So I’ve been learning the banjo. At the beginning of 2011, I set out to learn something new—something that had nothing to do with pixels, browser bugs, typing, or angle brackets. I’m not calling it a resolution, as I can’t think of another resolution I’ve ever followed through on completely. But I’ve fallen through on the banjo. Specifically, clawhammer banjo, which is an old time style of playing without finger picks… Read the rest here
The rise of smart devices like the iPhone and iPad has led to an application goldrush, with companies racing to stake their claims. In the early days we saw a few lucky pioneers strike gold with novelty apps. There were also a handful of independent developers and well-known brands that invested in user experience and captured the high end of the market. However, as with most goldrushes, the obvious targets were depleted very quickly. Digital prospectors are arriving to find a very different market, one rife with competition and few obvious deposits to mine. Furthermore, our appetite for apps seems to be dwindling as we fall back on a few must-have staples. … Read the rest here
A few evenings ago I watched a really interesting TED talk by Barry Schwartz on practical wisdom . Although his examples were rooted in education and law, I couldn’t help but feel that practical wisdom was also the core of good design. After all, what is design except the ability to improvise novel solutions to new problems based on your knowledge of a set of rules and your ability to apply them with flexibility? The talk also made me think about my own personal feelings towards project management. I believe that project management processes are often used as a series of inflexible rules (or sticks) intended to ensure average teams reach a minimum level of performance. However this will have the opposite effect on good people, constricting them and eventually demotivating them. … Read the rest here
The Mystery of Microsoft IE6countdown.com : Bruce Lawson: If Microsoft is serious about wishing to persuade users and corporates to upgrade, it should address the reasons why people have not yet upgraded…. IE9 is only available for Windows 7 and Windows Vista users—so users of Windows XP, the most-used operating system in the world, cannot leave IE6 for IE9. … Read the rest here
I’ve decided to slap a Creative Commons license on the entire darn Chalkwork Family and make them completely free for personal use, starting right now. I’ve been considering doing this for quite a while. These icons represent a lot of hard work for me between 2006 and 2009, so you can imagine I’ve thought through the implications of making them available for free download without a pay barrier: will people use them commercially and not pay? Will they abuse the license terms? … Read the rest here
I hate bike helmets, absolutely hate them. I can hear my younger self laughing at me, but I wouldn’t want my children to be cycling without one, so I grudgingly wear one too. As I read recently (sorry can’t remember the source) … Nobody thinks they look good in a bicycle helmet, just suck it up and wear one. Which is right of course. … Read the rest here
Two weeks ago I became the father of a beautiful baby girl. Welcome, Gracie, to the world. It is a strange and wonderful thing, this fatherhood lark. These first two weeks have been the proverbial emotional rollercoaster; not so much with ups and downs, but more of a permanent up with occasional plummeting downs as emotions and sleep deprivation kick in. This was no great surprise… Read the rest here
Short Review ATV2 may lack support for playing any video codecs other than mp4’s, and any apps/expandability, but it’s bloody good at what it does do. It’s tiny, inexpensive, silent and doesn’t even get warm. It streams far smoother than I expected it to. I absolutely love it, and may have to get another one for another room. Long Review Yeah, I couldn’t resist. I got an Apple TV 2 as well. … Read the rest here
A couple of months ago I traveled to Reykjavik as a guest of Iceland Air to speak at a web design conference they were sponsoring. My talk was all about delivering exceptional customer service so it’s ironic that I received some of the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced at the hands of their UK team. It all started when my bags got lost of the return journey. Loosing bags seems an unavoidable part of modern air travel and I’d had lost bags successfully returned in the past so wasn’t that worried. I simply logged the loss at Heathrow and two days later my bag was found and delivered to me. However upon receipt of the bag I noticed that it was lighter and decidedly less bulky that I remembered… Read the rest here
I had planned to spend yesterday goofing off, as is my tradition for the day after I return from a conference and don’t have anything immediately pressing on my plate. Instead I watched and documented, as best I could, a case of memetic epidemiology happen in realtime. The meme was the Cooks Source story, which I stumbled across relatively early in the day. I won’t recap the story here, as the original LiveJournal post by Monica Gaudio and Edward Champion’s very well-researched article do a much better job of that. The latter piece is particularly commendable if you’re new to the story, as it not only explains the genesis of the incident but also lays bare a number of other things that were discovered as the story went ballistic. I’m not sure exactly where I first came across the story—probably a retweet of Adam Banks by a friend of mine —but at the time the meme was really just getting started. … Read the rest here
Viva la SimpleQuiz : Bruce Lawson has ressurrected the SimpleQuiz for HTML5. The first question tackles how to mark up a series of products using new semantics. This will surely be a fantastic way of getting a handle on new solutions made possible with HTML5. … Read the rest here
iPad Gripe Session : Khoi Vinh: As a gesture to invoke the Undo command, shaking a handheld device the size of an iPhone is clever and workable. Shaking a much larger device like the iPad is awkward at best and violates one infrequently violated but nevertheless important law of good user interface design: don
Android and the 22 Immutable Laws : Scott Sykora: When people talk about Andoid
For Sale: Pile of Trash Lawnmower : Let
IE and HTML5 Testing, or
Yesterday
We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint : There are so many quotable lines in this New York Times story I could very well copy and paste the entire thing here. Instead, a few gems, beginning with this one:
Library of Congress to House Your Tweets : Kent German, writing for CNET
The malware attack(s) that my site suffered in recent weeks put into motion a series of changes which have been planned for some time now
The past These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy
