Well, it looks like things are going get interesting in 2007. Sure Google Docs has been up for a while, but they’re putting the operation into second gear and I’m interested to see how Microsoft responds. Check out Google Apps comparison chart.
Despite being excited about Google Apps, I’ve also heard great things about Microsoft 2007. Having options is always good.
*side note: I appreciate the clarity and simplicity in much of what Google does, all the way down to their URLs – http://www.google.com/a/, just an ‘a’, heh… i love it. It’s the little things that amuse me.

This is the watch I want, if anyone wants to get it for me. If not, at least explore the Movado site because it is bad-ass. Designed & produced by createthe.

I’ve just implemented sIFR on this site, which should be replacing the HTML text headers for each entry with custom Flash fonts (Futura Bold). If you view my source code, you’ll see that all the h3 tags are still in place – sIFR is working some Javascript trickery to dynamically replace them all on-the-fly.
The fact that the source code has not been altered means that this site will degrade nicely for people who either don’t have Flash (I don’t who these people are) or don’t have the Flash Player version 6 (I don’t know who these people are either). Seriously, it means that my site is more accessable, readable by search engines while still getting the benefits of slick text.
You can find out more about sIFR at the site of it’s co-creators, Mike Davidson (creator of my favorite news site, Newsvine).

Blogs, online journals, whatever you’d like to call them – they all have the same obvious goal of communicating. Blog software now comes installed on most hosting provider servers and can also be used free (like on MySpace) or for a minimal subscription fee (Typepad, Movable Type).
Blogging is as much of fad as a cell phones are. Sure, there are many people that jumped on the blogging bandwagon when articles started getting published in TIME and BusinessWeek, but bloggers were around loooong before it got popular and will be around long after the hype has died down.
I’m excited to see blogs coming out of creative agencies and studios (and other companies that don’t fit easily into a particular category) – excited not for their existence but for the quality of their content and design. They provide a much better home for inspiration, links, videos and photos than a couple dozen emails passed around the company group list.
Below are some of the better ones I’ve come across:
Company: Big Spaceship
http://www.motherboard.nu/
http://cs.bigspaceship.com/blog/
http://labs.bigspaceship.com/blog/
Company: Organic
http://threeminds.organic.com/
Company: Web Agent 007
http://labs.wa007.com/
Company: Analogue
http://www.analogue.ca/blog/
Company: Coudal Partners (their site has almost always been synonymous with their blog)
Company: Hi-ReS!
http://www.hi-res.net/blog/
Company: Adaptive Path
http://adaptivepath.com/blog/
Company: 37Signals
http://37signals.com/svn/

Starting March 5th, 2007 I will be an art director at the New York office of Schematic.
I’ll miss the crew at Deep Focus and wish them luck with the move to the new office space in Manhattan. I expect to see much more great rich media and microsites from them!

I also have this photo posted at JPG.

Most customer support websites tell you to search through their knowledge base before submitting a trouble ticket and I admit that sometimes I get lazy and just want an email response from a support representative with bothering myself by searching around. Well MIVA Small Business Customer Support didn’t let me do that.
After I clicked on Submit a Ticket, I was brought to a form to type in my issue. As I began to type, a textbox below the form began to dynamically populate a list of links relevant to the text I was typing in, titled Knowledgebase Suggestions, like this:

Sure enough, the first link took me to a page that had the answer I was looking for.

Apple working on no-contact charging, syncing?
from the headline (my bolding):

Apple Inc. is attempting to develop a revolutionary dock connector for handheld consumer electronics gadgets that will allow the devices to be docked in any orientation and, in some cases, charged wirelessly.

It’s very important to use the right words when talking. Wireless charging and syncing are not revolutionary. There have been wireless chargers for batteries, electric tooth brushes, etc that charge wirelessly through induction.
Wireless syncing has also been done in the past. Remember your old Palm V? Remember the infrared sensor for syncing? Ok.
With that said, I have no doubt that if Apple is working on wireless syncing and charging, they are working hard as hell to remove any kinks and problems in the processes. They weren’t the first company to make digital music players, but they revolutionized the field. They’re not the first company to work with wireless syncing and charging – but they could potentially revolutionize that too.

3GSM: LG Says Apple Nicked iPhone Idea From Them
Becareful with your language you big, fat cry babies. There’s a big different between copying, being influenced by and inspired by something. Of those 3 I don’t Apple did any. The LG phone doesn’t have a on-screen QWERTY keyboard, visual voicemail, web browser or motion-sensitive touch screen (it does have a touch screen).
LG – if by copying you, you mean that you made a Ford Escort and Apple made a BMW 745, then yes, I guess they did copy you and then flush your chocolate turd down the toilet.
Since we’re at it, I think Palm should sue Motorola for the Q, and RIM for the BlackBerry.
Can June pleeeeease come quickly? I’m very much over iPhone hype, speculation and trash-talking (myself included).

My Exposé for WIndows Vista – I’m amused by the fact that after 5 years of development, you still need to install a productivity application to make Vista as easy to use as OS X.
Seems like Microsoft was too busy making their window/application switcher in 3-D:

Adobe Design Center – Odopod. I’ve seen lots of Flash drawing applications before, but this one really gives you the feel of pencils on paper. It just has a great tactile quality for an online piece. I found myself hypnotized both by drawing things myself and then replaying the drawing sessions of other people.
Complete gallery archive.

Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy: The Greatest Generation Gap Since Rock and Roll
from New York Magazine:

Kids today. They have no sense of shame. They have no sense of privacy. They are show-offs, fame whores, pornographic little loons who post their diaries, their phone numbers, their stupid poetry–for God’s sake, their dirty photos!–online. They have virtual friends instead of real ones. They talk in illiterate instant messages. They are interested only in attention–and yet they have zero attention span, flitting like hummingbirds from one virtual stage to another.

Web Standards: it’s about quality, not compliance
from Design View:

In spite of the widespread acceptance of Web standards by a specific segment of the design and development community, hosts of professionals – those out there right now creating the Web – are working in direct opposition to these standards. A significant reason for why this is happening and how those not working with Web standards justify their activity boils down, I believe, to something regrettably simple: nomenclature.

Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us

You could put your link at the bottom, think of the exposure!!! – familiar-sounded, isn’t it?

I love it. This is going on my list of things that motivate me.