Looks like a great collection of free lessons on the theories behind graphic design. Not to be read all at once obviously, but a good place to start if you’re interested in a topic. Also might be worth checking out the site itself.
Author: Kirk
Windows 7 Desktop Usability Process Overview
A nice presentation at MIX09 that lets us peek into the usability process that was undertaken in introducing new features in WIndows 7, such as Aero Peek.
I’d like to appropriate some of their ideas and use it for looking at the GNOME shell project and how they’re trying to rework the desktop. It would be interesting to write a little script that people could run that would take a screenshot of their taskbars so data could be gathered as to what exactly people put on their taskbars – much like the Windows 7 team did (at least according to this presentation). Other ideas include checking some gconf settings to see how many workspaces a person has setup, how many panels, what applets, how many windows open typically, maximally, etc.
Next step – write up a little email to the GNOME usability mail list, see if they have any other ideas. There has recently been a new screenshot app making press – Shutter – that perhaps could grab a screenshot of just the panels, rather than the entire desktop, just to reduce noise.
Who’s Who?
There’s something to be said for that whole genetics thing …
No, that’s not a picture of Cohen. Striking resemblance though isn’t it?
Click the image to see a larger version.
Picking Colours That “Go Together”
A nice web app (Flash) :Color Scheme Designer 3
Much like the Gnome application called Agave.
Entrepreneurs: Then And Now – Guy Kawasaki
A quick (10 minute) video capture of a lecture Kawasaki gave to a Stanford audience about entrepreneurial-ism then (late 90’s) and now.
Also note that the video is part of a cool site (Academic Earth) that lets you review some videos of academic presentations from Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, MIT, and other schools. There are even entire courses online.
Other interesting ones after a little browsing:
Root Cause Analysis Example
A good example of root cause analysis, how to apply it, and the results it gives you. This example looks at the root causes of poor software requirements (how topical!)
Inexpensive Light Tent How-To
Here’s a quick and cheap way to make my own light tent.
Another Reason To Not Let The Youngin’s Watch TV
From the article:
Young children who spend more than two hours glued to the TV every day double their subsequent risk of developing asthma, indicates research published ahead of print in Thorax.
So let’s see … prolonged TV viewing is now associatd with asthma, obesity, diabetes, promiscuity and smoking.
Great Top-Like Applications
This blog post lead me to 4 great new top-like applications: htop, iftop,iotop,apachetop
Lemon Juice Is A Simple Stain Remover
Stains based on fruit and vegetables can be removed by using lemon juice before washing, rather than using chemical-based stain removers.