Another bright light goes out...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:18:52 -0700

Photo

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:14:00 -0700

Sigur Rós: Festival (Live), from their upcoming live album,...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:45:01 -0700

Sigur Rós: Festival (Live), from their upcoming live album, INNI.

Nick's NCCC Log

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:45:47 -0700

Nick's NCCC Log:

My AmeriCorps NCCC blog, where I will be writing about my experiences with the National Civilian Community Corps for the next ten months.

Something or other

Mon, 30 May 2011 23:34:00 -0700

[dusts off keyboard]

So instead of not writing something here, I’ll acquaint you with the fact that I have a burning aspiration to write more in the future.

Or, to borrow a quote from Jack Kerouac, “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”

My new photo site

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:25:20 -0700

My new photo site:

A place for my creative photo uploads, finally.

Shawn Blanc | Intrvws

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:37:58 -0700

Shawn Blanc | Intrvws:

Ian: Do you find that — at least in your personal opinion — you write better when the idea pours out of you or when you take more time to write it in drafts?
Shawn: …In my opinion, my strongest articles are ones which I spend a significant amount of time on (sometimes several weeks) before publishing. Some of those articles started as an idea that just “poured out”, but some of them didn’t.

So very very true for me as well.

"Don’t write because you want to say something, write because you have something to say."

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:57:00 -0700

“Don’t write because you want to say something, write because you have something to say.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Daring Fireball: Title Junk

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:23:00 -0700

Daring Fireball: Title Junk:

The recent hubbub about Delicious got me thinking about bookmarking in general, and brought to mind a long-standing irritation: poorly designed web page titles…

