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Archive for January, 2007
Run for Your Life!
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I wish that one of the Laws of Simplicity were to exercise more instead of less. But who needs laws when you have great services on the Web like Tak Okamoto’s new RunLog! Yes there are many such services on the Web, but the cool thing about Tak’s system is that it uses OpenID. The concept behind OpenID is important: one login for all the things you like to do on the Web. That’s right–no more confusion about your various logins/passwords and so forth. A lot of it of course inevitably depends upon trust, but OpenID is actually well thought out in this area.

Combine Tak’s RunLog with the Map My Run service to measure your route, and you’re well on your way to a better New Year of 2007. Run!

8/trust, seen  (5) Jan 13, '07

On-Demand Largeness
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I guess the above title sounds suspiciously like the spam that litters your, and my, inbox. With all the excitement about Apple’s new iPhone it’s hard not to be pumped as well. However as I clicked through the online demo on Apple’s site, my first feeling was that it was doing too much for my own tastes. For me the high point of the demo was their solution to managing the task of typing on a small device.

The advantage of reduce is to reap the benefits of smallness in portability and perception of simplicity. But as anyone that daily types on little devices knows, it can get a bit tiring. I was wondering how Apple had resolved the problem of mating a touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard and was happy to see their hover-expand behavior for the keys. Each key can remain small and within an orderly grid at first glance, then by hovering your finger the on-screen key is made bigger so that you can see it better. It’s a fairly simple idea and probably not brand new, but definitely a step forward in the awkward task of typing on a tiny virtual keyboard. Now let me see if I can find the teeny Publish button on this here blog system …

products  (11) Jan 10, '07

Law 2: Organize (Desktop Pattern)
 
Desktop pattern for a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen (~50kb).

  
Desktop pattern for a 16:9 widescreen (~50kb).

The Second Law organize says that fewer is just a state of mind.

2/ organize, deskpat  Jan 8, '07

Three’s Company
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As a manager, I find myself needing to use a common set of diagrams over and over. One of them is the image of the famed “three circles that overlap,” or put more technically “a Venn diagram of three intersecting sets.” The point of the diagram is to symbolize the powerful concept of synergy coming from the combination of multiple sources.

Many a movement or initiative has been launched atop this simple platform of thought by placing words within the three circles. For instance, the combination of “chocolate,” “peanut butter,” and “marketing” lies at the perfect storm of my personal definition for true convergence: Reese’s peanut butter cups. If you click on the left-side of the diagram, you get it served up on white; on black by clicking on the right-side. May you motivate many an audience in 2007 with this simple tool to be used in a future PPT presentation.

ceo-diagrams, ppt  (3) Jan 7, '07

There is no such thing as global warming
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As I went outside for an errand today, I couldn’t help but wonder if my home were teleported to California instead of cold, blustery New England. My snow shovel is outside, ready to go into action. Yet I’m going to the CVS in a T-shirt. Something is certainly wrong with the world. As I turned the ignition on my car, I felt a pang of guilt for not waiting an extra three months to receive delivery of a Prius. The situation with the environment, and how we live a modern lifestyle is not at all simple.

Uncategorized, key 3: power  (15) Jan 6, '07

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