October 2010
42 posts
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Hidden TextEdit feature? More like in plain sight.
Mac OS X Hints yesterday published this hint regarding a nice little feature in TextEdit: word autocompletion.
The hint was also picked up by Minimal Mac and later by The Unofficial Apple Weblog. On Twitter, someone even called this feature ‘undocumented’.
Not only is the feature well documented, but it isn’t new either. Look at this picture:
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This is from the TextEdit...
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Know Your Type: Baskerville →
Cameron Moll:
Part of a series of posts on idsgn, this one guest authored by Cheryl Yau. Previous posts cover Cheltenham, Gill Sans, Clarendon, Gotham, Futura, Verlag, and DIN.
Now, since Baskerville is possibly my favourite serif font, I just had to reblog this.
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My iPad Magazine Stand →
Khoi Vinh, on iPad-based magazines:
My opinion about iPad-based magazines is that they run counter to how people use tablets today and, unless something changes, will remain at odds with the way people will use tablets as the medium matures. They’re bloated, user-unfriendly and map to a tired pattern of mass media brands trying vainly to establish beachheads on new platforms without really...
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Stamped. →
I’ve easily enjoyed lots of pieces by Greg Storey at Airbag Industries, and since his updates got scarcer I have missed his writing.
This post is really good.
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U&lc back issues to be made available →
Allan Haley, on the Fonts.com blog:
ITC also began publishing U&lc, The International Journal of Typographics in 1974. Herb Lubalin was the editorial and art director of the first issue and his seminal design set the stage for future issues of trend setting and award winning editorial creations.
The modest 24-page first issue declared, “U&lc will provide a panoramic window, a...
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Kyle Poff →
Grain Edit:
Sweet type! Kyle Poff’s portfolio if full of similarly executed identity projects. He’s got a great way with the clean, crisp, stand-out typographic treatments. Hailing from the great city of Chicago, Kyle co-art directs the very cool Materiél Magazine (along with Michael Freimuth). The editorial and more complex design work contained within mirrors this tight, compelling...
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Notebookology
I love notebooks, paper notebooks I mean — Moleskines and the like. And I love to discover good websites that talk about them. Time ago, I stumbled on Black Cover, and I really appreciated the detailed and meticulous reviews of its author(s). Too bad the site is still on a long hiatus (last update was in January 2010). But check it anyway: good reviews, good photographs.
Another couple of...
John Sculley on the Newton →
I’ve read the long, fascinating interview with John Sculley by Leander Kahney at Cult of Mac. (I have also translated the whole transcript into Italian and published it in 3 parts on my …
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The new MacBook Air
Marco Arment:
The new MacBook Air was released today, and it’s a hell of an upgrade. It got much better and it’s at an extremely compelling price.
It’s a great computer, but it’s not for everyone. It’s like a two-seater car. Read on if you think it might be for you.
Read More
A great write-up by Marco Arment. If you’re tempted by the new MacBook Air models introduced today, you...
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“What do I write about? After thinking the poems over, I have decided to say...”
– Ted Hughes, 1974.
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Booki.sh →
I found out about this via Khoi Vinh:
Australians and friends-of-the-blog Inventive Labs have just launched this awesome project: an HTML5 e-book reader that works on pretty much everything: iPhones, iPads, Kindle3s, even that antiquated technological mechanism known as a desktop Web browser.
Book.ish is based on the Monocle open source e-reader platform, meaning it requires no installation of...
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Excellent writing advice from Adorno →
It is part of the technique of writing to be able to discard ideas, even fertile ones, if the construction demands it.
This is so true it hurts. Read the full excerpt from Minima Moralia on Mandy Brown’s A Working Library.
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The Ultimate Swissair Fansite →
Grain Edit:
Patrick Eberhard has amassed an amazing collection of Swissair-related material. His website, Sr692 which is named after the flight number from Zürich to Lisbon, is filled with vintage posters, flyers, logos, stamps, route maps, tickets and books, as well as a detailed history of the airline. This is an absolute goldmine for those interested in Swiss design.
A hat tip to Shelby...
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Notational Velocity forked: Fullscreen mode,... →
elastic threads:
Like everyone else, I love Notational Velocity. As part of my effort to teach myself cocoa, I thought I’d dig into Notational Velocity’s code (its open source) and see what I could learn…
I ended up adding some features I’ve always wanted to be part of NV:
fullscreen mode
an optional horizontal layout
a way to quickly hide the notes list
a menubar only (no dock-icon)...
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“I’m very concerned about communicating with the reader — no use...”
– Charles Causley, 1974.
Forgotten peripherals: Apple Color Plotter →
Photo by Daniel Sczygelski
Sometimes, looking back at more than 30 years of Apple history, I marvel at the amount of different peripherals the company has produced. So I easily forgot…
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Play Vintage Text Adventure Games on your e-Reader →
>Take hint
Taken.
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“The customer doesn’t care how much time we use to design. He cares about...”
– Oliver Reichenstein
Useful expansions: SIMMchanger →
I’m reprinting this brief review by Nigel Grey that appeared on the March 18, 1994 issue of MacUser UK because I think it’s useful for Mac vintage enthusiasts who may want to look for this item in…
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Dieter Rams: Less and More Interview →
Just watch the video. Every object featured in it is beautiful. My favourite Dieter Rams bits:
“…Not outstanding design: better design”
“Design should not dominate things, and not dominate people. It should help people”
“We have enough things. We can improve some things, but it’s not spectacular to improve a television, or a computer, to make it more...
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Lowepro S&F Lens Exchange Case 200 AW →
Derrick Story:
But the real treat is that it also serves as a second pair of hands. The case actually has two compartments that compress into one case. When you take the lens off your camera, simply put it in the open compartment. Then take the lens you want to mount out of the other compartment. Pull the case closed with one hand, and you’re shooting before you know it.
Practical and...
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The curse of habits →
Liz Danzico:
Alva Noë explains why when we form new habits, time doesn’t fly:
We live a world of significant actions and events, not movements, just as we live in a world of meanings, not words or sounds. We live in a world of arcs, not points.
Here’s the thing:
[A]rcs collapse time, for they make time, as measured by the ticking of a clock and the turning of pages on the calendar, irrelevant....
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Moving up the stack →
We may just be past the era in which many geeks were interested in messing around with their computer’s (or phone’s) hardware or software internals.
[…] it’s time to move up the stack and mess around at higher levels.
Another excellent and thought-provoking post by Marco Arment.
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NetNewsWire Styles →
You probably know about this directory already, since it’s one of the first results you get by doing a Google search for NetNewsWire Styles, but here it is anyway.
My favourite styles are, in no particular order:
Macprime
Serif Black, Serif White, Haaus and Brockmann (all at LegiStyles)
Bullit
Ollicle Reflex
Simply Structured
ReadLight
If you’re on a small screen, you’ll...
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WatchStripes — a conceptual operating system user interface (by Martin Gimpl)
It’s an interesting concept. I like the Launcher screen a lot — you have the most imporant things at a glance — and the idea of menus that are always contextual.
It think it’s very suitable for tablets and netbooks.
My scanning workstation →
It’s been a difficult month, and I’m aware I’ve been neglecting this space. Not for lack of material, mind you, but for lack of time to sift through it and publish it here. A couple of…
September 2010
50 posts
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Apple's segmentation strategy, and the folly of... →
John Gruber is right: this piece by Mark Sigal is a must-read.
