Archives

Blackout

My cable modem service cut out inexplicably this afternoon. A call to tech support yielded no answers, only the broad solution of scheduling a service call for next Thursday — nearly forty-eight hours later. Thankfully, the connection came up half an hour ago, again inexplicably. Having it gone for even just a few hours drives home the fact that I’ve become totally reliant on this service.

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Grids for Government

Massimo VignelliThis 1976 lecture by Massimo Vignelli to a group of designers employed by the Federal Government is a treasure trove of insight. Apparently, Vignelli was brought in to proselytize his nearly-religious belief in the grid as a central design philosophy, and walks his audience through some of his most beautifully realized grid systems.Unexpectedly, this page is hosted by the US Geological Survey, which also maintains a small but informative collection of other design resources. There’s some good stuff here, including Philip B. Meggs’s searing critique of NASA’s reversion to its old “meatball” logo.

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Radio Is the New Sensation

Radio UserlandDave Winer is gunning for the role of patron saint of Web loggers. Not only is he the author of one of the longest-running Web logs out there, but he’s also the guiding light behind UserLand Software. A scrappy publisher of content management tools like Manila, UserLand seems dedicated to the idea of bringing the power of database-driven Web publishing to the masses. Their latest release takes them a signficant step closer to this goal; Radio Userland looks like a remarkably capable personal publishing tool priced at the ridiculously reasonable rate of US$40 per copy. Bravo. I hope to find some time to download and try the 30-day free demo soon, and perhaps if all goes well, Subtraction.com will move over to Radio.

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Crossing over to X

AppleleMore Mac stuff. Over the holidays I took a day out to reformat and partition my PowerBook G4 and installed Mac OS X 10.1. I had a good time playing around with the Aqua interface, and steeping myself in the Mac OS X user community’s hubs and blogs, but that’s about as far as it’s come. 10.1 may be an improvement over 10.0, but it’s still not quite ready for prime time. There are too many missing applications, utilities and feature gaps. When I tried to play a DVD on my television via an S-video cable, for example, Mac OS X refused.Right now what it has to offer just isn’t compelling enough for me to boot it up very often, though I’m trying to remain optimistic about it. The foundation is quite impressive, and with some polishing it could be a first rate OS experience. But what’s most disappointing is that after all this time, Mac fans still have to wait even longer for a servicable, fully functional, modern operating system.

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Mac-like

AppleleA little late, but I’m really impressed by the new iMac, which is such a refreshing design that it’s easily my favorite piece of Mac hardware in recent memory. The swivel arm is a deceptively simple breakthrough — its quiet shattering of the most basic of computing ergonomics will have far-reaching influence, I predict.In some ways, the new iMac trumps even the legions of hypothetical Mac designs posted by fans at sites likeThe Apple Collection and the Japanese Applele.

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Good Times

Things have been very hectic but I look at that as a good thing, actually. 2002 is bound to be a way better year than its predecessor, or at least I’m hoping as much. Things at Behavior are starting to gain steam, and the mood of just about everyone I know is markedly better than last year. At any rate, I’m back to posting here regularly.

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New for Oh-Two

Happy new year, belatedly. I spent the holidays doing holiday-ish stuff, and also dealing with a series of system troubles that have been nagging at me, like a non-functioning CD-ROM drive on my VAIO and a continually mis-aligned screen on my Palm Vx. A week or so ago, I took advantage of the relative quiet to reformat my PowerBook G4 and install Mac OS X 10.1, which I’ve been playing with since. It’s fun, though there are some that would argue otherwise. In any event, I’m looking forward to 2002 being a heck of a lot better than 2001.

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Radio Radio

Philips FWi1000A lot of ridiculous convergence products will be rejected by consumers before manufacturers stop converging them. Still, some of them are going to stick, and I think one idea that will is Net radio-enabled stereo systems — like the Philips FW-i1000. It’s a mini-system like you’d find in any dorm room, but with a network port that allows it to access hundreds of Internet-based radio stations. Heck, if the combination of television and the Internet seems inevitable, then radio and the Internet is practically a done deal.

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