July 2010
2 posts
June 2010
6 posts
“Most of the stuff they study in school is completely useless. But some...”
– Steve Jobs on bureaucracy in US schools.
via Signal vs Noise
“We don’t realize how much our unexamined assumptions take us to radically...”
– Daniel Pink on intrinsic motivation and the cognitive surplus
SPOT ON!
via Signal vs Noise (37signals)
May 2010
7 posts
The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains
We crave the new even when we know it’s trivial.
And so we ask the Internet to keep interrupting us in ever more varied ways. We willingly accept the loss of concentration and focus, the fragmentation of our attention, and the thinning of our thoughts in return for the wealth of compelling, or at least diverting, information we receive. We rarely stop to think that it might actually make more...
“We’ve been hearing a lot about game piracy recently, with big developers...”
– David, one of the developers at Wolfire.
“Why is the Federal Trade Commission threatening Apple with a possible lawsuit...”
– Robert Reich: “Apple Isn’t the Problem; Wall Street’s Big Banks Are the Problem” (via Daring Fireball)
“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a...”
– Steve Jobs on media, conspiracy, and giving people what they want.
Part of an interview Steve Jobs gave Wired in 1996.
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
Managing What To Get Done != GTD
First and foremost, this is a “call to arms” of sorts. It is primarily directed at myself but if you find it rings a bell with you, then great. I find writing really helps me solidify opinions and thoughts, so here goes it.
I’ll be honest: I’m sick and tired of being in a limbo in regards to a task/project manager. I’m not talking about a team tool (eg. GoPlan et...
5 tags
Hulu will never go international…
… unless they find a way to monetize it. And advertisement isn’t it.
PS: Want to skip the argument and go straight to my point? Jump here!
The Setting
Hulu is an awesome *free* TV viewing online service. It allows you to catch up on the last 5 episodes of most TV shows, some movies and plenty of clips extracted from past shows. It’s free, supported by short, in-place...
April 2010
10 posts
“The idea that humans, for all their technological might, could be put in their...”
– After the volcano: Earthly powers (via marco)
“Websites are looking like web applications that look like websites that look...”
– Naz Hamid, Stuck Between an App and a Website (via davidkaneda)
3 tags
Icebird for iPhone
Clearly inspired by Tweetie while winking at the heritage left by Birdfeed, Icebird is a smooth-looking Twitter client that you won’t be able to use without thinking “Oh, this looks like _______” about most UI details or UX options. But is that a bad thing? Here’s my take.
The Icon
Let’s start with the application’s icon. There’s no easy way to say it:...
"Premature Optimization Is The Root Of All Evil"...
Clearly one should therefore design a system with an eye to where the bottlenecks may be, and try to ensure the design has enough flexiblity to capture the optimizations that will be required.
This makes total sense. It’s not a BRUF (Big Requirements Up Front) approach, it’s just a design issue. You should invest sometime designing your software before you start building it. Just...
March 2010
7 posts
“Sass 3 introduces a new syntax known as SCSS which is fully compatible with the...”
– File: SCSS_FOR_SASS_USERS
I guess I’ll finally give Sass a try. I just couldn’t take all the syntax differences (and thus lack of productivity) for the few added bonus I was looking after… :)
PS: Nop, not an April’s Fools! You’ll never get that from this man right here…...
“Blame it on specialization, “finding one’s self” or something of that sort, but...”
– The Re-Designer · Avalonstar, the blog of Bryan Veloso
Wow, I’m not alone! Thank you, Brian. You put my own thoughts into words I can make my own… Kudos sir!
“Our job is not to be crative, clever or win awards. No. Our job is to sell, damn...”
– They Are All the Same
I think he has a point even though I think he’s just making a sales pitch in doing so…
/the/path/of/most/resistance
A few years ago, I got tired of fielding support requests from family members and started making them an offer instead.
I began telling them that if they would buy a Mac, I would give them 24/7 tech support without complaint. Initially, they scoffed, but as the Mac became fashionable, I had more and more family members calling to let me know they had switched. Now, most of them are Mac users...
February 2010
4 posts
An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can’t use... →
Flash on the iPad will not (and should not) happen—and the main reason, as I see it, is one that never gets talked about:
Current Flash sites could never be made work well on any touchscreen device, and this cannot be solved by Apple, Adobe, or magical new hardware.
That’s not because of slow mobile performance, battery drain or crashes. It’s because of the hover or mouseover problem.
by...
