CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-26 04:25:39 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 1 +1s)

Type lovers know that all web fonts are not created equal. But more interestingly, being available on the web doesn’t necessarily mean they were made for the web, does it?

That’s right. Many of the typefaces currently available as web fonts were designed long before computers and electronic displays. Some were developed for an old printing process called letterpress, where type was pressed into paper and there was a slight ‘squeeze’ of ink. These typefaces (particularly those designed for book printing) look quite light in modern printing because of the lack of ink squeeze. When these typefaces are used on the web, their blocks of text can look pallid, spindly and hard to read. Details such as thin hairlines or serifs can become very faint and hinder readability. Since type is meant to be read, this difference matters a great deal.

2013-05-26 03:56:35 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

I have to admit that dealing with ugliness was a lot more interesting than revisiting the beauty contests of the classicist printers. The search for ugliness triggers a certain primal, voyeuristic curiosity, and from the designer’s perspective there is simply a lot more space to explore. Capturing beauty has always been considered the primary responsibility of the traditional artist, and even now it is rare to find examples of skilled and deliberate ugliness in type design, (although examples of inexperience and naïveté abound).

2013-05-25 04:07:52 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

One of the nice things about Dropbox’s business model is it’s asking the user who uses the tools to pay for them. You can imagine Mailbox going to some company that monetizes through advertising, where over time we’re going to have to find ways to put more and more ads into Mailbox — things that might actually decrease the overall experience or invade a user’s privacy. Whereas here we just have to build a product that people really like and want to use so much that some of them are willing to pay for it. That’s a much easier design challenge. It’s something that we thought about quite a bit as we were trying to figure out where to take the company.

As a side note, shame on Wired for the actively misleading title. Yes, the acquisition was a month after the first public release. But the last answer explicitly says that they've been working on it for two and a half years.

2013-05-25 03:47:11 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

It’s easy to boil anything down into cool or sucks, but improving your taste demands a more critical eye. What did you like, and why? The creators of the thing you are analyzing—whether it’s a design, a book, a movie, an algorithm—made certain decisions. Did you agree with all those decisions? Would you have made different ones? Were any of those decisions non-obvious?

This is one of the main reasons why I stated doing movie/illustrator interviews. Not only to analyze, but also go straight to the actual source.

2013-05-25 03:32:27 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 4 +1s)

More on features as the PM unit of measurement for "meaningful" launches...

If you’re selling a vacuum, don’t start by pitching its bells and whistles. Instead, sell a clean home. It’s the reason people look to buy a vacuum in the first place. Once you’ve established that you understand — or better yet, sympathize with — your customers’ needs it becomes easier to justify each feature by tracing it back to the product’s intent.

2013-05-25 03:28:41 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 3 +1s)

The tax that comes with introducing any new feature into your product is high. I cannot stress this enough. Sure, maybe the new feature isn’t hard to build, maybe it only takes a couple days and a handful of people, maybe it can be shipped and delivered by next week. And maybe the additional cognitive load for a user isn’t high — it’s just an extra icon here, after all, or an extra slot in a menu there. But once your new feature is out there, it’s out there. A real thing used by real people.

2013-05-25 02:40:25 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Forget about trying to collect all seven different scrolls for Chinese New Year's droid collectible. How about a 5,000 printed issues of a magazine, each one with its own cover?

http://scandinaviassaw.com/campaign/

2013-05-24 21:40:38 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 15 +1s)

#pixelpushing

When I read this resume, and it looks like the guy heard the advice to make it fit in two pages, but instead of spending the effort to trim the content he switched to double column layout with 8pt text and negative line spacing, and if I squint it looks kind of like a Hilbert curve, and I'm all like...

2013-05-24 21:26:14 (1 comments, 8 reshares, 12 +1s)

#notcreepy #atall  

2013-05-24 20:28:05 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 6 +1s)

We're not trying to harass people. We are harassing people. We're patent lawyers. That's what we do.

2013-05-24 19:53:31 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

Not bad.

2013-05-24 19:38:10 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Not sure if it really qualifies for #motocross  

2013-05-24 19:37:04 (5 comments, 3 reshares, 24 +1s)

#pixelpushing

Every time somebody sends an email that says that we're switching to a new caching/persistence/database/network protocol, and that it shouldn't affect any application code, but that "just in case" we should be on the lookout for any signs of functional regression, as a long-time application developer I know that it's going to be all like...

2013-05-24 18:57:58 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Jon Stewart on Barack Obama's mention of 70000 structurally deficient bridges. Three months ago.

And, oh. He says "JIF" at 3:49.

2013-05-24 18:47:04 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

At least now we'll know that it's really Amanda Bynes behind all that crazy s**t on her stream...

http://www.commitstrip.com/en/2013/05/24/la-double-anthentification

2013-05-24 18:27:04 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 31 +1s)

#pixelpushing

When my cube mate looks visibly frustrated, and I ask him what's up, and he tells me he's in the middle of fixing all the unit tests that were broken after his last round of refactorings, and I tell him that perhaps he shouldn't write so many unit tests, and before he has a chance to decide whether I'm serious or not, I'm all like...

