Even though The Combustion Chamber still runs on petrol, that doesn’t mean I’m not environmentally conscious so when my thoughts don’t warrant a full post, I choose the leaner, smaller vehicle called Twitter (since May ’07):
http://twitter.com/combustion
Guess I missed this one when it dropped. Hot track featuring Q-Tip.
Jason Fried over at 37 Signals tells us Why the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web.
The strength of his opinion rests in the collective power of all the points he makes. This makes sense, since it’s all about the details with design.
Here are the main points, read the full post for the meat:
Staying power
It’s straightforward
It’s unique
This is important
It’s good cluttered
Breaking news is breaking news
One guy can run it
No news is the news
It sends people away to keep them coming back
It’s fast
It’s cheap to maintain
It’s one page
It makes him a great living
One of the pieces I found the most interesting is something I’ve forgotten about regarding the ‘stickiness’ of a site:
There’s actually no content on the Drudge Report. Well, sometimes he will post an email or a memo on his site, but it’s 99% links out to other news sources. His site is designed to send you away to bring you back. The more often you hit his site to go somewhere else the more often you’ll return to go somewhere else again. You visit the Drudge Report more because you leave the Drudge Report more. This is one of the secrets to building traffic: The more you send people away the more they’ll come back.
For people who think you do your best work when you’re in your 20’s (or 30’s …or 40’s), these cats prove that life can go well beyond any artificial cut-off marks.
My friends and I have a name for what AC/DC has – it’s called the Ten.
…The Tendency to Do It Up.
Do you have the nine, Ten?
It’s not often you see design from the political realm influencing design within the artistic realm, but that’s what Obama has done (by hiring talented people from the artistic realm):
influencer:
Influenced:
The picture you see above is my third V-Moda Vibe Duo headset. It most likely be the last product I buy from V-Moda.
Let’s start from the beginning.
I bought my first generation iPhone in late January 2008. Knowing well the shitty quality of Apple’s included earbuds, I decided to get the only other headset that (at the time) had an inline microphone – the V-Moda Vibe Duo. Having a headset with a microphone is crucial when you have an iPhone as the iPhone doesn’t have the loudest speaker and it’s not comfortable to hold to your ear (what mobile phone is for that matter?).
Let me note that I read through a few dozen reviews on the Apple Store website prior to making my purchase. There were five or six reviews describing V-Moda headsets that broke after a short time. I decided I’d give V-Moda the benefit of the doubt and buy their product (that’s how much I hated Apple’s included earbuds). Perhaps these people got a bad batch.
My first pair of V-Moda’s lasted about three months before they stopped working for me. What I mean by this is that they stopped producing sound. Completely.
When this happened I went onto the V-Moda website and followed all the instructions for returns (I’m OCD about keeping recipes and boxes, especially for electronics). I wasn’t happy I had to pay for shipping, but other than that, it was cake. My new headset was delivered to me within about three weeks. Perfect. Great job taking care of your customers V-Moda.
This second headset only lasted about a month before one of the earbuds came apart, only the wire holding the speaker to the earbud base. Also, there seemed to be a short in the base of the cord where the headset jack connects to the iPhone. Depending on how I bent the wire, it would flicker from stereo to mono sound from the left earbud only.
I repeated the return process above and received another pair promptly.
I’m a few months into my newest headset and everything is working fine, but I don’t think I have the trust in the V-Moda brand to buy another product from them. I respect V-Moda for doing the right thing and not arguing my return issues. They were real and don’t seem to have been the only one with issues.
I wish V-Moda the best and hope they resolve their quality issues. When they’re working, the Vibe Duo headset is a great product.
MISSILETEST: We Are Being Fucked
Given the numbers and absurdity of this financial situation we’re in, that’s not a vulgar title.
I’d call it pretty accurate.
As in: Marcellus Wallace, ball gag, in a redneck basement.
Fucked.
“everytime we think this thing is coming to a head, there’s another head …how many heads does this thing have?”
I shot the above image on my iPhone on Broadway and Liberty.
Some Amish or Quakers just chillin’ outside the Helmsley Buiding.
Yeah, I know. WTF?
I thought the same thing.
It’s just a itty bit of the craziness that was downtown Manhattan yesterday. Along with the loitering colonial folk (I’m sure they’re good people), were a ton of other oogling tourists and wanderers wasting time and space and making my life a pain in the ass as someone trying to earn a living.
I was there on 9-11-01 people, so I’m allowed to say this: Stay home. Be productive. Contribute in other ways than trying to capture photos and ‘be part of something’.
Us New Yorkers just want to keep moving on. We’re all paying our respects on this anniversary in our own ways.
Being idle observers causing the cops to corral the streets like they were ranchers herding cattle doesn’t help anyone.
M’kay?
Cool. Now beat it.
Probably one of my Top 5 Favorite Classical Pieces – The Goldberg Variations as performed by Glenn Gould.
It starts out slow, but hold out for the 2:55 minute mark for it to kick in.
And don’t be a pussy and jump right to it, play it through and earn it.
