– People sometimes ask us "What tricks do you designer guys use on your Macs that I don't know of?" We don't know what you don't know, but there are a couple of general tricks using macOS that you might not all be familiar with.
– Facebook fishing for our email passwords, Roomba is hovering up all the data on our homes, Amazon is listening to our conversations for laughs, Tik-Tok spying on our kids. And that we see so much dirt on the surface makes it likely that under the surface it's even worse. The solution for all of this: "Ethics". Design ethics! Tech ethics! Business ethics! Ethics for AI!
– You may have heard that the best way to deal with the “information overload” is to switch off your devices. To take a break from the Internet. Go for a run. Roll out the Yoga mat. Read a book. Talk to your friends. Switching off is good advice. But eventually, you’ll be back. How about changing? Changing from passive, to active. From scroll to search, from react to rethink, from like and retweet to write and link. Take the power back.
– Language has the power to make us understand others, to feel like others through time and space. To almost become someone else. Used as tool, computers can help us amplifying the use of language. But if we talk to them alone, they can extract understanding for commercial use and make us die a little.
– Everybody that has an interest in influencing public opinion will happily pay a handful of Dollars to amplify their voices. Governments, political groups, corporations, traders, and just simple plain trolls will continue to shout through bot armies—as long as it is so cheap.
– Bitcoin rose from 1,000 to 19,000 in a couple of months. Today it fell back to 10,000. If time is money, then what happened to people’s time? Is it lost?
– The most important ingredient for a Web Trend Map is missing: The Web. Time to bring some of it back.
– Step by step, Facebook has cut the news from its feeds. Yesterday, they confirmed that they will focus on content from friends and family while de-emphasizing news. How come? A brief history of the odd partnership between Facebook and the news industry and what it means for us.
– Artificial Intelligence is a complex riddle for all sorts of experts. It’s full of magic, mystery, money, mind-boggling techno-ethical paradoxes and sci-fi dilemmas that may or may not affect us in some far or near future. Meanwhile, it already shapes our everyday life. Things already go wrong. And no one is responsible. What can we do?
– The excerpts from recent Alan Kay emails are a gold mine. The text itself is a raw cut-up from a series of private emails. Kay argues that fundamental innovation and following objectives run counter to each other. Very much like art, fundamental research needs to be free from objective purpose.
– Im allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch ist «Digital» all das, was mit Computern zu tun hat. Aber was hat heute schon nicht mit Computern zu tun? Der Unterschied zwischen digitalen und analogen Geräten verschwimmt immer mehr. Wie sinnvoll ist es noch, von «digital» im Unterschied zu «analog» zu sprechen?
– How do you deal with erroneous tweets? Not any erroneous tweets, your erroneous tweets. The tweets that you misspelled or, worse, that contain information you later discover is false, or a late night knee-jerk response you regret in the morning.
– Our call to question the common practice of blindly adding social media buttons to every page got a lot of attention, and found many friends across the board. This proves we are onto something. Let’s look at some of the more critical reactions.
– Promising to make you look wired and magically promote your content in social networks, the Like, Retweet, and +1 buttons occupy a good spot on pretty much every page of the World Wide Web. Because of this, almost every major site and brand is providing free advertising for Twitter and Facebook. But do these buttons work?
– Werkzeuge sind Verlängerungen des Körpers: Die Brille ist eine Verlängerung des Auges, der Hammer eine Verlängerung der Hand, der Hut eine Verlängerung des Kopfhaars. Was ist ein Computer? Die Verlängerung unseres Geistes? Steve Jobs meinte, der Computer sei ein Fahrrad für den Geist. Eine schöne Vorstellung. Wenn man aber schaut, was insbesondere das Mobiltelefon mit uns macht, dann wirkt der zeitgenössische Computer eher wie ein Hamsterrad.
– Computer, Smartphone, Tablet-PC, IP-TV, Spiele-Konsole, Navigationsgerät und vielleicht sogar im Display des neuen Backofens. Das Web soll uns ganz wie von Bill Gates vorhergesehen überall Information übermitteln. Ob das wirklich Sinn macht, ist eine andere Frage.
– How do you navigate content on the iPad? Scroll or flip? In 1987, the biggest neck beards in tech held a conference on the Future of Hypertext and there were two camps, “Card Sharks” and “Holy Scrollers”. They had an epic battle over this question: Should you scroll or flip pages on the screen? Who won the fight?
