TabToolkit 2.0
Great update to one of my favorite iOS apps.
RAVAGE R.I.P HMHTV (by HMHTVchannel)
27 Januar 2012. Das Todesdatum von RAVAGE!
Die Neusser/ Düsseldorfer Death/Thrash-veteranen haben nach langer Bandgeschichte den Schlussstrich gezogen.
Auf ihrem eigenen Festival “BATTLES NEUSS” gabs also den letzten Gig der Jungs.
Das macht mich etwas wehmütig. Als wir 2008 Deutschland verlassen haben, dachte ich, ich würde “nur” ein Jahr weg sein und dann wieder zurück in der Band sein. So ist es nicht gekommen und nun hat sich die Band aufgelöst. Sehr schade.
Aber toller Bericht!
Apple - Aperture - Aperture in depth.
If you’re using Aperture for organizing and/or editing your photos, this is a great overview of its features.
I am learning lots of new stuff, although I’ve been using it for quite some time now.
“The other key disruptor is empathy. Probably every company would say they try to understand their customer — and that they’ve done the market research to prove it! — but what I’m talking about in this context is a bit more subtle, it’s a combination of respect and emotional intelligence (i.e. the ability to recognize and relate to the feelings of another person) that enables you to create truly amazing user experiences. (Instagram is a good example of a company that soared ahead of its competition with a better designed, empathy-driven product.) I just don’t think it’s possible to build an amazing product or app or whatever without being able to empathize with and understand the person who is supposed to be using it. On some fundamental level great design is able to get into the mindset of a user and anticipate, guide, and delight. None of that is possible without empathy.”–
Generosity, empathy, and disruption | peter.roj.as (via Heather Rasley)
This is why I’m skeptical of things like UX research and A/B testing. Either you, as the person building a product, have the passion and empathy to create something that people will truly love, or you don’t. No amount of research will lead you to something that people embrace in the way they embrace something like Instagram, and in my experience things that are the product of research can often end up feeling functional but a bit hollow. (via buzz)
So true in my opinion. The whole article is a great read. Here’s another gem:
There is just a total disconnect between the people making the stuff being sold and the people who are supposed to be buying it, and that gap is empathy.
What makes a good engineering culture? - Quora
One of my favorite interview questions for engineering candidates is to tell me about one thing they liked and one thing they disliked about the engineering culture at their previous company. Over the course of a few hundred interviews, this interview question has given me a sense of what good engineers look for and what they’re trying to avoid. I also reflected back on my own experiences from the past six years working across Google, Ooyala, and Quora and distilled some things that a team can do to build a good engineering culture:
An absolutely fascinating read.
Say Hello to Octicons
GitHub started using a custom font for their icons. Totally my taste. I try to get by without graphics as much as I can myself. Of course, that’s partly because of me being bad at creating them. But it’s also because it has its advantages:
We try to leverage CSS3 techniques like rounded corners, gradients, and @font-face across all pages of the site. This allows us to focus more on what we can render in the browser, and less on images. This results in better page loads and an overall better experience for you.
Not only are we concerned with speed, but also clarity. With the introduction of new retina screen products, we realize that it’s more important than ever to have our site beautiful at any zoom level.
How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet
A fascinating - and sad - read about what happened to Flickr after it was acquired by Yahoo.
I’m still optimistic that Flickr will get its act together again. The updates this year so far have been great and plenty - which you can’t say at all about the recent years in general.
Memento Mori
We are all going to die. To remind you not to waste your life, here are 5 good articles I came across recently for you to read:
For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. […] When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five.
Regrets of the Dying - Bronnie Ware
There’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, …
Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. - Adrian Tan
I believe I’m as happy as it is possible to be. […] This is a happiness I wish on everyone alive. The question then is, what are the factors that contribute to my happiness?
as happy as possible - Leo Babauta
I was having a discussion with an entrepreneur neighbor about how we might best raise our kids to think for themselves and be successful, instead of thinking like everyone else and confusing “getting a job” or “building a career” with success.
Risk: You have to be willing to lose to win - Ken Rockwell
But not everybody thinks this way. What we think is obvious, others find to be amazing.
Lessons Learnt from Derek Sivers and Thomas Edison - Benjamin Spall
I recommend you read them all.
Deep dive: Aperture and Photo Stream, how do they work? | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Some detailed information on how Aperture and Photo Stream work together. For example, I recently wondered how RAW files are handled:
According to the Aperture documentation, how RAW interacts with Photo Stream isn’t immediately obvious — but it is very important that you understand it. If you send a RAW file from Aperture to Photo Stream — either automatically via the “import all” checkbox, or manually — and if that RAW file has no edits applied, then it’s the full-sized original RAW that ends up in Photo Stream. On the other hand, if it has had edits applied then Photo Stream ends up holding a JPG copy instead.
Review: iPhoto for iOS out-does Adobe for mobile image editing
Very comprehensive review of iPhoto for iOS. It explains a lot of details that might not be so obvious - including this one which I found confusing:
Pay close attention to these red “LEDs.” They signal that processor-intensive effects have been applied that are temporarily disabled while other editing is being done.
How To: Install iPhoto On Your First-Generation iPad
Works like a charm. And for your iPhone 3GS, too.
Since version 10.6 of iTunes you can stop syncing apps between your Mac and iOS devices without being prompted to delete all apps from the devices.
When you do that, the problem described in the article that you are prompted to remove iPhoto on every sync disappears and sync continues to work just fine.
Performance on the iPad seems to be normal. No problems so far. On the 3GS it is a bit slow when editing photos.
“The best software should be understated and unobtrusive.”–
Programming is not a craft « DanNorth.net
An absolute must-read!
(via Instapaper)
Behind the TEDTalk 2010 from m ss ng p eces on Vimeo.
Behind the TEDTalk 2010 – video by mssng peces (via altnytterfarlig)
“For example, the word “Google” is usually the top query at other search engines, and words like “Yahoo” and “Bing” score high on Google. Why, oh why, do people search for a website if they already know its name? Why not just type, say, www.bing.com into the URL field?”–
Mental Models (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
Have you ever asked yourself this question? Have you ever given computer support via phone? Have you ever wondered why “normal” people do not understand the simplest most obvious things when it comes to software? I know I did!
This article will give you some explanations.
Here’s part of the explanation for the question above:
The reason is that many users have never formed an accurate model of how the “type-in boxes” on their screen function. When they type stuff into a box, they sometimes get where they want to go. What to type where and exactly how each type-in box functions, however, are often beyond their ken.
Maniacal Rage: Time for a Change
Here’s the frustrating thing about Tumblr: If you ignore all the downtime, errors, server outages and all that annoying stuff, which took sites down for nearly two full days recently and still continues to crop up regularly—if you somehow ignore all of that—simple things still don’t work properly, like the queue.
Sad but true. I have the same problems with the queue. It’s frustrating.