Dalematic is into decay these days.

the photography of Alexey Titarenko (via)

A must-read post for designers, and he references a book I’m embarrassed to say I don’t own yet, Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud:

The image on the left is a face of a specific person. The image on the right is the concept «face»; it could be any person. When designing user interfaces, we rarely ever want to show a specific entity; typically, we want to convey an idea or a concept. Details can easily distract from that idea or concept.

A great question posted by Matt over at 37Signals, Do Americans have bad taste?
He wonders:

Interesting question re: the taste of Americans. I think there’s def more of a culture of design in Europe and some parts of Asia/S America. Even little things tend to look designed. Even if it’s just a restaurant menu or signage for a bookstore. There’s an appreciation for details and things that look good.

Read the comments section too, there’s a lot of great points of view.

I don’t have a PS3 yet, but I want this game:

Playing the first sections of our preview disc of Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, it was easy to become somewhat jaded. The platforming is, of course, wonderful. The graphics are attractive. The writing is well above average. We’ve long known that Insomniac knows how to create a strong 3D platformer, and for an hour or so, this feels like more of the same. The same is very, very good, mind you. But we’ve seen it before. …Then Clank, the robot sidekick, enters his own head, and the above-average takes a turn for the incredible.

(my emphasis)

This has been sitting in my Instapaper queue forever:

When one becomes obsessed with a beautiful object, it isn’t because we want that object to come into our own personal world. It’s in fact the reverse. We want to enter its world. Of course, that thing that we found to be so beautiful at first glance may actually have some awful flaws. Really expensive yet excruciatingly uncomfortable shoes come to mind. We want it to work out so badly.

This post has many great chunks to quote, here’s one:

You want a non-tyrannical Apple? Rather than striving to weaken Apple so that it can be devoured by its brawny-yet-mindless competitors, do something constructive. Experiment with GUIs which
don’t trace their descent to Xerox PARC. Forever renounce the idiotic practice of copying
Microsoft, that cheap imitation of a cheap imitation. If you are creative, create. Otherwise, strive to find a strong-willed Jobs figure gifted with good taste, and become his loyal servant. This is how we get quality products, everywhere from architecture to operating systems. There is no other way. Creativity requires a mind, and a herd has none.

Many people think the electric car is a new development in transportation, but the picture above shows Thomas Edison next to an electric car built by S.R. Bailey & Company that he developed his nickel-iron batteries for.
The photo was taken around 1910 (New York Times article on the event).
Over one hundred years ago. Not horses. Not bicycles. Electric cars that had a range of 100 miles.
Here’s a film from 1900 showing a parade of automobiles that include steam and electric models.
With the weight of the emerging global oil economy behind it, internal combustion automobiles eventually surpassed their electric counterparts in speed, range and price in the 1910’s.
Very little is ever mentioned on how the electric car was killed off, but in his book, Internal Combustion, Ewan Black explains in detail ‘How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives’.
One can imagine living in a very different world today if electric automobile and battery technology were not prematurely stopped over 100 years ago.
This was not the only time in history the electric car was prevented from making progress. In his 2006 film, Who Killed the Electric Car? writer and director Chris Paine examines the creation and subsequent destruction of the electric car in the mid 1990’s.
It’s important for people to not just be aware that something happened, but why something happened the way it did. It’s easy to dismiss electric cars in the 1910’s as not economically viable or as mature a technology as gas-powered cars, but imagine if Edison were allowed to continue his pursuit of the electric battery technology. Imagine if his Edison Plant in Orange, New Jersey didn’t mysteriously get destroyed in a fire (even though most the buildings were concrete and Edison claimed they were fire-proof).

A few weeks ago I took my 2004 Jeep Liberty into Manhattan Chrysler/Jeep to get an oil/oil filter change. During the change they usually alert me to any other issues they think should be addressed with the car. Sometimes they’re minor, sometimes they’re major.
This time they told me my front brake pads were extremely worn down, and they recommended I get them changes. I asked for an estimate.
The estimate they gave me was in the neighborhood of $400.
Now mind you, my brakes weren’t broken. The rotors, pads and calipers were in perfect working shape. I just needed new brake pads. My father taught me how to change brake pads back in high school, so I knew that new pads cost around around $40 for a pair so instead of giving my money to Jeep, I decided this was a great opportunity for my father and I to do them ourselves.
We started working on the car around 10AM and finished around 3PM. My father recommended we turn the rotors down while we have everything taken apart. Turning the rotors down just means that you sand them down to provide a smooth, even surface for the pads to press against. More surface area, better braking.
In the end, this was the cost breakdown:
new brake pads (2): $40.00
turning down rotors (2): $40.00
total cost: ~$80.00 (plus my dad’s and my labor)

Financial bootstrapping is a term used to cover different methods for avoiding using the financial resources of external investors. Bootstrapping can be defined as “a collection of methods used to minimize the amount of outside debt and equity financing needed from banks and investors”[10]. The use of private credit card debt is the most known form of bootstrapping, but a wide variety of methods are available for entrepreneurs. While bootstrapping involves a risk for the founders, the absence of any other stakeholder gives the founders more freedom to develop the company. Many successful companies including Dell Computers were founded this way.

(via)

I was down in New Orleans, Louisiana for a bachelor party this past weekend. A few months ago when we were making plans, my friend Bryan researched ways we could help with Hurricane Katrina victims in the area. What he found was the St. Bernard Project.
From their about page:

The mission of the St. Bernard Project is to create housing opportunities so that Hurricane Katrina survivors can return to their homes and communities. The St. Bernard Project, a nonprofit, community-based organization carries out its mission through three primary programs: Rebuilding Program, Center for Wellness and Mental Health and Senior Housing Program.

This past Monday my friends Bryan, Frank, Andrew and I drove out to Violet, Lousiana, located in St Bernard Parish (New Orleans is divided into parishes like New York City is divided into boroughs) to help rebuild a house. The drive out to Violet revealed that there’s still a lot of grim, empty communities that have still not recovered from Katrina.
Thanks to the St Bernard Project, over 275 houses have been rebuilt with families back living in them. The goal for 2010 is to rebuild another 133 houses. The project is having a huge impact on the city, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
Here are some statistics (via):
• 1,000 families still displaced in St. Bernard
• 13,000 families still displaced in New Orleans
• 75% of homeowners did not receive sufficient funds to rebuild their home
I strongly encourage you to do what you can. You can find out how on their site.
One of the easiest ways is to make a $5 donation by texting “NOLA” to 50555. It will show up on your mobile bill. My friends and I all did this on the ride to the house we worked on.

via TechCrunch:

On its first day of availability on the App Store since it was – surprisingly, to many – approved by Apple, Opera Mini for iPhone (iTunes link) was downloaded one million times.

I have a question – Who gives a shit how many times it was downloaded?
I’m one of those million downloads, and I have to say, Opera Mini for iPhone sucks (less on this can be found in my economical tweet review).
Opera Mini for iPhone was a free download, so we’re not tracking sales. We’re tracking curious geeks like me who want to see if there could be viable alternatives to SafariMobile. So it’s like tracking hits to a website and hits are pointless too, in and of themselves.
Tracking hits and downloads means nothing without sales conversion stats.

Via Ars Electronista:

Nokia is developing a new tablet that would compete with the iPad, Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar claimed in a currently questionable note. He didn’t describe the form factor but said the Finnish phone maker was hoping to have a tablet on the market as early as the fall.

What? A tablet to compete with Apple? They don’t even have a product to compete with the iPhone.
Pay attention to the road Nokia, not the other drivers.