Scott Says

"Urban sprawl is not mindless at all. There is nothing inevitable about its development. Sprawl is..."

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:32:42 -0800

“Urban sprawl is not mindless at all. There is nothing inevitable about its development. Sprawl is the result of zoning laws designed by legislators, low-density buildings designed by developers, marketing strategies designed by ad agencies, tax breaks designed by economists, credit lines designed by banks, geomatics designed by retailers, data-mining software designed by hamburger chains, and automobiles designed by car designers. The interactions between all these systems and human behavior are complicated and hard to understand— but the policies themselves are not the result of chance. “Out of control” is an ideology, not a fact.”

- John Thackara, from In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World

(via jayparkinsonmd)

Making browsers faster: Resource Packages

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:08:02 -0800

Making browsers faster: Resource Packages :

What if there was a backwards compatible way to transfer all of the resources that are used on every single page in your site — css, js, images, anything else — in a single http request at the start of the first visit to the page? This is what Resource Package support in browsers will let you do.

A simple, elegant solution that will be implemented in Firefox 3.7 and, I imagine, Safari shortly after.

(via lkm)

A clear case for content on one page

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:09:37 -0800

Yesterday, Jason Kottke linked to The Times’ list of 100 Best Films of the Decade.

Just as I did above, he linked to the Printer Friendly page. On the myriad of blogs I read, I see this more and more. Presumably, it’s done because there is no single page.

The Times has no ads on their printer friendly page, so they are losing out on quite a bit of ad revenue. I’ve seen this list linked to on a number of websites, and they all link to the print page.

Some news execs will perhaps take notice of this, and say, “We better put some advertisements on our print page!” Of course, you, clever reader, know that the reason everyone’s linking to the print page isn’t too avoid some non-intrusive ads, a better stylesheet, and more photos. Nope, you’re simply pissed that this list is paginated into nine different pages.

I very much want this poster, but I don’t think it’s...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:35:00 -0800

I very much want this poster, but I don’t think it’s available anywhere. It looks like this was made for a now-shuttered restaurant named Pastrami Jack’s in Eden Prairie, MN.

This poster was illustrated by Sam Soulek and accompanied several other fantastic posters. The campaign was by FAME of Minneapolis.

This came my way via beeriety via robot-heart via behance Various Posters on the Behance Network

How to use Twitter without being a douchebag SEO/social marketing "expert"

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:07:46 -0700

Jason Snell understands how to use Twitter:

Twitter is a conversation. Twitter accounts are people. Give your Twitter account a personality, even if it’s for a brand.

It takes two people to make a conversation. Make sure you’re responding to replies on Twitter when appropriate.

Twitter should be more than a self-promotion machine. Twitter accounts should be of a followable volume and add value over, say, RSS.

Twitterers love tidbits, breaking news, links to interesting stuff. Don’t be afraid to make your feed more valuable by linking elsewhere.

Twitter is instantaneous. Ask a question, you’ll get answers. Use it to make FAQs for a story or upcoming interview, or as quick polls.

Don’t forget the individuals. If you tweet as a brand, mention individual writers by name. Writers, mention your brand. Virtuous circle.

Summary: Tweet for your brand like you’d tweet for yourself. Reply to comments. Have a personality. Share links. Mention friends by name.

I debated whether this is unfairly reposting content, but these are too fantastic to not be collated somewhere.

Permalinks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Sum

Closing slash for XHTML single tags in TextMate

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:13:24 -0700

You probably shouldn’t use XHTML, but in case you do and you want that closing slash a la , then do the following:

HTML tags inserted which have an EMPTY content model now place the value of the TM_XHTML variable before the closing ‘>’. If you want these tags to use the minimized (XHTML) form, go to Preferences -> Advanced -> Shell Variables and set TM_XHTML to “ /”.

—TextMate release notes

This is a test

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:44:49 -0700

Tumblr appears to be stripping my Markdown headings of their HTML tags in the Dashboard. Why? I don’t know.

Here’s a test:

H1 Tag

H2 Tag

H3 Tag

h1 tag in html

h2 tag in html

h3 tag in html

Thoughts on the New 27" iMac

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0700

My coworkers and I were some of the first to receive the new iMacs, getting them around the same time that Apple stores did. Here are my thoughts after using one for two days.