– «Das Buch wird niemals sterben.» In der englischen Simultan-Übersetzung klingt es fast wie «wir werden immer reiten und brauchen keine Autos». Doch der italienische Redner eines wissenschaftlichen Fachverlags ist sich seiner Sache sicher.
– Am 12. Januar 2010 meldete Google in einem Blogeintrag wie ein Blitz aus heiterem Himmel, dass man eine "neue Herangehensweise" an China ins Auge fasse. Man sei nicht weiter bereit, die Suchresultate der chinesischen Google-Suchmaschine zu zensurieren.
– Diesem Artikel ging eine schockierende Selbstbeobachtung voraus. Lange habe ich mich geweigert, den 140-Zeichen-Dienst Twitter auch nur aufzurufen, geschweige denn zu – das Wort auszusprechen fällt mir heute noch schwer – twittern.
– Die 100jährige Internetfirma wird ein Pharmakonzern sein, stets auf der Suche nach der nächsten grossen Rezeptur. Oder ein Filmstudio, das 10 Produktionen im Jahr finanziert, um einen Blockbuster zu landen.
– Der wichtigste Antrieb, sich für ein soziales Netzwerk wie Facebook anzumelden, ist das Bedürfnis, Leute auszuspionieren, die man nicht physisch trifft.
– 私たちは、つまらないテキストを読むことに（そして書くことにも！）時間を浪費しすぎています。そして、そんな私たちの問題を解決してくれるものを今回はご紹介したいと思います。
– 第1弾は半日、そして第2弾は1週間、第3弾に至ってはかかり切りで1ヶ月という製作期間を記録して来たWeb Trend Mapですが、今回の第4弾(2月リリース予定）につきましてはすでに前3作の総作業時間をも超過する大仕事になっております。
– In einem Nachmittag zusammengeflickt war die erste Web Trend Map, die zweite kostete uns eine Woche und die dritte verschlang bereits einen ganzen Arbeitsmonat. Die Web Trend Map Nummer 4, erscheinen soll sie im Februar 2009, hat bereits jetzt mehr Vorbereitungszeit in Anspruch genommen als alle ihre Vorgängerinnen zusammen.
– ウェブサイトが機能的にも審美的にもますますウェブアプリケーション的性質を帯びてきている昨今ですが、本日はウェブアプリケーションをスキニングの観点より分析していきたいと考えています。まずは手始めに、HTMLスキン対デスクトップアプリケーション・スキンという二つのアプローチの比較をしてみましょう。言い換えれば、Google対Appleです。
– 多くの方よりご質問をいただきましたので回答させていただきますが、みなさまのおっしゃる通り、ものを書くのをやめたわけではございません。書籍の方も、未だ作業中です。また、ブログも続けておりますが、こちらは書籍としては出版しないことにいたしました。何かを書く度に森林破壊に加担しているような気分になるのは、私の執筆生活における精神衛生上、望ましくないと考えるようになったためです。
– After all, blogging is over now, isn't it? Very probably so.
– 噂の14歳のビデオ・ブロガー、フレッド君のファンが4,500万近くに到達したそうです。しかしながら、セス・ゴディン氏やロバート・スコーブル氏はこの成功の秘訣を探るどころか、彼の偉業にずいぶんと冷たい反応です。エルヴィスがかつてなんと言ったか、彼らは忘れてしまったのでしょうか。ねぇ、エルヴィス。
– Japanisch für Anfänger oder was von anonymen Blogkommentatoren zu halten ist.
– «Dieses Internet wird sicher irgendwann wieder verschwinden» hat mancher Verlagsmanager noch bis vor kurzem gehofft – bevor er sich gerade noch rechtzeitig in den Ruhestand retten konnte.
– Die Rezession ist das Beste, was uns passieren kann. Uns Lesern. Uns Konsumenten. Uns neuen Medienmachern.
– Der verlinkte Bürger hätte heute die Möglichkeit, zum Datengourmet zu werden. Das Angebot besteht. Alles, was man tun muss, ist reduzieren.
