roger, wilco.
Prickles and Goo
+Observations on 2 January, 2009
I was recently introduced to this short animation based on audio recordings of Alan Watts. It’s a proper laugh, and insightful too.
Here’s the proper flash version
He’s got one of those British voices I could listen to for hours and I do like some of his ideas. Work as Play - now that seems like a worthwhile endeavour.
…about love and the acid test
+Music +Observations on 6 December, 2008
This has got to be one of the greatest posthumous albums ever released. Great music from a great man and a revolutionary thinker.
Perfect for a summer afternoon sipping on dry & dry.
Advertising & User Experience make friends at MySpace
+Observations +User Experience on 23 September, 2008
The enduring friction between advertising (more clicks) and
useful design (fewer clicks) has been solved by MySpace’s
strategy of trading homepage ad clutter into one Hero Ad.
Fiona Ingram - Sensis UX Blog
Full article at Adaptive Path
Interview with Emily Freeman
+Mobile +Observations on 22 September, 2008
Emily Freeman, specialist mobile advertising consultant and founder of Mobilist talks with Vishal Sharma. The interview is a good account of what’s currently happening in the Australian market.
Biblical account of User-agent String history
+Observations +Technical on 11 September, 2008
Brilliant. http://www.webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/
via John Gruber
Agile techniques in the wild
+Managing Projects +Observations on 11 September, 2008
Scott Ambler gave this excellent presentation as part of Agile 2008 Conference last week, debunking a variety of assumptions, myths and a misconceptions surrounding Agile. Most discussion is based on field data gleaned from a large-sample survey distributed among the agile community intended to find out what is actually happening in the industry, not what should be happening (in an ideal agile environment).
I found this interesting because generally, Agile is discussed in context to the latter, which I think causes some people to focus too much on being Agile while loosing sight of it’s original intention - producing better products in more efficient ways.
Scott does a good job of analysing the various responses from different areas (management, development, project managers, design) and discussing what may cause some of the much-discussed tension between these groups.
By the end it’s clear - common sense prevails, and ’successful’ agile teams adopt the most appropriate techniques that help them deliver better products within the constraints of their environment. These are not necessarily the same techniques that Agile evangelists preach from scrum-master pedestals.
Rummble uses Gears Geolocation API
+Mobile +Observations +Technical on 25 August, 2008
Rummble crossed my path a few months ago. It’s well executed, and I like it because:
- It has a user rating system
- It has pretty nice filtering capability (i.e. only see contributions from people you trust)
- It (reportedly) ‘learns’ what your tastes are and who you trust, and presents appropriate content to you
- They’ve thought about mobile early, and there’s a separate site with tailored experience for both online and mobile
There aren’t too many sites out there that really have a handle on bridging the gap between desktop and mobile. Rummble is a pretty nice example of what’s possible.
desktop – http://www.rummble.com
mobile – http://m.rummble.com
This month, Google spruiks for Rummble, one of the first to use Gears Geolocation API.
Olympic information systems & design
+Design +Observations on 25 August, 2008
The Olympics in Beijing has stirred up the usual discussions in the design community. Khoi Vinh is a fan of the information system and design behind 1972 Munich Games, which has a whole site dedicated to it.
I prefer Lance Wyman’s tri-line designs for Mexico 1968.
What Makes for a Good Blog?
+Observations on 23 August, 2008
43 Folders offers pertinent reading, especially considering the infancy of this Blog.
(Via Daring Fireball)
I can see my house from here
+Film +Music +Observations on 11 August, 2008
Google released very impressive coverage of Australian streetscape via street-view last week.
We all expected capital cities, and maybe the major regional centres, but not this. Massive.
How could I write about street-view without including an image of home at the old Mighty Apollo Gym in West Melbourne?
…and speaking of The Mighty Apollo, local Melbourne Electronic outfit Des Peres dropped by the other day to film the clip for their new single - Dynamite.
I like.