Author: admin

What is information design?Information design : The discipline of developing structures which allow people to find information that's relevant to them, and use it to make decisions which enhance their lives. . . . If we are going to help people cope with the arrival of the information society, where information can be delivered “any… Continue reading What is information design?

JOURNAL: Market-state vs. Virtual State.   I'm a big fan of Philip Bobbitt. He's done some amazing thinking on how globalization is changing the nation-state (if you would like to quickly catch up, I strongly suggest that you read the second section of his seminal book: The Shield Achilles). In summary (which doesn't do it… Continue reading JOURNAL: Market-state vs. Virtual State

PHP 5.1: The Bazaar Is Sometimes Bizarre. Well PHP 5.1.0 is out. This is a monumental piece of work, and congratulations to the PHP 5 internals team for all the hard work. However it feels rushed through the door. Apparently there are compatibility problems (with typecasting when parameter passing, the prototype date class, and possibly… Continue reading PHP 5.1: The Bazaar Is Sometimes Bizarre

Fast Company on Simple. Fast Company’s The Beauty of Simplicity talks about how companies are beginning to see that “making things simple is the new competitive advantage” (which was the whole thrust of my talk at Web 2.0 — it was even called “Less as a competitive advantage”). The article mostly focuses its praise on… Continue reading Fast Company on Simple

Windows Live Email Service. Domains.Live.com is a free new email service offered by Microsoft. It’s a simple but very useful tool. And, like Office Live, it is disruptive to the existing domain name registrar market (are they even paying attention?). So the basic service is this: Microsoft will host email and instant messaging for you… Continue reading Windows Live Email Service

lighttpd 1.4.8 makes multiple apps per vhost easy. lighttpd 1.4.8 has added support for multiple Rails application on a single vhost. So its less painful to have /forum and /blog under the same domain. Rockin’   [Riding Rails]

Pope Rules Quietly, Quietly, but Maybe Actively, Actively. Pope Benedict XVI is showing signs of a papacy that moves quietly but where “nevertheless, changes are happening.” By IAN FISHER. [NYT > Home Page]

Opinions and free software. Taking an opinionated view to open source software may seem risky, but it pays off.. . . Here are a few wishes for some free software projects that I want to see succeed further, but which really need to get opinionated to be effective. These projects aren't failing, but they're not… Continue reading Opinions and free software

Weather Threatens to Continue to Disrupt Holiday Travel. Light snow in the Midwest helped produce two-hour delays at some airports, while a tanker fire near Washington slowed traffic. By JENNIFER BAYOT. [NYT > Home Page]

Losing the Moral Conflict at Home I've been discussing moral conflict over at GG . However, it's likely the US government lost the moral conflict here at home well before the events of Iraq spun out of control. Here's what I mean. Moral cohesion comes from making connections. One of the most important connection to… Continue reading Losing the Moral Conflict at Home