1. 11:14 10th Jul 2008

    notes: 6

    reblogged from: kapowaz

    “I promise to avoid the word user whenever possible. I will think of people who use technology as people, customers, and friends. I won’t use them, and they won’t use me.”

    Josh Bernoff, “I’m sick of users” (via kapowaz)

    Testify!

     

  2. 11:58

    tags: carsfiat500

    “There is only one way to drive a small Fiat, and that is without mercy. Here’s how to do it. Select first, lift the clutch abruptly, mash the throttle pedal to the floor and when, and only when, the valve gear bursts through the bonnet, select second. Repeat the process until all the gears are used up.”
    James May on the new Fiat 500 diesel which you can’t drive as Dante Giacosa intended. Because it’s a diesel, and diesel’s don’t rev.
     

  3. 12:16

    tags: carsfiat500

    James May, again, on the Fiat 500: The design language of the 1950s does not sit comfortably with the demands we make of a modern car; for airbags, electric windows, crash-worthiness, roll-over protection, proper seats, and so on. Exactly. I’m not a fan of retro forms on modern cars, especially when the retro forms solved a problem back in the day and now are used because they’re “cute” (500, Mini, New Beetle) or “tough” (Mustang).

    James May, again, on the Fiat 500:

    The design language of the 1950s does not sit comfortably with the demands we make of a modern car; for airbags, electric windows, crash-worthiness, roll-over protection, proper seats, and so on.

    Exactly. I’m not a fan of retro forms on modern cars, especially when the retro forms solved a problem back in the day and now are used because they’re “cute” (500, Mini, New Beetle) or “tough” (Mustang).

     

  4. 12:32

    tags: carsfiat500

    Citroen C3 Picasso Compared to the Fiat 500, this C3 Picasso is not retro, any more than a box is retro. And that is why I like it. The solution to packing as many people and as much stuff as you can, into 4.08 metres — which is tiny, is to build a box. (Now if I could just speak to PSA about the hateful “big headlights” thing that afflicts current Citroens and Peugeots, that’d be lovely.)

    Citroen C3 Picasso

    Compared to the Fiat 500, this C3 Picasso is not retro, any more than a box is retro. And that is why I like it. The solution to packing as many people and as much stuff as you can, into 4.08 metres — which is tiny, is to build a box.

    (Now if I could just speak to PSA about the hateful “big headlights” thing that afflicts current Citroens and Peugeots, that’d be lovely.)

     

  5. 13:03

    notes: 2

    reblogged from: guy

    guy:

    Jason Kottke pulls together some interesting articles and commentary about parental unhappiness.

    My take is that the kids aren’t the problem; it’s all the other stuff. You just aren’t able to do all the stuff you used to enjoy doing before you had kids and if you think you can, of course you’re going to be unhappy when it doesn’t work out that way. You need to be prepared and make a conscious choice: “I’m choosing to enrich my life with a child *but* as a tradeoff, I won’t be able to live the way I was before.”

    So true. One of the hardest parts about being a parent is becoming less selfish. If you can learn that then changing diapers, flying boogies, temper tantrums, late nights, and whatever else kids throw at you isn’t so bad.

    I was thinking about this over dinner last night, as my wife held our 6 week old daughter in her arms and tried to eat her dinner and I tried getting some food into our over-tired 3 year old.

    You can’t live the same life after you’ve had kids. You can’t go out to a party on a Wednesday evening. You can’t sleep in till eleven on a Saturday. But it’s not the things that you give up; it’s the joy and the love you receive.

     

  6. 14:06

    Chinook rescues helicopter

    A Boeing Chinook airlifts an RAF Sea King that had broken down.

     

  7. 14:35

    notes: 22

    reblogged from: dihard

    what the internet is doing to our brains

    dihard:

    From an author who understands that “what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation,” this is a rather long (but good) article.

    Somewhere in the article, Nicholas Carr writes:

    Just as there’s a tendency to glorify technological progress, there’s a countertendency to expect the worst of every new tool or machine.

    True. Yet he finishes the article with:

    as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.

    The problem here is that all interaction with the world is mediated, through computers, or through our senses. I’m quite impressively short-sighted — I have about six inches of clear vision — my sight is “artificial” by Carr’s definition. Even the sight of someone who doesn’t wear glasses is mediated because the image created by light going into the eye does not match what we “see”. It’s upside-down, for one thing. The amount of processing that your brain has to do to “see” is amazing.

    Mediation of experience is not bad. There is good mediation, that makes things as clear as possible, and there is bad mediation, that obscures things by accident or by intention. But mediation is all there is.

     

  8. 15:13

    notes: 4

    reblogged from: dshusta

    A Useful iPod Touch App

    When Instapaper comes to iPod Touch, and iPhone, I finally have a reason to get one, other than “it’s cool”. Damn.

     

  9. 15:33

    But not for long, I’ll bet.

    But not for long, I’ll bet.