish is technically creating your account.

David Perel: True, since the title says "Sign Up"

Gavin Elliott: Exactly yeah.

David Perel: Maybe if it said "Build your network", then it would be a completely different story

Gavin Elliott: Yes, but "Build your network" isn't a demand.

David Perel: True

Gavin Elliott: "Sign up" is a demand

David Perel: And that's what we want them to do, we need to tell them exactly what needs to happen, without having tell them how (minimize all the copy).

Gavin Elliott: Yup. Number 1 had a big itch by the way. Just looked at it again.

David Perel: Ye it was literally attempt 0.1, it was the alpha of alpha, I think I let it out too soon. Image 2 is miles better.

David Perel: Thanks for the feedback

Gavin Elliott: No worries.

The new Mailchimp site, my thoughts

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:55:00 +0200

I think MailChimp have got their new home page design wrong.

I am not a fan of the colors or the noise / diagonal stripe textures. This however is a matter of personal taste and I am sure that many of you will like it.

What I think is wrong is that they don’t tell you what they are. In order to find out what MailChimp does you have to watch a video. What if I don’t have time for that? Why can’t I read a three worder like ‘We send newsletters’?

I think that the top half of the site may be a bit confusing to new visitors, with a guy holding a wine bottle and another talking about designer templates at first glance the average visitor would get confused. Where am I? A web design site? A wine shop? Why is Mailchimp Free? What is for free? Do I get a free website? This is all too much to take in.

Scroll down the page and you are presented with some cool videos (not a fan of those long thin buttons if I’m honest) but I’m in a rush so I don’t have time to watch those.

Then below that are some logos, but since I haven’t really read what the site is about I am not sure what the logos are for, is Mailchimp part of the Gawker network? Are these their sponsors?

Lastly, at the bottom of the page is a “Completely Free Account” title with a sign up button. I still haven’t read what this site is about but I see that on the right is a “Subscribe to our Newsletter” title, so maybe I can subscribe for free?

I’m confused.

Set clients deadlines

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:30:00 +0200

Despite always telling people that we ‘only’ run a theme company we also have a stealth custom development business.

Last year we closed it down to focus on themes but felt that we were missing out on big opportunities in terms of cool projects as well as turnover. So after only 2 months of closing it (we did wind it down for 2months prior) we ‘reopened’ it but without telling anybody.

Basically, if a project request came along that we liked and made sense then we said yes (we do say no about 4 times a day though).

That decision has proved to be quite a good one and in January we had our best month of business ever in the history of Obox.

The key to doing well in January was our stringent ‘attitude’ we took with our clients. I think we released 8 completely new sites in Jan, four of which were client projects and in all instances we put our clients under pressure to deliver content on time.

Through years of experience, we have come to realize that the biggest delay to getting a project completed is that clients don’t tend to deliver content and feedback as quick as we would like. This issue trumps scope creep every single time.

In fact scope creep is the least of our worries when doing a project. It’s gathering content which is the killer.

So the method that we employ is quite simple and quite effective. There is an extension to this but at the very simplest, do the following:

Get on their case daily.

It is up to you to follow up on your clients absolutely everyday. Create deadlines for them to deliver feedback + content and if they surpass those deadlines remind them about it as much as possible until they produce.

During January I was on skype and email permanently speaking to clients, gathering assets and feedback for projects that we wanted to complete before the end of January. We acted as if we were the client and they were releasing our project late.

It turned out that not a single one of those projects went over time and it was purely because we never let our clients rest in the same sense that they wouldn’t like us to rest.

Advice over.

P.S - Depending on my motivation I plan on sharing many ‘freelancing’ tips with you that we have picked up over the last year or so.

"When you find that you are stuck and need someone or something’s help… be that help you..."

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:13:00 +0200

“When you find that you are stuck and need someone or something’s help… be that help you seek and extend yourself to be that help to others.”

- Flickery

Skype chat between my bro and a fellow developer

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:13:43 +0200

Donald: $("#donski").append('');
Marc (my bro): $("#donski").append('').after(".work");
Me: TGIF

Overtaking in F1

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:35:59 +0200

Overtaking in F1:

Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren F1 Team Principle) has said it best:

“I don’t think overtaking is an important as some people think it is. It has become a bit of an obsession. To be honest, some people with a lack of creativity have jumped on the bandwagon and are saying that is what we need to do.

“I think what people want is uncertainty of outcome. Going into the race weekend up until Saturday, you want uncertainty about the outcome of qualifying. And then, regardless of the outcome of qualifying, you want that uncertain outcome for the race which causes you to want to watch it.”

Could not agree with him more.

"You often hear the argument that the iPad is all new and the Internet is all shit (too cold, too..."

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 10:45:18 +0200

“You often hear the argument that the iPad is all new and the Internet is all shit (too cold, too technical, not pretty enough), so the nerds should be ignored. After all, the iPad is closer to printed magazine than that damned Internet, right? No, it’s not. It’s a touch screen device. Touch SCREEN device. The fact that you touch it doesn’t mean that it’s like print. As a matter of fact it’s lightyears away from print.”

- Quoted from this article by Information Architects