theme song (400K mp3)
Thursday, September 28, 2000
The other day in the car I thought I understood the appeal of Limp Bizkit (this had been alluding me for some time). They are to this generation what Metallica was/is to mine. Sure 'nough today I came across a Limp Bizkit cover of Metallica's Master of Puppets, I think there's a progression there.
posted 9:28:39 PM | link to this post
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Whoa, I just went to go check My Yahoo! and was taken aback: a white background! And kinda slick (for Yahoo) looking layout, but still spartan and fast. Once I signed in I received the familiar grey drab page. Is the white the look of things to come??
posted 9:19:26 PM | link to this post
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So glad this week is over...dealing with a cold contracted from a 65+ mile bike ride through the rainy hills of New Jersey and way too much work at work. Taking off for North Carolina this weekend for some warmer weather, my cousin's wedding, spending time with my nephews and niece, and a pig roast. Yeeehaa!
posted 9:15:24 PM | link to this post
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...and a site exclusively devoted to Wireless Financial Services News. I bet you have no idea what I'm working on these days.
posted 10:56:44 AM | link to this post
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unstrung - yet another web site devoted to the mobile industry. Surprisingly enough, this one is done pretty well too.
posted 10:38:07 AM | link to this post
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Tuesday, September 26, 2000
uidesign.net leaves me wondering why I haven't found this site earlier. Since I'm currently reading "The Humane Interface" I found this exchange interesting, and this application of user personas to mobile design looks helpful.
posted 9:29:20 AM | link to this post
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Monday, September 25, 2000
IBM can't patent this, the Bible described this process a long time ago! Damn atheist engineers.Seriously, when IBM brags about having five kagillion patents, remember this one.
posted 3:21:41 PM | link to this post
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Saturday, September 23, 2000
A little piece of brilliance at Sylloge. By mimicking the layout of Google, it (for me) draws attention to the pieces of text Google displays as summaries, and how seemingly random they are. The author here does a great job of playing on that theme with some beautiful little poetic snippets.
posted 8:56:57 PM | link to this post
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After a few ragingly negative Amazon customer reviews about Robert Fripp's new album, there was this:way cool September 3, 2000 Reviewer: A 12-year old music fan from new york, new york This cd make me smile. I forget that sometimes it is hard being a kid. I also forget that sometimes it is hard not being a kid. I'm just kidding. The songs on this cd remind me of space music from mars. (That's good.)
posted 3:30:26 PM | link to this post
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Friday, September 22, 2000
Been listening to a lot of California Music Channel lately on RealPlayer. They've got an interesting rock/pop/urban mix to their playlist, and it's the first Real stream I've heard that degrades elegantly when my bandwidth is near capacity, instead of simply stopping and re-buffering.I have to admit, except for K-Rock, California blows New York away when it comes to great radio stations. K-Rock exudes attitude, they'll play heavy metal, rap, anything with friction.
posted 11:41:51 PM | link to this post
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From the Society for Technical Communication: "...quicklists derived from five sets of heuristics on designing personas, Web navigation, designing comprehensible Web pages, displaying information on the Web, and collecting Web data to understand and interact with users. A summary of the introduction to the special issue is also included."
posted 6:36:33 PM | link to this post
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Anthropomorphized Backpacks! The kid next to me (on his mother's lap) on the bus this morning had one of these - very very cool.
posted 6:16:11 PM | link to this post
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Thursday, September 21, 2000
Imagine you're the CEO of a small company and you find out your stock price jumped up over 100% because of the actions of a teenager in his bedroom in N.J.
posted 1:33:23 PM | link to this post
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After many attempts at ordering a copy of Tog on Interface it finally arrived yesterday from Amazon. No backorders, no out-of-prints...amazing. I was about to break down and email Tog directly to get a copy.This first of Tog's books is a pleasure to read, full of humor and good advice. The actual interface issues he addresses are old and hardly worth debating anymore, but the processes he uses to get the answers are enlightening. He shows the puzzlement designers experience creating Macintosh interfaces and how to solve these issues.
posted 10:37:56 AM | link to this post
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Wednesday, September 20, 2000
Y'know what? A GOMS model for mobile phones would be helpful, anyone know of one? GOMS is a analysis model for quantitatively testing an interface, and it seems that with the current small number of interface conventions on phones it'd be not-too-difficult to develop. Too bad I don't have time.
posted 7:32:10 PM | link to this post
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Tuesday, September 19, 2000
Peter makes a similar point I was making to someone today: People HATE work. Peter refers to misguided marketing campaigns, whereas I was referring to the popular Internet strategy that says you should create self-service website to let people do the customer service themselves. What crap, the only reason people like this is because they'd rather get the job done themselves quickly then deal with poorly run customer service systems.This genius suffers from incorrect customer service information, a representative who couldn't take a message and follow up, and a wait of hours. He concludes, "In an imperfect world of customer service, most customers prefer to cut to the chase and help themselves." While that's true, what I think people REALLY prefer is customer service that works. The web shouldn't be a crutch you pick up when you've given up on an internal process.