2013-05-24 15:24:39 (14 comments, 75 reshares, 216 +1s)

Chicken *ALL* the dances!

2013-05-24 15:17:14 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

Hold on just a sec here. She’s beautiful, witty, down-to-earth, AND she reminds you that the Conference was unable to resolve the question of the rights and/or obligations that might arise for states’ members of an international organization from a treaty to which that organization is a party? Is this girl actually real?

2013-05-24 14:39:00 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

The disappearing art of initial caps...

2013-05-24 14:25:44 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 21 +1s)

#pixelpushing

Every time a bug filed on our app turns out to be a bug somewhere lower in the stack, when I reassign it to that other team and remove my team alias from the bug, me and my team are all like...

2013-05-24 14:07:49 (5 comments, 12 reshares, 12 +1s)

Just about everything you want to know on working with hexagonal grids. With interactive diagrams! And pseudo-code! And links to more!

2013-05-24 03:08:24 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Must be that time of the month where I decide that I have nothing better to do than play with CSS.

http://www.pushing-pixels.org/inmotion/ now has all screen graphics related interviews in the sidebar. And the thumbnail treatment looks more like cards.

2013-05-24 03:05:56 (6 comments, 9 reshares, 30 +1s)

According to the sources who were briefed on the situation but are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Not #gif . Not #jif . Just #djif .

2013-05-24 00:35:02 (10 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

The median price for a one bedroom is $2,764
The median price for a two bedroom is $4,000

Keep on filling those lottery tickets. You might win and afford one of these bad boys...

2013-05-24 00:07:25 (2 comments, 21 reshares, 42 +1s)

https://twitter.com/bleikamp/status/337012761861165056

2013-05-23 23:55:51 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 18 +1s)

I know I promised no more #gameofthrones jifs for today, but this one is too good and too weird to leave out

2013-05-23 21:46:07 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

In practical UI, you are trying to give the user an elegant way to make choices. With film UI, I am trying to give the viewer the illusion of choice. I am trying to deliberately direct the viewers eye to whatever story point the director wants revealed at the time he wants it revealed. The job becomes more about illustration, especially in post where we can see how the interface is framed within the shot. We paint a small part of a much bigger picture, and our work needs to visually support what’s on screen so that we don’t disrupt the rhythm of the viewing experience.

2013-05-23 21:16:33 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 27 +1s)

#pixelpushing #androiddev #logfailwhale

When there's this bug in our app that we've been trying to chase, and we've added some logging around the various paths, and we finally get a bug report after that logging went in, and while the bug thread discussion is continuing, I take a look at the logs, and I don't see the actual stack trace, and I look at the code and realize that instead of using the variant of android.util.Log APIs that gets a Throwable object and properly puts the entire stack trace to logcat I was using Throwable.printStackTrace that is effectively like writing to /dev/nul, I look at the ongoing conversation and I'm all like...

2013-05-23 18:51:12 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

The last #gameofthrones for today. #pinkypromise

Margaery and Sansa swinging in a tree...

http://horsescanswim.tumblr.com/post/50854737288

2013-05-23 17:31:22 (22 comments, 1 reshares, 18 +1s)

#pixelpushing

When my cube mate who swears by his Linux box and does everything in vi has to work remotely one day, and he IMs me saying that he can't reach his machine, and I glance at it and it looks like it's powered off on its own, and I turn it back on, and it spends the next 10 minutes installing mandatory nvidia drivers, and then gets stuck in some configuration loop, and the guy spends the next morning reconfiguring his entire desktop because all his preferences were lost in that process, and I'm all like...

2013-05-23 17:20:45 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Arrested Development binge. Coming up this weekend.

http://arrestedwesteros.com/post/51153872280/buster-hey-possible-nephew-notapusy-3x04

2013-05-23 16:39:32 (0 comments, 7 reshares, 12 +1s)

So this thing exists...

http://beardvertising.com/

2013-05-23 15:34:37 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

#pixelpushing #pureandsimplespam  

When I skim my spam folder to see if there was anything erroneously flagged, and there's this email from the CEO of eBay urging me to contact my Congress representative to oppose the online tax law on behalf of "small online businesses", and I really hope that nobody clicked the "No Spam" button, and I wish to be in the same room with Marissa Mayer so we could be all like...

2013-05-23 15:01:55 (26 comments, 38 reshares, 37 +1s)

http://thetox.tumblr.com/post/50910757567

2013-05-23 14:32:20 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 9 +1s)

#pixelpushing

When I start working on this small (well, I hope it's going to be small) internal cleanup, and I notice this TODO comment, and I realize that I've already addressed it in the last release, and I remove that comment line, and it's such a great way to start the day, and I'm all like...

