via Flavorwire

Naz Hamid, on the industry versus the design schools:

Something I’ve noticed, and as an industry we all have, is the disconnect between “The New Design” and what’s currently being taught in schools. Interactive designers, also called UI, UX or visual designers, are in short supply. The young guns are emerging, but product-driven start-ups and companies are searching high and low for those who have experience.
I agree with the whole piece. Design is about problem-solving and design students need to articulate their solutions beyond visual means. Writing, speaking and programming (to name a few) should all be in design students’ tool belts.

Great interview with Billy Joel at the NYTimes:

Everybody is different. Some writers can write reams of great books and then J. D. Salinger wrote just a few. Beethoven wrote nine symphonies. They were all phenomenal. Mozart wrote some 40 symphonies, and they were all phenomenal. That doesn’t mean Beethoven was a lesser writer, it’s just some guys are capable of more productivity, some guys take more time. Mozart pisses me off because he’s like a naturally gifted athlete, you listen to Mozart and you go: “Of course. It all came easy to him.” Beethoven you hear the struggle in it. Look at his manuscripts, and there’s reams of scratched-out music that he hated. He stops and he starts. I love that about Beethoven, his humanity shows in his music. Mozart was almost inhuman, unhuman.

Chart taken from Tech.pinions via Daring Fireball

Taken from Vintage Scans

Designers (like me) love to talk about how successful Apple is in context of Design—software, operating system, hardware—but Apple’s popularity and profitability are due to much more than the big “D”.
This email exchange between Steve Jobs and News Corp./HarperCollins sheds light on how important negotiating (or for Jobs, not negotiating) has been to Apple (Tim Cook’s supply chain mastery is a whole other story).
Let’s face it, without content (music/movies/books) and simple content delivery mechanisms on iPads, iPhones and iPods, they’d just be beautiful hardware devices with nothing to do.
Reading Jobs’ emails reminds me of poker. When you watch a true master playing, you understand it’s more than just the cards they’re holding that determines if they win. It’s intelligence, Jedi mind tricks, attitude and confidence all combined into one.

So Achates Power, in San Diego, is working on a diesel engine that uses 1/3 less fuel than conventional engines:

The basic Junkers design has an unusual arrangement of pistons. In a conventional engine, a piston moves inside a cylinder, compressing fuel and air against a cylinder head. A significant amount of energy in fuel ends up heating the cylinder head rather than driving a piston. The Junkers design puts two pistons in the same cylinder and eliminates the cylinder head. Instead, the two pistons compress fuel and air between them and then fly in opposite directions when the fuel is combusted.
I love that the name of the German company that’s the source of Achates design is named “Junkers.”
(This article is from January, but I’m posting it anyway. I’m way behind in links)

(overheard at the coffee shop)

Underground classics is what they used to say before,
Now we break the surface quiet like an alligator nose.
—Talib Kweli, Soul Rebels

image via Head Like An Orange

via Co.Design

Looks like my project is Kickstarter of the Week in Dwell Magazine. Neato.
Pointed out to me by my friend Promila.

I think many people feel this way about their own cities, but after living in Los Angeles for a year, I feel more truth to Updike’s quote.
My wife and I have had a great year living in LA, but it is a seriously flawed city, but one with great potential. If you happen to live in a part of LA that doesn’t require extensive use of your car or commuting, you’ve got a great deal. Don’t let it go.
There’s tons of great neighborhoods and culture and food and music here. And the weather. Jesus.
If they could drop in a transit system, this place would be more golden than the sun that shines down every single day.
I lived in NYC for 12 years. I’m a walkabout type of guy. I expect to be able to get around town by foot and subway/bus. Maybe these are unreasonable expectations for Los Angeles. Doesn’t mean it’s not possible.
This is all moot anyway as my wife and I are moving to San Francisco in 2 days.
San Francisco isn’t New York, but I know it well. It is a great city.

So Samsung is releasing a mini version of it’s S4 phone even though the everyone in the tech press seems convinced Apple has to release an enormous version of the iPhone.
If things are going so well for the regular S4, why the need for a mini version?
I refuse to use the godawful word phablet. Shit, I just did.