The Peripherals

The Magic Mouse feels too sticky at first but it quickly gets that thin layer of oil from your skin so your fingers don’t stick when scrolling. It sits very low on the desk, and so is most comfortable with the forearm parallel and close to the desktop surface. It seems to track very well and I can’t tell I’m using a wireless mouse which has not always been my experience with Bluetooth peripherals. The click action of the Magic Mouse is a bit deeper and much crisper than the Mighty Mouse. Compared to the previous two iterations of Apple mice, this mouse actually has a top surface that clicks.

The new mouse weighs less than the wireless Mighty Mouse and also has better balance—the Mighty Mouse is decidedly balanced toward the rear.

My greatest complaint with the new mouse is that the left- and right-side edges are not rounded at all. Unless you have very large hands, the edges will likely dig a bit into the sides of your palm. If you have small hands you might find it unbearably uncomfortable, but it has not been a deal breaking issue for me. I wonder if this wasn’t a bit of an aesthetic decision, as the top piece does have an attractive slope to it.

The mouse’s touch area starts just north of the Apple logo and extends to the edges and upper corners. In short, the area where your palm will be is not sensitive to the touch, and everything else on top is touch sensitive.

The keyboard is essentially the same as the previous Aluminum wireless keyboard, though this one takes one less battery. The keys seem a bit soft compared to the wired Apple keyboard I was previously using.

Setting the two up is pretty painless. If you forget to turn your mouse on during initial bootup, the following image displays until you figure it out.

The iMac

This is one beautiful machine. The back is now all brushed Aluminum, foregoing the black plastic of the previous models. The display is stunning, as expected, and I very much like the 16:9 ratio. It seems to be a pretty pixel dense display which is a trend I can get behind. Interestingly, the monitor is not as “dark” as the display on the previous 24” iMac after being shifted to 2.2 Gamma. It seems that either the display is very different or the pre-installed color profile was tweaked by Apple to keep some of the shadow highlights lost in the Gamma transition.

That said, the top menu bar is pretty small—hopefully the next “big cat” release will bring resolution independence. The brightness range is much increased in the lower range, which is a great improvement. As the sun sets outside my office window at the end of a 12 hour workday, the older iMac’s least bright setting was often still blinding. This display can get much darker, and my brightness settings tend to be in the middle of the brightness bar instead of on the lower end. The sacrifice for this is fine-grained control—I find myself in between two brightness settings. Cinema displays have finer-grained “sliver” adjustments in their standard keyboard controls, which I find myself yearning for.

Obviously, the biggest change with this new machine is the increased monitor size. When I first sat in front of my old 24” iMac, I felt that I was looking upward too much. Increasing the display size would seem to make the viewing area too large, but Apple took two steps to prevent this. In actuality, the top of the 27” iMac’s display is lower than the top was on the 24” model. First, the different aspect ratio means the display is not much taller than the previous 24” display while adding a good amount of viewing area. Second, the silver “chin” on this new computer is much slimmer than the older model’s chin, meaning the display starts at a lower height off your desk.

I took some imprecise measurements and found that the top of the display on the new iMac is only 19 1/4 inches from the desk whereas the older 24” model’s display reached 19 3/4 inches from the desk surface.

The thinner chin also means the Apple logo is much smaller which looks a bit silly at first. But really, the smaller chin and logo demonstrates what it’s like to use this computer—everything takes a backseat to the big, beautiful display.

My favorite touch in the new iMac is the sloping base. Previously the base was a chunky piece of aluminum in equal thickness all around. The base on the new iMac slopes downward toward the user, which is aesthetically pleasing and seems more practical when in a work environment with papers and pens shuffling around.

My take in short: Because of the fantastic screen and great new peripherals, this is an incredible evolution for the iMac. This is the fastest and best computer setup I’ve ever used.

If the print magazine industry is struggling so much, why can’t I get a magazine by mail a few...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:35:58 -0700

If the print magazine industry is struggling so much, why can’t I get a magazine by mail a few days after I subscribe? I can get a vacuum, tax free with free shipping in 2 days with Amazon Prime, but I subscribe to a magazine and have to wait 4-6 weeks to get an out of date issue?!

