Notes

Notes from 2016

738 notes

Dec 2016

MSNBC teases a segment on the Mosul Dam and then proceeds to talk about "What if Obama ran for a 3rd term?" I hate cable news.

This store is South Beach sells nothing but phone cases.

Is a SaaS product with an extremely high churn, but an extremely low-cost of acquisition viable? quora.com

Hacker News: The place where you have to explain the pun you never intended to make in the first place.

It's odd that Amazon has two products named Alexa, right?

Ha, Russel Wilson putting up -3 with 4 interceptions. Another solid week in fantasy.

Sad day. I was hoping this was going to be a consumer hit for Atlanta—Yik Yak lays off 60 percent of employees theverge.com

I'm writing a large guide to Net Promoter Score. Curious, what questions do you have about the system?

The Moto G4 may be thinner than the G3, but this battery is no slouch.

Need stuff for upcoming holiday parties. Amazon Prime FTW.

Well that was a hell of a start to the SEC championship.

The G4 has a much larger screen and feels much thinner. This combo makes it really difficult to hold. That's my main gripe.

Nov 2016

A. How did I get signed up for Yammer?
B. Didn't Microsoft kill Yammer?

Customer success is the service in software-as-a-service.

I wish Google Docs had a night mode. I much prefer to write on a dark background.

Quora is quickly becoming one of my favorite social networks.

There probably isn't a state with more different fan bases than Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

Is this Jeb Bush urging the Republican party to adopt libertarian stances? I certainly hope so. buff.ly

Well, I was going to get a Roku, but I think I'm going to buy an Xbox instead...

USB-C only is a deal breaker.

If there was one USB port, I probably would have purchased. No USB makes using the MBP too much of a burden.

This post was going to be 300 words. I just passed the 1,300-word mark.

Important point—Fixation on Fake News Overshadows Waning Trust in Real Reporting buff.ly

It seems odd for President-Elect Trump to be making these types of comments. The message was nothing but respectful. buff.ly

Wow, LSU had the ball on the one-yard line four times and came away with three points.

This weekend's project—make it easier to subscribe to my newsletter, build a library of favorite books on my site.

After rereading 1984, the government's battle against encryption worries me. Do people have a right to privacy? buff.ly

I bet 50 percent of the last year's Economist issues had Trump on them.

It's bizzare that the new MBP's speakers are not under the speaker holes? Are those dots just for cosmetics? ifixit.com

Attempting to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act is disgraceful regardless of party. buff.ly

The get a quote section on Insurance by Jack is a great implementation of conversational UI. Perfect with the Brand. withjack.co.uk

Auburn's defense had an amazing game. I don't know what happened to the receiving core. Offense lost this game.

AT&T advertising watching DirectTV data free on their network. So much for net neutrality.

“I don’t see how you can have a therapeutic space that’s also an intellectual space.” buff.ly

There are a lot of ideas rolling around in my head. It is an incredibly difficult task to get them on paper. Well, and sound reasonable.

I've talked a lot about a higher minimum wage accelerating the pace of automation. It just occurred to me—restrictive trade may do the same.

This is big for Atlanta.

Darin Givens@atlurbanist

City of ATL voters also OK'd a 40-year MARTA tax, raising $2.5 bil for city transit. Final list TBD after engagement; possible projects:

List of proposed MARTA upgrades including 7 light rail routes on the Beltline and bus rapid transit routes
View post (opens X)

Remember, it's important to get outside of your echo chambers every now and then—even step into those you disagree with.

Ugh, macOS Sierra kills @ScreenFlow—just when I have some DN FM segments to record. I knew things were running too smoothly.

The Ballmer, Cook parallel is there. However, there's no mention of Johnny Ive. Certainly that changes things?
steveblank.com

I feel there should be a genre of electronic music called leisure step.

There are no positive outcomes for trying to solve math equations friends post on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Oh man daylight savings time got me. I've been sitting on the couch for the last 15 minutes wondering why RedZone hasn't started.

NBCUniversal is rather uncomfortable to look at as one word.

