Archive for June, 2006

Saturday, June 24th, 2006

Art school confidential

The Internet doesn’t destroy the boundaries between the professional and the amateur: it just complicates them. You see that in the way Markos Moulitsas is getting depicted in the mainstream press as DailyKos becomes a political force to reckon with in Democratic politics, and you see it in the complex knots the networks […]

No Comments » - Posted in Culture, Technology by Misha

Monday, June 19th, 2006

It’s better without the context, I’m sure

Overheard in passing on 7th Avenue, in Park Slope, en route to buy some Thai penicillin:
“It was the biggest Nerd Scruffle I’ve ever seen.”
I’m not sure what a Nerd Scruffle is, but I’m pretty sure I’ve been in at least three of them.

2 Comments » - Posted in Personal by Misha

Saturday, June 17th, 2006

More travel

How you can tell you’re in the Bay Area: the late night NPR call-in radio show is hosting a spirited conversastion about computer usability.
Home tonight, just in time for the temperatures to hit 90+.  Global warming, yay!

2 Comments » - Posted in Personal, Technology by Misha

Friday, June 16th, 2006

Mad, I tell you, mad!

Mad Lit Professor Puts Finishing Touches on Bloomsday Device
(Sadly, the title’s the best part. But after that title, do you really need more?)

No Comments » - Posted in Culture by Misha

Tuesday, June 6th, 2006

Street-based interfaces

I’m in DC today doing user testing, and I’m grooving on the walk/don’t walk signs with the one-minute countdown that gives you fair warning when the light is going to turn red.
I’m torn between wanting them installed in New York immediately, and thinking that if they were installed, they’d just become another way for pedestrians […]

4 Comments » - Posted in Interface design by Misha

Monday, June 5th, 2006

ITP damage

Talking to Tom a couple of days ago, I said, “I’ve been spending so much time with your former students, it’s starting to warp the way I think.”
He raised his eyebrows at me.
“I mean,” I said, “I find myself thinking things like, ‘I could wire my coffee pot so it turns itself on when I […]

No Comments » - Posted in Technology by Misha

Sunday, June 4th, 2006

MacBook

Part of the pleasure of working with industrial designers is watching the way they interact with stuff — people who make physical products think about those products very differently than most, in the same way I obsess over details of interfaces. I’ve learned so much about how the world around me is made, in […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Personal, Product design, Technology by Misha