posted 10:51:48 PM | link to this post
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generosity: group metalog. One of the most interesting blogs I've seen in a long time. different. funny. smart. a little dada, a little e.e. cummings-ish. via sylloge
posted 10:25:23 PM | link to this post
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Gloating over my latest stock pick, Qualcomm, which I recently picked up just as it started climbing from the high 60's.My investing strategy has worked pretty well: only touch companies whose products you're familiar with, and then analyze them technically, ignoring all the fundamental information. Clearstation is a great site for technical analysis.
posted 10:01:34 PM | link to this post
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Monday, September 18, 2000
Some raw-like-flesh-after-scraping-against-the-pavement reality from the CHI-WEB list:
> They don't like bad things. And if sites have bad things, people won't go > there. sorry peter, but people like bad things that are useful or have brittany spears on them, and companies like bad things that are profitable and so bad things are good things.Unfortunate of course, but for me it's a challenge to work that much harder to improve user interfaces, people, and the whole damn world.
posted 9:23:30 PM | link to this post
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Saturday, September 16, 2000
I had started this pretty long blog entry when my computer crashed, and it's too late and I'm too tired to reproduce it. A summary:I found the two guys and their work that led to the Microsoft paper clip. Though most people bash the paper clip, I don't think it's really that annoying. I'm trying to relax and learn to love the paper clip. She's just trying to help me, right? The paper clip is probably usable, and its reputation as annoying probably stems from factors farther flung and more interesting than usability...I'm betting socialogy. That's all. Good night.
posted 11:45:41 PM | link to this post
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I finaly added permanent links to each entry in my blog thanks to Blogger's handy HOW TO. I had tried it back in beta and didn't realize they had finessed it so well.Instead of some cryptic asterisk or other symbol to denote the link, I choose the high affordance "link to this post".
Of course I have to test it...check out the birth of my thoughts on Extreme User Interface Design
posted 4:41:38 PM | link to this post
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Friday, September 15, 2000
Very cool "Sketching Interface for 3D Freeform Design" called Teddy. via peterme (not someone you want to borrow links from without crediting! ;-)
posted 12:16:49 PM | link to this post
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Thursday, September 14, 2000
Every time I walk into my local Fresh Fields I think how they picked a great niche and are positioned so well. They appeal to people's desire to eat well - in regards to health, taste, and quality - without being too upscale or alienating. Some gourmet foods, some organic, some yummy stuff made on the premises, but I still have the choice to buy "regular" food too. I think, yeah, this is going to catch on, people will start eating more organic foods.Then I saw a commercial for Fit. Fit is a product you can buy to wash the pesticides off your fruits and vegetables. Instead of buying organic foods, we are going to spray our food with chemicals and then later buy this stuff to wash the pesticides off. I don't care if it is made from natural materials, it's going in the wrong direction. This really disturbes me that this product came as far as it has, and will really sadden me if it's a success.
posted 10:49:29 PM | link to this post
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I keep thinking, and telling people, that the most important thing I've learned at work in the past few months is the importance of feedback. A fundamental aspect of communication theory, feedback can help improve systems, people, processes...everything. In communication theory, feedback helps ensure that a message was transmitted. In the same way, we don't know if the work we've done unless we hear from the people it affects.When it comes to people, it seems that even when we're good at receiving feedback, a lot of people aren't good at giving feedback. Specifically, we too often associate feedback with harsh criticism and shy away from it (or put it on our blogs in instead of doing it face to face ;-). Also, most people I've seen don't have any structure to their feedback, so it lacks effectiveness.
I like the classic, simple, "plus/delta" method taught be such folks as Outward Bound, which is where I learned it. In a group situation, the leader (the person seeking feedback) talks about what she thinks she did well. Then each person in the group takes a turn talking about what the leader did well. Then the leader talks about what she could improve next time, and then each person talks about what she could do better next time. It's important that the turn taking is strictly enforced; these are not discussions or arguments. It takes some discipline to introduce this to people and to feel comfortable with it, but it's worth the effort.
posted 5:21:54 PM | link to this post
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Wednesday, September 13, 2000
New book that explains the evolution of culture through sexual evolution: The Mating Mind : How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature.
posted 10:54:57 AM | link to this post
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Thomas Locke Hobbs (great name, btw) correctly pointed out that, statistically and probability, if polls now show Gore ahead of Bush in my state I can safely let the electoral college cast its votes while I vote for Nader. My fear below is fueled by my denial that the electoral college really still exists; it seems like such a nasty vestigal leftover of our past. I read Walt Whitman and I crave true democracy.Thomas created an interesting home page and blog. I especially like his photography of Torres del Paine and the portraits.
posted 9:55:05 AM | link to this post
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Monday, September 11, 2000
A was going to vote for Nader in order to support the an alternative party in Amercia (if a party receives at least 5% of the vote they are eligible for significant federal funding). Just now some co-workers walked by and uttered the time-worn dictum, "A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush." Damnit, I'd hate to think I'm putting Bush in the Whitehouse just for wanting to support a third party. Arrrrrgh.
posted 2:21:59 PM | link to this post
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Gorgeous Mac clone. When they actually start shipping I'll start to believe it reliably runs at 1200 MHz.
