Sunspots: The flatfile edition 37signals 25 Jul 2006

9 comments Latest by Sam MacCutchan

The iPod Shuffle's next button should be bigger
"If you're listening to songs blind, you really need two functions: next, and play/stop. Finding the next track button at the moment requires knowing the orientation of the player which isn't always easy: it should be larger."
Bookmarklet that puts a Photoshopesque grid over a web page
"I have also created a Layout Grid Overlay Bookmarklet which creates a div, positions it absolutely and then applies the background image to the div. Because the image is transparent, you get a nice overlay effect."
Steve Case on AOL-Time Warner merger: "I'm sorry I did it."
"It has not turned out certainly the way I expected, it has been a disappointment. It goes back to the question of was it a good idea; I think it was a good idea. I'm disappointed and frustrated that it hasn't developed in the way that we all hoped at the time it could."
Coudal's "Watch Us Now" video
"We were looking at some goofy old tv network promos during the morning and wondering why nobody does those anymore. At lunch somebody said, 'Wouldn't it be cool if we had one of those for our site?' So, for a Friday project, we decided to mash one tgether before the end of the day." Includes a 37s cameo.
Flickr photo group: "Tell a story in 5 frames"
Examples: Beast to Beauty, Homeland Security in Action, and The box. [via Photojojo]
Print-on-demand books picking up steam
Blurb plans to bookify data beginning with a tool that "slurps" the entries from a blog and places them into appropriate templates.
"The biggest challenge for design management"
Sean Coon comments on "Vinh vs. Veen at Signal vs. Noise" over at Subtraction: "In retrospect (from my time at ameritrade) -- bending to allow other groups to have a degree of ownership of certain aspects of the experience would've gotten me much farther within that culture, and very well could have improved the overall client experience...the biggest challenge for design management is within these large organizations; knowing when to fight, when to lead, when to follow, when to listen, when to relinquish... it's truly collaboration on steroids."
Bezembinder's illustrations
A cool gallery of illustrations.
List of the 520 domain names owned by Google
Keyhole.com, rapidrefocus.com, earthstream.com, howtobuyaweddingring.com, etc. [via Read/WriteWeb]
Video: Flatlife
Strangely stimulating. Other videos we've been tuning in: Stephen Colbert gets Rep. Robert Wexler of South Florida to "confess," George Washington will save children but not the British children, and Stop-Motion Human Space Invaders.

9 comments so far (Jump to latest)

Marc Hedlund 25 Jul 06

Remember that Google probably didn’t register all 520 of those domains — probably some of them (like ‘googlemotherfucker.com’) were acquired when someone else registered them and Google objected to the use of their trademark in the domain. I wonder if domain transfer records would indicate how many of these were original registrations and how many were transferred from a previous owner?

Noah 25 Jul 06

I imagine many of them were aquired with other purchases too

Dave Simon 25 Jul 06

The flaw in the iPod shuffle isn’t the next button (I’ve never had trouble finding it.)

It’s the fact that it relies on a user being able to distinguish between “amber” and “green” to know how much battery is left.

benny 25 Jul 06

The iPod Shuffle only has one flaw? This is awesome news.

Kyle 25 Jul 06

Dammit.

How did I not hear about Blurb?!? That EXACT concept was my next get-rich project…

Guess I’ll need to do even more research next time.

And I’m in total agreement about the iPod shuffle. There should also be a “hold” option.

Nick 25 Jul 06

Also - the shuffle is impossible to use when you’re wearing gloves (you know, for those of us who have winter).

Nick 25 Jul 06

Also - the shuffle is impossible to turn on when you’re wearing gloves (you know, for those of us who have winter).

Dan Grossman 26 Jul 06

List of the 520 domain names owned by Google

GoogleBlog.net was mine until they sent their lawyers after me — there wasn’t even a site on the domain :(

Sam MacCutchan 26 Jul 06

I use my shuffle blind all the time. I keep it in my pocket and never use the lanyard. I find it very easy to put my hand into my pocket and figure out the orientation of the buttons. This is easy to do because the controls off centre top to bottom on the device. Once you have found the headphone jack you know the orientation of the buttons.

On the subway I often adjust the volume and skip tracks by pressing the buttons “through” my pants.