The title is the string of text in the HTML element. This string manifests itself to the user in several ways. It is presented in the title bar of the web browser window on Mac and Windows. It is presented in the tab, if you’re using tabs in your browser. It is presented at the top of the screen in mobile web browsers. It is listed in the “Window” menu of your browser, listing all open browser windows. And, when you choose to bookmark a web page, the title string is used as the default name of the bookmark.</p> <p>An awful lot of websites use patterns for page titles that are ugly, hard-to-scan, and/or just plain stupid.</p> </blockquote> <p><a href="http://warpspire.com/posts/url-design/" target="_blank">Similar</a> <a href="http://ianhin.es/wrote-about/designing-urls-for-humans/" target="_blank">problem</a> with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permalink" target="_blank">permalinks</a>.</p> </article> <article> <h1>List: Things (and places) to declutter</h1> <p>Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0700</p> <p>A useful checklist I threw together in Simplenote.</p> <p><strong>At home</strong></p> <ul><li>Paper (stationery, documents, notes, notepads, etc.)</li> <li>Reading material (books, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, etc.)</li> <li>Mail</li> <li>Trash</li> <li>Random loose items</li> <li>Desks</li> <li>Tables</li> <li>Shelves</li> <li>Drawers</li> <li>Dressers</li> <li>Under beds</li> <li>On walls</li> <li>On floors</li> <li>On surfaces</li> </ul><p><strong>On the computer (Mac-specific)</strong></p> <ul><li>Desktop</li> <li>Files, folders</li> <li>Applications, preference panes</li> <li>Application contents (e.g., stuff in <a href="http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/" target="_blank">Yojimbo</a>, items in <a href="http://culturedcode.com/things" target="_blank">Things</a>, passwords in <a href="http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password" target="_blank">1Password</a>)</li> <li>Downloads</li> <li>Documents</li> <li>Photos, videos</li> <li>Music, movies</li> <li>External hard drives</li> <li>USB flash drives</li> </ul><p><strong>On the web</strong></p> <ul><li>Bookmarks</li> <li>Browser add-ons/extensions</li> <li>RSS subscriptions (e.g., in <a href="http://google.com/reader" target="_blank">Google Reader</a>)</li> <li>Social networks (e.g., <a href="http://facebook.com" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://tumblr.com" target="_blank">Tumblr</a>, <a href="http://flickr.com" target="_blank">Flickr</a>)</li> <li>Web services (e.g., documents in <a href="http://docs.google.com" target="_blank">Google Docs</a>, data on <a href="http://google.com/health" target="_blank">Google Health</a>, files on <a href="http://droplr.com/" target="_blank">Droplr</a> or <a href="http://www.getcloudapp.com/" target="_blank">CloudApp</a>, etc.)</li> <li>Email</li> </ul><p><strong>Other (physical or virtual)</strong></p> <ul><li>Address book</li> <li>Calendar</li> </ul> </article> <article> <h1>Photo</h1> <p>Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:27:36 -0700</p> <br/><br/> </article> <article> <h1>Why I don't post very regularly</h1> <p>Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:33:00 -0700</p> <p>It’s <em>not</em> because I don’t have anything to say. I do, which is why I don’t post very regularly.</p> <p>The thing about me is that when I have something to write (or comment on), I won’t until I know exactly <em>what</em> I want to say and <em>how</em> I want to say it. This post is a perfect example.</p> <p>When indeed I have something interesting to say about something (which is <em>very</em> often), I don’t immediately jump onto Tumblr (or even my computer) to begin writing. Instead, I think about what I want to say and how I want to say it and then I jot it down somewhere (whether on a notepad, in <a href="http://simplenoteapp.com/" target="_blank">Simplenote</a> on my iPod touch, or wherever) and come back to it later—or better yet, let it come back to me. Every time I continue writing about something after a period of not writing about it, I always have something more interesting to add.</p> <p>Maybe I’m just a perfectionist, but I think just sitting around trying to think of something to write about is unhealthy. I think the main reason a lot of people suffer from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writer's_block" target="_blank">writer’s block</a> is that they try way too hard and that leads to mental exhaustion. Not only that, but I think distractions also contribute to the deterioration of creative mental processes. Allowing yourself adequate time and space to think and write is <em>essential</em>. It shouldn’t matter <em>when</em>, although <a href="http://nickslog.com/post/1662989554" target="_blank">it does matter <em>where</em></a>.</p> <p>Having said that, I’m not particularly concerned about the seemingly conventional posting habits of most bloggers. I don’t adhere to schedules, since <em>neither do my thoughts</em>. I’m not even concerned about whether or not people read my stuff. If people like what I’m writing, cool. If not, <em>no problem</em>. I would prefer to <em>focus on quality, not quantity</em>. It would be nice to have both, but that isn’t a realistic expectation—or goal—right now.</p> </article> <article> <h1>"It’s not that I’m opposed to “minimalism”—but, in practice, I get way more..."</h1> <p>Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:12:43 -0700</p> “It’s not that I’m opposed to “minimalism”—but, in practice, I get way more interesting results from “appropriatism.”