Archive for August 2006

30 Aug 2006 0947H

I have a new toy

It’s the Nokia Bluetooth headset BH-900, which I picked up for a rather outrageous $120 at the local Best Buy. It’s $80 through Amazon, so I’m going to bring the receipt and the print out of the page and get my money back. [edit: apparently, the bricks-and-mortar Best Buy stores price match ONLY at the [...]

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26 Aug 2006 1025H

Transformative practices

In a conversation with my boss about a financial services institution, apparently the word “transformative” was dropped repeatedly by the client leading the conversation. It reminds me of that scene, from Rob Reiner’s 1987 classic, the Princess Bride. In it, Vizzini, played memorably by Wallace Shawn, repeatedly uses the word, “inconceivable.” At one point, a [...]

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18 Aug 2006 2117H

Summer reading for IAs

While out at the Borders just now, saw that Stephen Few has a new book out on Information Dashboard Design. I’d be interested in this book on Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell as well, also from O’Reilly. I just noticed that Zeldman of A List Apart fame has published a second edition of his Designing [...]

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16 Aug 2006 1010H

Liquid armor

I watched a video recently (in fact the one above) that showed a new form of armor treated with a liquid that goes rigid when it’s struck by something of great force, like a .45 slug, for instance. As you can see here, the bullet, which looks like a pretty big round too, literally [...]

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11 Aug 2006 1810H

When your competition’s a bunny, you know you’re in trouble

I kinda feel badly for my former colleague, ex-Vianteer David Rose, whose Ambient Devices is now facing stiff competition from a WiFi rabbit. From France no less. It’s called Nabaztag, which is an Armenian name (Hitler and Ataturk are rolling around in their graves right now, I’m sure), and it can be paired with another [...]

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11 Aug 2006 1253H

People can, and will, get used to almost anything

For instance, the QWERTY keyboard. It’s a perfect example about the lessons of usability. The sad fact of the matter is, anyone, anywhere, can get used to anything, no matter how silly, unusable, and counterintuitive a thing may be. Perhaps it is that we trade one convenience for another, because there is nothing else out [...]

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11 Aug 2006 1209H

Idealized design

This came off an IA listserv I’m on, a story about how Bell Labs created the telephone system we know and . . . well, I use the cellphone almost exclusively these days, so I can’t say I really love it. . . .
Anyway, I know this sounds crazy, but there are people in [...]

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