State of the Internet 2009 by the Editors of FOCUS
February 3, 2010
The editors of FOCUS have produced their annual infographic on the State of the Internet for the year just past and it packs a great deal of information in a very compact space.
Although we have to gag over the self-reporting by bloggers, 75% of whom describe their style as “sincere.” Right. And pigeons are flying art critics who only poop on bad public sculpture.
FOCUS is a a site where you can find expert advice and read research briefs on a wide variety of business topics like information technology, sales, marketing, customer service, human resources, and small business ideas. If you need targeted info in any of these areas their site is well worth checking out. You can even ask your own question of their experts.
Plus, we have to give props to their graphic team for this cool design. Click on image for larger size.
“You Are Not a Gadget” by Jaron Lanier – the first Must-Read book of 2010
January 29, 2010
“Children want attention. Therefore, young adults in their newly extended childhood can now perceive themselves to be finally getting enough attention through social networks and blogs. . . Separation anxiety is assuaged by constant connection. Young people announce every detail of their lives on services like Twitter not to show off, but to avoid the closed door at bedtime, the empty room, the screaming vacuum of an isolated mind.” — Jaron Lanier
I don’t normally seek to force feed my interests and obsessions on others but I’ll make an exception in the case of Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget.
If you want to hang with me, you’ve got to read this book. (Just like Eric Clapton who explained that, back in the 1960s, if you didn’t know who Robert Johnson was, he didn’t want to talk to you).
In a just and equitable world You Are Not A Gadget would reach an audience the size of the one for Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. As much as I enjoyed Tipping Point, I think this is a more important and profound book. Perhaps Lanier has made a tactical error by subtitling his work as “a manifesto,” a billing that will likely cut down his readership. Personally, I would file this under ‘cogent analysis’ rather than ‘manifesto.’
“. . . popular music created in the industrialized world from the late 1990s to the late 2000s doesn’t have a distinctive style—that is, one that would provide an identity for the young people who grew up with it. The process of the reinvention of life through music appears to have stopped.” — Jaron Lanier
Read this to understand important concepts like “lock-in” as it relates to software development and the “hive mind” aspect of Web 2.0 social media. Find support here if you, like me, can’t stand Twitter and FaceBook.
If you question the recently promoted idea of ‘the wisdom of crowds,’ as I do (strenuously), rest assured that Lanier knocks the intellectual under pinnings of that concept into a cocked hat. I think events like the Internet bubble (and subsequent bust) of the early 2000s and the housing bubble and bust of the late 2000s are great examples of ‘the ignorance of crowds.’ Keep in mind that 50% of the adult American population is below average in intelligence. It’s no surprise that when the majority of them gather online they have nothing interesting, insightful or useful to say.
Read the NY Times review here (quick! before it disappears behind the pay wall) and an essay about it by John Tierny here.
Photoshop: Little Known Tips, Tricks & Techniques
January 21, 2010
We love the folks at Smashing Magazine online. Here they provide a great listing of shortcuts for Photoshop CS4 that even Adobe doesn’t tell you about, “Obscure Photoshop Time-Savers.”
The Tech That Failed
January 18, 2010
Dan Tynan had a nice piece in InfoWorld here detailing six technologies that were once widely touted to “change everything” but have failed to live up to their hype. This illustrates the stubborn tendency of humans to make predictions even though the evidence for our ability to do this accurately is abysmal. Tynan’s Top 6 are:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Computer-aided software engineering
- Thin client computing
- Enterprise resource planning systems
- Business to Business Internet Marketplaces
- Enterprise Social Media
Ken Auletta’s recent book, Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, may be redundant given the number of books already published on the subject; it certainly has one of the most short-sighted titles ever given a business biography. It’s as if Mr. Auletta equates a search-engine based Web 2.0 company with the discovery of fire, or perhaps electricity.
Every business book writer today aspires to be Malcolm Gladwell and this sort of title inflation is, I think, a symptom of that understandable desire.
But his conclusion — in the form of the classic journalistic thumb-sucker “on the one hand this, on the other hand that” — dovetails nicely with Mr. Tynan’s analysis.
“Google appears to be well positioned for the foreseeable future, but it is worth remembering that few companies maintain their dominance. At one point, few thought the Big Three auto companies would ever falter — or the three television networks or AT&T, IBM or AOL. For companies with histories of serious missteps — Apple, IBM — it was difficult to imagine that they’d rebound, until they did.”
In my view Opinions and Predictions are among the least productive of all human imaginings and I predict that in 2011 everyone will come to agree with my opinion on this.
