It’s not what you think.
15
Jul 10
Jul 10
Screen Capture Widget
Here’s a great little Mac-based screen capture widget from apaulosdesign. It does a great job with long / wide pages, as well as pages with Flash. Very nice; I think it should be in every Web designer’s toolkit. (I hope their glyph widget is available soon!)
02
Jul 10
Likewise, I can’t imagine a more horrifying result than this frighteningly boring logo.
Jul 10
Children’s Museum of Ind…zzzzzzz
I can’t imagine a tastier assignment than designing a visual system for a great children’s museum, the biggest one in the world!
Chihluly glass installation at the Children's Museum
Regional bank, medical clinic?
Likewise, I can’t imagine a more horrifying result than this frighteningly boring logo.
I could rant and rave for paragraphs, but the analysis and user comments over at Brand New say almost everything I would (in fact, if you read the comments, you’ll see some of mine sprinkled in).
01
Jul 10
Jul 10
Support the chILD Foundation
Our son has lung disease. We have benefited greatly by the support and resources made available by the Children’s Interstital Lung Disease Foundation. Please consider clicking on the badge above to vote for this charity. Chase will divide up $5 million to local charities who garner enough votes. We’re almost there.
Our little guy.
01
Jul 10
Jul 10
Why
Try this: next time you interview a candidate, ask them why they have chosen this profession. Or, the next time you’re interviewing somewhere, ask them why they’re in business. If you’re starting your own business, ask yourself what you believe, and why people should believe in you.
Simon Sinek’s intriguing Ted Talk investigates why some organizations and people succeed where others fail. One of his conclusions? It has to do with conviction, belief, knowing why you do what you do.
It is interesting to me that so many companies can tell you what they do and how they do it, but not why. As Sinek points out, saying they do it for money doesn’t really answer why, it only speaks to a desired result.
28
Jun 10
Jun 10
Shot Entirely with an iPhone 4
The following short film was shot and edited, in its entirety, including sound, on the new iPhone 4.0. (Thanks to Daring Fireball for the link.)
“Apple of My Eye” – an iPhone 4 film from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.
24
Jun 10
Jun 10
You Snooze, You Lose
As I’ve mentioned before, a shortage of ideas isn’t my issue. I have plenty. It’s getting them going (enemy number 1: time, or lack thereof).
Anyway, yesterday I saw that 37signals had launched an iPad app called Draft. This app is so similar to something I’d been mulling over it actually spooked me.
37signals Draft for iPad
No, I don’t think the folks at 37signals got into my brain and stole my idea. I do, however, lament that, yet again, I may have let an idea escape that would have been pretty cool.
Ah, well…I’ll take consolation in the idea that it wouldn’t really make sense to develop an iPad app at the moment…given that I don’t even own an iPad (yet!).
23
Jun 10
Jun 10
Apple: Nothing to Report
I visited the Apple site today, and where they normally have some hot product announcement prominently featured on their home page, there was only a big white empty space. Nothing new, eh?
This week's big news at Apple: nada!
21
Jun 10
Jun 10
Hipstamatics for June 21, 2010
Hipstamatic images of the Cortelyou Road train station. Look up and see what you might otherwise miss, including a tiny summer moon.
Cortelyou Road Station
Cortelyou Road Station
20
Jun 10
Jun 10
TypeDrawing for Father’s Day
My boys
I used the TypeDrawing app for iPhone to create a little Father’s Day image for myself, inspired by my twins.
17
Jun 10
Jun 10
Don’t Shoot the Reviewer
The Sprint HTC Android phone.
Responding to David Pogue’s recent review of the new HTC Android phone, in which he laments the phone’s subpar battery life, several fanboys made comments similar to this one (excerpt below):
“Battery draining fixes are as close as the Android Market, and should take you all of ten minutes to download, install, and run. If you can’t or won’t take the initiative to do even this much, you shouldn’t own a smartphone.”
Let’s analyze that comment for a moment. If the user isn’t “smart enough” to download a separate application to make the battery last longer, then the user isn’t smart enough to “own a smartphone.” If you ask me, it sounds like this smartphone is actually pretty stupid; an actual “smartphone” would know how to manage its own battery, not require the user to do so.
But this brings up a classic problem in usability: there is a tendency among some people to blame the user (or the reviewer) for a product’s shortcomings. Rather than acknowledge that there is an actual problem, the fanboy will berate the user for not being smart enough, savvy enough, dedicated enough…you name it…instead of realizing that it should be the goal of technology to alleviate our burdens, not increase them.
15
Jun 10
Jun 10
The Neediest OS
Really? A window is 'busy'? How does that happen exactly?
I often use Windows 7 at work, and it’s like the entire OS is an insecure teenager, constantly begging for my attention with its error messages, warnings, alerts, reminders, and status updates. “You just turned me on…let me tell you 3 things you should know about your color scheme! Oooh, want to launch that app? Okay, but first I need to get some stuff off my chest! System updates are available! You know you want them!”
Don’t get me wrong. I think Windows 7 is far better than its predecessors. I’m just frustrated that it still isn’t confident enough to let me get some work done without constantly vying for my attention.
14
Jun 10
Jun 10
The Greatest Documentary Ever
Okay, I admit I haven’t seen this new documentary about Winnebago Man, but if it’s half as good as the infamous clip itself, it will be fantastic.
I will be inviting my friends Graham and Chance to see it with me, for sure. Three angry guys watching one old angry guy. What could be better?
13
Jun 10
Jun 10
Hipstamatic Lomo Fun
Though I’d intended to do a full-day lomo photoshoot, bad weather conspired against me. I did manage to snap two rolls of 120 film, which I’m going to have proceessed this week. In the meantime, here are a few Hipstamatic shots taken with my iPhone.
Scary Lomo.
Architectural Lomo.
Typographic Lomo.