January 2012
2 posts
“Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead...”
– Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths (via andrewtgates)
The Eddy Eddyto Story: Eddy & Cherie's Story →
eddyeddyto:
Eddy Eddyto came to America several years ago to seek asylum after being attacked by Muslim extremists. Unfortunately, upon renewing his Visa he was directed to a fraudulent immigration attorney who misled him and eventually stole his life savings…
December 2011
1 post
November 2011
1 post
“It did occur to me that diabetes could take out a lot of foot tattoos, so that’s...”
– Merlin during After Dark episode #48 at 15:44.
And that is why I have Audio Hijack Pro set to record 5by5 for 3 hours every Tuesday afternoon starting at 3pm Eastern Time. Sure, you could listen to the podcast when it comes out, and after its edited, and has been entered into an RSS feed or an...
July 2011
1 post
U.S. Tax Rates are among the lowest in the world
We’re not paying enough (and letting the rich escape paying their fair share), so why is anyone surprised that balancing the budget is so hard?
Note that countries like Sweden provide free secondary education (college/university) for all of their students, as well as national healthcare. If you ask me, we need to start forcing that issue. No more subsidies for corporations - all money goes...
June 2011
2 posts
Clients From Hell: Ultra-strange encounter with a... →
clientsfromhell:
Client: “Aren’t you supposed to be designing my brochure?” Me: “It’s Sunday morning. I’m just buying milk because I ran out.” Client: “Oh, you did? Well, what should we do then if we run out of time for the project, huh? Just leave the last two pages blank and write ‘sorry, ran out of milk’…
Yeah, I guess church leaves a lot of people feeling that way…
May 2011
3 posts
“If I die, I want you to use this password to get into my account and tweet “So...”
– (via clientsfromhell)
Drunk?
clientsfromhell:
Actual email correspondence with a client: Client: “can not find the viedo.l…. ’ Unbranded pleases send link and I would like to down load all videos how….Thank You??” Me: “Sam, I understood each word individually in your email, but not together. What are you looking for?” Client: “okie no thanks. Monday?”
“Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall;
don’t be happy when they stumble.
For...”
– Proverbs 24:17-20 (via rogieking)
April 2011
1 post
Why hasn't Obama gotten results liberals like? →
I suspect that Obama will be able to move more aggressively in his second term, when re-election isn’t on his plate. That is, assuming that the Republicans haven’t taken a larger chunk of Congress.
nullarysources:
Glenn Greenwald:
When has Obama ever done any of that? When does he offer stirring, impassioned defenses of the Democrats’ vision on anything, or attempt to transform...
March 2011
2 posts
“Marx said religion is the opiate of the masses. Of course, now we know that...”
– Dr. Geoffrey Murphy (via elysesimone)
“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either...”
– Stephen Colbert (via rogieking)
January 2011
1 post
What Your 16-Hour Workday Says About You!
jessiechar:
You’re a really hard worker
Your time is poorly managed
You don’t know what to do with your life
Your boss knows you’re gullible
At least 40% of your diet consists of pre-packaged food
You send out work emails at inappropriate hours
You have no perspective on life
You don’t sleep enough for proper brain function
You have very little self-respect
Your salary should be higher,...
June 2010
1 post
“I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become...”
– (via Logan Leger) (via shpigford)
May 2010
2 posts
How Do We Get Oil?
fakescience:
April 2010
50 posts
Awesome video: "Designing with Forces" →
http://furbo.org/2010/04/19/an-apology/ →
Cloud of Witnesses//Corrie Ten Boom →
I forgot that Corrie Ten Boom’s birthday is coming up… if you haven’t read her story, you should. It’s an incredible life - selflessness, courage, and forgiveness. She forgave the Nazi soldiers who beat and tortured her and her family members.
Her birthday is this Thursday, the 15th.
Liking the Tumblr API thus far. The design is better than Drupal or Wordpress.
“Does the IRS do waterboarding? Just wondering.”
Styling a Site for the iPhone
Apple’s iPhone App Review process leaves many of us stuck between a rock and a hard place. What can we do to more effectively push out content without having to deal with Apple? A month’s wait for approval for App submissions and updates isn’t unheard of.
Gruber has discussed the idea that we move in the direction of web apps. This can be a great solution, if you’re an...
Plan for the Extremes
What we need to do to design is to look at the extremes. The middle will take care of itself.
- Dan Formosa, Smart Design, from “Objectified” the movie
I loved Objectified, and this quote stuck out at me the most. This applies in UI design as well. I find that your best test user is the cranky, impatient one - the one who needs to have that project done two hours ago. If I can make...
What a VCR Can Teach Us About UI Design
So, yesterday, my grandma wanted to watch an old movie (“Ghostbreakers”, starring Bob Hope) on my parents’ TV. She handed me this strange, antiquated technology called a “VHS tape”. Maybe you’ve heard of it?
Okay, so I’ve used these things. Even had one in college. You insert the tape, and it plays. You also have to do this “rewind” ritual...
Upgrade your Wordpress NOW
Thankfully, I’ve kept mine up-to-date, but if your Wordpress install is a few months old, you may already be compromised. Get out there and check it, then upgrade if you haven’t already.
Correction: The hack apparently works against anything prior to 2.8.4. So get out there and upgrade!
On Rob Bell and "Drops Like Stars"
My sister and I saw Rob Bell speak here in Chicago a few weeks ago. I’m still “processing” it in my head, but as I collect my thoughts, I’m realizing how huge his concepts were.
He kept it fairly “secular” and “generic” to fit with a wider audience, as my sister noted. But I think the points he was trying to make were still there and still strong....
