Acts of Volition

This session of Acts of Volition Radio is a loose collection of story-songs and miscellany. It is punctuated by my reporting on the amusing musical selection of my sun-bathing and boom-box weilding neighbours.  •  Acts of Volition Radio: Session Eleven (37MB MP3)  •  Story songs and miscellany …

A collection of articles surfacing on weblogs coalesced for me this morning. John Gruber’s article, The Location Field Is the New Command Line, is about the rise of the web as a viable application platform. The article builds on Joel Spolsky’s How Microsoft Lost the API War.  •  Gruber talks about …

I have been in two bands in my sorry rock and roll career (it’s been years since I’ve played in a band, but I still talk about it like I’m Gary Benchley). The bands were named, in order of obscurity and irrelevance, Buddy and Horton’s Choice.  •  Don’t ask what either name means. Asking what a … read more »

I gave a short talk last fall at the Zap Your PRAM conference about how some of the ideas and technology that have made weblogs so successful can be applied elsewhere on the web. However, the talk was cut short due to a tight-schedule (the conference was run by amateurs - including myself). What …

Given the petty squabling and childish interuptions I’m seeing on the Canadian federal leadership debate, maybe it’s in his best interest that the leader of the Green Party was excluded from the debate.  •  I’m guessing there was a language issue when Gilles Duceppe said of Canada / US relations …

A look at how Stuart Brand’s classic work of social and architectural criticism, How Buildings Learn, applies to web design and development.  •  First, if you are in any way interested in design, history, or architecture, which I assume you are by your presence here, read the book How Buildings …

Again this year, Daniel Burka from silverorange, along with some help from the guys at GoodBasic, is organizing the Second Annual silverorange Frisbee Golf Tournament for Charity.  •  Again this year, the humble proceeds will go to the local Habitat for Humanity. The tournament is on July 10 at …

Open source software is flourishing in terms of code. The interface design aspects have improved dramatically in the last few years. There has also been improvements in the aesthetics and visual design aspects of many prominent open-source projects. Firefox and Thunderbird are getting to be better …

The crusade to make the world a more beautiful place inches forward. The Mozilla Visual Identity Team is happy to see the preview of a new default theme for Firefox, which will be included in the next release (0.9 - in the next couple of weeks).  •  The new theme was designed by Kevin Gerich and …

Last week, thanks to the efforts of office-mate Peter Rukavina, I had an unfortunately extraordinary opportunity. Each of the four candidates in our riding in the upcoming Canadian federal election was invited to come to our office and spend an hour with us. It was part job-interview, part debate …