March 2008 Archives
There was an article about 37signals in a recent issue of Wired that design guru Don Norman (author of the excellent The Design of Everything Things) had issues with. I like their rebuttal at Signal vs. Noise.
He argues that because we design for ourselves first, we're selfish, arrogant, and have a disdain for customers.
That's not true. Designing for ourselves first yields better initial results because it lets us design what we know. It lets us assess quality quickly and directly, instead of by proxy. And it lets us fall in love with our products and feel passionate about what we make. There's simply no substitute for that.
We're like chefs. We make food that we think tastes good and that we believe in. We make it for customers who have the same sensibilities that we do. It might not be for everyone. That's ok. But for people who think the way we do, and appreciate the things we appreciate, it's perfect.
Good essay about design in general, and following your own instincts. As always, a lively discussion thread as well.
A good friend of mine just sent me a note that she's doing some fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and will be hoofing it up 69 flights of stairs at Seattle's Columbia Center this Sunday as part of the Big Climb for Leukemia. That's some serious vertical. Almost 800 feet straight up. And I sometimes complain about walking up four or five flights of stairs at work.
If you're interested, you can contribute to the event through Nancy's site: http://www.active.com/donate/2008bigclimb/bc08NMartel.
Recently rebuilt my work laptop. Always seems to take more time than I expect to get it back into the kind of shape I'd like it to be. But also always well worth the effort. I thought I'd take a moment to detail all the extra tools, utilities, and applications I've grown accustomed to using.
- Overall look and feel comes from XPize Darkside. This is a comprehensive "skinning" of Windows XP that gives it that darker edge (plus a glassy taskbar). There's a lighter version I've used in the past (XPize 4.7) that uses blues instead of blacks. But I like the black. Both packages also provide a slick "Alt-Tab" replacement that makes it much easier to remember what you're working on.
- Visual Task Tips help with the multi-tasking, too, providing Vista-like capabilities without all the overhead. Simply mouseover any task in your Windows Taskbar to get a thumbnail image of the application.
- Taskbar Shuffle. More micromanagement on the task-bar. I tend to like my taskbar to be at least somewhat organized, instead of a random jumble of apps. This utility lets me rearrange the applications on my taskbar by simply clicking and dragging. Very, very handy.
- Google Desktop. Goes without saying. Gotta have this -- I don't know how I'd find anything on my laptop (or in Outlook) without it. Still getting used to the Launchy-like pop-up.
- As much as I'd like to leverage Google Desktop's gadgets, I just don't like them very much. I'm a Yahoo! Widgets guy. For the most part, becauase the desktop is meant to be background, I only use a few widgets. The weather. Simple Monitor. And a couple of world clocks, one local, and one for India. A thin strip for controlling iTunes.
- Notepad2 for most of my text-processing. I know there are many other similar utilities out there, but this meets the majority of my needs without an overabundance of unnecessary bells and whistles.
- Dark Room. Only recently started using this, but love it. So clean.
- SnagIt has become an absolutely indespensible part of my daily existence. A picture is worth a thousand words, and when you work in technology, being able to clarify a point with a quick screenshot is huge.
- For less robust image management than SnagIt provides, I still opt for Irfan View.
- Firefox, of course. And iTunes. Goes without saying.
- Not as essential for a standalone setup, but Multiplicity also brings me a great deal of relief, especially when I'm at the office. My laptop isn't my main work PC, so when I bring it in with me and set it next to my desktop, it's great being able to work on both machines with a single keyboard and mouse.
- Background wallpaper courtesy of InterfaceLIFT. Lots of great photos that make for great backgrounds. The one I'm currently using is called Before the Storm.
- There are a few other tools and trinkets I've got installed to make life easier. XP's PowerToys are nice (especially the "Open Command Window Here" one), but as far as simple, lightweight, helpful utilities go, I don't know what I'd do without Folder Size.
Basically replaces the "size" column in Windows Explorer with "Folder Size," allowing you to easily get a handle on what's taking up space on your HD. Why this wasn't built into the OS in the first place is beyond me.
Daylight Saving Time comes early again this year. Early tomorrow morning, in most states, 2:00 AM will magically become 3:00 AM. Some interesting and amusing anecdotes about the history of DST to be found here.
