Entries for November 1999
I’m not sure if this is unique or not, but Emigre is now letting you preview a bit of text in any of their typefaces.
On the topic of Emigre, they could have a lot more cred and visibility on the Web if they updated their site with a look and feel more consistant with their boundary-stretching magazine design. This topic comes up about every six months or so in the letters to the editor section of the magazine, and their stance is (and continues to be, as far as I know) that the site serves its purpose and is just fine for what it needs to do. That’s fine, but does it accurately portray who Emigre is to the site’s audience. I’m not sure it does. I’m not saying it has to be an over-designed graphics fest like some sites, but I would like to see what Emigre would come up with if they applied their design talents toward a Web site.
It’s nearing the end of the year and people will want to be making their end of the year lists. I myself am going to make a list of my 10 favorite movies of 1999. To that end, Epinions should have an end-of-the-year subcatagory in each of the media catagories (movies, books, music, etc.) so that people can make such lists. These lists would be a good traffic boost for the site I think….people love to read them.
Epinion usability problem: the movie reviews have the spoiler information at the bottom of the page. This information belongs at the top of the page…I want to know right away whether my movie experience is going to be ruined by the review.
A nice story about life’s defining moments and meeting one’s childhood hero.
Sorry, Fox, but Futurama’s online store sucks. The designs on the t-shirts are lame, they are expensive, and they are all long-sleeved. How about a nice, simple, white, short-sleeved shirt with Bender doing something goofy on it? That’s all I’m asking.
The Smoking Gun has a mugshot of Bill Gates from when he was arrested in 1977 for a minor traffic violation. Seems apropos considering the recent ruling about the nature of Microsoft’s monopoly. Bill looked a lot like Eric Foreman from That 70s Show, didn’t he?
I went to see Being John Malkovich last night. And all I can say is, “Wow”. Well, I guess I can say a little more than that. Do yourself a solid and go see this film.
More Minnesota.web: Pixelbaby. I found this through her page at Epinions.
A nifty little article on sans serif typefaces on the Communication Arts Web site. For fun, go to the Swiss Modernism section and rollover the various weights of Helvetica quickly. It’s neat to see how the letterforms change as they go from UltraLight to Black. Jason’s a big fan of the sans serif type.
More Minnesota.web: I’ve been using this best practices document for a project I’m working on, but I had no idea that Dack Ragus was from Minneapolis. An interesting (renaissance?) mix of booze, web, golf, and the stock market. Very cool.
Sweet fancy Moses. CitySearch has finally launched their Twin Cities offering, supplanting Microsoft’s dearly departed Sidewalk. Will it be as good as Sidewalk was? I’ll get back to you on that.
Wow, I missed a day for the first time in…well…a long time. I’ve got lots of good stuff to share, but I just don’t have the time these days.
I’ve gotten about 10 messages on my voicemail since I posted the phone number, but no naughty messages….with the exception of a co-worker’s reading of an excerpt from Nabokov’s Lolita. Come on gang, you can do it: 1.877.218.0260 x358 (that’s toll-free in the US!).
The Cluetrain Manifesto will soon be available in book form. More evidence that Web sites are all fine and good, but it doesn’t have an impact unless it’s dead wood sitting on a shelf.
The Muffin Manifesto. Coming soon?
My mind tends to focus on small areas of interest and the insights held within. Leslie, on the other hand, gathers up bunches of small things and extrapolates broad trends. Recently, she discussed the types of sites quickly propagating across the Web and how those sites are diseminating information at such a rate that in a short time, all the information that can be consumed will be consumed. A related essay from earlier this year is available as well.
Another new ‘log, from frequent link contributer and visiter to this site, Rogers Cadenhead.
The Hobbit, condensed down to a minute’s worth.
Dan Bricklin, inventor of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program and the application upon which the entire rest of the personal computer industry was built, is running a weblog. Not too much there now, but it might make for some interesting reading.
And just to continue on the above slightly, weblogs by people like Dan Bricklin add another dimension missing from your ordinary ‘log. Dan not only lived through an important time in the development of all these computing machines that we are using, but he contributed to it in a significant way and influenced others making significant contributions. That sense of history, type of viewpoint, and genuine authority is missing from most, if not all, weblogs.
It is almost as if Dan is writing a book about the beginnings of the PC revolution, except we are getting the unedited version, with more techical and personal information that gives the story more substance that it would normally have. Above all, it’s current. A book ceases to be current the moment it’s published….with his ‘log, Dan can continue to publish new insights on old thoughts and compare others’ new ideas with old paradigms.
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