– IT革命は私たちの生活に自由と豊かさを与えるべく期待されていました。自由。プロパガンダからの自由、無意味なTV放送からの自由、過剰宣伝からの自由。そして豊かさとは、単調な仕事は機械にまかせ、生活に時間のゆとりという豊かさ。さて、それで、実際のところはどうだったのでしょうか。
– The IT-Revolution promised to free and enrich us. To free us from propaganda, to free us from mindless TV, to free us from advertisement torture, and to enrich us by letting machines do all the boring work so we'd have more free time. So, how did it go?
– 今、景気はこれから後退すると言われていますが、これは、私たちにとっては、もっとも好ましいシナリオです。私たち－つまり私たち読む側（リーダー）にとって、私たち消費者にとって、そして、新しいメディア・メーカーとしての私たちにとって。
– Das ultimative Tool für Internetfreaks, die Web Trend Map 2008, ist nun als A0-Poster erhältlich.
– ここに、ついに2008年度版Web Trend Mapを披露させていただけるときがやってまいりました。私たち渾身の、栄光のベータ版です。今回は300件近い有名な、または影響力の大きなサイトをピックアップし、東京首都圏路線図に配置してみました。そして、前回より多くの方のご要望をいただき、ポスターのサイズもA3からA0へと大きくしました。ご自宅や、オフィスのワンポイントに、自信を持っておすすめさせていただきます。
– We present you with the 2008 Web Trend Map, in all its beautiful beta glory. This time we’ve taken almost 300 of the most influential and successful websites and pinned them down to the greater Tokyo-area train map.
– Those familiar with the new Swiss train station maps may recognize one source of inspiration. We’ve adopted some concepts from our good friend Adrian Schaffner’s work on mapping Swiss train stations.
– 今回のmapは首都圏路線図をベースに作成し、また新しいレイヤーを2段追加しました。
– 今回の予測が2007年予測くらい実現したアカツキには、来年は有料サービスにしようかと思っています。2008年は7件の予測をお届けします。
– This year we have seven predictions. If they are as accurate as last year’s, we should make this a paid service.
– 1年前、私たちは2007年をこう予測しました。現実の2007年と見比べながら、ちょっと振り返ってみたいとおもいます。
– Here’s what we said was going to happen in 2007 one year ago, compared to what really happened…
– We have done it before, and now we’ve done it again—the poster of most successful websites, mapped to the Tokyo Subway, is back!
– You often hear people saying that other people understand or don't understand the media. Funny enough that the appreciative "he/she understands the media" is applied to success in old media, while "he/she does not understand the media" is applied to old media people fumbling with the Internet.
– You should read Mike's latest article several times. Not because it's hard to understand, but because it's amazing stuff. Read it again and again and then read through a whole series of his related articles.
– What started as a fun new years card made quite a few waves. The Web Trend Map’s reception so far…
– そして再び、Appleが私たちの信条としているセオリー「ブランド＝インターフェイス」を証明してくれました。言うまでもなく、私はこの小さなミラクルとでも呼ぶべきiPhone、発売と同時に手に入れたいと思っています。
– Apple's iPhone proves again that user experience is brand experience. But I'm still unsure if I really want one; they're kind of too big and too complicated for an old man like me.
– As a Christmas and New Year’s present to our clients and readers we have created three fun Internet overviews.
– After looking closer at what made the web in 2006, it is time for some bold predictions.
– Web 1.0 started as a streaming publish-to-read medium; web 2.0 has established itself as a publishing platform for everyone. Now web 3.0 is said to be a technologically advanced Internet, where the user executes and the machines do the thinking.
– In 2001, usability guru Jakob Nielsen—according to USA Today “the next best thing to a true time machine”—was convinced that by 2007 books would be gone and “fully replaced with online information”. Was he being serious?
– The Internet business took a hard hit around 2000 after the tech bubble burst. To call yourself an “Internet agency” or even an “Internet startup” was considered nothing less than masochistic. That is when most Internet companies started to get into “consulting“ and “branding” and “marketing”.
– We now have over 75 million websites we can go to, but still we only visit six of them regularly, as we just learned from a study recently made public by Directgov. Their findings make us think of a new phase of the Internet.
– As an information designer the interfaces we currently work on—no matter whether Apple or Windows—bother me. Yes, OS X looks a lot better than its predecessors, and Windows’ upcoming rip off of OS X looks better than the previous rip off.