Topics in ‘Home’

Vitamin A (for Amy)

I’ve got an article up now at ThinkVitamin, the very awesome web developer / designer / entrepreneur weekly run by the lovely people at Carsonified (née Carson Systems). So, if you’re dying for your Slash7 fix, you might want to read Product Pages: So Much Suck, So Easy to Fix.

This portends of interesting things.

A couple days ago, my friend Courtenay was able to accurately utter the lovely clichéd phrase “you heard it here first” in a certain online community of which I am a part. Heard what here first? This: Webkit’s getting off-line storage. And it’s accessible through SQL. Say what? It’s true. Apparently (or presumably) powered by […]

Why does email suck so much?

And every little email I wrote was like a special little letter, like I was getting a little hug from somebody, and I was returning it with a little hug. A dozen people in a little network, an international network of hugs. And it felt so awesome. — Merlin Mann (of 43Folders fame), Inbox Zero […]

Reductio ad Absurdum

Owning an expensive camera does not a photographer make. Knowing how to annotate music does not a composer make. Having a fancy journal does not a writer make. Being good at CSS does not a designer make (nor does CSS make anything beautiful). Being able to write HTML does not a user interface expert make […]

Nostalgia for the real

Creative Commons-licensed, copyright thetourist. This is an Olivetti Valentine portable typewriter, photographed in the Musem of Modern Art. I just bought one, which inspired this post. Aside from my obsession with letterpress, I’m also obsessed with pen and paper, clay, photography (darkroom work, especially), Polaroids (1, 2), old postcards, unusual collage media, antique engraved book […]

Ruby East will go on without me

Earlier today, I had a sad phone conversation with Tracy, the illustrious organizer for Ruby East 2007. The gist is: I can’t make it. I couldn’t finish my talk and would have had a difficult time making the trip because I’ve got a sprained shoulder. (Is there anything I haven’t sprained yet? Yes—but don’t ask […]

Last-minute self-pimpin’

Obnoxious but required: if you like the sound of my SXSW talk, wouldja vote for it? John and I will be going either way but it would sure be fun to help spread the multi-talented love. Also, based on my experience last year, I feel like SXSW could use a few more well-prepared presentations rather […]

Women in technology?

A while back, Tatiana Apandi—my long-suffering editor at O’Reilly—asked if I’d be interested in writing an essay about women in technology for a project she was working on. I was a little skeptical at first, being naturally suspicious of things that put the focus on sex rather than, oh, I dunno, how a person thinks […]

The beauty of letterpress

And the joy of craft. The nicest thing as anyone’s ever said about my work is ‘It’s always so suitable to the purpose.’ Yes, make it attractive, but make it be what the text needs it to be. Whereas in the wild and wooly world of computer typography, there are no rules. The old guys […]

The Tyranny of Lists

Another experiment. I dug up yet another scribbly half-baked essay and decided to turn it into an audio entry. I have a nice mic that I bought for this purpose and I’m learning a bit about audio production here and there (thanks Geoff!). The final result, not edited except to remove 3 “ums” (which I […]

Hey, why not get a shiny
Freckle Time Tracking
account?