The most difficult position in soccer must be the goalkeeper’s parent.
Uber for Dogs
My friend and colleague at silverorange, Jacky, is a great designer and a great writer. For years, we’ve used “Uber for Dogs” as a shorthand for a hypothetical example of a solution coming before the problem.
I love Jacky’s writing style, and found this article to be a lovely serving of human thought without AI blurring the edges. Read Jacky’s article: Uber for Dogs: How to Stop & Think for Design.
AI floss
Saying “I always review what the AI gives me and I don’t let it write for me” is the new “yes, dentist, I do floss every day.”
Connections Band Names
When playing the New York Times Connections game, it occurred to me that it would be a good band name generator.
This day in particular had some great band names:
- Octopus Breeze
- Thunder Messenger
- Moon Saddle
- Bull Waltz
- Bunk Gold
- Hobo Mosey
- Bilge Crossbody
- Stroll Baloney
I’d go see Hobo Mosey opening for Octopus Breeze.
Countdown Standard
I endorse this Countdown Standard proposed by XKCD:
Sound design of old
I was talking about sound design for user-interfaces with some colleagues today and remembered this gem. Back in 2004, I asked Brad Sucks to help with some sound design for the open-source instant messaging app, Gaim.
The sounds he came up with hold up well even 22 years later. I remember an interesting debate around whether the send or receive sound should have an “upward” tone (like asking a question), or “downward” tone. It depends whether you consider it a notification if your receipt, or the other persons sending (also see moving meetings “ahead” or “back”).
Hat tip to Brad for keeping his post about the sounds alive to this day. Cool URIs don’t change!
(and yes, I’ve reached the “blogging about my own old blog posts” stage)
The Web is a Guitar Amp Now (Literally)
I’ve been working with the web platform for years – and I was pretty blown-away to be able play my guitar through a website, and have it processed like a vintage amp.
I wrote about it over at the silverorange blog.
The perfect book for the 10-year-old soccer / football fan
My son is 10 years old and loves soccer. He received a novel for Christmas called The Academy by T.Z. Layton.
When we started reading it together, I felt like someone had plugged directly into my son’s brain and formulated the perfect book for him. The dialog among the characters sounds like my son talking soccer with his friends.
When you find a great book, it’s even better to find out that it’s the start of a whole series. We devoured book one, and quickly turned a few bookstore gift cards from Christmas into the next few entries in the series. We’ve now enjoyed books 1 through 4, with book 5 coming this week and book 6 later in May.
The book is such a hit in our house that is has changed our approach to reading and writing.
If I could bet on the further success of this book series – or any adaptations for TV or film, I would. The writing level and subject matter are perfect for a kid around 8 to 12 years old. I don’t mind it either.
Shipping a button in 2026
Every web developer should enjoy this (and if you’re not a web develop, skip it):
As it is with bacon, so it is with life
We have a saying in our house that’s about our approach to cooking bacon, but it applies in many different aspects of life:
Cook the bacon until the fat turns to meat.