posted 12:10:16 PM | link to this post
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More great in-yer-face attitude from Phil Greenspun: ArsDigita: Redefining Professionalism for Software Engineers
posted 11:56:38 AM | link to this post
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Wow, a whole series of articles on what people say is the one Meeting I Never Miss. I'm liking Fast Company more and more, and letting my Wired subscription expire for the second time.A recent issue of Fast Company actually praised people who removed themselves from the rat race and the tech industry to regain their lives; Wired's attitude seems to be you're worthless if you haven't studied at the Media Lab (what, you have to ask which one?) or have rejected the current paradigm, regardless of the worth of your work to humanity.
posted 10:04:48 AM | link to this post
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Scrum Meetings, a more strict version of the standup meeting.
posted 9:34:22 AM | link to this post
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My friend Sam and I cycled over 75 miles through New York City in the Transportation Alternatives Bike Tour yesterday. What was particularly amazing/surprising is that most of the route was through parks, along the shoreline, and beside preserved woodlands. I expected to see sights I haven't seen before, but after having lived in Queens for two years I thought I would've known about miles of bike paths through the woods.
posted 8:44:41 AM | link to this post
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Nothing new, but the Extreme Programming site has lots of good ideas. Makes me wonder how many other disciplines could be improved using this approach. What if we did user-interface design the same way: extreme user-interface design ("extreme design")? Doesn't look like anyone has made this connection yet.Incidentally, the site makes occasional references to the Portland Pattern Repository, drawing on the knowledge recorded by design pattern folks.
posted 8:25:46 AM | link to this post
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Thursday, September 7, 2000
I was just walking down Broadway and discovered the office of govWorks.com. I'm trying to figure out the thought process that will generate return traffic on this site. Is it, "Oh I need to pay the water bill, I'll go to govWorks" or is it "Hmmm, I need to pay the water bill, and that's a transaction with the goverment, so I should go to govWorks." In other words, by not focusing on a task like auctioning or paying bills they can offer a much broader array of services, but they run the risk of becoming a mushy entity that people won't associate with their tasks. Or people might start using the site for one feature and gradually discover the other features(like Yahoo! with its email, briefcase, stock quotes, etc.). Or...
posted 4:42:34 PM | link to this post
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fusionOne looks like a cool service for syncing all of life's various data.
posted 11:18:22 AM | link to this post
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Very weird coincidence...I just discovered the InfoDesign site the other day, and this morning I find out the author just started working here at Razorfish.
posted 8:51:13 AM | link to this post
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Wednesday, September 6, 2000
For the first time I recently sat at the bar at two different Japanese restaurants, and both times I was offered an extra little bowl of something: cubes of tuna in a mustard sauce, or small slices of squid with cucumber and herbs - wonderful stuff. Is this a custom reserved for people at the bar that I'm just discovering?
posted 10:53:07 PM | link to this post
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Received my sneakers today from customatix.com - shoes designed by you. Wow, it's a great feeling - especially for someone like me who is not a professional designer - to have designed something, have it made to your specifications, and then feel great wearing it.On a practical note, the shoes fit fine, have good support, are comfortable, and arrived two days early.
posted 9:02:29 PM | link to this post
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Sunday, September 3, 2000
Information Architecture vs. Customer Experience, an interesting, passionate, and sometimes funny interview between Lou Rosenfeld and Mark Hurst.I come down on the side of customer experience, but I don't really see it as one or the other. IA is one of the disciplines you need to provide and evaluate a customer experience, just as ergonomics is one discipline needed to design a car, but far from the only one.
I have to wonder if Lou Rosenfeld stays awake at night wondering if Argus's niche is too small.
posted 11:47:35 PM | link to this post
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A thesis from the Harvard Graduate School of Design on Information Architecture : The Representation of Virtual Environments. It's interesting that the author is using the term in a sense that includes interface design, which makes perfect sense coming from, and when speaking to, traditional architecture.A quote: "Architects are in a better position to design virtual environments than those who currently define the form and structure of webspace, but not if we continue to apply the metaphors and constraints of shelter and gravity. Software engineers produce objects of unparalleled efficiency and economy, but I believe that information design also has a necessary purpose, the same as architecture, to move the heart (and the mind), to inspire."
posted 8:47:52 PM | link to this post
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First time I saw ArtandCulture I didn't think it was all that. But the Interactive Design Annual award sounds convincing, I'll have to get back there.oh, and a well-derserved (IMHO) winner designed by Razorfish.
posted 12:10:07 PM | link to this post
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Last night I couldn't sleep and woke to watch TV at 5:30 a.m. I saw a Jewish television evangelist speaking prophesies derived from the book of Daniel, a Catholic mass including shots of the churchgoers - a little girl singing Aleluia, I saw a man in a massive mobile vehicle who makes home improvement house calls all over America, I saw two Polar Bear cubs raised in a zoo in Denver. All without cableTV.
posted 11:42:42 AM | link to this post
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Logging into Blogger just now I thought about all the Blogs on their system and what mischief they could do if they decided to insert propoganda into all the Blogs. I imagined them holding a ceremony amongst themselves vowing never to abuse their power.
posted 11:37:34 AM | link to this post
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