In keeping with our annual tradition, our latest holiday card family picture was taken this past Sunday night. Of the various poses we endured, two turned out pretty well – we decided on the one with the black background since it contrasted well with the holiday card design we selected.It’s great to have these annual pics chronicled over the last few years and available via flickr.
Just finished reading
“The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)” by John Maeda.
It was a good, quick read (in the interests of simplicity, the author capped the book length to 100 pages) and in a strange coincidence, Parade magazine in today’s Chicago Tribune had an article by the author titled “How to Keep It Simple.”
Maeda presents ten laws and three keys:
The companion Web site is at http://www.lawsofsimplicity.com/.
I may have been skeptical when Daniel Craig was announced as the new Bond…. but, I saw Casino Royale today and was pleasantly surprised. Craig pulls the role off very well and the story – which takes us back to the ‘birth of Bond,’ just prior to his getting the ‘00′ designation – is quite good. Definitely a must see if you’re at all a Bond fan.
Allie, our eldest daughter, turned ten today. Happy Birthday, Al! She’s now in the double digits….
Lupita’s mom flew in from Phoenix for a few days and we visited the Field Museum on Friday and had a great dinner at the newly opened Claim Jumper restaurant near our house on Saturday.
I recently finished a couple of good books and am starting on a couple of new ones.
Although a bit dated since it was published in 1999, “The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution” by Donald Norman (who also wrote the classic Design of Everyday Things) is primarily about the development of specialized information appliances to combat the complexity of generalized purpose computers. Peppered throughout is also some good info on the role of user experience in any organization interested in human-centered product development: forming the successful triad of technology, marketing, and user experience; who ‘owns’ the customer; what is the proper organizational home for user experience (where have I grappled with that before?).
I read a great excerpt in Wired recently from Steven Levy’s iPod book, “The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness” and had to read the whole book. It was great to get more of the background story, since it’s easy to think it was all Steve Jobs or Jonathan Ive. What made this read even more interesting is that I read the entire book using Sony’s eBook Reader (see pic below). I’m definitely hooked on the eBook concept, though I don’t think Sony’s going to stay in this for the long haul (the Connect store is a poor attempt at replicating the iTunes experience).
Continuing on my Apple-related reading kick, I’m about to start on “iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It” by Steve Wozniak. After all I’ve read about Steve Jobs, it’ll be refreshing to hear a different perspective about the start of Apple.
I’ve also been flipping through Edward Tufte’s Beautiful Evidence – it’s definitely not a ’sit down and read’ kind of book – but one that you occasionally pick up and sample. While a bit of content seems repeated from Tufte’s previous works, I especially enjoyed the discussion of sparklines. Plus, the overall design and feel of the book, as well as its readability is fantastic (as you’d expect from someone who basically self-publishes).