<br/><br/> - <em><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/hotdogsladies/status/29683157687" target="_blank">Merlin Mann</a></em> </article> <article> <h1>Photo</h1> <p>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:14:00 -0700</p> <br/><br/> </article> <article> <h1>Is Realistic UI Design Realistic?</h1> <p>Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:03:30 -0700</p> <a href="http://aaronweyenberg.com/699/is-realistic-ui-design-realistic">Is Realistic UI Design Realistic?</a>: <blockquote> <p>We’ve all heard the sound — that tinny shutter clicking sound point-and-shoot cameras make when you take a photo.</p> <p>There’s no complex mechanical mirror assembly swinging upward when the shutter opens. No matter, though. The cigarette box sized camera burps out a faux <em>ka-click</em> anyway. The mechanism producing this noise was quite necessary for its predecessor, the SLR/DSLR camera, but now functionally irrelevant in the newer point-and-shoots. This design cue (audible in this case) inherited from an ancestor is referred to as a <em>skeuomorph</em>, and they can be found everywhere in our daily lives — air intakes on the electric Chevy Volt, window shutters that don’t shut, copper cladding on zinc pennies, nonwinding watch winders. Even the brown cork-pattern on cigarette tips is a holdover from the days when cork was used as a filter.</p> </blockquote> <p><span> </span></p> <p>I was going to write a post about this topic but I think instead I’ll comment on this already great post by Aaron Weyenberg, even though this is a topic that has been covered <a href="http://userexperience.evantageconsulting.com/2010/11/ui-guidelines-for-skeuomorphic-multi-touch-interfaces/" target="_blank">many</a> <a href="http://speedbird.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/what-apple-needs-to-do-now/" target="_blank">times</a> before.</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph" target="_blank">Skeuomorphic</a> design is, I have to agree, one of the most annoying and unrealistic things that a designer can do. I think it goes against everything good design stands for.</p> <p>The problem with skeuomorphic design is that, while some design details may change, other details that were necessary or unavoidable in the past, remain, even though they are no longer necessary, nor functional.</p> <p>From a UI standpoint, on the iPhone and iPad for example, skeuomorphic design can be found almost everywhere—and not just with Apple’s apps. I think it is ultimately a mistake because, well first of all, it isn’t consistent with the rest of the UI in iOS. For instance, the design of eBooks in iBooks on the iPad are clearly inspired by and closely resemble real books. I think that Apple is simply trying to be clever since the entire UI of the iPad is touch-based, meaning that you can flip through a book in iBooks much like you could with a real book. Clever, but far from creative. </p> <p>Even though the book, for instance, hasn’t really changed much over time, technology has. We no longer write on primitive stone tablets and so it would seem silly to design modern books to look like them— wouldn’t it? And yet here we are in the 21st century—in the era of advanced technology and limitless innovation— with our tremendously state-of-the-art, highly mobile touch-screen devices and their ultra-modern, super sleek operating systems that, unfortunately, happen to include many skeuomorphic design elements that are completely dissimilar—in both form and function—to their physical counterparts.</p> <p>I’m no <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams" target="_blank">Dieter Rams</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jony_Ive" target="_blank">Jony Ive</a>, but from what I’ve learned about design so far—from both observation and experience—is that you should abstain from redundant, profligate, incongruous and ostentatious features. Good design, at least in my opinion, should be about recognizing what’s necessary and most importantly, what isn’t.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Analysing a Touch-to-Desktop UI Port Using Fitts’s Law</h1> <p>Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:28:33 -0700</p> <a href="http://danielkennett.org/blog/2010/12/analysing-a-touch-to-desktop-ui-port-using-fitts-law-reeder/">Analysing a Touch-to-Desktop UI Port Using Fitts’s Law</a>: <blockquote> <p><span> <p>It’s finally happened. Someone came out with a Mac OS application that’s <em>clearly </em>a touch UI crowbarred into a point-and-click universe.</p> <p>And it <em>doesn’t work</em>.</p> </span></p> </blockquote> <p><span> <p>I think if Reeder for Mac had fullscreen mode it would solve that issue—or at least make it less of an issue. Currently though I just make Reeder use <a href="http://nickhumphries.com/images/nickslog/Screen_shot_2010-12-06_at_5.20.37_PM-20101206-172403.png" target="_blank">all of my available screen space</a>, which works fine.</p> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>"I think the BEST way to keep people from unsubscribing to you is not to post. Posting riles them up...."</h1> <p>Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:54:00 -0700</p> “I think the BEST way to keep people from unsubscribing to you is not to post. Posting riles them up. A quiet feed is a popular feed.”