The last 24 hours have given us a lot of insight into how Steve Jobs, armed with his singular focus and vision, has affected the lives of so many people. Personally, I can speak to how he's affected me. He created the atmosphere and, as many have pointed out, the culture, to create a new type of operating system, one that a designer recently described to me as “design sensitive”. It drew me to the platform. From there he helped me to identify the value in simplicity, that good design is so much…
I really enjoy reading about how other people prepare and drink their coffee. One particular piece that sticks in my mind was Shawn Blanc's write up on how he prepares his coffee with a French Press [http://shawnblanc.net/2010/12/great-french-press-coffee/]. It's just the kind of blog post that I enjoy — a good subject and gained insight into the author's life. On the details, I've always thought it was interesting that he put cinnamon into his coffee. As someone who loves strong coffee and tak…
The web is the backbone of so much of what we do, the pipeline, but how we access it changes so quickly. The various services that make use of this pipeline offer us a myriad of choices to ‘plug in’, and it can be hard to find the right balance that enables us to partake, yet not be inundated. The intake Shawn Blanc recently posted an article comparing RSS and Twitter [http://shawnblanc.net/2011/06/rss-v-twitter/] that resonated with me. Through a series of good points, he illustrates how the n…
“You can pry Shift+Alt-Hyphen from my cold, dead hands!” That was the thought going through my mind when this article [http://www.slate.com/id/2295413/] entered my flow of information. I've long had a bit of an infatuation [https://chrisbowler.com/journal/would-you-like-that-with-or-without-the-space] with the EM dash. And so, firm in my convictions, I read the article confident in an unwavering stance. Dang … Noreen Malone argues her point well. I know that I've grown too fond of this nice, l…
Adam King recently wrote a great post on his paper based “stay-on-top” set up, titled The Daily Rind [http://b.aking.ca/post/5787137408/the-daily-rind]. It's the kind of post I've always enjoyed ever since this topic started to replace actual real work. I say that with tongue in cheek, and I'm laughing at myself, not Adam. I always enjoy getting a look at how the people I admire process things and complete their work. The difference for me now is that I quickly recognize the pull to adapt my ow…
Like Ben Brooks [http://twitter.com/benjaminbrooks], I've long had some thoughts about Twittiquette rolling around in my head. Ben expressed some thoughts [http://brooksreview.net/2011/05/follow/] this morning on the service and how he thinks people should react when they are followed or unfollowed by others. It's an interesting subject as we all react towards these actions differently. But I try to keep a few things on my mind. Don't take it personally At some point, you're going to find out…
Due to the fact that I work in front of a computer all day, I love doing yard work on the weekends. There's nothing that feels more natural, or more manly, then working up a sweat and getting dirty. This past weekend I had the opportunity to clear a few stumps from our garden. I love pulling out stumps. It's a combination of physical power and cunning strategy. While I was going about my business on Saturday, I got to thinking that all my projects are like pulling stumps. The prep First off,…
A well designed application, whether native or web based, will have clever UI elements that make the usage more pleasant. Some are obvious from the start, others are delightful surprises that you come across during your usage. Rdio [http://www.rdio.com/] is an application that gets you on both ends. I love the service since it has given me access to so much new content that I could never afford to purchase on iTunes. And in the course of finding all this great new music, there are often times w…