"I. Love. Football on TV. Shots of Geena Lee. Hanging with my friends. And . . . twins!'' Ugh. I am so incredibly out of touch with the 21-to-27-year-old male demographic if this crap works (N.Y. Times).
If you've watched television in the last nine months, especially any N.F.L. games, chances are you've seen the ad, which is titled ''Love Songs.'' Something of a cultural phenomenon, it has incited sports-bar sing-alongs, turned the (real-life) twins, Diane and Elaine Klimaszewski, into pseudo-celebrities and become a popular download on the Internet...the ad has nonetheless become the standard against which all other beer ads are measured.
Bush: "The course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others." What are your feelings on the President's speech? I thought it was very effective and well balanced (but, no, I have no clue how they will pay for all this with an accelerated tax cut). The surprising attention given to the AIDS crisis in Africa was especially moving (and I believe genuine). Bush's long-term vision of an freer world also moved me. This will be no easy task, and there will be some dark days, but I do believe that the sacrafices we make and the risks we take in the coming months/years will pay huge dividends for humanity in the long term. The liberation of Iraq is the beginning of a major movement that will eventually culminate in a more peaceful world. The Middle East will be a very different place in 10 years.
Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation.
Thumbs up.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. [via Jargon.net]
We're considering switching our company cell phone service away from Sprint PCS and to T-Mobile. Has anyone had any experience with T-Mobile's local/national coverage? Their plans and features hit a sweetspot for us, but it all depends on the service/coverage. If anyone has any other recommendations for cell service please feel free to post 'em. Thanks.
This post on Kottke's site referencing Liz Bailey's article on "undesign" started me wondering, why is it that simple design online is considered a lack of design or "undesign" as Bailey puts it?
For a non-design analogue take sushi. For the most part it involves little to no "cooking" and is essentially very, very simple. Yet I've never heard sushi referred to as un-cooking or un-cuisine or sushi chefs as un-chefs. In fact sushi is generally more expensive per portion size than other, more "complex" foods.
In music you have people like Miles Davis who made their careers on simplicty and yet I've never heard his worked referred to as un-music or Davis as an un-musician.
Why does this concept seem so difficult for so many people to grasp when it comes to online design, so much so that people feel the need to come up with euphemisms for it such as usable design or "undesign"? Why not just "good" design?
This discussion on the usefulness of reports like our recent E-Commerce Search Report got me thinking about qualifications and credibility. In this age of everyone-is-a-pundit web logs and talking head celebrities chiming in on CNN and MSNBC, how do we distinguish the wheat from the chaff? Are practicioners in a particular field better-equipped to analyze that field than folks who produce little original work of their own? What do you think?
Jan Herman has taken space in his MSNBC column to critique the Wall Street Journal for the placement of its memorial to slain reporter Daniel Pearl (in a 9th-floor elevator lobby at the WSJ building).
"...nothing has come of the idea of placing sculptor John Corcorans spare, dignified work of art in a place where the public can see it in the buildings main lobby, for instance, across the street from Ground Zero."
Aigh. What about other reporters who have died in dangerous areas? Do they all get memorials too? Will their families fight over who gets the lobby statue and who gets stuck on the 9th floor?
Is anyone else suffering from memorial fatigue? I'm distressed by this constant sanctimonious drive to "remember the fallen" (e.g. Ground Zero designs). It seems like everyone wants oversized, in-your-face memorials to this or that without considering the logical impact: memorial numbness. I say focus on the future instead of the past.
So... I pay my taxes quarterly, and my payment was due on Jan 15th, 2003. I sent in the payment on the 15th. I figured that the IRS would get the check on the 18th or the 21st (since Monday was a no-mail holiday) and then try to cash it a day or so later. I thought a full week from sending it to cashing it would be pretty realistic and it would give me ample time to move money between two accounts so the check would clear.
