Please enjoy an artsy photo by me. Drool some more at my Flickr photos…

Check out the quotes section, some good updates recently.

Why’d you change your name?

We were sued by a Norwegian death metal band from the 70s that apparently used the previous name first.

No, really.

We were sued by a Swedish pop band from the 50s that apparently had used the previous name first.

Really?

No. It was just time. We didn’t feel like the old name represented the aesthetic we were going for any more. It will have no bearing on the music, we promise. Get over it.

Hey guys, I’m confused. How many people are in Say Hi?

While many people have made irrefutable contributions to the live shows and occasionally the records, it’s really just one guy, Eric, who does most of everything around here. You will often see him on stage with a variety of different people. Sometimes there will be a lot of these people. Sometimes there won’t. Sometimes it will just be him. These things will always change, so kindly be prepared for a different show every time.

Wait, one guy? Why does it sound like way more than that on the records?

Super-advanced recording technology. The Future. Computers.

Can we hang out?

No, we’d prefer not to.

Say Hi To Your Mom

Now, when I say these are three things you have to accept, I mean you have to accept them. Because if you don’t accept them upfront, they’ll happen to you anyway. And then you’ll end up writing one of those documents that says “Oh, we launched this and we tried it, and then the users came along and did all these weird things. And now we’re documenting it so future ages won’t make this mistake.” Even though you didn’t read the thing that was written in 1978.

– Clay Shirky, “A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy“

Click to Visit my city.

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

“Four winters have passed in the Lair of the Minotaur. Mountainous riffs, pounding. Emerging from the caustic burrows of vast caves by the great lake in the mid-western plains. Choosing a path of crushing annihilation, under the sign of the Southern Lord. Ancient war cries spit forth with a sharp tongue. Heralding CARNAGE, and then triumphantly THE ULTIMATE DESTROYER.”

“Now there is no more light. Fate is put in the hands of the fury of men. Murder reigns. Prepare for the age of violence. Behold the WAR METAL BATTLE MASTER.”

I just read Jaron Lanier (father of virtual reality, etc.)’s December blog post, “Long Live Closed-Source Software,” re: the open-source movement’s ability to create faithful copies and complete inability to innovate in the user space.

Although I use some open source software RELIGIOUSLY (Firefox web browser, QuickSilver, some web coding programs), Lanier’s totally fuckin right — NONE of the really interesting software is open-source. Damn. I was totally hoodwinked into thinking open-source was the future for EVERYTHING. (the funny thing is, Chad’s been saying “Fuck open source” like 18 months ago, so what’s up now mister virtual reality?) Open-source is great as a phenomenon and a fun way to waste time or do some busywork, but it simply doesn’t produce exciting things. (the only exception to this i can think of is rasterman’s Enlightenment).

By way of proving the point completely UN-scientificly, here are the ten coolest programs I’ve ever used. Many of these have in-/directly gotten me laid. No open source software can make that claim.

Most Exciting Software (Which Also Happens to be Closed Source)

1. BeOS.
2. LifeBlog.
3. Macromind Director.
4. Lightroom.
5. After Effects.
6. Skitch.
7. Keynote.
8. Kai’s Power Tools.
9. iTunes.
10. Delicious Library.
11. Bits on Wheels.
12. Jitter.

I’ll say one more thing — open source is about potential. The best open source software is all software to make more software: vim, emacs, subversion. Programmers love making tools to make tools. But potential is not delivery. Especially when you’re in a hurry to create something.

LOCK IT DOWN! :-)

Final disclaimer: when I was a coder, I open-sourced my own code (and I would do it again), and I fought to open source my team’s code. Open source is a great learning tool for new programmers. And showing work in progress is a great way to bolster confidence, avoid pitfalls, and find inspiration. It’s just not a process for delivering great experiences.

Followup: I thought of an exception: Adium. Go Adium! You are the only open-source software under active development with an exceptional experience, as we used to say at Organic.

My work process has always been a fusion of design thinking and engineer thinking, blended to create something I call a Hybrid Mind.

I recently was invited to present to an accelerated overview of my process to about 500 designers and hackers at Pecha-Kucha, which is basically the Iron Chef for good presenters: each presenter gets only six minutes, 20 images, and just 20 seconds per image to teach the audience something new and interesting.

You should check out my 20 presentation slides on Flickr because they are amazing and they will change your life:

What hybrid skills do you use?

I have no idea what this is trying to say, or whether a survey of 11 people is statistically significant, but it supposedly contains insights about mobile social networking: Euro IA summit : Mobile Social Networking Insights

(affiliated with the punchcut guys and gals in SF)

By the way, Typophile Filmfest 4 sponsored by punchcut was GREAT. highly recommended.

so far, so good.

update: 48 hours. spirits high.

update II: 72 hours. hittin’ hard, no obvious signs of fatigue.

update III: 96 hours. feeling small ‘n’ cozy.

final update: one week complete. whatevs. not a big deal.