December 2001
monson snowboard design competition
Posted by on Saturday, December 29, 2001 in - 11 comments
I've never been big on design competitions. Especially when the prize consists of your work being used without financial compensation. If you want good design, find a good designer and pay her. • That said, the Monson Snowboard Design Contest caught my attention because of the caliber of some of …
planning for life as a wealthy eccentric
Posted by on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 39 comments
When I become a filthy rich eccentric – which will probably not be until late 2003 at the earliest – I will lavish myself with a few key niceties. I will wear a new pair of socks everyday forever. • I've thought about putting some kind of charitable spin on it, like giving my 'worn-once' socks …
so, how about that there weather?
Posted by on Wednesday, December 26, 2001 - 1 comment
Merry Christmas. • With that out of the way I would like to tell the world about a fine use of Flash. I'm not as hugely into design as some of the readers around here, so try to think of me as an average Internut participant who found something that pleased him. • I am planning on a little …
busy on the 25th?
Posted by on Wednesday, December 26, 2001 - 13 comments
Who else is browsing the web on Christmas morning? Show yourselves! • Don't pity me though. I just spent the last three hours opening gifts with my family.
Mozilla catches a whiff of the user
Posted by on Saturday, December 22, 2001 in
The latest build of the Mozilla project browser is released (version 0.9.7) and included, among many other improvements, on the What's New list is the following: • If you type into the URL bar while a page is loading, your text is no longer overwritten when the page load completes. (Bug 15050 …
O'Reilly Animals
Posted by on Saturday, December 22, 2001 - 1 comment
The animal computer book cover series by O'Reilly is consistent, unique, memorable, and beautiful. The brainchild of Edie Freedman, now O'Reilly's creative director, the books have become as recognizable as the Dummies series, at least to their own more self confident audience. • I've long …
links: to and from
Posted by on Friday, December 21, 2001 - 7 comments
We are honoured to be included with our inclusion on the Kottke.org links b-list. Those chumps on the c-list can suck it. • Struggling with the thought that there could be others better than ourselves, I checked out kottke.org a-list of links. • Most I was familiar with (Harrumph, Evhead …
slot-car racing - better than real life
Posted by on Friday, December 21, 2001 - 6 comments
I found a great link at Coudal Partners (home of the photoshop tennis circuit). Shockwave slot-car racing. You actually build your own track! It's fantastic. • Just drag the track pieces from the top of the page to build your track (make sure it plugs into the power piece at the bottom. When …
less Homer Simpsons, more money for public schools
Posted by on Friday, December 21, 2001 - 14 comments
I stole this from the Guardian's editorials. I'm not trying to be Mr. I-am-politically-active, but I found this to be very silly. I'll bold the part that made me laugh. And reference the good lines with numbers incase people want to discuss this afterwards. I don't know if this counts as a flame …
wish for something better - sam brown
Posted by on Wednesday, December 19, 2001 - 5 comments
Today the good mailman arrived. He demanded $8.32 but had no change to offer (is that even legal?). • However, he also brought with him a big bag of goodness containing Sam Brown's (of explodingdog.com) new book "Wish for Something Better". • I suspect that you do not own a copy and that I am …
The Lord of the Rings
Posted by on Wednesday, December 19, 2001 - 9 comments
I've just come from the theatre. It's nice to work at an office that shuts down for such important occasions. • My expectations for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring were high and I was not disappointed.
pinging Weblogs.com
Posted by on Tuesday, December 18, 2001
I'm all about doing whatever it may be that's the latest "thing to do". Where I am these days, using XML-RPC to ping Weblogs.com is the thing to do (odd, I know). • So, I'm doing it. Actsofvolition.com now pings weblogs.com whenever it's updated. • Props to the good people at Userland Software …
gamecubes drop the beat when appropriate
Posted by on Sunday, December 16, 2001 - 11 comments
A couple of weeks before exams were finished, I treated myself to a little trip home from Sackville to eat food and sleep (I said I'd study too). • I stopped by silverorange to visit old war buddies, and Isaac showed me his marvelous new contraption; he showed me his GameCube1. • It was smooth …
words and phrases due for retirement
Posted by on Saturday, December 15, 2001 in - 44 comments
It is usually a good practice to have your house in order before start shitting on your neighbours, lest you be shit upon yourself (I know there are more appropriate analogies, but they all seem so cliché). Criticizing writing can be a dangerous thing to do. If you do so and make a typo (something …
google continues to impress and amaze
Posted by on Friday, December 14, 2001
The latest from the good people at Google: catalogs.google.com
Yeah, what he said.
Posted by on Sunday, December 9, 2001 in - 2 comments
I love it when people say plainly and clearly what has been ambiguously bouncing around in my head, slightly beyond my ability to structure and articulate. This is how I felt when I read Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things and C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (for those who only know Lewis …
Why does everyone hate you, Mr. Gates?
Posted by on Saturday, December 8, 2001 - 3 comments
Great story at The Register about a 15 year old reporter for the BBC's kids news show who asks some solid questions to Bill Gates. • She actually asked him: Does your computer ever crash? Gold! Bill's total bullshit answers were actually a bit disappointing - she's 15 Bill, not stupid. • You …
War, War, & Hockey
Posted by on Saturday, December 8, 2001 in - 6 comments
This is what I found on the front page of the CBC website today. • Note the earth-shatteringly improtant three main headlines. Everything they say about Canadians is true.
Why buy local?
Posted by on Wednesday, December 5, 2001 - 14 comments
I was thinking today about getting new envelopes printed. In itself, it is a trivial matter. Since I bask in trivial matters, I was thinking about how we could have much cooler envelopes if the printing shop had more selection and options. Then in occurred to me that there are probably loads of …
it's a designer eat designer world
Posted by on Tuesday, December 4, 2001 in - 2 comments
AIGA, the American Institute of Graphic Arts has a site on User Experience called Gain. Ironically, it takes quite a bit of patience to navigate. If you do manage to find your way around, you might come across an interesting graphic illustrating the distilling of the many pioneering web-firms into …
Windows Messenger tells you off, politely
Posted by on Sunday, December 2, 2001 - 9 comments
I got this message from Windows Messenger this evening. It's a clear and simple message that asks me to finish up any conversations as the service will be shutting down for maintenance in 5 minutes. • While the obvious ideal would be for the service to never shut down, this is a smart and simple …
Windows XP: rough around the edges
Posted by on Sunday, December 2, 2001 in - 52 comments
I resisted my well known irrational urge to upgrade as long as I could, but this weekend I gave in and installed Windows XP. A good rule of thumb: never upgrade your operating system simply because you are bored. • My initial reaction is that the fancy UI effects make things feel a little …