Well, welcome to the efficient IRS (and US Postal Service). They got my check 3 days later (Saturday), and tried to cash it first thing on Tuesday the 21st (just 6 days from when I sent it -- and that includes a Sunday and a Holiday). It bounced. Ouch. Actually... I'm kind of pissed at Citibank because the money should have been in the account in time (since when did it take 3 days to electronically move money between accounts at the same bank?!). Oh well. You live and learn, although next time I'd rather not have the IRS involved in my learning process.
Hipster - One who possesses tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed cool by the cool. (Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term "cool"; a Hipster would instead say "deck.") The Hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them and shuns or reduces to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream. A Hipster ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat.
Reminiscent of the appalling "Keep America Strong: Buy American" Chevy and Ford Truck ad spots following 9/11, Bush+Cheney, Inc. are working to usher in a tax deduction (up to $75,000) for small business owners who purchase a gas guzzling SUV. Gotta love this latest incarnation of trickle-down Reaganomics. Our descent into environmental mypopathy continues apace...
An Oldtimer's Guide to Understanding Women (from moxie.nu) explains that it's all about the dials.
Obesity Suit Against McDonald's Dismissed. U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet threw out the suit in its entirety: "This opinion is guided by the principle that legal consequences should not attach to the consumption of hamburgers and other fast food fare unless consumers are unaware of the dangers of eating such food." Chalk one up for accountability.
The salty Mr. Dash goes off on the diamond industry. Defend or agree?
Truth and booty (MSNBC) starts with Joe Millionaire but ends up discussing broader issues of morality and romance.
$50 million is not a bad thing to desire, if it happens to accompany the right guy. At the very least, a woman desiring a wealthy man is no more shallow than a man desiring a beautiful woman. Folks want the whole package. Romance is complicated; it has to do with things material and ephemeral, with fantasies and fairy tales. It is, in short, a sort of conjuring.
Is it more usable for a car to have its gas tank access on the driver's side or the passenger's side?
My initial thought on this was that it makes more sense to have it on the driver's side since it's closer to the driver and makes it easier to pull up close to a gas pump.
But the downside is that the gas pump would then limit the driver's ability to open his or her door.
Any thoughts?
What if genetically-modifying a plant was the only way to save it from extinction?
... And advertise? NASCAR: coming to a police department near you.
The N.Y. Times interviewed Frank Gehry about the Ground Zero designs.
I was invited to be on one of the teams, but I found it demeaning that the agency paid only $40,000 for all that work. I can understand why the kids did it, but why would people my age do it? Norman Foster or Richard Meier or any of those people? When you're only paid $40,000, you're treated as if that is your worth.
Also interesting (file under old dogs, new tricks) is that Gehry still refers to Istanbul as Constantinople:
I took 15 students to see the Haga Sofia in Constantinople, and said to them: this is what we need in New York.
This led me to wonder: just when did Constantinople become Istanbul? Sephardicstudies.org reports:
Atatrk officially renamed the city Istanbul in the 1920s. It took Westerners a few decades to accept the name, as Constantinople continued to appear on maps well into the 1960s, when it began to appear in parentheses next to Istanbul.
In a 7-2 ruling, the Supreme Court voted to keep copyright protections in place on such early Disney works as "Steamboat Willie" that would have otherwise entered the public domain (via the Sonny Bono Law).
Lawrence Lessig, of Napster Microsoft trial and Free Culture fame, seems pretty downtrodden about the whole ordeal:
It has often been said that movements gain by losing in the Supreme Court. Some feminists say it would have been better to lose Roe, because that would have built a movement in response. I have often wondered whether it would ever be possible to lose a case and yet smell victory in the defeat. I’m not yet convinced it’s possible.
I can see the need for some form of copyright protection on original works, but isn't the current legal and corporate framework overly restrictive? Is something like a Creative Commons license economically feasible or are we stuck with what we've got?
Morningstar's new Market Indexes Grid is an example of great information design. Clear, simple, informative and comparative at a glance. Click on a percentage and dig deeper into that segment. Great work.
