Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.
Blog Archives
[Rob Daviau, designer of the new board game Risk Legacy, talks about his process and reasoning behind the more progressive features of the game][link].
[link]: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/690270/designer-notes “Designer Notes | Risk Legacy | BoardGameGeek”
[The resignation of Steve Jobs from his post as CEO of Apple, Inc.][link] today was not surprising, but to me it was still shocking. The writing had been on the wall, but as [John Gruber said][john]: “I saw that headline and my nervous system took a jolt.”
[link]: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/08/24Letter-from-Steve-Jobs.html “Letter from Steve Jobs”
[john]: http://daringfireball.net/2011/08/resigned “John Gruber”
Yeah.
There is no one person whose hands have taken to the work of shaping the 21st century in the Western world more than Steven Paul Jobs. [The son of a Syrian Muslim, born in San Francisco while his father was in the U.S. on a student visa][anil]. The adopted son of an immigrant, a 60s radical, and finally, the king of Silicon Valley. The American Dream in action. He is without question the most *successful* CEO of his time. Loved for his work, and hated for the devotion it inspired in the people that bought it. There will never be another CEO like Steve Jobs.
[anil]: http://dashes.com/anil/2011/08/what-theyre-protecting-us-from.html “Anil Dash: What They’re Protecting Us From”
He isn’t leaving Apple, he’ll undoubtedly be taken on as the Chairman of the Board, but the landscape has unquestionably changed in a way that is difficult to describe. Many will try. Few will do it well. For my part I will say this: Steve Jobs believed in his work, and had a sense for just what makes a product great that we will likely never see again. There will, inevitably, be men whose accomplishments in this space eclipse his own. But they will not be Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple at the beginning of the 21st Century. I was here, and I know better.
Good luck, Steve.
[A tumblr dedicated to showing thanks to Steve Jobs for his work as Apple CEO][link]. Now accepting submissions.
[link]: http://thankyousteve.tumblr.com/ “Thank You, Steve.”
[Very nice javascript-based indeterminate progress spinner][link]. Smaller than a GIF, customizable, support down to IE6. Sounds like a winner.
[link]: http://fgnass.github.com/spin.js/ “spin.js”
[A persistent, cross-domain, key-value data store.][link] Similar to HTML5’s localStorage, except persistent across websites.
[link]: http://rastajs.errorjs.com/ “Rasta.js”
[ATTN SAN FRANCISCO: If you like weird music and weirder art, get your ass on down to TRUCK at Folsom and 15th street tomorrow night for disCU̴LTU̴RE][link]. Sweatshop will be there. Attendance is mandatory. You have been warned.
[link]: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=134333263317942 “disCU̴LTU̴RE with WHITE HORSE & PENTHOUSE / AUG 20”
[Almost hidden in this press release about HP’s plans to buy Autonomy Corporation][link]:
>In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.
A real shame. webOS and the devices built around it were the only real competition to iOS and the iPad/iPhone line.
[link]: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110818006301/en/HP-Confirms-Discussions-Autonomy-Corporation-plc-Business “HP Confirms Discussions with Autonomy Corporation plc Regarding Possible Business Combination; Makes Other Announcements | Business Wire”
[Minecraft creator Notch][link]:
>I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3. Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors. We select one level, you select the other, we randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team across both levels wins.
That is some legal wrangling I can get behind.
[link]: http://notch.tumblr.com/post/9038258448/hey-bethesda-lets-settle-this “Hey, Bethesda! Let’s settle this! : The Word of Notch”
[John August on][link] the (to me, anyway) revelation that the quaint olden-times word “Ye”, as in “Ye Olde Shoppe,” was [actually pronounced “the” and was the result of typesetting problems][bbc] relating to the missing “[Thorn][thorn]” glyph in many printing fonts.
[link]: http://johnaugust.com/2011/ye-olde-shoppe-never-existed “The thorny problem of ‘ye’ | johnaugust.com”
[bbc]: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2922077 “Thorn – Missing Letter of the Alphabet”
[thorn]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter) “Wikipedia: Thorn (Letter)”
[A Mozilla guy takes a 60-year-old cafeteria worker though the major browsers.][link]
User testing like this is both fun and truly useful to people who make things with a large audience in mind, such as myself. We always *attempt* to keep what we call “unsophisticated” users in mind, but sometimes you need to go face-to-face to really understand.
[link]: http://jboriss.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/user-testing-in-the-wild-joes-first-computer-encounter/ “User Testing in the Wild: Joe’s First Computer Encounter « Boriss’ Blog”