<br/><br/> - <em>Leo Laporte <em>(<a href="http://friendfeed.com/nickhumphries/d49000b6/problem-with-friendfeed-or-any-social" target="_blank">responding to one of my FriendFeed posts</a>)</em></em> </article> <article> <h1>Quick Thoughts On ‘Computing Environments’ & Fiddling</h1> <p>Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:18:00 -0700</p> <a href="http://brooksreview.net/2010/11/fiddling/">Quick Thoughts On ‘Computing Environments’ & Fiddling</a>: <blockquote> <p><span>There are so many apps out there that allow you to tweak the colors and fonts to your hearts desire, but in the end they are worthless unless you actually start using the app for something productive.</span></p> </blockquote> <p><span>I think a lot of it is psychology. </span><span>For example, exercise. </span></p> <p><span>If you have ever purchased a treadmill, exercycle or even dumbbells, these are things that are designed to be used indoors, usually at home. While it’s nice and convenient to be able to work out at home, for me at least, it’s a concept that never really works. </span>The problem wasn’t a lack of motivation, it was more of an abundance of household distractions— all of the other little things that you could be doing instead, things which could produce equal or even greater satisfaction. For me, blogging was much like working out at home.</p> <p>It’s so nice and convenient to be able to exercise your thoughts, at your computer, online. The problem was that much like at home, WordPress (and Tumblr) have too many distractions. I became more satisfied with fiddling around with the look and feel of my blog than I was with the posts that I was trying to write.</p> <p>In reality, it is better to separate the task(s) from the distraction(s). Instead of working out at home, you are better off working out elsewhere, away from distractions. This is one of the reasons why it’s <a href="http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/health-science/benefits-of-outdoor-exercise-go-beyond-fitness-1.915657" target="_blank">much</a> <a href="http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA287222" target="_blank">more</a> <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/body-sense/201009/green-exercise" target="_blank">satisfying</a> to go for a walk or a bike ride outdoors. Similarly, I think that the writing process should be separate from your blog. Instead of working on a blog post at your computer, you are better off writing elsewhere, away from WordPress, Tumblr, and your computer. I have find that I actually write more, <em>and better</em>, when I’m away from home. Whenever I have a good idea or interesting thought, I simply write about it on a piece of paper, in a notepad, or in <a href="http://simplenoteapp.com" target="_blank">Simplenote</a> on my iPod touch. The trick is to <a href="http://the99percent.com/tips/6650/the-cure-for-creative-blocks-leave-your-desk" target="_blank">free yourself</a> from distractions, and to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/29tier.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">allow yourself</a> to think freely and often.</p> <p>It’s also not just about getting away from distractions or feeling more satisfied with what you are doing. I think another important element of writing comes from the creative process itself. The trigger for a lot of my creativity (and motivation) is inspiration, and a lot of my inspiration comes from reading. A lot of my reading is performed on the go, <a href="http://nickslog.com/post/1511538189/li" target="_blank">away</a> from distractions, done in <a href="http://instapaper.com" target="_blank">Instapaper</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/iphone" target="_blank">Kindle</a> on my iPod touch. Do you see the trend here?</p> <p>In the end, like what Ben concludes, we should simply pay more attention to <em>doing</em>. Everything else is distracting.</p> </article> <article> <h1>MarkArms: Now live: Longreads.com (and why the future of online content is going long)</h1> <p>Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:22:00 -0700</p> <a href="http://markarms.tumblr.com/post/1405989886/now-live-longreads-com-and-why-the-future-of-online">MarkArms: Now live: Longreads.com (and why the future of online content is going long) </a>: <blockquote> <p><span>The online world no longer needs to be 500-words-or-less. Instead of killing long-form journalism, the internet can help save it.</span></p> </blockquote> <p>Mark makes a brilliant point. Really long reads are just not meant to be read in front of your computer screen, which is why the <em>500-words-or-less</em> principle works out so well in the online world— especially when there are already <a href="http://gmail.com" target="_blank">so</a> <a href="http://facebook.com" target="_blank">many</a> <a href="http://twitter.com" target="_blank">distractions</a>. I think pushing long reads to mobile devices—e.g., the Kindle, iPad, iPhone—is the solution, and indeed the wave of the future for long-form journalism—and blogging, for that matter. Physical newspapers, for example, may be an endangered species, but mobile devices are diverse, abundant, and evolving rapidly. I think it’s time traditional journalism catches on and catches up to this concept.</p> </article> <article> <h1>OhLife</h1> <p>Mon, 04 Oct 2010 21:58:35 -0700</p> <a href="http://ohlife.com/">OhLife</a>: <p>Really digging this email-based journaling service as an alternative to software or physical notepads. Super simple and super convenient— two qualities that make it quite unique and very superb.</p> </article> </main></body></html>

nick's log

Another bright light goes out...

Photo

Sigur Rós: Festival (Live), from their upcoming live album,...

Nick's NCCC Log

Something or other

My new photo site

Shawn Blanc | Intrvws

"Don’t write because you want to say something, write because you have something to say."

Daring Fireball: Title Junk