Blog
Writing helps me think more clearly. This archive is longer posts; quick updates now live in notes.
Topics: AI, blogging, photography, programming, projects, Signboard
Mina Markham: In August, we released a major redesign of slack.com, and we want to give you a peek behind-the-scenes. She goes on to show tons of details on their latest redesign. There are several bits I found interesting such as their attention to accessibility, how they handle fall backs for IE11, and how they made responsive illustrations….
Mike Monteiro on Medium on Twitter: Twitter today is a cesspool of hate. A plague of frogs. Ten years ago, a group of white dudes baked the DNA of the platform without thought to harassment or abuse. They built the platform with the best of intentions. I still believe this. But they were ignorant to their own blind…
Micro.blog: Mac users can use the native Micro.blog for Mac app. It’s a free download and supports most of the same features as the iOS version. You can see a short video of it on Manton's blog. You'll even notice a rather handsome avatar make an appearance. Unfortunately I cannot give this a spin yet since I haven't…
European Southern Observatory: ESO’s fleet of telescopes in Chile have detected the first visible counterpart to a gravitational wave source. These historic observations suggest that this unique object is the result of the merger of two neutron stars. The cataclysmic aftermaths of this kind of merger — long-predicted events called kilonovae — disperse heavy elements such as gold…
It is a beautiful fall day for apple picking and apple cider donuts.
IBEROSTAR Playa Mita, Mexico – September 2017
Smartify: Smartify is a free app that allows you to scan and identify artworks, access rich interpretation and build a personal art collection in some of the world’s best museums and galleries. Gunseli Yalcinkaya, writing for Dezeen, calls it "a Shazam for the art world". This is cool. Can't wait to try it out. /via Dave Mark at…
The Giving Tree Wellness Center, Penn Avenue, Scranton, Pa – September 2017 In September Mark Keith and I poked our heads into this brand-new business in Downtown Scranton. They have a nice spot (and sensory deprivation chambers).
Tara Raj for Microsoft: We've been documenting many of these new features and improvements on this blog over the last few months, but we've often been asked for a single document listing all the new improvements, and with FCU (version 1709, build 16299.15) shipping on October 17th 2017, we thought it was time to publish a list these improvements!…
Sophia Ciocca: This Monday — just like every Monday— over 100 million Spotify users found a fresh new playlist waiting for them. It’s a custom mixtape of 30 songs they’ve never listened to before but will probably love. It’s called Discover Weekly, and it’s pretty much magic. I've mentioned Spotify's playlists before. They are incredible. They are magic. Side note:…
I've put up with this for far too long. And I'm not going to any more. Publications that have the habit of linking only to their own web sites rather than to the subject of their articles will no longer get any traffic from me on any device. In fact, I'm going to go so far as to…
Lens-flare – September 2017
Dan Moren, for Six Colors: Dare I say, this seems like an indication that Hollywood is finally “getting it” where digital film purchases are concerned. Then again, with the continued encroachment of streaming, digital rentals, and peak TV, maybe they just got desperate. Six Colors being a publication that knows how to use the internet and links to…
Be sure to check out the Oculus blog as they've announced a slew of new things. I'm still going through them all and will be sifting through it over the coming days. But, at first glance, I'm really excited to see this category of product move forward. Here are the highlights for me (though there is a lot…
Iconfactory: The Twitter app for people who actually use Twitter. Now all-new for macOS. Imagine if Twitter cared as much about their desktop and mobile apps (and the people who used them) as Iconfactory does.
Jason Snell: I started using Twitter because of Twitterrific for Mac. When the Iconfactory first released the app, I signed up for a Twitter account and started chatting with my friends. That was ten years ago. Ditto. I actually started using Twitter via SMS in 2006 then saw it bloom at SXSW in 2007 but then when I…
Jeremy Keith: I’m always shocked when I’m out and about with someone who has their phone set up to notify them of any activity—a mention on Twitter, a comment on Instagram, or worst of all, an email. The thought of receiving a notification upon receipt of an email gives me the shivers. Me too. I thought this might…
SnapThread by Becky Hansmeyer: Portrait video compilations made easy—that’s what SnapThread is all about. Like SnapChat without the network. I've long held that SnapChat and Instagram have the best UIs but it is a shame they aren't just an app. Apple tried to solve this with Clips but that is only square-crop. This app could be very useful.
Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic – October 2017 So much fun.
This past weekend Eliza and I attended an orchestral presentation by the NEPA Philharmonic that featured musical scores composed by John Williams – my favorite score composer. Forgive the audio quality, the fact that I forgot to record more than I did, and that at the end I yell "it's all over" so fast that it is unintelligible….
The first time I linked to Colin Walker, which was only about 4 months ago, it was because he was fiddling with his blog, trying to come up with the right way to display his content for him and his audience. It is a topic that has fascinated me for 20 years and to see someone else thinking…
Lackawanna Lake – October 2017
Recorded October 1, 2017. Eliza and I have extended the Bullet Journal to include a Weekly Index – a two-page spread showing the entire week in one snapshot. It has been working for us for several months. Download.
Joe Belfiore: Introducing Microsoft Edge for iOS/Android and Microsoft Launcher for Android, two apps designed to make it easy to move what you’re working on between your phone and PC. Great move. Likely tons of Surface users that also have iPhones and definitely have Android devices. The Launcher is an interesting move. I'm anxious to see if they…