Best and Worst Web Design Techniques from Web Design Ledger
October 31, 2009
Here are a couple of links to excellent surveys of web design trends from Web Design Ledger, those that are effective and those that are over-used and should be retired.
Jacqueline Thomas surveys the Most Used and Abused Web Design Trends of All Time. I certainly agree with her on scrolling marquee text, site visitor counters, auto play music (with no obvious option to turn it off), frames, splash pages in general (and those that make you choose a Flash or HTML based version of the site), Flash intros with no ‘skip it’ option and over-used stock photography.
I will admit that I still like aqua-interface elements and reflective objects on black backgrounds, but perhaps 17 years of working on Macs has prejudiced me for these two.
Mike Smith’s 20 Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Web Design should be required reading for anyone working in this field. What I found especially telling is his advice on the role of the web designer in relation to their client’s instructions, “they may tell you that they want the big flashy logos, or the overdone textures/gradients, but it is the job of a well skilled web designer to steer their clients in the right direction.”
Graphic designers working in all fields — print, web, film, packaging, advertising, etc. — deal with this issue constantly. When your client has a leak and hires a plumber, he (generally) doesn’t offer advice or tell him how to do his job. But clients with no skills, background or training in art or design regularly interfere with the design experts they hire.
Why?
Because every corporate cubicle monkey who can dress themselves without assistance believes they have an indefinable quality they call ‘taste.’ This qualifies them, in their view, to order designers to craft pages that simply don’t work visually and fail to communicate clearly.
“Don’t cut the copy, just reduce the font size.”
“Can you make everything bigger?”
“Just copy what they did on this web site.”
“Use a lot of red. I like red.”
After the project’s completion when they find their goals are not met, it’s simple to blame the designer and forget that they over-ruled the sensible objections raised by their graphics department.
Graphic design is not like fine art which, as Andy Warhol correctly defined is “whatever you can get away with.” There are well understood principles of design, just like there are rules in architecture. That’s because a building or a home, just like a web site or a full page ad, has to function, not merely look pretty (or ugly). You break these rules at the risk of losing your intended audience.
Krautkrämers Meat Water, High Efficiency Survival Beverage — And they’ve got to be joking, right?
September 10, 2009
“Even Fidel can’t resist this culinary opiate of the masses! Roasted pork marinated in mojo, melted Swiss and a briny layer of pickles will tempt and fortify you for the long struggle against your oppressors! And you don’t need a plancha to press this pequeño – just a straw (included)!
Store it cool, but drink it warm.” Click on image for larger size.
So reads the copy at Krautkrämers Meat Water, but I suspect this is an elaborate hoax. Or an art project. A High Efficiency Survival Beverage. Meat Water?
But with mouth-watering flavors like Cuban Sandwich on Cuban bread (ham, roast pork, baby Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard), Tandoori Chicken, and Dirty Hot Dog could it all be real? Nah, but it is really funny. Oh, and could the tip off be that the only merchandise for sale is a T-shirt, “I’d Rather be Drinking Krautkrämer’s Meat Water” and a Limited Edition Meat Water™ Genuine Memory Home Edition Lunch Box Set for $39.99?
40 Free Cartoon And Comic Fonts from Hongkiat.com
August 27, 2009
The good folks at Hongkiat.com, (Online Tips for Tech Users, Designers, Bloggers) have complied an excellent resource for cartoon and comic book fonts here. They are definitely worth checking out. Thanks, Hongkiat!
40 New High Quality Photoshop Tutorials
August 10, 2009
Here’s an excellent collection of 40 new Photoshop tutorials from Noupe, a few screen shots of examples appear below. For the link, go here.
I’ve gotta say that I’m not a fan of the letter spacing in their logo but I’m also a dinosaur who remembers when all type was spec’ed by hand. There was print media before desk top publishing, kids.
Great Collection of over 300 High Quality, FREE Splatter Brushes for Photoshop
August 2, 2009
The good folks over at Smash Apps have put together a collection of over 300 splatter effect brushes for Photoshop from 20 different sources. Well worth checking out, here. Did we mention they are completely FREE!
Hard Drives Still Beat Solid State Drives on Price for Storage
June 27, 2009
“You can buy a $50 HDD with 120GB of storage. A 120GB SSD will set you back around $250-plus,” said Jim Handy an analyst with Objective Analysis Inc.
“This a good time to consider buying a higher-end HDD that should deliver more-than-enough performance – and plenty of room to grow – while you wait for SSD prices to drop further,” writes Lucas Mearian at ComputerWorld after a careful analysis. For the complete article, go here. Recommended Reading.