May 2012
5 posts
The problem with music: still a problem
Interestingly enough, Steve Albini has weighed in on the David Lowery thing. Lots of good material, including some of the more obvious points I made, but I like this quote:
Explain a mechanism to enforce payment for listening to music then. I mean, without that there’s nothing else worth debating. Even if such a thing were possible, only music people already wanted would get paid for and...
Meet The New Boss, Worse Than The Old Boss? →
A presentation given by David Lowery of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker (and apparently an investor in Groupon?) on the shift from the record company model to the internet model.
Some things he gets right:
Apple’s cut is ridiculous.
People crying that you need to “get a new model” is indeed suspect, because… what is it? Offer a solution. I differ with him in that I think that the shouts...
Rewiring
It’s been a long time since I used Propellerhead Reason. Some later Parvulus live shows featured it running on a laptop because its simplicity lent itself to hardware drum machine and synth syncing. I also made most of the first couple Impercept records on it — the process was to sample some sounds, load them into the Redrum drum machine module, and start going from there. The pattern sequencers...
Hipster Branding →
ok that’s funny.
April 2012
4 posts
March 2012
2 posts
1 tag
December 2011
7 posts
Daring Fireball Linked List: User Interface of the... →
True fact: I once had to do a job where the IT point of contact was so paranoid about security I had to be on site, using their computer, to do the work. This was the editor I had to use… to do XSLT/Xpath work. Possibly the biggest nightmare project of my career.
An Uncommon Definition of Common Sense →
Jared Spool on whether we should really be so quick to say “well, isn’t that just common sense?” when we hear about new methods, processes, and philosophies (specifically applying to Lean UX at the moment but relevant always). I know I’m pretty quick to say it, and as someone trained only through work experience who didn’t go to school for HCI, “common...
The Sketchbook of Susan Kare, the Artist Who Gave... →
A lot of old-school Mac users know the Dogcow and of course the smiling computer, but Kare’s legacy is there in pretty much every computer GUI in existence.
November 2011
7 posts
Doxie Go - Scan Anywhere - Tech Specs →
Looks nice. The thing about going paperless is that you can’t quite expect everyone else to be paperless, so a quick-access scanner that reduces the barriers to digitization seems nice.
Dust Dust Dust
Another Fun Fun Fun Fest comes to an end. But things were definitely a little different this year.
The venue — Auditorium shores is obviously bigger, and it takes forever to get from the yellow to black stages. The yellow stage was in a tent, which struck me as dumb, hard to attend, and possibly dangerous. The dust was pretty much the same, maybe even worse with the wind this weekend. A few drops...
Riding the Magic Escalator of Acquired Knowledge →
If there was one thing that I can say has informed what we’ve tried to accomplish with Blogsmith as it has gained users over time, this would be it. I like the way Spool codifies it.
October 2011
7 posts
Thanks, Steve.
I think the first time I can recall using an Apple computer was, like a lot of people my age, playing Oregon Trail on the Apple II. The graphics were crap compared to our Commodore, but who doesn’t love Oregon Trail? I’m not sure what it taught, other than “I’m glad I’m alive now and playing on a computer instead of actually caulking my wagon and fording this river...
1 tag
6 tags
September 2011
16 posts
1 tag
Akai MPK Mini
Recently I learned a truth that I long suspected: The Korg Nano series of USB controllers are crap. Mostly, anyway. I used all three for a few shows, and occasionally plugged them in to do tracking work (most DAWs that aren’t called Ableton are notoriously bad with controller mapping though), all in all pretty light use. But the only one still chugging is the nanoKontrol. The nanoKey was...
The past and the future of famous logos →
alexrudloff:
Great stuff.
The Gap one especially is pretty funny.
WatchOne of the best things I ever saw on Tim and Eric. Like the best T&E sketches, I can’t quite figure out whether these guys are for real.
Do users change their settings? » UIE Brain Sparks →
Is the takeaway that users don’t change their settings or that large-scale software projects always leave something unfinished (ha)? Another neat study by Spool.
Mastered for iTunes - meaningless hype ? →
A little of his usual dynamic range zealotry (which is the kind of zealotry we probably need) and a little information from the mastering guy on what this actually means. Interesting that iTunes is focusing so hard on sound quality when the average customer isn’t listening on equipment that will accurately reproduce the difference.
“There are moments when melodies so infinitely, incomprehensibly sublime are...”
– Super Trouper reissue review on The Quietus
This article humorously gets across the internal struggle of listening to an ABBA record. On one side, there is this sublimely amazing pop music that you can enjoy on a simply “holy crap that’s catchy” level, or as deeply as a...
Gibson vs. Federal Government
This Gibson stuff is crazy.
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/News/gibson-0825-2011/
Apparently the issue is not using endangered woods (although they were raided two years ago for just that, and according to the company still have not been charged), but for violation of the US Lacey Act which requires companies dealing with foreign nations to comply with those nations’ laws. The law...
7 tags
Cohdoo: Icon Grids →
cohdoo:
Our mission at Cohdoo is bringing ideas to life. To help us bring our ideas to life we are frequently create little tools enabling us to work more effectively and produce higher quality results. One such tool is our icon grids.
There are a lot of good templates available for creating iOS and OS…
August 2011
7 posts
1 tag
Pilotmoon Blog: Scroll Reverser — get in practice... →
pilotmoon:
You might have learned that a certain upcoming version of Mac OS X may have scrolling that is “bass-ackwards”.
That is, when you push up on your trackpad or mouse scroller, the page content moves up too, just like on iOS devices.
I made a very minimal little app that lets you reverse…
cool little app if, like me, you’re in the minority who likes Lion scrolling. My...