Designer friends, what monitors should I be looking at? Curved, Ultra-Wide 5k or a combination? buff.ly

I've now lost back-to-back weeks in fantasy by less than two points...

Oct 2016

The autoplay video with sound on @CNN's website is atrocious. Facebook has shown autoplay can be done, but respect the user/visitor.

Pretty disappointed with the Apple event yesterday. Removing MagSafe. Touch Bar is useless. Have to buy a bunch of dongles for my monitor...

The 2011-2012 Macbook Air really was incredible. Moving to flash storage made such a performance difference.

@TaulantSulko We'll see what happens at the event today. I'm incredibly underwhelmed with the leaks of the MBP OLED bar.

Workers will simply try to survive, rather than prosper, as tech takes over the economy buff.ly

Is American exceptionalism has not linked to prosperity, but to military hegemony? aeon.co

After listening to my Discover Weekly, it's pretty obvious Spotify has no idea what I've been listening to.

Ah yes! Time to flip the coin. Will this Adobe Cloud update speed up or slow down everything?

Falcons didn't get it, but going for it was the right call.

What a screw up by the Jets. That's bad special teams 101.

What's crazy is none of this might have happened if the DNC hadn't persuaded the media to cover Trump in the primary buff.ly

The thought of government officials wanting to ban encryption seems awfully silly in the wake of these attacks.

In addition to having the media slander Sanders, the DNC had them prop up Trump as a leader during the primaries? wikileaks.org

I don't know if it is a good or bad thing that the new Civilization is only available for Windows right now. I'm going to go with good.

Trump does need to release his tax returns. It couldn't be any worse than what the New York Times article suggested? #debate

Drugs should not be an issue. Legalize them. Tax them. Put the cartels out of business. #debate

I thought having dual moderators worked well last time. In the first #debate both candidates overpowered him. Afraid that will happen again.

Fascinating post about influencer marketing and subscription perfume—How we got from $0 to $75k MRR with zero budget buff.ly

What are the chances Apple just completely screws up the MBP? Apple's new MacBook Pro might ditch regular USB ports theverge.com

The outrage at YC for not breaking off ties to Peter Thiel seem pretty overblown to me. I thought @sama's response was reasonable.

The paradox of tolerance is occurring in full-force this election. Should we tolerate everything, but intolerance?

Got an email saying that I've been added to a Cision database. Here come the PR pitches.

Remind me again why the Panthers released their best players?

Originally I was pretty put off by the complexity of Pardot. It's still more complicated than it needs to be, but it's growing on me.

I've been critical of Shanahan, but the last few games the Falcons offense has been spectacular.

Curveball question. What do you respect about the other? #debate

Good question. Curious to hear about qualities each candidate wants in Supreme Court justices. #debate

It's amazing to me that Trump and Pence can't get on the same page when it comes to Russia. #debate

This debate is terribly depressing. This whole election is a slow motion train wreck a year in the making. #debate

I'd love to see Twitter as a non-profit. Doubtful that we'll ever see it though. npr.org

I see it was a mistake to sit Tevin Coleman this week.

“...there can be no revival of American manufacturing, because there has been no collapse.” buff.ly

I like reddit, but all the politics subreddits are trash. Everyone just reinforces each other, and ostracizes any dissenting opinions.

Curious what the logic behind removing swipe to unlock was?

Now turn that question around and ask why can't people be trusted with marijuana? #VPDebate

Kaine had the right answer. Fine if you're serious about faith, but leave it out of government. #VPDebate

Intelligence surge sounds like a nice euphemism for expanding our unconstitutional surveillance apparatus. #VPDebate

Border security is important, but there needs to be a clear path to citizenship.

Stop and frisk is unconstitutional. Period. #VPDebate

Poor answer. Nobody is paying more taxes than they need to. #VPDebate

The right answer to the question about Trumps taxes are simplifying, closing loopholes.

Don't agree with a lot of Pence's points, but is coming off as more composed thus far. #VPDebate

Really bummed about the price of the Pixel phones. The Nexus line was at such a strong price point.

