Archive: Miscellany

The good man

Astonishing CSS3 animation work by graphic design major Pedro Ivo Hudson.

Move the web forward

Great advice and resources from web developers Paul Irish, Mat Marquis and many more on how to give back to web community. Some essential, timeless links here.

Best iPhone and iPad games of 2012 roundup

2012 was the first year I really started taking iOS games seriously, and the first I found the device a life saver for gaming over long subway rides and vacation trips. A lot of great titles were released, and as usual Touch Arcade has a great handle on what stood out. (I still find Punch Quest and Pinball Arcade monopolizing far more time than I expected.)

How I made a 26-hour day

App creator Andrew Dumont, talking about his daily schedule that he shifted two hours earlier:

You’re probably thinking, “I’m not a morning person.” Well, I wasn’t either. But I trained myself to become one. As is true with anything, you get used to it. The first two weeks are the hardest. After that, it’s smooth sailing.

I’m not a New Years resolution kind of guy, but there’s something about an earlier schedule that I’m finding increasingly appealing long before I read Andrew’s post. As I head back to work I’m moving everything a good hour earlier. Hopefully results are positive.

I don’t want to download your app

Software developer/startup founder Dan Newcome:

The value of the Web is the content and connections. Just let me use the Web. I don’t care that much if I get slightly jerky scrolling, or if the list doesn’t seem like it’s infinitely scrolling off the edge of my little iOS world.

There’s a reason why this short post made the front page of Hacker News for 24 hours; If there’s anything that I’d like to see end in this new year, it’s the “native apps for everything” trend. Native apps are great, web browsers are great; but neither is great for everything.

The top 5 website UX trends of 2012

As UX Magazine emphasizes here, single page websites are everywhere. I predict we could see a big backlash to the look overall by mid next year.

Giant Bomb: game of the year day 2 recap

Gaming site Giant Bomb has always distinguished itself with stellar video work, but they have outdone themselves with their game of the year recap videos. Their TV spoofs, especially their dead on 60 Minutes send up (“reporter” Brad Shoemaker has the vocal cadence down cold) linked here, just kills.

Email and meetings aren’t work

Venture capitalist Tom Tunguz, discussing the ratio of meetings you asked for vs. meetings asked of you:

What is your ratio? And what should it be? Presuming meetings I request are more productive than meetings I’m invited to (because I’m driving the agenda and accomplishing my goals), if I could shift that ratio by just one minute to 7 to 3, I would improve my productivity by 17%.

Rise

I generally dislike iOS third party apps that mirror or attempt a slight tweak on good Apple default system apps like Music or the Alarm Clock. Yet this new app by Simple Bots is awesome. It’s pretty and has slick gestures, but the key advantage here is speed. I can set my morning alarm in about 10 seconds: a swipe up or down followed by a quick pull to the left and I’m done.

How to do presentations that don’t induce suicide

More technical or design-heavy presentations can be hard to deliver well; either you get too technical or too visual. That’s why the advice here from designer Andy Whitlock here is so helpful. Andy writes simple presentation pointers that are applicable almost anywhere.