May 2000

I just washed my new VW Beetle for the first time yesterday. All those curves feel really good sliding a soaping sponge over. Yes, I know that sounds ridiculously materialistic or perverted, but it is a much different sensation of always moving in an arc rather than the boring flat surfaces of other cars.

New York bloomed on Friday. The temperature rose into the 80’s, and people came out in their shorts, skirts, and t-shirts. The parks were filled, and there was that feeling of spontaneous interaction moving from the offices, museums, and bookstores to the streets.

I recently answered an email that explained an oft-arising issue regarding design patterns… RE>so just what is the difference between a pattern and a guideline? The big windows [from A Timeless Way of Building – vl ] pattern sounds like guidence. Patterns do provide guidance, but they’re not guidelines, they’re much more. Watching how people…

John Thakara put his design challenge of pervasive computing online – an awesome talk from CHI 2000 that pretty much floored everyone, challenging us all examine what people really want and what is really the best thing to create before we start designing.

ABC Back on Time Warner Cable — for Now. It’s really sad that subscribers would get “irate” about such a loss, really very sad.