It would be incredible if a third party candidate were able to win a state in this election.

There are fewer things better than a cappuccino with a shot of Amoretto on a fall evening.

Beautiful cool fall night. A cappuccino with a shot of Amoretto is the best thing ever.

Sep 2016

It's like someone took this playlist from one of my CDs in high school—Cake, They Might Be Giants, Presidents of the USA.

Had a couple free days to update the trustfuel.com website. It's still a child theme, but a little work goes a long way.

The burning man dude that just asked Elon Musk about toilets on Mars is high, right?

Quite frankly, nothing is going to bring back jobs. Protectionism is not a solution. If not globalization, it will be automation.

I am still confused about Trump doubling down on stop and frisk. Nobody thinks that was a good idea.

Snapchat is focused on building and leveraging it's brand. I'm doubtful about the glasses, but something will stick.
snap.com

I wonder how many people are actually against free trade vs being against the TPP?

I wonder how many people are anti-free-trade vs just being against the TPP?

Interesting. I've never considered the order of adjectives having an impact—you wouldn't say "Green Great Dragon." one.npr.org

Gary Barnidge puts up a goose egg this week and I lose the first game of the season by 3 points...

WTF is this? Where is all of my Hard Drive space being used?

I don't always agree with Gary Vaynerchuk, but when he's right, he's right. This interview with Larry King is fire. youtube.com

Here I am with Sanu putting up points on my bench. I don't even know how many because ESPN Fantasy is down.

I don't know if Amazon is split testing, but Helvetica Neue Light is not a good choice. Terribly difficult to read.

This talk with Aarron Walter was great—around 48m, he starts drawing the parallels between prototyping and animation buff.ly

Almost Bach would be a really good indie band name. Actually, most of my auto correct history would.

Forgetting to translate class to className in react continues to cause issues.

Aug 2016

Is there really no select all option in the @Dropbox web application? That seems like a serious oversight.

The #wienermobile has been here for two weeks and I still find it hilarious.

New discoveries, intelligent devices and irrepressible dreamers are once again making space exciting. buff.ly

If alcohol prohibition gave us NASCAR, what will marijuana prohibition give us?

Now that my mother has started using Facebook regularly, she won't stop sending me cat videos.

Incase you missed it—My conversation with Behance founder Scott Belsky on the implications of the interface layer. buff.ly

Designer friends, please take this important industry survey.

I design best when...

I'm skeptical. Especially when it comes to software outside of operating systems.

Mark Gurman@markgurman

Sources: Apple has started work on its own social video sharing app - with similarities to Snapchat and Instagram bloomberg.com

View post (opens X)

I'm continually fighting a losing battle for hard disk space. The new Macbook Pro can't come fast enough.

Short only to the 918 Spyder and LaFerrari—New Tesla Model S Now the Quickest Production Car in the World buff.ly

This is incredibly sad. The Moto G3 is the best phone I've ever owned. I suppose most of the team sayed with Google. theverge.com

Nearly a third of voters under 29 will be voting for third-party candidates.

I understand the taxi industry is despearate, but a prive entity should not be taxed for the benefit of another. buff.ly

Honestly, I don't understand the hype of the Stranger Things intro. It's especially confusing, because I love the retro style.

Oh man Def Leppard, Tesla, and REO Speedwagon are at Lakewood tonight?

I like to keep my teammates on their toes. Occasionally I'll respond to a Slack comment with a 🍠(sweet potato) or 🚱 (no potable water) emoji

My one gripe with @iAWriter is that the em dash isn't quite long enough to clearly distinguish it from a hyphen.

If you want to see the future of messaging AI, look at reddit. The future is noise disguised as signal. theverge.com

Also, here's the shot of the Grizzly. She's about about 50 yards below me with a cub.

I don't like that I have to tap the Twitter notifications icon twice to mark them as read on Android.

