Feedback Goes in the Back

screengrab: businessweek.com
BusinessWeek has made a long overdue redesign to their print magazine and site. What stands out to me? Aside from the obvious typography refresh they’ve done to the logo and headers – its just better designed now. There’s more organization.
One of my favorite changes wasn’t something I was expecting to react to. They’ve moved the reader-submitted letters to the very back of the publication. I love this!
Why?
I read BusinessWeek for the articles, not for other peoples’ feedback. What other readers think is important, but they’re not the priority of the magazine. So put them in the back.
The brilliant stuff is always the most obvious, right?
Oh and something else worth noting is these little words design and innovation that keep popping up all over the place these days. Take heed.

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Un.titled

screengrab: un.titled website
Un.titled (via NewsToday) – Elegant site, easy to use. Deep linking to pages within Flash (pretty common now, I know, but I still appreciate it).

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Technology

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Flexing Words

screengrab: Adobe Buzzword
At the tender age of 30 I’m starting to mature. If you’re going to use (or I’m going to use) Adobe Flash, you better make something that’s really good, gets to the point, works great and loads quickly.
Buzzword is a good example.
Buzzword is a new product/site where you can do word processing. It’s Adobe’s version of Google Docs, but built within what appears to be a tight Flex GUI. It has a simple core set of features to do basic word processing, formatting and adding comments to your documents. You can also save drafts of your docs within your account.
This is just the beginning people, welcome to the world of online applications.

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Technology

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Uptown Baby, Uptown Baby

Upper East Side street
Goodbye Roosevelt Island, hi Carnegie Hill.
I have to tell you, my wife and I feel great being back in civilization. We didn’t realize how much we missed Manhattan. No more red bus, no more Tram. Do you understand how good it feels to take the 6 train straight to work with no transfers?

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Android

So on Monday Google announced Android, which is comprised of itself and 33 other companies with the goal of developing an ‘open’ mobile platform.
Do we get to see examples? Nope. Prototypes? Nope.
In short, like many people, I’m calling bullshit on this one. Somehow, people think closed systems are a bad thing. This is far from true. Far.
Actually, let me be more specific – it all depends on the context. Depending on who is developing the system (read: software, programming language, OS or plug-in) and how broad or narrow the scope is (anyone can develop in HTML and Javascript), making a closed system can be very smart.
I will save my thoughts on open/closed systems for another, longer post. In the meantime, here are some great articles on this whole Android shizzle:
Fake Steve: ‘It’s Not a Phone, It’s an Alliance’

Companies don’t form alliances and consortia when they’re winning. Also, whenever you see companies start talking about being “open,” it means they’re getting their ass kicked. You think Google will be forming an OpenSearch alliance any time soon, to help also-rans in search get a share of the spoils? Me neither.

Derek Powazek: Google Now in Vaporware Business? (via Daring Fireball)

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Technology

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I’m Not Joey

A History of Violence: VIggo Mortensen
A History of Violence – great movie. Why?
– Viggo Mortensen
– a high school bully gets the shit beat of out him
– good cinemaphotography
– a few hot sex scenes
– strategic fighting and shooting

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Now Check That Out

When I logged into GMail today, this made my day:
gmail_loading.gif
For those of you who didn’t notice the change, “Loading…” used to be set in Times Roman and looked foul.
Yes, little details make me happy.

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Design?

Why is Design nested within the Technology category on Digg?
digg_design.gif

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Technology

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