I’m getting ready to spin up a few new web development projects. I think I want to do them on Ruby On Rails. That means getting a good RoR development environment installed on Finrod. About 5 levels of yak-shaving later… it looks like I should install RVM so I can get the version of Ruby I […]
Tag Archives: trends
Stop Designing For Men
Saturday, July 20th, 2013 – 12:47 pm
If you’re designing or creating content on the Internet today, you need to remember one simple fact: Your audience has two genders, not just one. It isn’t just men, it’s women, too — and the women outnumber the men. Take a look at this report from last year, on “10 Key Trends From the Banking Trenches“. On […]
To Stop “Six Strikes”, Declare Broadband a Public Utility
Monday, March 25th, 2013 – 7:16 am
Earlier this month, major ISPs started their “Six Strikes” program. By any rational measure, it’s a horrible idea. Yahoo! dubbed the plan“six strikes and you’re screwed”. Comcast’s implementation, using browser alert pop-ups, has been described as “a security disaster”. Among other problems, it costs nothing for a copyright holder to file a complaint or accusation, […]
Why Are We Abandoning Menus?
Sunday, November 25th, 2012 – 2:46 pm
A while back, Ubuntu’s Mark Shuttleworth posted a blog article called “Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu.” Shuttleworth mentions how a menu is “the M in WIMP and has been there, essentially unchanged, for 30 years.” The clear implication, of course, is that the time for a change has come — […]
“Fast” Is the Enemy of “Good” — And “Accurate”, and “Deep”, And…
Sunday, August 26th, 2012 – 9:24 pm
Wanna see a perfect encapsulation of what’s wrong with journalism, and particularly online journalism, these days? Just take a look at this piece by TechCrunch’s Ryan Lawler. Pay particular attention to the parts where he says: I would be following someone else’s story half a day later, and no one wants to do that. I wrote […]
Portable Computing UI Redux: Editing Photos While Walking Downtown
Saturday, April 21st, 2012 – 11:50 am
One thing Instagram’s done for me (or to me): It’s made me much more prone to editing images on my phone. Which means I now have more data on the real-world equivalent of Charles Stross’ speculative incident in the beginning of Accelerando: [Manfred is] standing in the plaza in front of the Centraal Station with […]
What to Do When the Tech Failboat Sails
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 – 7:51 pm
The tech world is no stranger to occasional outbreaks of Sexism!Fail, but the past two weeks have seen a rare double instance of it. Naturally, I’ve got to speak up. By the way, for anyone who missed the events, here are a pair of quick recaps: Boston API Jam’s Marketing Problem Oh Hai Sexism And now, […]
What Are We Giving Up With E-Text?
Saturday, September 24th, 2011 – 3:19 pm
Engineering is about tradeoffs, and each technology has its advantages and drawbacks. Whenever we leave one technology behind and adopt a new one, we’re sacrificing something. We may be making a terrific trade, getting a hundred times as much cool stuff as give up — but we’re still giving up something, and we should be aware […]
The Difference One Site Can Make
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 – 8:16 am
Only a year ago, I was against infinite scroll. In design meetings, I’d point out the way it breaks various aspects of the scroll bar. (You can’t tell how far through the full data-set you are; dragging the “thumb” down causes it to suddenly change place, etc.) But now, I almost expect it when I’m scrolling […]
Where Netbooks Are Taking Us
Monday, March 2nd, 2009 – 1:47 pm
If you’re working on software development, you should absolutely read Clive Thompson article in Wired, The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time. Thompson points out that the rise of the netbooks showed us that “traditional PC users…. didn’t want more out of a laptop—they wanted less.” Says Thompson: I wrote this […]