What is this? As far as I'm concerned, Buzzfeed has been among the least biased in their coverage of this election. buff.ly

DN FM 001: Mikael Cho on psychology and design, and how side projects saved his startup – Designer News buff.ly

Jul 2016

I just ate the most spicy Mexican food I've ever had in Montana. I'm unsure what conclusions to draw from this.

This afternoon I had an encounter with a grizzly and her cub. Much closer than I'd ever want to have again.

Atlanta starts designing program that could send some low-level offenders to services rather than jail buff.ly

This is brilliant. Take the elevator straight to Publix.

If any of you have built CSV import or column mapping tools, contribute to DN's knowledge. buff.ly

If you had any questions about Elon Musk's ambitions, this post on Tesla's future will set you straight. buff.ly

“No great company — and P&G is one of the greatest of all time — is built on only one competitive advantage.” stratechery.com

Dollar Shave Club Just sold for the same price as Instagram—pretty amazing.

Five years after all the blogs and journalists told us Augmented reality would be a home run—it actually became one. techcrunch.com

It drives me crazy that in markdown a single asterisk creates italics, while in @SlackHQ it becomes bold.

Think I'm going to spend tomorrow walking around buckhead looking for Pokémon.

@aronsolomon This is happening in so many areas. See all the design agencies that were purchased by larger companies in the last two years.

Getting back to the homepage is 6x more difficult when placed in the center as opposed to the top left corner. nngroup.com

“...why are so many people devoting so much energy to solving problems that don’t really exist?” buff.ly

I find it interesting that bots are building the wall on r/the_donald. Is that not taking away American jobs?

Who ever decided that a CNN Live stream should autoplay halfway through an article—it's a terrible idea. Way to distract your readers.

Well, I just purchased a Roomba. I'd like to imagine it as a helpful robot pet.

Nintendo has forced people to use their hardware. I wonder if the success of Pokemon Go, opens them up to building more for other platforms

I'm so much more productive in the morning. I accomplished about the same in one hour this morning as I did in four hours yesterday evening.

Just got to explain to an intern that circles on the internet are actually squares with a border-radius.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Considering switching from Pandora to Spotify. I'm grandfathered into the old pricing, but the product has not improved in several years.

Software is going to replace comedians some day—just not today.

Jun 2016

People are experts at understanding their problems, not necessarily in designing the solutions.

Ridiculous. It's as if every light switch in this apartment turns on a single outlet.

Come on. @VIZIO you're better than sending me email advertisements for the TV I just purchased.

I can't make it tonight. I have to return some video tapes.

@SamuelHulick If you haven't seen the Anchor.fm onboarding process, you should give it a look. Probably one of the best I've seen.

Spectacular long-form piece in NYT Magazine this morning—Can Netflix Survive in the New World It Created? buff.ly

You can't go to a place with emporium in its name and have it not be sketchy.

Oh wow, Harry Potter is 20 years old—that's hard to believe.

Interesting. A designer with a master's degree is more likely to earn more than one with a bachelors or a doctorate.

Any other designers getting the beach ball in Sketch on relatively small files?

Rainmaker would be an awesome name for irrigation system software.

May 2016

It's hilarious that arena football has the Geico 15% zone.

Dashboards are a symptom of poor design, not a solution to it.

It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee, making $15 an hour bagging French fries. bbc.com

I just ate a Pop-Tart for the first time in more than a decade.

Anyone else thing it is odd that Comcast forces you to enter your phone number to activate your router?

One of the wifi networks in this complex is called FBI Surveillance Van.

Anytime I get asked to make a venn diagram, I usually send people this.

If I had a bounce house rental company, I'd call it shenanigans.

It's interesting that people say "Call an Uber" or "Call a Lyft" when there is no phone call being made—myself included.

On the internet, a circle is just a square with a large border radius.

Failure is an option for SpaceX—to be fair, landing the boosters are a bit of a bonus. The mission is still complete arstechnica.com

WTF. No wonder I am out of space on this computer. iTunes has decided to download and keep 30 gigs of podcasts that I never listen to.

When you have a flash of brilliance, wait a couple seconds and realize it's just idiocy.

