April 2013
4 posts
“Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past...”
– T.S. Elliot
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March 2013
1 post
WatchIs knowing obsolete?
February 2013
5 posts
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Bitponics- digital personal gardener
Bitponics helps to automate your personal hydroponic garden. It looks really fascinating, and like something that could easily suck up all of my time. with monitoring and tracking data. I mean that in a good way.
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“Life is far more interesting than it needs to be, because the forces that guide...”
– David Rothenberg
January 2013
4 posts
Max Sebald's Writing Advice
On Reading and Intertextuality
Read books that have nothing to do with literature.
Get off the main thoroughfares; you’ll see nothing there. For example, Kant’s Critique is a yawn but his incidental writings are fascinating.
There has to be a libidinous delight in finding things and stuffing them in your pockets.
You must get the servants to work for you. You mustn’t do all the work...
“And I forgot the elements of chance introduced by circumstances, calm or haste,...”
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December 2012
1 post
“The only thing we know is our own personal knowledge and lack of knowledge. And...”
– Richard Saul Wurman
November 2012
6 posts
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People innovate in America because they are angry →
Does anger lead to creative and subversive solutions? This article shares some examples, but I am not quite ready to characterize that as an “American” trait, or to say that anger is the best context for innovation.
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October 2012
3 posts
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“How can he remember well his ignorance—which his growth requires—who has so...”
– Henry David Thoreau
“When you make something no one hates, no one loves it.”
– Tibor Kalman
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WatchThe smartest socks in the world.
September 2012
1 post
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Incredible long-exposure fireworks photographs →
August 2012
1 post
July 2012
6 posts
The Lower Dens are making me happy.
This song has a mellow, droning quality that feels somewhere in-between Low and Mogwai, and maybe a little Arab Strap. Ok, I am just naming great noisy bands, now. Just listen to it already.
Anonymous asked: Well, fine. You wear them. But do you put them on one leg at a time like anyone else? Or do you have some special "design-y" way to do it?
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WatchAll of the space shuttle launches at the same time. It’s great with the volume turned up.
“…if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard...”
– This quote really cheered me up today. Thanks @paulawellings for sending it to me. From “The ‘Busy’ Trap” in the NYT.
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Microsoft Research plays the telephone game
MSR describes an interesting methodology for understanding user’s language and perceptions of data visualizations: One participant speaks with another on the phone and describes several data visualizations, while the other participant draws what is being described. It raises a lot of questions for me about how paired strangers might be influenced by unconscious biases (gender, vocal...
June 2012
12 posts
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John Cleese gives lessons on creativity.
My main takeaway: Want to have good ideas? Dawdle, play around, and procrastinate as much as possible. I’ve heard this advice before, and I always liked it. Mainly because I am a natural procrastinator and dawdler, but now I can pretend it’s on purpose.
4 LESSONS IN CREATIVITY FROM JOHN CLEESE from fastcocreate.com
“Stupid Things I Have Done” by Duplex....
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“As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you...”
– In 2006, a young boy named Jeremy wrote To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee an endearing fan letter, asking for a signed photo. She didn’t send one, but offered this gem of advice in its lieu – a fine addition to our archive of timeless advice.
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WatchI know the quality isn’t great here, but this is a short video of the spiders on our chicken coop. There are thousands, they’re bobbing up and down, and if you listen closely you can hear that they’re making a noise like gravel being dropped on the ground.
Note- I was informed by @tlockney that these are arachnids, but not spiders. They’re Opiliones.
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WatchThis is a bug I just saw on our back door. Anyone know what kind it is?
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This sound still makes me excited.
May 2012
9 posts
“Without work’s calving increments
Or love’s coltish punch
What...”
– Universal Applicant by Bill Callahan
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UX term of the day: Skeuomorphic Design →
“In terms of user interface, this means applications that are designed to have elements of them that look or behave like their real-world counter-parts.”
I guess I am generally an anti-skeuomorphistic designer. Thanks to @ghoustonUX for passing that along.
“When necessary, Edison relied on assistants trained in math and science to...”
– The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
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I'm a research and design spy.
Tonight I went to a “Lean UX meetup” that was discussing how to fit user experience design into the lean startup model, and specifically map it to the “Lean Canvas”. Many people were discussing user research in a casual way, as something they don’t really know much about, but just started doing out of necessity to fuel their “customer-directed” lean...
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Visual recipe and drink guide →
Gojee is a way of browsing recipes for food and drinks aggregated from various sources, and filtered based on what you have or what your’e craving. The high-quality photos make recipe browsing drool-worthy.
