I found this neato AJAX Spinner Generator (Ajaxlad) the other day, and I decided to use it to make some jazzier spinners for List Central. It is super easy to use, it gives you lots of options, and it’s free! It’s hard to beat that price! Check it out!

A new feature is on its way to the List Central interface. Soon List Central users will be able to associate a date, and time with any list item in any list, and request List Central to email him/her either once, annually, monthly, weekly or daily on that date and time.

I love the date picker Javascript script I found to help accomplish this new feature. It is the MooTools DatePicker by MonkeyPhysics. The script is flexible and well documented. There are even 4 different skins ready made to use in your application. Thank you MonkeyPhysics for building this date picker script!

I have seen this Javascript error in my Firefox Error Console many times, from many high profile sites about the internet.

Warning: The ‘charCode’ property of a keyup event should not be used. The value is meaningless.

I’m trying not to be smug, but it does feel good to know that List Central uses the charCode concept while not throwing any Javascript errors. I’ve aimed to keep that Error Console clean through the entire development of List Central.

For those of you that want to get rid of that pesky charCode error, change

var code = event.charCode;

to:

var code;
if (e.keyCode){
    code = e.keyCode;
}else if (e.which) {
    code = e.which;
}
var character = String.fromCharCode(code).toLowerCase();

It’s hard to explain the  List Central concept sometimes.

It usually goes something like this:

Me: “List Central is an online community for people who love lists.”

Random person: “Oooooooh, ok. That sounds neat.”

But even though the response is usually positive, there is a subtle look of confusion that follows. I know the idea of a social networking site dedicated to lists can be puzzling. I mean, why would you spend time on a website that is all about lists? For us the answer is obvious – lists are cool. We love lists because they offer so much in such a simple package.

With all the time we’ve spent working towards getting List Central off the ground, there is something really special that we have come to realize. We are not alone. People who love lists are everywhere, not just online, and they are passionate about lists for more than their ability to organize ideas.

To demonstrate the value of lists in our society, I want to share a few books that offer an in-depth look at lists and their role in documenting and categorizing our cultural and personal experience.  Think of it as recommended reading for the list hobbyist.

1. The Book of Lists – David Wallechinsky, Amy Wallace, Ira Basen & Jane Farrow

We were actually surprised to find this on our bookshelf. Neither Marilyn  nor I remember owning it. We’re not sure where it came from. But it’s filled with a wealth of random facts and trivia.

A few lists featured in the book:

• The 10 Men Who Conquered the Most Area
• 11 Unusual Lawsuits
• 16 Memorable Kisses
• 13 Famous People Who Went Bankrupt

I don’t want to give anything away, but yeah – Hammer is on that list.

2. The Infinity of Lists: An Illustrated Essay – Umberto Eco

Author and philosopher Umberto Eco provides a more in-depth analysis of lists. Eco examines the role list-building plays in Western culture. He talks about the human obsession with cataloging and categorizing throughout history, from lists of saints to collections of art. He also mentions that lists have the power to be “poetics of catalogs.”

And you thought your grocery list was just a list.

3. To Do List – From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us – Sasha Cagen

Speaking of meaningful grocery lists, Sasha Cagen believes that scanning someone’s to-do list will allow you to delve deep into their psyche.

Building on her popular blog theme, Cogen compiled over 5,000 to-do lists from voluntary participants to find that each list offers clues about the list-builders personality. For example, list items like, “call cat psychic” or “think about prostitution” give us a  good sense of that individual’s identity.

4. List Yourself: Listmaking as the Way to Self-Discovery - Ilene Segalove & Bob Paul Velick

If we can learn so much about a stranger by reading their lists, imagine what we could learn about ourselves. This is the idea behind List Yourself. The author offers pages of list headings to be filled in by the reader. The idea being that adding lists items will act as an exercise in introspection and self-discovery.

What would you write if someone asked you to fill in a list with the heading “List all the qualities you love about being human”? What about “List the activities you’d do if you weren’t afraid”? What would that list look like?

So there it is. A list of books that delve deeper into the world of list fanatics and the cultural relevance of the lists they build. And sure, it may still be tough explaining the concept of a social networking site dedicated to lists. But at least I know I have some books to refer to for inspiration.