LINKS FROM January 2006
"blik surface graphics are oversized, geometric decals that allow anyone to quickly and easily create custom wallscapes in no time."
10 Web Trends That Should Die in 2006
"Here’s a new years resolution for the web at large: stop doing silly things to users. Following are top trends that I just hope will not see 2007."
Tags: trend design internet usability
Some things to think about when redesigning a homepage.
Lifehacker's list of the best free software out there.
"The report's major conclusion is that the heaviest e-mail users are more likely to also meet with friends and acquaintances in person--or talk to them on the telephone--than are those who don't use e-mail as often."
Tags: research email interaction relationships culture internet
Thinking through what brands you ally yourself with and why.
Tags: branding design business marketing
"Visual literacy is good for design: when people experience the power of typography and images first-hand, they can better understand design that is produced at the highest level. "
"That is, edge competencies are focused on learning how to utilize the universe of value outside the firm – leveraging value creation external to the firm, and, in many cases, external to all firms."
Tags: business innovation
"Now enter the blogosphere, where ideas are born, nurtured, transmitted and evolved -- all in a single day. Ideas have a life of their own; good ones seem to create their own connections."
Tags: blogs brain networking
The biggest collection of photos of designed Japanese manhole covers I've ever seen. Not that that's saying so much.
Tags: japan design photography
"If you're designing for international audiences, remember that how you use color to represent your product or information has a significant impact on how it will be received."
When It Comes to Blogs, There Aren't Enough Words
"Think about how we use 'blog' in conversation and compare that with our more evolved slang for print publications. Nobody calls Sports Illustrated a 'group magazine.' And we don't call everything we read on paper a 'print.'"
Tags: language blogs media slang
Some amazing looking music videos via Veer: The Skinny.
Tags: musicvideo design video
"We must not only keep up with the facts of change, but also (and perhaps more importantly) release our death-grip on the way things are right now. It's completely futile."
Tags: change business innovation
"The Printable CEO (PCEO) is a form I made to focus my time productively. For me, that means concentrating on making my freelance business sustainable and fun."
Tags: business lifehacks freelance organization productivity entrepreneur
"At Spot Runner we make it easy, simple and affordable for everyone to take advantage of local TV advertising."
Tags: advertising television
Most obnoxious line of an otherwise good article: "In the existential hall of mirrors of the new mass technoculture, what goes around comes around, like plot points in a Charlie Kaufman screenplay."
Tags: unbundled business future trend advertising internet technology media
Platicity and Post Branding Mini-Case: Spot Runner
"Spotrunner's intent isn't just to make buying TV ads hyperefficient - it's to make the entire TV advertising value chain hyperefficient, like Google makes the larger media value chain hyperefficient."
Tags: business advertising television innovation trend
From Dan: A Letter to the Bayosphere Community
Dan Gillmor explains why and how Bayosphere failed as a citizen journalism project.
Aggregation and analysis of 75 "Best Albums of 2005" lists from around the world
Tags: bestof2005 music lists
25 Sites You Shouldn't Have Missed in 2005
"The year 2005 was rich on fresh, inspiring and useful Web-Development-Resources. Here is the list of the 25 sites you probably shouldn’t have missed in 2005."
Tags: design inspiration bestof2005 lists css
Employees are an incredibly valuable medium. Have you gotten them to buy into your marketing position?
Tags: marketing passion business
dot-font: Ten Tips for Top Type
It doesn't take much to produce pages with type that looks professional and pleasing, and that's easy to read.
Tags: typography design
A look at the New Yorker and its design consistency.
Tags: magazines design simplicity nyc
Erick Schonfeld from Business 2.0 writes about AttentionTrust and /VAULTSTOCK
Josh Porter thinks about the three attributes a successful piece of web magic must have.
Tags: internet design interface simplicity software usability
Is Behavioral Targeting Better?
All marketers know that targeting is good. But now on the Web they must also decide what kind of targeting to use, behavioral or contextual?
Tags: marketing advertising online
Guy Kawasaki's nine tips for creating a business plan.
Tags: business entrepreneur
Tips for getting to sleep faster & sleeping better
"So, I’ve pieced together various bits of advice I’ve received over the past few months that have not only helps me get to sleep faster, but helps me get a better nights sleep."
A deep look into the psychological effects of the reality television process on its stars.
Tags: television celebrity culture marketing psychology bestarticlesof2006
If Poets Named Breakfast Cereals.
McSweeney's: "Bran and Plump Raisins, Pregnant With Earthy Promise"
"When a mobile phone is primarily used as a phone book to facilitate kiosk phone calls, how does this change the way the product should be designed?"
Soderbergh does a DVD-theater release combo
A red carpet will roll out Thursday night in front of Parkersburg, W.Va.'s historic Smoot Theater for the official premiere of a movie that, according to backers, represents the future of the film industry.
How Old Media could take back its share of search's ad bounty
Five good tips for pitching your business to anyone, not just VCs.
Tags: business entrepreneur tips venturecapital
Jeffrey Zeldman: "Web 2.0 is a fresh-faced starlet on the intertwingled longtail to the disruptive experience of tomorrow. Web 3.0 thinks you are so 2005."
Speak Up! looks at how corporate logos are animated on television.
Tags: logos animation television design
Lawrence Lessig considers the impact of intellectual property laws on the creativity of remixing and sharing those remixes on the web.
