Right after I opened it, I noticed the column header control, and that the popup menus look more like the Firefox ones than the Windows native ones, so I checked Songbird's directory, and yes, it appears that it is Mozilla-based.
Now, maybe that's common knowledge, but it's the first I've heard of it, and I think it's worth mentioning. Especially since talk of cross platform porting is.
At some point, Mr. Ive and his team sat down to design a mouse for the iMac. They probably spent weeks thinking about how to make it new and interesting and attractive and usable, and constantly modified and revised the shape and appearance and wiring and moving parts.
During that time, someone (maybe Ive himself) suggested making it round.
After that, someone either realized that would be a problem but was ignored or nobody even thought about it. In either case, I would blame the designer or design team for a bad decision, and no amount of other great features would balace that out. Bad design is bad design.
Good design is paying attention to details like that, and not letting them slip by.
Good designers don't make arbitrary choices just to make something look cool. They think about the consequences, and if there's a flaw, they go back to the drawing board.
"Good design is about making the thing look pretty"
Take any design course, and the first thing they'll tell you is that that is wrong.
"Is it really the designer's job to deal with engineering problems?"
Of course it is. Do you think Mr. Ive just scribbled an Powerbook G4 on a napkin, and then the engineers went on to make the final product?
Every part started as a concept, and through testing and feedback from engineers, certain ideas should have been improved, replaced, or scrapped by the designer or the team led by the designer. I'll even go as far as to say that a great designer would be able to anticipate problems with his concepts before even suggesting them in the first place.
When a building has a serious flaw, who do we blame? The architect. The one who designed it. Not the engineers that worked for him.
He also designed the iMac's hockey puck mouse, the Powerbook G4's loose battery latch, weak display hinges, and wireless-blocking titanium enclosure, the original iPod's very useful but easily damaged scrollwheel and the 3rd generation iPod's silly touch sensitive interface (for a pocket gadget?!?), the cracking enclosure for the cube, the very scratchable transparent surface on the first white iBooks, and later, the iPod nanos, the uncomfortable no-button mouse and the long awaited multi-button mouse that doesn't right click properly, and the list probably goes on...
These were all flaws easily spotted right after the products came out, and fixed in later revisions (except maybe the right click problem with the new mouse). Granted the fixes were often well executed, but they should not have been needed.
Good design is not just about aesthetics. It's about making sure everything works, and works well.
I think this guy is way overrated. He has had many good ideas and has a good sense of aesthetics and trends, but he lets a lot of mistakes slip by, and it's that lack of attention to detail that keeps him from beeing a great designer (IMHO, of course).
I'm as addicted to Lost as anyone, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a great show. They just really know how to keep people coming back.
For me, 24 was the same thing. I actually hated that show, its characters, its plots, and everything about it, but I still tuned in every week.
And no, I won't agree that that's what makes a great show, because I know I'd never buy a Lost or 24 DVD set, and I probably wouldn't even watch them in reruns. I'm just very curious.
I haven't seen this one, but I saw the Pixar exhibit at the Ghibli museum in Tokyo, and I'll second that recommendation. I'll be going to this one too one of these days.
Hybrid cars aren't all laser beams and blinking lights or anything. Most of them look just like any other cars, so unless you know what to look for, you are probably seeing them and not knowing it.
I can't believe after all of this time, you guys still whine about how much popular music sucks and is too expensive and "protected" by DRM, when you could instead go to emusic.com.
More and more indie labels are joining them, they've got tons of old jazz and blues and classical music, and they offer it in completely legal non-DRM MP3 format, all as low as $0.25 per track.
I know that at the beginning, there selection was limited, but when they switched to limited downloads, a lot more became available. *Most* of the music I want to hear, I can find there, and I pay $20 a month for 90 songs (which I can then download as many times as I want), so it's always nice to type in the name of a band I just heard or heard of, see that it's available, and go straight to downloading.
Slashdot Mirror
Right after I opened it, I noticed the column header control, and that the popup menus look more like the Firefox ones than the Windows native ones, so I checked Songbird's directory, and yes, it appears that it is Mozilla-based.
Now, maybe that's common knowledge, but it's the first I've heard of it, and I think it's worth mentioning. Especially since talk of cross platform porting is.
Actually, it's boingboinged from a bit earlier.
s _roachb.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/03/wasp_perform
"Don't try to tell me otherwise."
I won't tell you where he got it, but I can tell you when I saw it there I thought "I've been telling people that for years."
You think maybe Scott Kurtz heard me or someone else say it, and thought it was funny enough for a strip?
They just mean that people will stop listening to them... because they will be more likely to find better music out there.
Seriously, I pay for almost all of my music today, but I give most credit to Audio Galaxy for opening up my ears and broadening my tastes.
