No to NoUI by Timo Arnall is one of the better pieces I’ve read on design and interfaces, and is also chock-full of links that will keep you busy for hours.
Category Archives: Personal
The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, a long read but fascinating story of how we’re getting hooked on food. See also: Paul Graham’s Acceleration of Addictiveness.
Geneva, Switzerland
Wandering around Geneva and dinner with the amazing author (and WordPress user) Paulo Coelho, and the MB&F M.A.D. Gallery.
I’m attending the World Economic Forum in Davos for the first time, if you’ll be there I’d love to meet up and of course open to any tips you have about the event, it’s very intimidating to attend a first-timer. Also: Switzerland is beautiful! Also my first time in the country.
Twenty-Nine
A week ago I rang in my twenty-ninth birthday and entered that twilight zone prior to thirty. It was an exciting day, I got to fly a plane, dogfight another, and do some aerobatics like a tumble, which was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Unusually for me, I managed to stay away from my computer the entire weekend, instead spending time eating, drinking, and dancing with a few friends who were also in Las Vegas. I came back online to some very sweet birthday blogs (thank you Lorelle, Austin, and John!) and of course a number of nice messages on Facebook and Twitter. All in all, extremely pleasant.
I travelled more this year than I ever have before, covering 261,077 miles in 292 days away from San Francisco (79 cities, 11 countries).
From the outside my life sometimes can appear crazy, and my 20s have been atypical in many ways, but one of the things I appreciate the most about this past year is that things have been getting less hectic overall. Much of this I attribute technology which I’ve finally gotten to a point where the majority of it in my life serves to allow me to spend doing things I love, like writing, designing, coding, learning, and less time on infrastructure or overhead.
The most interesting thing about twenty-nine so far is I’ve been getting lots of tips from people on how to end my 20s, which usually fall under “go out with a bang” from people currently in their 20s and “don’t worry it just gets better from here” from people in their 30s.
My focus this year will be on simplification and streamlining. As in many years past, I find I’m the most balanced when I take time every day to read, especially in the morning, and as an additional resolution this year I’m trying to watch a film every week recommended by friends. (So far have seen My Fair Lady, Casablanca, King Corn, and American President.)
All birthday posts: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42.
Marshmallow Challenge
Here’s an interesting TED talk on a team challenge on building the tallest structure with twenty sticks of spaghetti and a marshmallow. See why kindergarten students do better than business school graduates. (Hint: Learning by shipping.)
Rolling Jubilee is a non-profit that takes donations to buy distressed debt for pennies on the dollar, and then abolishes it. Donate $100 and they can take $2,000 off someone’s back. Seems like an amazing random act of kindness, you’ll never know who you helped.
Let’s Limit the Effect of Software Patents, Since We Can’t Eliminate Them, by Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software movement (and WordCamp SF 2010 speaker).
It’s interesting to read the contrast between the presidential endorsements (for Obama) from two of my favorite magazines, the New Yorker and Economist. Mayor Bloomberg was also a surprise. The Wikipedia, as always, has very comprehensive lists of endorsements for Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
Pandora and Artist Payments, about how Pandora is paying out millions of dollars to artists but is only 6.5% of the US radio listening audience, the fees the rest pay are far, far lower.
Space Shuttle Endeavour
The Space Shuttle Endeavour flew over San Francisco and I snapped a few pictures of it from my patio.
WWW Conference Day 1
First day of the WWW Conference, arriving and the pre-party at the Mission Inn.
Why passwords have never been weaker—and crackers have never been stronger, a great article from Ars Technica. Also emphasizes why two-factor authentication is going to become more important in the coming years.
I’m putting together the State of the Word address for the upcoming WordCamp San Francicso, and one thing I like to do every year is highlight some cool WordPress-powered sites, especially ones that show off the power of the platform. I have a few in mind already, but are there any WP sites you’ve seen recently that really blew your mind? Leave links in the comments.
Grid-based design sure is getting popular these days: First map of the human brain reveals a simple, grid-like structure between neurons. Hat tip: Jeff Bowen.
Plane Thinking
From when you leave the gate to takeoff, your phones (and iPads and Kindles) must be off, but when you land you can use your phone before you get to the gate.
By selling tickets directly and putting restrictions on them Louis C.K. drops scalping by 96%. This guy is on the very edge, just like VHX is making video sales and distribution available to everyone someone will do the same with this ticketing platform. It’s impressive what a creative mind paired with just a bit of technology can do.
It’s a week for coming out of stealth: Livestar, An App For Trusted Recommendations and much more just launched, (an Audrey company). Congrats to Fritz and the team!
I’ve been going retina-happy. It’ll be tricky to do the main graphics of this site (might just be easier to do a new design) but if you visit any of the photos on ma.tt on a retina display you should get double-resolution images, it really shines on photos like this one from South Africa, this one from Napa Valley, or this one from Ethiopia.
VHX has come out of stealth about their funding, it’s a new startup that aims to democratize video distribution, through methods much like Louis CK and Aziz Ansari did those recent online-only special. VHX is an Audrey company.