Design In Decline
It used to take a single click to manage subscriptions in Google Reader. Now it takes three.
Small improvements are good. Small regressions can be annoying as hell.
Please think harder about your design.
Won’t be long until you don’t need to stop and check the airport or mall directory. It’ll be on your phone.
Not that I ever check a mall directory, since I’m hardly ever in a mall… but you get the idea.
If you don’t have this great Mac app, it’s the best possible way to find your biggest disk hogs and clear some extra space.
(Source: daringfireball.net)
John Gruber at Daring Fireball:
This video encapsulates everything wrong with Microsoft. […] Imagine if they instead spent the effort that went into this movie on making something, you know, real, that you could actually go out and buy and use today.
I just hope the future isn’t filled with so many white walls.
Plain Text Bookmarks
Brent Simmons at inessential.com:
I’ve not yet found a bookmarking service that I love, but this new Kippt could be it. It’s attractive and simple — and, best of all, has no social aspect.
Last year I gave up saving my bookmarks in a web browser. I realized it had just become the place where links go to die. I’d save things of interest, but hardly ever reference them again. If I switched browsers I’d either start from scratch or end up transferring dozens (hundreds?) of unused links. I needed one, permanent place to store my bookmarks. I also wanted to include notes, clearly displayed next to each link, which provide order and relevance.
Bookmarking services, especially Pinboard, seemed like the way to go. But I ended up settling on a different solution: plain text.
I keep plain text notes in Notational Velocity, on every conceivable topic that I have any interest in. For each topic I keep any links, comments, or ideas that I may later find useful.
This makes my ‘bookmarks’:
- simple
- comprehensive
- creative
- ubiquitous (see simplenote)
- permanent
That last one is the most important to me. Whatever appeal there may be to the latest bookmarking service, I’m not willing to bet it will still be around in 20 years. I guarantee my plain text files will still be here, though I’m not taking bets on what hardware or software I’ll be using to maintain them.
Turns out you change the temperature in your house 1500 times a year. 1500! Our thermostat learns what temperatures you like so it can program itself.
I’ve never been excited about a thermostat. That’s the power of good design.
(Source: daringfireball.net)
Just in case you needed another reason to stop using Flash.
(Source: daringfireball.net)
About.me, Disqus, and Singing Brits
Today brought a great deal of progress in leaving Wordpress and hand-coding my new site. I tackled menus and other template items with server side includes (no, not PHP) and had a great experience setting up Disqus so I can maintain a high-quality comment system without Wordpress.
I also set up my about.me profile. It’s a brand new service promising to be your online social hub. It presents a simple profile with links to all of your other online services. Looks good so far, and should be interesting to follow.
All that, plus a sing-along with 100+ Brits. Looking forward to a relaxing weekend planning next week’s trip to London.
Hand-Coding From Scratch
With one decision I am both throwing in the towel and finally pursuing some larger goals: I’m scrapping Wordpress, and hand-coding my site from scratch. I also discuss what it truly means to gain experience, and a bit about dental hygiene.
Wordpress vs. Posterous
Today I discuss the problems with Wordpress, the appeal of Posterous, and why introverts are sometimes at a loss for words.