For example:
The Minnesota cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul once didn't have twin perspectives with regard to the clock. These two large cities are adjacent at some points and separated only by the Mississippi River at others, and are considered a single metropolitan area. In 1965, St. Paul decided to begin its Daylight Saving Time period early to conform to most of the nation, while Minneapolis felt it should follow Minnesota's state law, which stipulated a later start date. After intense inter-city negotiations and quarreling, the cities could not agree, and so the one-hour time difference went into effect, bringing a period of great time turmoil to the cities and surrounding areas.
And:
While twins born at 11:55 p.m. and 12:05 a.m. may have different birthdays, Daylight Saving Time can change birth order -- on paper, anyway. During the time change in the fall, one baby could be born at 1:55 a.m. and the sibling born ten minutes later, at 1:05 a.m. In the spring, there is a gap when no babies are born at all: from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.You can figure out when we change our clocks, too.
In November 2007, Laura Cirioli of North Carolina gave birth to Peter at 1:32 a.m. and, 34 minutes later, to Allison. However, because Daylight Saving Time reverted to Standard Time at 2:00 a.m., Allison was born at 1:06 a.m.
When history looks back at what this president chose to fight for, and why, I don't imagine it will be very kind.
President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.
"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said. The bill provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and includes the interrogation requirement. It passed the House in December and the Senate last month.
"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," the president said.
Yahoo! News
His vetoes have always been few and far between. This one, though, is particularly confounding. Does he honestly believe that torture keeps America safe? That torturing prisoners has "a proven track record?" It's almost as if he believes that Lisa's rock really does keep Springfield safe from tiger attacks.
This is the issue where he decides to stand his ground? Frightening.
We've been a one TV household for many, many years. Extends back into my childhood, actually (save a brief period during college when I had a TV in my bedroom, primarily for playing Nintendo). I guess I'm honestly surprised at some of the numbers in this study.
By some estimates, half of American children have a television in their bedroom; one study of third graders put the number at 70 percent. And a growing body of research shows strong associations between TV in the bedroom and numerous health and educational problems.
Children with bedroom TVs score lower on school tests and are more likely to have sleep problems. Having a television in the bedroom is strongly associated with being overweight and a higher risk for smoking.
One of the most obvious consequences is that the child will simply end up watching far more television -- and many parents won't even know.
In a study of 80 children in Buffalo, ages 4 to 7, the presence of a television in the bedroom increased average viewing time by nearly nine hours a week, to 30 hours from 21. And parents of those children were more likely to underestimate their child's viewing time.
Wow. Twenty-one hours of TV, on average, even without the bedroom TV. That just blows my mind.
Part of the reason memoirs tend to be so compelling is that they're real. They can illustrate larger truths about the human condition, and the message will stick better, because you know that what you're reading happened to a real person, normal, average, just like you and me.
In "Love and Consequences," a critically acclaimed memoir published last week, Margaret B. Jones wrote about her life as a half-white, half-Native American girl growing up in South-Central Los Angeles as a foster child among gang-bangers, running drugs for the Bloods.
The problem is that none of it is true.
Margaret B. Jones is a pseudonym for Margaret Seltzer, who is all white and grew up in the well-to-do Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley, with her biological family. She graduated from the Campbell Hall School, a private Episcopal day school in the North Hollywood neighborhood. She has never lived with a foster family, nor did she run drugs for any gang members. Nor did she graduate from the University of Oregon, as she had claimed.
NYT
Amazing how perception of an artistic work changes when you realize it's fiction, instead of non.
Today marks eighteen years in remission. On this date in 1990, I'd just arrived at the University of Washington Medical center, settling into the hospital room that would be my home for the next eight weeks of chemotherapy, complications, and recovery (and the hospital itself, my home off and on until October of 1990).
I've been trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to find the words to go with this milestone. Perhaps I'll just quote from the cards I received from the girls, because they continue to be one of the best reasons why we celebrate on 03/03:
E: Dear Dad, I'm so happy that you are alive and with us today! Happy Anniversary! It was probably hard being in the hospital all that time. You're very special to me and I love you very much. I really do believe that your experience will become a best selling novel someday.
J: Dear Dad, good job on surviving and not dieing. It must have been weird that you were bald.
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