I disagree.
At some point, Mr. Ive and his team sat down to design a mouse for the iMac. They probably spent weeks thinking about how to make it new and interesting and attractive and usable, and constantly modified and revised the shape and appearance and wiring and moving parts.
During that time, someone (maybe Ive himself) suggested making it round.
After that, someone either realized that would be a problem but was ignored or nobody even thought about it. In either case, I would blame the designer or design team for a bad decision, and no amount of other great features would balace that out. Bad design is bad design.
Good design is paying attention to details like that, and not letting them slip by.
Good designers don't make arbitrary choices just to make something look cool. They think about the consequences, and if there's a flaw, they go back to the drawing board.
"Good design is about making the thing look pretty"
Take any design course, and the first thing they'll tell you is that that is wrong.
"Is it really the designer's job to deal with engineering problems?"
Of course it is. Do you think Mr. Ive just scribbled an Powerbook G4 on a napkin, and then the engineers went on to make the final product?
Every part started as a concept, and through testing and feedback from engineers, certain ideas should have been improved, replaced, or scrapped by the designer or the team led by the designer. I'll even go as far as to say that a great designer would be able to anticipate problems with his concepts before even suggesting them in the first place.
When a building has a serious flaw, who do we blame? The architect. The one who designed it. Not the engineers that worked for him.
He also designed the iMac's hockey puck mouse, the Powerbook G4's loose battery latch, weak display hinges, and wireless-blocking titanium enclosure, the original iPod's very useful but easily damaged scrollwheel and the 3rd generation iPod's silly touch sensitive interface (for a pocket gadget?!?), the cracking enclosure for the cube, the very scratchable transparent surface on the first white iBooks, and later, the iPod nanos, the uncomfortable no-button mouse and the long awaited multi-button mouse that doesn't right click properly, and the list probably goes on...
These were all flaws easily spotted right after the products came out, and fixed in later revisions (except maybe the right click problem with the new mouse). Granted the fixes were often well executed, but they should not have been needed.
Good design is not just about aesthetics. It's about making sure everything works, and works well.
I think this guy is way overrated. He has had many good ideas and has a good sense of aesthetics and trends, but he lets a lot of mistakes slip by, and it's that lack of attention to detail that keeps him from beeing a great designer (IMHO, of course).
Great. Foreign characters don't seem to post.
Actually, it's spelled .
How about the fact that the entire civilization on most of those planets always seems to consist of a single small town?
I'm as addicted to Lost as anyone, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a great show. They just really know how to keep people coming back.
For me, 24 was the same thing. I actually hated that show, its characters, its plots, and everything about it, but I still tuned in every week.
And no, I won't agree that that's what makes a great show, because I know I'd never buy a Lost or 24 DVD set, and I probably wouldn't even watch them in reruns. I'm just very curious.
Sure, but I was just trying to save someone here 20 bucks.
"thank god because admission is pretty damn high"
Admission is free on Friday evenings from 4-8.
I haven't seen this one, but I saw the Pixar exhibit at the Ghibli museum in Tokyo, and I'll second that recommendation. I'll be going to this one too one of these days.
Or you could just use VLC or MPlayer on any system that those support.
Sorry pasted the wrong bit into the link.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5182641.html
"If the amendment survives, France would be the first country to legalize so called peer-to-peer downloading"
I was under the impression that it's already legal in Canada.
Or does Canada not count?
At least his was on topic. ...and that's how I remember it too.
They could probably just buy one of the smaller countries, and set up local offices and mailorder business there.
That's too bad. It's actually supposed to be pretty good.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/king_kong/
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/kingkong
Hybrid cars aren't all laser beams and blinking lights or anything. Most of them look just like any other cars, so unless you know what to look for, you are probably seeing them and not knowing it.
I can't believe after all of this time, you guys still whine about how much popular music sucks and is too expensive and "protected" by DRM, when you could instead go to emusic.com.
More and more indie labels are joining them, they've got tons of old jazz and blues and classical music, and they offer it in completely legal non-DRM MP3 format, all as low as $0.25 per track.
I know that at the beginning, there selection was limited, but when they switched to limited downloads, a lot more became available. *Most* of the music I want to hear, I can find there, and I pay $20 a month for 90 songs (which I can then download as many times as I want), so it's always nice to type in the name of a band I just heard or heard of, see that it's available, and go straight to downloading.
By that, I meant: "username" and "password"
And no, I won't list them here.
You'd be surprised how many porn sites you can get into with the username and password as the username and password.
Not really planning or anything fancy, but there is a working NYC subway map overlay for google maps at:
http://www.onnyturf.com/subwaymap.php