Flickr user Amsterdamned! published this compilation – “The Flickr Portrait Gallery Hall of Excellence 2007”. Click on the image above to go its Flickr page, which has links to the original images in larger size. These are so good – they are an absolute must see!
Very much in line with the image explaining simplicity of user interfaces, comes the list of Googley Design Principles:
1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.
Anyone doing any sort of user interface work should learn these by heard and repeat them as every morning mantra.
50 Ways to Help the Planet is an excellent initiative. These are 50 simple, straight-forward tips for how to make a little bit less of an impact on our planet. You probably already do some of these things. You’ll probably never do some of them. But chances are you’ll find some things in that list that you won’t mind doing.
Here is the list of things as applied to me and my family. You should probably read the original list first though.
Web Worker Daily reports:
With Microsoft’s announcement this week that Outlook and Outlook Express will no longer support desktop access to Hotmail accounts raises some interesting questions on data portability.
After 30th June, Microsoft’s Windows Live Mail application will be the only means by which desktop and offline access to Hotmail accounts will be supported. This effectively means that a Hotmail user’s messages continue to be imprisoned within a closed ecosphere of services and applications. OK, smart people won’t be using Outlook, Outlook Express or Hotmail, but millions do and many have years of messages archived that they may wish to continue accessing outside a web-based interface.
I guess some people never ever learn. Microsoft has screwed its users times after times, and yet there are still millions of them who either trust it blindly or are too lazy to spend a few moments of their lives to look for alternatives. I have no pity for them anymore. They deserve what they are getting.
I just watched a criminal action with a bit of drama – “Smokin’ Aces“. And I liked it. There were some really good things about. The photography was creative, fresh, and interesting. Costume design as a part of character development was outstanding. Especially those Nazi punks … they looked and behaved like they were no less than “Rammstein” band. Bloody scenes were as bloody as they should be in such a movie, and the humor had a nice black scent to it.
One other thing that well was the cast. There are a lot of characters in this movie, and there is not much time to develop them or to go into depth with each. But it wasn’t a problem – everyone performed really well. Sometimes it felt like the good old “Lock, stock, and two smoking barrels“. It wasn’t that good though.
Overall, a very decent movie for the fans of the genre. 7 out of 10.