Mind the gap: income inequality in America

Submitted by admin on 19 November 2011 - 1:41am


Source: The Economist's Daily Chart

Last night I walked home across the Brooklyn Bridge, just like any other work day. The Manhattan skyline rose up over the East River, the boats and ferries shuttled commuters to and fro much as they did in Walt Whitman's time, but this night was different.

Steve Jobs showed us how to marry technology with the liberal arts

Submitted by stefan on 5 October 2011 - 10:48pm

Steve Jobs was a performer. When I worked at a university, I remember being called over to Alex Kluge's desk: "Steve Jobs is going to be streaming in a few minutes. Alex has it set up." This was back in the late 1990's when Apple was struggling, and it was not clear how they'd make it. We gathered around the largest monitor I had ever seen. Alex made sure the video was working, then he went full-screen. We all stared and saw Steve deliver something so advanced, so unexpectedly lovely that I heard some engineers and professors swearing and cussing, and saw them squint in disbelief.

On the Web's 20th Birthday

Yesterday was 6 August 2011. Exactly 20 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee posted a message to a newsgroup called alt.hypertext. He introduced the group to a new project, something he called the WorldWideWeb.

See for yourself (link via http://twitter.com/HD41117) http://groups.google.com/group/alt.hypertext/tree/browse_frm/thread/7824...

File under holders: Map of US Sovereign Debt

Map of US Sovereign Debt by Development Seed. Last week a company called Standard & Poors, one of the companies which famously flubbed the ratings of mortgage-backed securities in 2008, downgraded the US Government's sovereign debt. Here are the countries around the world which hold that debt, not including the USA.

How to design for status-seeking, collecting, and the urge to complete, without making everything into a silly game

Submitted by stefan on 28 June 2011 - 12:14am

I'm not a gamer myself. Just not my thing. But I am an observer, and I constantly see status-seeking, collecting, and the urge to complete all around me. These are the building blocks of many games, and many useful applications. Since I'm a designer of how things work, below I've collected a few examples of how we can design with game mechanics in mind—without trivializing the user or the experience.

A few examples

A new peer-to-peer currency called Bitcoin

Submitted by stefan on 11 June 2011 - 9:59am

I remember reading about the virtual currency used in SecondLife. I thought: how strange is that? People are willing to pay each other real money for fake money. Because the currency was sold on Ebay and limited to use inside the game it seemed odd, but not world-changing.

Our lovely cosmos: the largest ever full-color survey of the night sky

Submitted by stefan on 14 May 2011 - 12:10pm

Here in New York City the night sky exists in a perpetual state of artificial gloaming. You can make out a few bright stars, but most are hidden by sodium vapor streetlights. It has been a long time since I've really seen the stars.

Hackers, hustlers, and designers: all together now

Submitted by stefan on 28 April 2011 - 10:02pm

What do Flickr.com, YouTube.com, Vimeo.com, Tumblr.com (and I am going to venture, Etsy.com) have in common? All were founded by designers, reports this article in MIT's Technology Review: Will the Next Zuckerberg Be a Designer, not a Hacker?

Taking Risks at RISD: John Maeda Confronts a Vote of No Confidence

Submitted by admin on 6 April 2011 - 10:45pm

I just read a long series of comments about John Maeda's tenure at the Rhode Island School of Design. Four years ago Maeda was recruited from the MIT Media Lab to become the President of RISD. About a month ago, Maeda was given a vote of no confidence by members of the RISD faculty. It seems they're uncomfortable with a series of staff changes he made among veteran faculty and administrators at the school.

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