Not generally a fan of the overly animated portfolios, but this skull-thing is rad. eli.wtf

Apr 2016

"Product management as we know it is shifting into the realm of the designer"

The Streamline icon set continues to be one of the best creative assets I've purchased. buff.ly

It's a really bizarre thing to see Trump and Sanders supporters come together. I think the story is Reddit just hates government.

“if they were 99.99999 percent effective, suddenly you are transforming millions of innocent people into terrorists” popsci.com

The most difficult part about product design is creating a consistent experience.

Game changer. Just learned that CMD + D is the mute, unmute shortcut in Hangouts.

Where does out modern conception of staple fantasy races such as Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs come from? reddit.com

I'm a fan of this redesign for Charlie Rose's show. Feel like it could use an accent color though. buff.ly

While I'm all for trees and greenspace, stuffing a bunch of trees into high rise patios seems like an odd solution? buff.ly

I have no idea what the buttons in iTunes are supposed to do.

I wasn't expecting this many designers to ditch the Magic Mouse. Looks like I'm not alone. buff.ly

I get the best feedback from the phone calls I'm most terrified to make. #fuelatl

How do you surprise and delight your customers? #fuelatl

Ironic that Georgia is the beneficiary of all these anti-LGBT laws in other southern states. We were a veto away from having them as well.

This is why I love @sketchapp. What are the chances Adobe apologizes and then works frantically to fix a bug?

If a university wanted to help students with startups evidence shows the best thing they can do is literally nothing paulgraham.com

There are a good number of differences between building a self-containing product versus building a platform. buff.ly

It's scary, when people who know nothing about technology try to control its use—Bill Seeks to Ban Encryption rietta.com

“We want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member.” sec.gov

The new @medium design feels much more like a social network and much less like a publishing platform.

The flat nose of the Model 3 seems odd. Why not use the same logo and crescent that is on the S and X?

Mar 2016

There's so much astroturf behind all these "95 Best WordPress Themes of 2016" posts on Designer News this morning.

A beta customer says, "You have the best data mapping that I've ever seen in any SaaS product." Then takes a screenshot during the session.

I always thought the agency business model was tough. These new overtime rules will make it a lot tougher. buff.ly

The mobile version of Wikipedia is so much easier to read—even on desktop.

Wow, these LucasArts Posters take me back. Full Throttle, Sam & Max and The Dig were some of my first computer games lucasforums.com

Is anyone really surprised that Batman vs. Superman got a D-? The trailers usually show the best parts, and they were terrible.

Seriously? An Emory student who wrote 'Trump 2016' on a sidewalk, IN CHALK, is being hunted down for vandalism. reason.com

Can the FBI really unlock the iPhone? Another take—they don't want a main tactic ruled unconstitutional. Precedents work both ways.

I have to say, Donald Trump is impressively good at saying nothing. I'm not sure could say nothing so consistently.

It's interesting that technology companies and large consultancies (Deloitte E&Y) are the ones acquiring design firms.

Signing documents in Acrobat is such a pain in the ass. I'm about to Photoshop my signature into this thing.

Shout out to Mark Zuckerberg for letting people know it's my birthday.

Not sure I've ever said this about a website, but the sound design on this KLM site is incredible. ifly50.com

I swear the restaurant next door is playing one of my Pandora stations.

For something visually simple, styling checkboxes is a pain in the ass.

I'm still waiting for Pandora's purchase of Rdio to result in some better products. When will the desktop player get an update?

It seems like a good idea to let individuals sell power to the grid and compete with energy companies? one.npr.org

It's amazing that Terry Gross' interviews more than a decade ago are just as brilliant today.

Many Internet of Things concepts are things I don't want. Why does a refrigerator or toaster need to be connected to the internet?

Still one of my favorite threads of all time. Some enterprising 4chaners selling squares—it's the new lemonade stand imgur.com

Cruz had the best response to the social security question. Only candidate who outlined a plan.

FiveThirtyEight has some interesting visual breakdowns of conservative ideologies.

Another debate tonight? Not sure I can keep staying up for these things.

