The ability to share information and experiences is one of the pillars the Internet was built upon upon. But this ability also leads to a misleading perception at times. I recently had lunch with a new acquaintance, Justin Jackson [http://twitter.com/mijustin]. Our streams overlap somewhat, in terms of who we follow on Twitter. It was a comment that Justin made that reinforced for me the fact that how we measure success is important. We discussed a mutual acquaintance, someone who has achieved…
As we head to the weekend, I'm looking forward to sun, temperatures north of 30 C, and fun in the water. We’re on a much needed holiday and a family reunion is the perfect opportunity. The fact that is takes place on the Canada Day long weekend and the weather looks to be the best of the year is icing on the cake. We’ve got an incredibly spotty Internet connection here, which is wonderful. And so I head into the weekend with no concrete plans on how I'm going to replace Google Reader. I&…
Iterative development has been touted as the way to operate, whether you're developing web sites or applications. Instead of perfect, you shoot for a good start, launch, then slowly improve over time. There are blog posts aplenty dedicated to this topic. And there is wisdom in this idea. Yaron Schoen said it well [http://yaronschoen.com/writing/real-designers-nurture/]: > I have a lot more respect for designers that have the same excitement after shipping a product as they did before shipping…
What a week. The WWDC keynote [https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2013/] generated a lot of discussion, ranting, and much hullabaloo. Whether you liked what you saw or not, there's no doubt this series of announcements was a bigger deal than the last few years have given us. iOS 7 has garnered most of the attention, for good reason. But it's Apple starting from a clean slate and because of this I'd withhold my judgement for now. I like the overall direction and look forward to diving in n…
With the additions of services like 500px [http://500px.com/], many have predicted the demise of Flickr [http://www.flickr.com]. Yet it is still here. And it has received more attention in terms of development and design in the last couple of years than the five previous. I'd suggest that the Yahoo leadership has some sort of vision for the service and community … finally! The recent new redesign of the service, as well as a great iOS app, has people reconsidering it once again. I've never used…
On the subject of creating with an iPad, I'm a bit of a Johnny-come-lately. Yes, creating on the iPad has been possible since the day it launched. And yes, I’ve used it for a bit of writing. But I never embraced it like many others have. I was of the opinion that my more powerful and functional laptop was always the better option. Until recently. I've been working on a side project for the last five months. Like many of you, I've a full time job to take up most of my time.…
I have an affection for type that cannot be simply described or explained. I'm not a professional designer, writer, or editor, yet when I see words set on a page or screen, there is a feeling that comes over me. If the type is well set, then it’s a surge of appreciation. If it’s obvious that very little thought has been given to the layout and character of the text itself, then I have an unbidden disdain for the content within. And most often, I have the desire to design something, anything and…
For anyone who's followed along here over the years, you'll know that yours truly does not have much confidence or trust for services that are free. Twitter most definitely falls into the category of services where I believe the user is the currency, not the customer. Yet, although I've transitioned away from other services like Google for my Internet based tools, I've had a hard time doing the same for Twitter. Why? Because the people are still there. People over ideals? I've backed App.net (…