3 tags
Interview with Mike Matas →
My favorite designs are the ones that don’t just solve a problem, but also engage you on an emotional level—where you take away more from it than just the end result of its function. When there’s that balance between functionality and emotion, the two amplify each other and the result is really powerful. I’m always trying to get there when I’m designing.
— Mike Matas, brilliant 23-year-old...
3 tags
Outsourcing Sucks
Well, 90% of the time at least.
One of the main corporate values every company should strive for, no matter its size or funding, is brand equity. It usually takes a lot of time and effort, and can be destroyed in a matter of minutes following a drastic bad decision.
To work towards brand equity, a company needs to work with all its employees and instill its own corporate culture. I’m not...
How to Fall 35,000 Feet—And Survive →
You have a late night and an early flight. Not long after takeoff, you drift to sleep. Suddenly, you’re wide awake. There’s cold air rushing everywhere, and sound. Intense, horrible sound. Where am I?, you think. Where’s the plane?
You’re 6 miles up. You’re alone. You’re falling.
Things are bad. But now’s the time to focus on the good news. (Yes, it goes beyond surviving the destruction of...
January 2010
16 posts
3 tags
A Closed System = Good →
There is a complaint running around that the iPad is a closed system, that people aren’t free to customize it, that it’s not opened up so that we can all poke around inside it. Complaints are the the iPad is killing off an idea of computing that’s open and free for all.
To which I say: Good! Does anybody remember what using a computer is like? I spent a week after reinstalling my operating...
3 tags
My Reply to the Flash Team (re: iPad)
No Flash on the iPad/iPhone is a feature, not a bug! None of those flash games are touch-able and optimized for such an interface… I don’t play Farmville but I’ve seen kids around the house playing it and it’s already incredibly slow and imprecise enough with a mouse pointer, let alone on a touch interface. I’m going to try to keep thinking that Zynga isn’t...
4 tags
The Revolutionary Tablet
As I was following the live keynote, when I first saw pictures of Steve Jobs holding the “thing” itself, I thought to myself “uh-oh… a giant iPhone?”. And even though I wanted one immediately, it didn’t produce in me the sheer amazement that the iPhone announcement did over 3 years ago (yup, the iPhone UI is still at least 2 years ahead of the competition, like Jobs predicted). I wasn’t sure I...
I Have No Talent →
John really had me thinking… Too often I just give up when dealing with difficulties; I wait for my talent to magically tell me the solution; I wait for my creativity spark so that I don’t have too put too much effort into it.
I have to stop thinking about “it” so much and plow through those hard relying more on effort than on talent.
“As a creator, part of what I seek is recognition, immortality. I don’t work for...”
– by Wil Shipley, who is the main developer of a Mac app called Delicious Library. Apple’s new iBooks app on the iPad uses many of the same interface design elements as Delicious Library, such as the wooden shelf books are placed upon.
— Reblogged from Dustin Curtis
WatchIt’s unexpected yet awesome to see someone in the US take espresso coffee this seriously… It looks a lot like coffee back home (Portugal) BUT… you should really put sugar in your coffee/espresso: it helps tone down the acidity and lets your taste buds really extract the full aroma of a good coffee! *yum* =)
(via paulozoom/simplebits)
“
I have an idea for a thing (1 million people)
I tried to build a thing...”
– Andy Budd on “Good products are one in a million”
“The second [very important trend] is that for consumer web apps today, design...”
– Excellent article on the importance of design vs features, using Tumblr and Posterous as examples. By Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry on PEG on Tech
“Next time you want to illustrate a flow or concept with a diagramming tool,...”
– Ryan Singer @ SVN
3 tags
Don't design… yet!
You had a great idea. You try designing it. You’re frustrated. You give up.
10% inspiration
I tend to skip the initial thought process and attempt to jump straight into the design part. I’m not talking about those creative bursts where you open your favorite graphic editor and in a few minutes you come out with something really cool. I don’t know about you, but those bursts...
Finagle's Laws
First Law: To study a subject best, understand it thoroughly before you start.
Second Law: Always keep a record of data — it indicates you’ve been working.
Fourth Law: Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it only makes it worse.
Fifth Law: Always draw your curves, then plot your readings.
Sixth Law: Don’t believe in miracles — rely on them.
“Don’t confuse legibility with communication. Just because...”
– David Carson (in “Helvetica”)
“That’s why I use grids. For me it’s a tool for creating order. And...”
– Wim Crouwel (in “Helvetica”)