This article on Mozilla vs. Safari got me thinking: Maybe the open source community is fundamentally ill-equipped to build polished, customer-focused, usable, and useful end-user products. Not for lack of talent, but because of the way it's organized.
There's no denying open source creates incredible technology that underpins products like Safari and Mac OS X, but it's a rare open source product that is as easy to use as those finished in house. Would better products come from open source if they stopped trying to build finished products and concentrated on the technology alone?
Chicago is considering passing a law forbidding smoking in all restaurants and bars. Chicago Citizens for Freedom of Choice (my guess is they're a group of restaurant/bar owners) is fighting against the ban. Their argument:
Even if you are a non-smoker this law will hurt you. Non-smoking laws have been demonstrated to hurt the economy of a city and lead to the closing of many bars and restaurants . If you, your relatives and friends work in bars, restaurants, hotels or any business that depends on out-of-town visitors this ban will hit right in the wallet, leading to loss of income and possibly employment. Even worse, these laws are one more example of the government taking over our personal lives and eliminating personal freedom. Non-smokers take note: Today the government outlaws smoking, tomorrow they may come after a personal freedom that is important to you! Almost any restriction can be justified in the name of public "safety."
What do you think? Most arguments I've heard boil down to "I'm a smoker so I'm against it" vs. "I don't smoke so I'm for it." How about those of you in NYC or Cali, has the ban impacted lives there at all?
Toward a Reliable and Valid Usability Testing Methodology discusses a the usefulness of design testing:
There is no known usability testing method that is both reliable and valid. End of discussion. Why do people continue to ignore this, when instead we should be doing something about it?
We've struggled with this very problem ourselves. Do we even need this "science" when the art of humans observing humans could suffice? How can we improve user testing so that it's more reliable, valid, and useful?
How do you take fundamentally qualitative data (comfort with navigation, understanding of a checkout process, etc.) and mix that with quantitative data (number of clicks, load speed, time to search for a product, etc.) to get something that's reproducible to the point where the true user interface problems poke through?
[via WebWord]
I can't tell. Do you think Design Not Found and this site look similar? Maybe I'm just hallucinating.
I'm currently the proud owner of a German car. My parents are currently proud owners of two German cars. We love German cars, but these cars have been in the shop a lot more than our Japanese cars that came before them. Our current German cars cost about 2 to 3 times as much our previous Japanese cars. Plus, the German cars just love the taste of gas -- they can't get enough.
Yes, the German cars are more beautiful (both inside and outside), handle better, and drive faster, but where's all this German engineering I hear so much about? Does German engineering just mean faster with better buttons and nicer leather? Why can't they engineer a more reliable car? Hasn't Lexus proven that luxury and reliability aren't mutually exclusive?
I never knew this, but Theodore Geisel supported himself during the Great Depression as an advertising illustrator. UC San Diego has placed many of these illustrations on-line to encourage greater access. His style and wit — even then — is all his own.
Some of my favorites: Flit, Wild Tones, and NBC.
Today we officially announce the launch of our first 37signals Research Report.
In "Evaluating 25 E-Commerce Search Engines" we analyze, review, and rate the search engines and search results at 25 popular e-commerce sites. The report is chock full of ideas, examples, insights, and 22 best practices that will help you improve your site's search experience.
The 45 page report is distributed in PDF format. It features over 150 screenshots and tests over 1000 search terms. The report is $99, but SVN readers who enter SVN1037 in the coupon code box will save $10. We spent about 3.5 months putting this together and are very proud of it. Any and all feedback (positive and negative) is appreciated. Thanks.
We're probably a bit late to the table with this, but the BBC have redesigned. Their old site is available from the Wayback Machine for comparison. The changes are generally nice overall -- better visual hierarchy, more functionality available in a meaningful way. The "Popular Searches Right Now" feature is a nice touch -- a kind of automatically-generated FAQ that more sites like this should adopt.
If you're so inclined (or have a thing for voluminous documentation), you can read a detailed account of the redesign process in this PDF document from blackbeltjones.
