February 8, 2010
meaghano: It’s kind of the best thing ever. Agreed. This is wonderful.

meaghano:

It’s kind of the best thing ever.

Agreed. This is wonderful.


—photo via meaghano  
“ You “focus” on the one thing you care about, as you “unfocus” on everything else. If not for every minute of your life, at least for the time you set aside to pursue the thing that matters. If that sounds fancy and oversimplified, then you “care” about too many things. Period.”
—First, care. | Merlin Mann  
February 7, 2010
“hybrid” city bike conceptdesign by pd’sign - peter dudas I think this design is beautiful and intriguing. See some more photos here. I only find myself wondering two things: how the wheels work (in terms of weight distribution and rotation, and how the back tail, with the back wheel, doesn’t break off. I’m not an engineer, but I don’t see how the main joint (where the two diagonal lower frame bars meet the main crank) could possibly bear all of the weight and torque of the entire bicycle AND still contain all the necessary mechanisms for making the bike actually work. It seems so small that I would worry about it twisting or snapping, especially if it didn’t contain a robust shock absorption mechanism. Overall though, it sure is beautiful. [note: This is the first real “submission” I’ve gotten that I’m actually interested in posting here. Thanks Peter!]

“hybrid” city bike concept
design by pd’sign - peter dudas

I think this design is beautiful and intriguing. See some more photos here. I only find myself wondering two things: how the wheels work (in terms of weight distribution and rotation, and how the back tail, with the back wheel, doesn’t break off. I’m not an engineer, but I don’t see how the main joint (where the two diagonal lower frame bars meet the main crank) could possibly bear all of the weight and torque of the entire bicycle AND still contain all the necessary mechanisms for making the bike actually work. It seems so small that I would worry about it twisting or snapping, especially if it didn’t contain a robust shock absorption mechanism. Overall though, it sure is beautiful.

[note: This is the first real “submission” I’ve gotten that I’m actually interested in posting here. Thanks Peter!]

 
Adaptation

Ok, THIS is now the best article I’ve read re: iPad.


—link via lonelysandwich  
January 30, 2010
The Great Newline Schism

Fascinating. Especially if you look at text all day.

 
Future Shock

The BEST Article I’ve Read On the iPad. This guy gets it. This article describes precisely why I’m so excited about this device, and not at all bothered by it’s few shortcomings.

Because it’s really not about the device, it’s about the massive paradigm shift that needs to happen in the miry world of computers. Honestly, I hate computers. And yes, that is profoundly ironic considering that I make my living looking at them all day long. But it’s true. I like making things with computers. I like the Internet and the incredibleness of it all. But although I know more than most people I know, about the mechanics of computers, I really truly dislike those very mechanics.

I can’t wait to get an iPad so I can never use a computer for non-“work” related things again. Internet, communication, media, entertainment, personal info and “handiness”—all of these things that we use “work machines” for now, will feel so much less “computery” on a device that you hold and touch and pass around. And if that is the future, at least as it relates to computers, and I sincerely hope it is, then I can’t wait.

 
January 28, 2010
I need to talk to you about computers.

A great article by Stephen Frank of Panic. (Long, but thorough. And it comes from someone with a very long, successful history in the world of Apple computers.)


—link via stevenf  
“ You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”
—Steve Jobs (found here, which is another good iPad article by the way.)  
It's Not a Big iPhone

I’m glad John Gruber wrote this, because it sums up my impressions almost exactly, after reading Marco’s post this morning. Much of what he (Marco) said, I agree with, such as:

We’ve had the truly magical and revolutionary product this entire time, but we take it for granted now, and we’ve forgotten how awesome it already is.

But I think the other 2/3 is the same sort of “kickback” that the web is having in general towards the iPad, and which I think will be proven somewhat misguided in the end.

Many people have said it better and more thoroughly that I will here, but here’s how I see it:

The iPad will be more akin to the original iPod than the iPhone. It’s not as instantly revolutionary, to be sure. But in the end, it will be more so. Expectations were just impossibly high because the iPhone was so immediately game-changing. People instantly started thinking fundamentally differently about mobile phones when the iPhone dropped. Give the iPad some time to grow and evolve, even in this 1.0 state, and we are going to witness a sea-change. People will start thinking fundamentally differently about home computers when they encounter this device. And that will be a welcome change in my book.

Loren Brichter (developer of Tweetie) said it well:

“It’s just a big iPod touch” is the new “less space than a nomad”. The Mac had a great run, but this is the end of the desktop OS.

 
Dutchess County Guest House by Allied Works I want to be there.

Dutchess County Guest House by Allied Works

I want to be there.


—photo via spaceships  
January 26, 2010
“ The print publishing industry should be so lucky to have iTunes do for them what it’s done for music.”
—John Gruber — I wholeheartedly agree.  
How many scars do you have? How did you get them? —  Anonymous

One Thousand.

I got them from fighting in underground fight clubs in Tokyo between 2001 and 2003. Spent many nights there throwing punches and drinking bad saké from filthy tin cups. One night a bleach-tipped hot-head decided to bring a barbed chain. Made a nice etch-a-sketch out of my arms and back with it. Scars on scars on scars. One too many though. Dude was found three days later, washed up near the south docks. All six pieces of him.

 

(Really though, “Anonymous”, how am I supposed to answer that question?)

January 25, 2010
“ I want everything we do to be beautiful. I don’t give a damn whether the client understands that that’s worth anything, or that the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. It’s worth it to me. It’s the way I want to live my life. I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.”
—Saul Bass (via davidkaneda / marco)

This sums up my approach to interface design, in a nutshell.


—via marco  
January 23, 2010
“ Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”
—Conan O’Brien (via editorlisa and dpstyles) (via david)
—via david  
January 21, 2010

John Gruber agrees with me :) Remember, you heard it hear first.