My wife is tinydiva. She is a musician. Her band is called Masolit. They are awesome. Seriously. And you should see them play their world debut performance live this Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Timing: Saturday, March 22, 2008 7:00 pm: The Creationists 8:00 pm: Masolit Location: MTAA 60 North 6th Street, 2nd floor Williamsburg, Brooklyn, … Continue reading Masolit
Fish Magic, 1925, Paul Klee It is said that a fish, even a really smart one, cannot really grasp the meaning of the concept “wet” because it is the only condition they know. There is no “dry” to compare it to. Humans, too, have a tendency to imagine that the way things are today is … Continue reading The Peculiar 20th Century
Last.fm‘s announcement that they will be allowing their users to listen to full-length versions of millions of music tracks is one of the final nails in the coffin of the traditional recorded-music industry. Owning music is dead. The new business model for making money in the music industry is simple: Design a better music distribution … Continue reading R.I.P.: Owning Music (1880-2008)
I found this on the inside of a 1950’s recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and thought it looked a lot like the iTunes “Get Info” UI. It struck me that metadata, and the graphic design thereof, has a vast history in print that is probably worth exploring very deeply when we design metadata displays for the screen.
With winter’s cold coming, I wanted to figure out a way to use an extra pair of over-the-ear headphones with my iPhone without losing the ability to use the iPhone’s wonderful on-cord control doohickey (which allows you to pause, play, or skip tracks, as well as being a hands-free microphone and call controller). So I opened up the headphones, cut the cord down to only a few inches, and soldered the shortened cord to the contacts inside the headphones themselves. Just add the Shure iPhone extension cord, and bingo!
Apple discarded the iPod’s signature feature, the scroll wheel, in the iPhone and iPod touch. But the new scrubber bar is almost useless — it’s impossible to move the playhead any less than a few minutes per hop. So I thought I’d fix it.
This book, “The Manual: How to Have a Number One Hit the Easy Way”, changed my life. It was written by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty (aka The Timelords, aka The KLF) back in 1988, hot on the heels of their doing precisely what the title says: producing a number one hit in the UK, a cheeky little song called Doctorin’ the Tardis. Before I go any further, if you are the person I lent this book to years ago, please return it to me!
At least Tony didn’t pick Heart’s “Magic Man”! Almost every Friday near the end of the day, someone at Behavior will start playing loud music to help remind everyone to stop working soon — the musical equivalent of the whistle that tells Fred Flintstone that it’s quittin’ time. This Friday, my partner Jeff blasted “Don’t … Continue reading The Don’t Stop Believin’ Game / Bristles on the Long Tail
It’s been a little less than a week since my IA Summit presentation. To my great surprise, it went really well. I mean really well. In the next day or so I will be posting a summary of my experiences preparing and discussing my topic, which was, in a word, style. Many people came to … Continue reading Interaction Design Style (My IA Summit 2007 Presentation)
I had the creepiest IM conversation recently, from an IM handle I have never seen before (handle has been changed to protect, um, whoever) : (11:01:18) M****N: hi (11:01:28) Christopher Fahey: who’s this? (11:01:31) M****N: hi (11:01:36) Christopher Fahey: who’s this? (11:01:41) M****N: m****n (11:01:47) Christopher Fahey: obviously (11:01:53) M****N: ok (11:02:00) M****N: i dont … Continue reading C.R.E.E.P.