Then people in the print industry walk around like chickens missing their heads bemoaning this fearsome yet mysterious beast—“the Internet”—that is killing their business. Here’s why your business is dying: it takes too fucking long and you aren’t trying hard enough.

"Within supported apps, such as Preview, you can scroll in any direction."

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:45:00 -0700

“Within supported apps, such as Preview, you can scroll in any direction.”

- In other words, it won’t work in Photoshop. Using the Mighty Mouse, a Photoshop canvas will not scroll at a diagonal.

Macworld on Apple’s new Magic Mouse.

UPDATE: It looks like this does work in Photoshop, but it still doesn’t feel all that smooth. It seems kind of like making diagonal lines on an Etch-a-sketch. Sure it moves diagonally, but it doesn’t feel like you can draw a straight line across.

If your Mac's wifi is slow to connect on wake from sleep...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:46:13 -0700

The problem is likely related to the “preferred networks” you have stored. Move your home network to the top of the list and take a minute to clean out some of the crud that’s built up from coffee shops and hotels.

To do this, go to System Preferences, Network, click Advanced, and reorder/delete the appropriate “preferred networks.” Alternatively, you could trash some of your preference files related to this.

More information and original solution from this Apple discussions thread.

Matt McInerney decided to redesign Scrabble: My design...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:38:37 -0700

Scrabble Package Redesign

Folded and Unfolded

The Board and Tiles

Cover Image

Front and Back

The Board/Inside

Matt McInerney decided to redesign Scrabble:

My design strips away the need for a box to hold your board and instead turns the package into the product. This new Scrabble board functions more like a book, featuring the logo and instructions on the outside, with a board on the inside that’s revealed as you open the package. The two pieces/boxes that make up the package and board are hollow and features tabs at the top that can be opened. This is where you’ll find your Scrabble pieces and tiles. To keep the package shut, I embedded two magnets in the material on opposite sides of the board.

My favorite part is that one of the justifications for this design choice was to better fit the game on a book shelf. Board games are awfully awkward to store away, after all.

Apartment Therapy New York | Wall-Mounted Fireplace by Vauni

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:36:26 -0700

Apartment Therapy New York | Wall-Mounted Fireplace by Vauni

Really dig this. TVs should not dominate a room, but should be...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:37:09 -0700

Really dig this. TVs should not dominate a room, but should be easy to view when wanted.

via ahousebythepark

What Happens if You Eat One of Those Silica Gel Packets?

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:38:57 -0700

What Happens if You Eat One of Those Silica Gel Packets?:

In short, nothing.

Again, from the fantastic reddit.

Leandro Erlich’s “Swimming Pool” at the 21st...

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:25:34 -0700

Leandro Erlich’s “Swimming Pool” at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art @ Kanazawa, Japan

(via here)

President Obama's Email about the Nobel Peace Prize

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:32:35 -0700

Subject: A call to action

Scott —

This morning, Michelle and I awoke to some surprising and humbling news. At 6 a.m., we received word that I’d been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.

That is why I’ve said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won’t all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it’s recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.

This award — and the call to action that comes with it — does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.

So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we’ve begun together. I’m grateful that you’ve stood with me thus far, and I’m honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

Online retailer Newegg files for $175 million IPO

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:42:15 -0700

Online retailer Newegg files for $175 million IPO:

Newegg is absolutely one of my favorite online retailers. What sets them apart is their focus on getting things out quickly and accurately from their warehouses. AnandTech has a great tour (single page) of one of their incredible warehouses, full of computer controlled bins that zip around to the correct spot on a shelf and weigh the products before packing to ensure accuracy.

A couple years back I decided to add a bit more RAM to my beloved 12” PowerBook. I ordered it mid-day one day and received it the NEXT afternoon. That’s just incredible, because I chose the cheapest shipping option.

Photo: The SartorialistLocation: Milan

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:11:56 -0700

Photo: The Sartorialist
Location: Milan

Recent Miami University grad dies of swine flu

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:21:16 -0700

Recent Miami University grad dies of swine flu:

This is one of us. A recent college grad, no health insurance, presumably because her school insurance dried up and she couldn’t afford insurance at the time.

Young became ill about two weeks ago, but didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost, according to Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate.

We should be ashamed.