XM Packaging process
From: Ed Illig

Over time I’ve noted you guys enjoy works that incorporate handcraft, process and technology. With that in mind I kept thinking this post may interest you for Signal vs. Noise — from our .think blog on an XM package development process:

XM Satellite Radio: A Packaging Process Overview

This article, an insight into the design of a consumer package for satellite radio provider XM, includes many aspects of a typical package development process. In the interest of time, we’ll skip research, diagnostic and technical methodology phases and concentrate on the basic iterative process steps in this article.

roughs

Husbandry vs. parenting
From: Mark Barry

Thought this blog post about using lessons from animal husbandry in everyday parenting can in a lot of ways also be applied to software design. Check it.

What I knew about animals was actually quite applicable, and so I began to rethink the adventure as not so much “mentorship of a child” as “husbandry of an animal.” Here’s what I gleaned from my years at the animal hospital that was really useful.

“SANS Top Three Programming Errors”
From: Joseph Mako III

SANS.org, the people who maintain isc.sans.org, the Internet Storm Center, have started an institute for secure code. The .pdf provided at www.sans-ssi.org titled “SANS Top Three Programming Errors” (PDF) is a great read.


Jitterbug Phones
From: Jean Moniatte

Saw an ad in the Smithsonian for Jitterbug phones that you might like:

It does not play games, take pictures, or give you the weather. Introducing the Jitterbug. Simply designed to be the best telephone a cell phone can be. Nothing more and nothing less.

Quick prototyping quote from IDEO
From: Dhrumil Purohit

“One of my buddies always says never go to a meeting without a prototype, and he always wins.”
-David Kelley, founder of IDEO

Text transcript or MP3 link.


Iconic technology
From: Ernest Kim

Objects of Desire: Famous industrial designers talk about iconic pieces of technology

polaroid

It’s amazing how beautiful both the original Polaroid Camera and Sony Walkman are. And here’s a great quote from John Maeda on mobile phones (his pick for an object of desire is the original Motorola cell phone):

“I have a collection of old Motorola phones,” says Maeda. “I like looking at these things. But I don’t miss them, because they’re large and clunky. You look at old TV shows and they pull out these shoe-size things. They make a better phone, because they’re just phones. Now phones are GPS and Web enabled with a heart-monitoring system just in case. I keep old cell phones on my windowsill to look at. I should probably throw them away.”

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