The most refreshing thing about the BBC site has nothing to do with the design, though. Their cover story tonight? "Is the Future Green?" -- a forum to discuss your thoughts on the environment. Cruise on over to CNN or MSNBC and you'll find "Bush: Urgent need for 'bold' plan"and "Bush unveils economic stimulus plan," respectively.
Scientist in Clone Tests Says Hoax Is Possible (N.Y. Times) reveals that the science journalist who agreed to oversee the Clonaid tests questions the whole project.
"It's still entirely possible Clonaid's announcement is part of an elaborate hoax intended to bring publicity to the Raelian movement."
Seriously, did anyone pay this story any mind from the beginning?
I'm obsessed with looking at objects/experiences and trying to figure out ways to make them better. So, while I was filling up at the gas station, I was wondering what the next big thing at gas stations will be. All the gas is basically the same. The prices are pennies apart. They all have pay at the pump machines. Mobil has their Speedpass, which is nice, but it requires you to carry yet another dongle on your keychain. So, what it is?
How about faster pumps? If I could fill up at Shell 33% faster than at BP or Mobil, I'd almost always look for a Shell. I wonder if the pumps are as fast (or slow) as they are now due to regulation or just because that's how they've always been. Any ideas?
Since we're on the topic of Apple, a story on News.com today indicates that one of the annoucements coming out of next week's Macworld conference will be that Apple is going to begin to charge for some of its i-Apps. Here's the jist of it:
According to sources familiar with the plans, Apple is expected to announce at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco Tuesday that consumers will have to pay for new versions of iDVD, iPhoto and iMovie, which will be sold together as a bundle. Previously, Apple had offered upgrades to its digital media, or "i" applications, for free.
The story goes on to report that the charge for the bundle will be "up to $50."
Given the outcry over the move to for-pay subscription services with .Mac I would suspect that this isn't going to go over very well with many in the Mac community. People seem to forget that it costs money to develop this stuff, but I suspect that that will be overlooked by most.
Still, I'm not really sure how much this is going to make sense from a business perspective. According to the story the reason for this move is that "Windows users are not making the switch as Apple had hoped." If this is the case how is charging for the apps going to help? I understand that they need to cover the costs of development, but if that means an even slower flow of "switchers" then does that make sense -- particularly when you consider how many existing Mac users will be angered?
Any thoughts?
According to this story at MacCentral Apple has recently applied for a patent for something the company is calling an "active enclosure for computing device."
Here's a snippet from the MacCentral article describing what exactly this would be:
Through dense technical and legal language, the requested patent apparently calls for what Apple calls "chameleonic" computers to be built using "an illuminable housing," using a light source comprising Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). The housing would also contain "a light pipe" used to distribute illumination to spots within the computer's chassis.
The invention goes beyond just changing your iMac's color to suit its surroundings, however. Apple also describes a potentially useful application for its "active enclosure:" Showing you what's going on inside the box. Apple said that its technology could adapt to display input and output, for example. Or, the chameleon Mac could change color to let you know that a specific task or event was taking place.
It's more than just colors, too. Apple said that "dynamic light effects," are possible too, like rainbows, stripes, dots, and flowers, for example. You could turn your Mac into a lava lamp.
Sounds like this could be either insanely cool or really cheesy. Given the track record of the team at Apple I would give them the benefit of the doubt. Any thoughts on this? Would you want a computer with "chameleonic" abilities?
BTW, the complete patent filing can be viewed here.
A couple of unintentional zingers overheard at a NYE party...
1) Two friends, Y and Z, stop to chat with an acquaintance wearing a striped shirt. Y says...
"See Z, I told you that shirt you're wearing is fashionable. Everybody's wearing stripes these days."
2) And then, with different players, there was the classic...
"Hey X, you look really good. (pause) I haven't seen you look this good in months."
In both cases, I don't think the insulter even realized they'd done anything wrong. Nonetheless, the cycle had started. The result: whispers, gossip, and eventually a storm-out for unknown reasons.