tbolt

The Future of ReiserFS

ServerFocus:

Reiser4 has a somewhat uncertain future. It has not yet been accepted into the main line Linux kernel, the lead designer is in prison, and the company developing it is not currently in business.

Call me crazy, but I think it may be dead.

Edward Tufte on Windows Phone

Edward Tufte:

Compared to the iPhone, most of the WP7S organizing screens have lower content resolution, which violates flatness and leads to hierarchical stacking and temporal sequencing of screens. In day-to-day use, maybe the panorama screens will solve the stacking/sequencing problem, or maybe they will just clutter up the flow of information. Of course Microsoft’s customers are already familiar with deep layerings and complex hierarchies.

Don’t Call iOS 7 Flat

Jony Ive:

One of the things that we were interested in doing is, despite people talked about this being “flat,” is that it’s very, very deep. It’s constructed and architected visually and from an informational point of view as a very deep UI, but we didn’t want to rely on shadows or how big your highlights could get. Where do you go? I mean, there is only so long you can make your shadows.

It wasn’t an aesthetic idea to try to create layers. It was a way of trying to sort of deal with different levels of information that existed and to try to give you a sense of where you were.

Typography in History

From For Shame – Happy Cog:

The Treaty of Paris in 1783 was interrupted by an argument between Benjamin Franklin and Louis XVI’s printer over whether to set the treaty in Baskerville or Caslon. Benjamin Franklin, mocking the Frenchman, contended Caslon was “passé” and began singing “Le Poisson” from The Little Mermaid. The fight was broken up by Franklin’s mistress. A patina statue off the coast of New Jersey marks the occasion.

 

A Neat Apple TV Feature

I was scooting around on my Apple TV after the update that brought HBO Go and I noticed that you can select a picture screensaver that randomly cycles through new/upcoming movie posters. After trying it out I realized how nice it was. Movie posters reveal a lot and having a scrolling canvas of upcoming ones is a great idea. I could see this being ideal for home theaters that like to build on the cinema experience.

Here is the setting to enable it

Apple TV settings screen

Here are a couple snaps of it in action

Apple TV screensaver with 3 movie posters

Apple TV screensaver with 3 movie posters

John Siracusa on Interface Design

Simplicity is great, as iOS has shown. But there’s a difference between conceptual simplicity and visual simplicity. Just hiding controls does make things appear simpler, but it doesn’t actually make them any simpler. The complexity is now just hidden. Similarly, removing features that few people use is a good idea, but like any good idea, it can be taken too far. At a certain point, you’re just making your application worse for everyone, even new users.

Great statement.

Ok, Google.

The Verge:

It’s called “Project Loon,” and as reported last month, it involved sending up a huge number of giant balloons to beam down internet access to remote regions around the globe. Google says that balloons make sense for this purpose — they’re cheap to deploy and can provide wireless coverage in areas that would otherwise be difficult to serve due to geography.

“Project Loon”