Jul14
Another one for the Smashing crowd!
Another article of mine was just published on Smashing Magazine! As always, I’m having a great time replying to comments and emails about the article. Please keep them coming!
Archive for the ‘articles’ Category
Jan12
Article Published
Just a quick note. I started a new job in December with Entermotion as a front-end web developer. It’s been really great and one of the perks of the job is getting to work on the web-apps that we build under the moniker Paste Interactive. My first contribution to the Paste blog has just gone up over the weekend, it’s an article about Content Wireframing. Check it out, and while you’re at it, check out our web apps, Jumpchart and Staction. Jumpchart is all about collaborative wireframing and Staction is a people management application.
Oct20
Alpinist is gone.
Alpinist, the best climbing magazine ever produced, has gone under. A brief statement on the website points to the current economic crisis as a factor. I’ve read elsewhere that the relcutance to publish shit is what really drove them down. Let’s be honest, Rock and Ice and Climbing are still in business because they publish the same reports of some 14 year old flashing some choss pile somewhere that no one cares about. Ok, I’ll give, that may be a bit harsh, someone, somewhere, must like that crap.
Unfortunately, the main problem for Alpinist is that the advertisers that pay the bills at magazines love pointless reports and big-breasted girls climbing in jeans, sports bras and beanies. And who has ever seen someone climbing a legitimate route in the mountains wearing a sports bra and nothing else, that’s right, you haven’t. This was the real death sentence for Alpinist, no advertisers = no money.
What about subscribers you say? Let’s take a look at the explosion of climbing in recent years. Sport, Bouldering, and to a increasing degree trad. How many people jump right into suffering in the mountains. Not many. Not too many “climbers” these days would willingly go and subject themselves to the freezing temperatures, rockfall, avalanches or having your buddy spooning you on a ledge that is smaller than the back seat of my volvo. “Why in God’s name would I go do all of those at once?”, most would ask. No, there never really was a large base to pull subscribers from for Alpinist. Especially at $12 an issue.
As a subscriber of four years, I bid you farewell Alpinist. All of us subscribers and readers will miss you dearly.
Oct10
My words?! On Smashing Magazine?!
The cat, I mean, the article is out of the bag. Check it out over at Smashing Magazine and leave me a comment or four.
Oct1
The paranoid American
I had dinner with some friends last night, none of whom are American, and the conversation turned to the funny cultural differences between America and the rest of the world. It was a fun, light-hearted conversation but since last night I’ve been thinking about some of the points that were made and, to be quite honest, I’m not quite sure I’m happy with what they suggest.
America has become hyper-paranoid. We have become a nation of gated-community living, pill-popping scaredy-cats that are afraid of not only the rest of the world, but each other. I’ll bet each and every one of you out there can remember the constant warnings against talking to strangers when you were a kid. Don’t talk to strangers? How the hell else are you supposed to meet new people?! What a crock of shit. And yes, I know, it serves a purpose. Keep kids safe from the crazies of the world. But honesty. It’s no wonder that we’re all anti-social malcontents when we’re all afraid of what might happen if we were to (gasp!) actually go out and try and meet new people!
A story to illustrate my point. My wife’s little sister was on a scout camp (yes, Irish scouts are co-ed). This scout camp is done once a year, usually in Europe, and the whole premise is that you must get from point A to point B over the course of 2 weeks. You are only allowed to spend a tiny sum of money per day and you must rely on the kindness of strangers and your own conversational skills to find your way and to find a suitable patch of earth for your tent each night. This suitable patch is generally someone’s yard or farmland. Well the year that Gina’s little sister did the camp was the first year that they extended it to America. All along the way they would talk to people, tell them what they were doing and sometimes ask for permission to use said patch of earth. Each and every time, the American they were talking to was agape at the fact that two teenagers were being allowed to run around the countryside alone. ”How dangerous!” Every person, without fail, would comment that it was a good thing that they happened to talk to them because they were nice (of course) but all of the other people in the community were crazy – or dangerous. Every single one of the them. That tells you two things. One, that most people are genuinely good and helpful. Two, that we’re all afraid of the big bad world that lurks in dark corners and down shady alleys.
I have a feeling that this has been slowly creeping into the American psyche for some time now. I would venture to guess that it started at roughly the same time that America began to move into the suburbs, away from the community creating barrios and apartment blocks of the big cities. We began to spread out, to create small closed off squares of land that we papered with NO TRESPASSING signs and we minded our own business. All the while feeding off the the so-call “news” stories that screamed about doom and gloom. We told our children that the world was dangerous and that no one could be trusted, and we told ourselves that it is a pity that this is what has become of it, but you have to do what you have to do. Popular culture has done nothing to help the situation, with parents becoming more and more controlling in children’s lives and schools (especially middle schools) becoming so sanitized and institutionalized that they effectively squash any and all creativity out of students and teachers alike.
It’s time for this to change. It’s time to stop listening to the news (except NPR), start talking to other human beings, and start meeting new people. The digital world is wonderful and has brought us many things but it has also added another layer of seperation to an already fragmented society of paranoia. We’re in this together people! Do yourself a favor and go meet some new people, borrow some sugar from your neighbors and for God’s sake, go talk to some strangers – you’d be surprised the find that most are great people!
Jul30
Genius NYPD officer decks cyclist…then lies about it
Wow. Just when I was starting to think that cycling was gaining traction in main stream America.
And here is the NY Times article that explains how the cop tried to cover his ass by lying. Real genius stuff here.
Jul25
On words…in Smashing Magazine
Keep you’re eyes peeled, I’ll soon be appearing in Smashing Magazine! More details soon.
Jul17
Why mac is better…
ArsTechnica author Peter Bright, has penned a beauty. What Microsoft could learn from Apple, is a lengthy, well thought out and pride inducing piece on the history, design decisions and development opportunities of both the MS Windows OS and the Apple Mac OSX platforms. The first three parts can be found at these three links and there, apparently, is a fourth part in the works.
While a lot of the in-depth OS structures and conventions flew a little over my head, I did immensely enjoy the parts discussing the GUI’s of each system. Basic gist, Apple eats it’s own dog food. Another way of saying that not only did they develop a core set of values and design decisions, they practice what they preach by applying those decisions across the board to their own projects. This gives a clear message to programmers of third party apps that they should follow Apples lead. And in the end, you know what? It leads to a nicer looking and more usable OS for all users!
Well done with the words good sir. Keep up the good work.