July 2008 Archives

UX Intensive is being held in Denmark!

This intermediate-to-advanced workshop series examines the four key elements that contribute to a successful interactive experience: Design Strategy, Design Research, Interaction Design and Information Architecture. Workshops are led by Adaptive Path's team of experts, including: Dan Saffer, Chiara Fox, Brandon Schauer and Todd Wilkens

I'd gladly swop my holidays for this!

Drama 2.0

Some months ago, I discovered this little angry pot of a blog. I quite like this blog. But let me warn you before you click that link: it's steaming hot & angry.

"The Drama 2.0" log is written by an expert on "anything", combined with an "impressive track record in the financial world", after landing a $5 million deal to write his own blog (why he needed the $5 mill to start writing with his amazing background is a mystery to me).

To me, he's part of the new type of blogger we've seen emerge in the last few years. While blogging was merely an academic or personal exercise in the past, it's now also the fortunate few's  luxury job. "Drama 2.0" writes:

When he's not busy making the world a better place for himself, Drama 2.0 enjoys Cuban cigars, fine dining, wine and liquor, yachting, fast cars and foreign women. Drama 2.0 currently spends most of his time in Punta del Este, Dubai and Prague
but is sometimes found in Monaco, Moscow and St. Kitts.

The luxury blogger loves drama. Gossip, fame and deconstruction. While they're jet setting about,  they share with us all the wrong doings of the world (some in a more intelligent way than others).

Drama 2.0. is after the wrong doings of the early web community. Maybe because of his strong financial background, it becomes extra obvious to him that there is a lack of monetization of today's web? So while he's leaving the following note to Tim O'Reilly:

"..next time you decide to cash in with another conference that piggybacks on an overhyped "industry," give it a generic name so that you save yourself the embarrassment of having to spew a bullshit rationale for a new focus when that "industry" declines. My suggestion for your next conference: Circle Jerk 2009. The motto: "Everybody gets a turn."

...it's worth noting perhaps, that thanks to the early community's "hyped up" web, Drama 2.0 is able to surf a $5 mill wave as a blogger?

Yes, everybody gets a turn. Clearly when looking at the bigger picture, the old boys added value somewhere after all.

I’m seeing some friends this Friday. Email’s have been flying back and forth about such things as our choice of place, dancing possibilities, food, where to meet up first for drinks, tendonitis and plastic shoes.
After work this Friday, we’re now trotting along to the Greyhound – a pub near our final destination.

This is something I have thought about for a while: Why does the British have such an obsession with naming their pubs after animals?

The Dog & Fox, The Green Dragon, The Swan, The Swan with TWO Necks, The Dog and Duck, The Bull, The Red Lion, The Dancing Newt, The Blue Boar, what have you. Note that they’re particularly fond of dogs. Sometimes they mix fruit into their naming conventions, so if thirsty one late evening, you might end up at The Fox and Grape.

It’s said that the reasoning behind this is to make it easier for the poor taxi drivers to understand the drawling, drunken Brits when they’re pub hopping. To this story, is also attached a belief that it was easier for the pubs to use visual signs to attract customers (a dog and a fox) - as the Brits could not read or write.

I find it charming. Some even allow dogs!

So why is there no pub called The Wheaten Terrier??

Back by popular demand: I have reposted my blog. It doesn't have all my stories since I started blogging back in 2000, but it does go as far back as 2003. That's at least half of it!

It wasn't the easiest thing, getting my own design onto this monster of moveable type, import and tag all the old entires, as MT is both slow and very difficult to customize (for those who aren't pure coders!).

But I sprinkled a little pink and so into the css and here we are. I want to play much more with the functionality and can't wait to get the plug ins to actually work (they don't!), but I realized that I'd never get blogging again if I was to wait until I was happy with it.

So here we are!