Just a guess, but all these anti-Trump protests are likely fueling his campaign not hurting it.

Clever, these dumbbells pick up different amounts of weights depending on how the dial is set.

My only real gripe with Wikipedia is that there are no max-widths. Making those paragraphs a little narrower would improve readability.

Size adjusted, it is amazing how much the Freight and Merriweather font families look alike.

Spectacular piece on political psycology and the rise of American authoritarianism vox.com

On another note someone in the UK, thinks I would make a mighty fine debt collector. I hear it's a growth industry?

This is such a bizarre story—guy calls phone booth in the Mojave Desert for months, then someone answers one.npr.org

Feb 2016

Why Bother Making Beautiful Team Pages? It shows companies care about their employees. buff.ly

Trump and Romney both under attack to release tax returns. While last election the criticism was too much wealth, now it's too little wealth

Do citizens have the right to privacy? If you think so, you side with Apple. If not, you side with the FBI

So, I was just asked if I want to hear some devastatingly good news.

Despite Nevada Loss, Sanders Refuses to Curb His Enthusiasm.

So, I just reinstalled Steam. Probably going to spend the rest of this afternoon playing Civilization.

I'm all for 80s, but how many times is this gym going to play Wang Chung?

"Uber's redesign contained an unprecedented level of micromanagement by Kalanick, for whom it was a passion project" elischiff.com

CSI: "We enhanced the download rate and found his fingerprints all over the bitstream."

Beyond the $200 price point, this is the best reason to buy a Moto G.

It feels like this Sketch file is going to explode at any moment...

Well, with Rand Paul out of the race there's only one candidate left who has any interest in ending the drug war.

If you're looking for some mobile onboarding inspiration. This gallery of onboarding videos is a nice reference buff.ly

I admit since the Product Hunt redesign, I just don't find myself on the site anymore. It's much more difficult to scan horizontally.

Two-factor authentication seems like a great idea—until you lose your phone.

NaanStop's loyalty program is called the NaanBelievers. Glad to see they didn't miss a beat when it comes to wordplay.

Has anyone done ebook layouts in Sketch? For a small book, I really don't want to open InDesign.

If you're looking for a movie, put Mr. Nobody on your list. It's a peice of art, and like nothing I've seen. imdb.com

Jan 2016

As a whole cable news is complete garbage anyways—CNN and MSNBC included.

“ Using real examples from the start of the design process is important as it forces you to design for reality.” gosquared.com

Rails Engineers, do you use Active Admin or Rails Admin? What's the reasoning behind your choice?

While I think social media is moving more and more to messaging, I'm skeptical that it can be as well monetized. buff.ly

The fixed header and footer on hbr.org are brutal. There's barely enough room to see the article.

Looks like there's a Comcast outage in Midtown Atlanta.

Good engineers shouldn't reinvent the wheel, poor ones should do it frequently.

Want to stop the dribbble Great job epidemic? Provide one piece of constructive criticism to a popular shot each day dribbble.com

Snapchat definately follows the usibility as an anti-pattern argument—Usability as the enemy buff.ly

Well, I was hoping this #SEAvsCAR game was going to be a bit more interesting.

What's with these UI designs having crazy drop-shadows? In the last month or so it seems like almost every design on dribbble has one.

Interesting, so quantifiably 301 redirects can expect a 15% drop in organic traffic. moz.com

It's fascinating to read through thoughts and iterations of designing and building a physical product. makezine.com

If you read one thing today...How a man accused of million-dollar fraud uncovered a, secret surveillance device theverge.com

Taxing idle money vs taxing active money is an interesting idea. It won't reduce inequality. It might ensure money is better utilized.

Terrible for the game to come down to a missed chip shot. The Vikings had that won. #SEAvsMIN

I'm all for mailto links, but they shouldn't be used in buttons. They should only be used with linked text email addresses

Netflix is applying sabermetrics to producing shoe concepts. Unlike baseball, the competition doesn't have the data to do the same.

Wow, the inside of the Ponce city market is incredible.

Older notes from 2015