technology trends
In a recent post, Dave Shea documented his love/hate relationship with the pixel grid: Here’s the caveat though – high resolution displays. At 100dpi, ClearType wins out, but we’re not going to be stuck here much longer. Give it a few years, let’s do this comparison again
font rendering
I’ve finally determined What’s Wrong With Apple’s Font Rendering. As it turns out, there actually wasn’t anything wrong with Apple’s font rendering, per se. Apple simply chose a different font rendering philosophy, as Joel Spolsky explains: Apple generally believes that the goal of the algorithm
font rendering
I had read a few complaints that OS X font rendering was a little wonky, even from Joel Spolsky himself: OS X antialiasing, especially, it seems, with the monospaced fonts, just isn’t as good as Windows ClearType. Apple has some room to improve in this area; the fonts were
mapping software
I’ve sworn by Microsoft Streets and Trips for years, since the late 90s. I make a point of installing the latest version of Microsoft’s mapping application all our desktop PCs for all our desktop mapping needs. It’s also great on laptop PCs; combined with a USB GPS
information retrieval
I’m currently reading through Peter Morville’s excellent book Ambient Findability. It cites some papers that attempt to explain the search behavior of web users, starting with the berrypicking model: In a 1989 article entitled “The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface,” Marcia Bates
consumer behavior
James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, writes about the paradox of complexity and consumer choice in a recent New Yorker column: A recent study by a trio of marketing academics found that when consumers were given a choice of three models, of varying complexity, of a digital device,
authentication
Dare Obasanjo’s May 26th thoughts on the Facebook platform contained a number of links to the Facebook API documentation. At the time, clicking through to any of the Facebook API links resulted in a login dialog: It struck me as incredibly odd that I had to login just to
programming languages
Dennis Forbes took issue with my recent post on C# and the Compilation Tax, offering this criticism, pointedly titled “Beginners and Hacks:” Sometimes [background compilation and edit and continue] are there to coddle a beginner, carefully keeping them within the painted lines and away from the dangerous electrical sockets along
programming languages
If you didn’t get a chance to watch today’s historic interview between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, you should. Finally seeing these two computer industry giants on stage interacting with each other was fascinating and at times even a little touching. * Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Prologue * Steve
software development concepts
Rich Skrenta writes that code is our enemy. Code is bad. It rots. It requires periodic maintenance. It has bugs that need to be found. New features mean old code has to be adapted. The more code you have, the more places there are for bugs to hide. The longer
design principles
Khoi Vinh, the design director for the New York Times, explains how essential grids are to web design in his SXSW presentation with Mark Boulton, Grids Are Good (Right?). So much web design work relies on establishing a grid and the constraints on that grid: ad sizes, display size, browser
computer hardware
I’ve never understood programmers who loved the craft of programming, but were disinterested in the underlying hardware – the very tool that allows them to practice their craft. I have an unabashed love for computer hardware that borders on inappropriate. I’m not ashamed to admit it. Warning: this post