"Pagan Christianity"
I’m still working my way through this book, but I thought I’d draw your attention to it: it’s called
Constructive Criticism
When you’re giving feedback to someone and you know they’ve spent a long time on the project, and you send them a comment saying “This was terrible! Were you even TRYING??”, you’re not helpful. In fact, you are (pardon my French) an asshat.
So, here’s a few tips to make sure you aren’t being an ass, and providing truly constructive criticism…
1....
Make it Human
As humans, we tend to reach for things that we can relate to - things with familiar and friendly faces, or things with personality.
Whether it’s software or hardware, the things you design should be a natural grasp for other people.
Physical objects should be pleasant to the touch, and have obvious hinting - where to hold it, where to grab or pull. Software should, to some extent,...
UX Design Myths
Loving this blog post on UX design myths. My favorite, myth number 2:
People Read
And the explaination:
Short: They don’t. :-)
Long: The thinking usually goes something like “If the user is confused, some text explanation will help.” Or you, or someone in your team will think that a dialogue box, page of instructions, or a warning sticker will help clarify a situation.
He backs it up with...
Chart about Eating Out
This post on the Mint.com blog scares me. It shows a breakdown of where we eat, and how much money we’re spending. I’ve tried to reduce my spending on junk food, so I’m not surprised at the numbers.
Drop Legacy
Purely opinion from me, but relevant: Apple is doing the right thing, dropping legacy support, and not trying to coddle to every possible hardware/software combo out there.
The last thing we need is for them to try to be like Microsoft. They’re still scrambling all over each release of Windows, trying to support apps from the ‘98 and even ‘95 days. Not good. If businesses are...
Design evolution of an interface
TapTapTap released “Convert” for iPhone a while back. While I’m a fan of ConvertBot, this one is awesome, too. Check out the incredible overview of the UI design/revision process on it.
Also see their perspective on the app design process. I’m thinking I should follow that approach a bit more closely.
Touchlytics is out
Finally got it finished! Check out http://www.touchlyticsapp.com for more.
Multitasking is great - except that it doesn't...
According to a study, you’re better off focusing on one thing at a time instead of trying to do multiple things at once.
No surprise there.
My bad experience at Subway
I posted to Subway’s Facebook page, but here it is for posterity:
I will not be eating at Subway again, I’m afraid. Ever. Yesterday, I was on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, and needed to use the restroom, and stopped into a Subway. It was something of an emergency, so I made my way quickly towards the back. Now, background: I have a mild hearing disability, and have hearing aids. So one...
Sudden, Lethal News about EE
So I got an email over the holiday weekend from a key ExpressionEngine developer, which scared me because my understanding of key functionality in EE was completely wrong. And it could potentially destroy high-traffic, major ExpressionEngine-based sites.It has to do with the parsing order of tags and conditionals. If you use EEcode…
{if something}
{something}
{/if}
… you...
No Reviews from 3.0
Neven Morgan mentions something that I’ve been frustrated about: http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/105182933/no-reviews-from-betas
Proposal for a simple change to the App Store: those running pre-release versions of the iPhone OS and iTunes (which is now required to install the OS) should not be allowed to rate and review apps. I bring this up because I’ve seen reviews where dudes slap on a...
Leadership in the church- reacting to a crisis
While this article has a bit of a slant (in my perception), it’s a scary story about the failure of church leadership where they could have stepped in and handled the situation better.Saddleback’s ties to the Southern Baptists and their very conservative views definitely hurt them in this case (I was surprised to hear that they’re tied to that denomination - very unfortunate)....
stevenf.com - Have Adobe Creative Suite installed?...
Leave it to @stevenf to call Adobe out for the steaming heaps of crap they like to shovel out. Seriously, Adobe, this is getting ridiculous. Do you even *have* QA?
stevenf.com - Have Adobe Creative Suite installed? Open up your….
Do It In Strings
If the frameworks on which you’re building your app provide relatively easy localization, you’re hurting yourself if you don’t do as much as possible in text that can be translated with that framework.If you’re using Cocoa, this doesn’t mean Interface Builder. Do it in code, adding NSLocalizedString as you go along. You’ll thank me later. Adding this later on is...
Rhyme and Reason
One of the mistakes I made early on was assuming that technical understandings can extensively limit how I design something. That is, saying “oh, it’s harder to do that way, so I’m fine with how it looks and don’t want to bother changing the look”, in cases where I could’ve made some possible changes with just a little extra work.Now, don’t get me wrong,...
Raising the Bar
The quality of many apps on the AppStore suck. There, I said it.A lot of these developers will blame the AppStore for being “terrible”. In reality, they’ve established a belief that it’s an instant money machine, not requiring marketing or careful design and planning.
And these developers don’t realize the core issue - their app looks terrible. It isn’t...
The Rut
Sometimes, it just happens: through a variety of factors - emotional, physical, environmental, etc. - you find yourself stuck creatively. Unable to move, unable to produce.It all looks like the same boring drivel as before, or you’ve simply given up, allowing forces you can’t control, can’t fight, or simply don’t want to fight completely take control of the creative...
Obamanation
Okay, now that it’s official (he’s President now, in case you didn’t know), I want to solidify my thoughts on Obama. I’m not a hard-core liberal by any means, but I have some views on these issues - some that differ, and some that match. Mostly differ, but it’s a “lesser of two evils” thing for me.I’m a little worried about the economy thing, and we...
Think Positive
It’s all in how you perceive it: I prefer the term “progressive”, rather than “liberal”.“Progressive” implies moving forward, and can be used to describe moderates, which is probably the direction I truly tend to go. I’m still pro-life, and conservative in other areas (not a big fan of giving gays a free-for-all).
“Liberal” implies such...