Guy Kawasaki's 9 rules of innovation. My favorite line: "Innovation is not an event. It's a process."
Tags: innovation business creativity entrepreneur
"The myth of The Great Idea is a dangerous one. It makes you constantly search and search for something that you'll probably never find."
Tags: ideas business creativity entrepreneur
Artist Mark Jenkins installed big lollipop looking things over parking meters around Washington DC.
Tags: streetart art washingtondc
"The finicky world of CSS isn’t the best match for the precise art of typography, but you can do more to improve the readability and beauty of your Web pages than you think."
Tags: typography css design usability
"Not only are mistakes a great source of insight that we can apply to next steps in our journey, sometimes they're absolutely required to make us stop and listen."
Tags: creativity business learning productivity
Not Your Grandparent's Clenched Fist
A look at the history of the fist as a symbol.
Truly Groundbreaking Advertising Ideas.
"Mom takes her hands off her temples and looks into the camera with a painless, stoic stare, just in time to silently lip-synch the line "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken.""
Tags: advertising funny
The guy who made the million dollar homepage is at it again. I hate it when people make a bunch of money doing stuff I could have thought of. Damn them!
Tags: advertising tags internet
Live Nation Inc. "is paying roughly $3 million for an estimated 6 percent stake in the band's box office, licensing, publishing, merchandise and CD revenue for its recently released album and its next album."
Why Blog Networks Will Fail This Year
Is there any real value to starting a blog network?
Tags: blogs networking business
David Berkowitz, a friend of mine, gives his search predictions for the coming year.
Tags: predictions 2006 search
New York Magazine rates the top 101 restaurants in New York as well as giving lists for great buys, best Italian and best in Brooklyn.
Matthew Barney and Bjork Place an Ikea Phone Order
Just in case you were wondering what it might sound like.
Mike Tyson's Punchout Live [Video]
An orchestra and actors perform Mike Tyson's Punchout live in front of your eyes.
Tags: video funny videogames
Nearly 100, LSD's Father Ponders His 'Problem Child'
Albert Hoffman, inventor of LSD: "LSD spoke to me. He came to me and said, 'You must find me.' He told me, 'Don’t give me to the pharmacologist.'"
2006: The Year of Total Design
Total Design is "what happens when you combine wickedly good design thinkers with a human-centered, business-sensitive design process."
Steven Johnson explains why too many books -- and not enough gaming -- rots your brain.
Tags: media books videogames culture
The Website Development Process
The process of creating a website performed by Playmobile toys.
Tags: design internet process projectmanagement ia
Small Biz 101: Tips for Increasing Sales
A business needs sales to survive. Tips for someone just starting out on how to do it.
Tags: business entrepreneur marketing productivity
Dos and Don'ts for Beating the iPod (and iTunes)
Anil Dash offers some tips for prospective iPod competitors.
Tags: ipod itunes music design tips
arcget: Retrieve a site from the Internet Archive
A program by Aaron Schwartz that automates the retrieval of entire sites from the Internet Archive.
A Harvard Business Review article about how software companies SAS implements management strategies to keep the best and brightest happy.
Tags: management creativity design
How to build innovative companies
Tags: innovation business creativity design
Confounding Machines: How the Future Looked
The New York Times looks back on what people said about new technologies throughout the last 100 years.
Tags: technology predictions quotes
The Economy of Unbundled Advertising
Terry Heaton digs deeper into the unbundling of media, this time specifically discussing the advertising opportunities.
Tags: unbundled advertising media
Men want facts, women seek personal connections on Web
Men more often listen to music and view webcams; women use e-mail more
NYTimes: "Illegal spying and torture need to be investigated, not whistle-blowers and newspapers."
Brand extractors would go into companies and find those ideas that they had thrown away but shouldn't have.
Tags: business branding marketing
Top 20 "Best Of" Lists of 2005
The best of best ofs of 2005.
Tags: bestof2005 funny
Behind the Eavesdropping Story, a Loud Silence
New York Times public editor Byron Calame asks some tough questions about the delay of the eavesdropping article.
Tags: journalism politics newspapers nytimes
The photo portfolio of a friend of mine as designed by me.
Tags: photography design
Usable exhaust: The active ingredient of effective social media
"Usable Exhaust: The unintended benefits you or others get out of a service just by using it."
Tags: socialsoftware tags
A long and serious look at the design problems of the iPod.
Tags: design apple ipod interface usability
Luke Wroblewski attempts to "outline how design processes differ from traditional business processes."
Do you get less wet if you run in the rain?
An incredibly complex mathmatical answer to a fairly simple question. (By the way, the answer is no, unless you're running to shelter.)
Tags: funny mathematics weather
Horse sex story was online hit
The Seattle Times story about a man dying from sex with a horse was the paper's most read story in it's 109 year history.
Tags: strange newspapers sex
Revenge of the Dotcom Poster Boy
Further proof Jason Calcanis is obnoxious.
Tags: blogs aol business internet
"Instead of auguring a new day for SNL, maybe it points up what's missing in mainstream rapâ€â€an awareness that it's OK to be goofy. Who needs Biz Markie and Tone-Loc?"
Tags: hiphop funny music nyc video viral television culture
Rex over at Fimoculous gives his yearly media/technology predictions. My favorite: "The New York Times Sunday Styles section will write a trend piece about the trend of trend pieces. It will then implode."
Tags: media predictions 2006