blue iris
Pantone's color of the year is Blue Iris
“Pantone selected PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris, a beautifully balanced blue-purple, as the color of the year for 2008. Combining the stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple, Blue Iris satisfies the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement.”
Clever thinking: reCAPTCHA uses captchas to digitize books
“reCAPTCHA improves the process of digitizing books by sending words that cannot be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher. More specifically, each word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is placed on an image and used as a CAPTCHA. This is possible because most OCR programs alert you when a word cannot be read correctly.”
“People who design products are experts cursed by their knowledge”
The curse of knowledge = When we know something, it becomes hard for us to imagine not knowing it. “It’s why engineers design products ultimately useful only to other engineers. It’s why managers have trouble convincing the rank and file to adopt new processes. And it’s why the advertising world struggles to convey commercial messages to consumers. ‘I HAVE a DVD remote control with 52 buttons on it, and every one of them is there because some engineer along the line knew how to use that button and believed I would want to use it, too,’ Chip Heath says. ‘People who design products are experts cursed by their knowledge, and they can’t imagine what it’s like to be as ignorant as the rest of us.’”
Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses
“The key for independent coffeehouse owners who want to thrive with a Starbucks next-door is that they don’t try to imitate Starbucks. (As many failed coffee chains can attest, there’s no way to beat Starbucks at being Starbucks.) The locally owned cafes that offer their own unique spin on the coffeehouse experience — and, crucially, a quality brew — are the ones that give the Seattle behemoth fits.”
15 ways to differentiate your blog from the crowd
“How can you get noticed? The main thing: don’t just do what everyone else is doing. Study your field, see what’s being done, and by all means, do the things that are working for others. But do it in a new or interesting way, with some kind of difference that will get you noticed.”
53 CSS techniques you couldn’t live without
“Below you’ll find a list of techniques we, as web-architects, really couldn’t live without. They are essential and they indeed make our life easier. Let’s take a look at 53 CSS-based techniques you should always have ready to hand if you develop web-sites.”
“My blogging philosophy is like the open source model in software”
“Everyone in Silicon Valley is focused on venture capital funding and having an exit strategy. Because I’m not focused on raising money, I can focus on my customers, since they aren’t a stepping stone to some acquisition or I.P.O…I’m trying to create a community of help for small Internet businesses like mine. My blogging philosophy is like the open source model in software. It’s sort of a hippie concept. If I can help other people, it’s personally rewarding. And those people will likely pay it back in some ways.”
The secret to winning at rock, paper, scissors
“The way to win is to start with scissors. Research shows that stone, also called rock, is the most popular of the three possible moves in the game. That means that your opponent is likely to choose paper, because they will expect to you to start the game with stone. By going with scissors, you achieve an early victory.”