2013-05-23 14:22:41 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

One of the more informative podcasts episodes I've listened to this week. Glenn Fleishman interviews Cory Doctorow.

2013-05-23 13:51:56 (4 comments, 3 reshares, 32 +1s)

#pixelpushing

When people start discussing the finer audio differences between WAV, FLAC and 320kbps MP3s, but all they listen to is the latest Daft Punk or Mumford & Sons, I'm all like...

2013-05-23 13:37:06 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Better not bad-mouth the man. He'll send his lawyers after you.

2013-05-23 12:28:47 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

#notglass #notevenclose  

2013-05-23 01:48:50 (17 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Still not giving up on 3D.

2013-05-22 22:30:02 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

I wrote an article about the skeuomorphism debate, particularly in regard to rumours that iOS 7 will take on a more flat, elemental appearance due to Jony Ive's influence. I think that criticism of skeuomorphic design elements themselves misses the point. http://mattgemmell.com/2013/05/12/tail-wagging/

2013-05-22 17:40:02 (6 comments, 10 reshares, 41 +1s)

#pixelpushing

When I'm tracking this bug down, and I see this method with TODO: fix this comment on it, and the comment is not on any specific line, but rather the method itself, and I run git blame to see who added that comment, and it turns out it was me from a few months ago, and I'm all like...

2013-05-22 14:47:04 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 24 +1s)

Over the last few months I’ve read at least a couple dozen online articles, threads and discussions about skeuomorphic and flat design. The articles came in three waves. The first wave was about how skeuomorphic is well past its prime time and needs to go away. The second wave was about how flat is the exact opposite of skeuomorphic, and how it is the new direction of visual interface design. And finally, the third wave is about the poor usability of flat design.

Some of this discussion is happening on Twitter. There’s only so much one can say in 140 characters. Even when you break your argument into multiple consecutive tweets, the argument – more often than not – gets a simplified presentation. And sometimes the simplification of presentation leads to cutting logical corners.

Flat is indeed the exact opposite of skeuomorphic, but only if you consider the constraints that thedesigne... more »

2013-05-22 13:47:25 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 24 +1s)

#pixelpushing #heisenbug #reproduceoritdidnthappen  

When I'm trying to reproduce this elusive pixel bug that happens every once in a while, and I do all sorts of crazy things like rotating the device, killing the app, switching to airplane mode, switching wifi on and off and swiping all over the place, and then finally after two days of tracking it down it's all like...

2013-05-22 13:31:48 (4 comments, 9 reshares, 34 +1s)

#pixelpushing

When it's the release day, and I get an urgent ping from my designer that she wants to tweak this one page to change the layout metrics, and I don't know how else to describe it, since it's pretty much all like...

2013-05-22 04:11:07 (5 comments, 5 reshares, 28 +1s)

https://twitter.com/mantia/status/337021025726365696

2013-05-21 22:35:02 (10 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Sony has plans to offer a 4K media player — the FMP-X1 — that will be released in 2013. It will come pre-loaded with 10 movies in 4K resolution and has a price tag of $699. The device will be internet-ready and also ready to connect with a 4K movie download service Sony will be offering, set to launch in late 2013. This content will be available for users with unlimited fiber broadband and a paid subscription. 4K Blu-ray won’t be available in 2013, which may create a higher demand for 4K streaming services.

What's 4K BluRay? Does the current disk format even have enough space to hold for times as many pixels?

2013-05-21 22:27:01 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 10 +1s)

Also, I’ve never read a resumé in my life. But if you insist on giving me one, don’t lead with “Photoshop” as a skill. Tell me you know how to combine typefaces and have a solid understanding of color theory. That’s a skill.

Developer non-skills, just to name a few, are: XML, UML (seriously), your choice of OS and your choice of IDE. All of these are just shells.

2013-05-21 20:12:22 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 18 +1s)

Design lives and dies by two things – constraints and restraint. Constraints bound the variety of tools at designer’s disposal, while restraint guides the designer’s hand at how the chosen tools are used to create the final product. It’s rarely a sequential process, but rather a spiral that tightens toward the end, where the outcome of the previous steps informs and guides the next iteration. And each step – in both spaces – requires painstaking attention to details, paced deliberation and continuous pursuit of honing one’s craft.

There is nothing inherently wrong in what people have come to call “skeuomorphic” design. The choice of fewer constraints gives you a wider selection of tools to work with. Glossy bevels, generous drop shadows, intricate textures, strong gradients and more – all of these justly belong in a rich skeuomorphic visual palette. There’s no shortage ofexamples of strikingl... more »

2013-05-21 16:34:06 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 28 +1s)

#pixelpushing

When I finally get around to this long-standing bug that only happens on a flaky network connection, and I take a look at the code that is supposed to handle the relevant UI pieces, and after an hour or so wading through it I can't understand how it even works on a stable network, not to mention a flaky one, and I look at the prospect of untangling that mess, and I'm all like...