smackfoo.com | I find your lack of faith disturbing.

My partner on the vagaries of speculative fiction:

“Yes, it’s hard to guess by looking at a person whether they’re in the speculative fiction section for sci-fi or fantasy. Seriously, though, it’s like expecting all black people to be gangsta rappers, all Asians to be grocers, or all Arabs to be terrorists.”

She has a wonderful way of viewing the world and it’s fundamental truths.

I would like to take a moment of your time, should you be a Windows Mobile user, as you should immediately check out Pointui:

“Take back control of your device with Pointui Home. No need to fumble for a stylus any more as Home is designed with generously sized controls.”

It is pitched as “the definitive user interface for mobile devices” — Microsoft, take note. This is what windows mobile should be capable of, right out of the box.

It’s still early days, however navigation already follows a pattern and you end up where you expected to go. And the UI is quite simply, outstanding.

This (freeware, no less) interface is no instant iPhone killer, for certain, but after little more than 5 minutes of use I simply cannot imagine ever returning to the cludgy stylus-and-menu structure that has haunted Windows Mobile for years.

If you want to free your windows mobile device, this is the answer.

Seth Godin on lessons de musique:

“The biggest opportunity for the music business is to combine permission with subscription. The possibilities are endless.”

There is so much understanding packed into this I hardly know where to begin.

Whilst labels fight to retain a business they have profiteered from for years, artists are embracing this ideal directly, forging new partnerships with the consumer and fan alike. It’s a level of intimacy the big labels have only ever dreamed of achieving.

Translation? Lables have to evolve, grow and most importantly adapt to new technologies and mediums.. or face eventual extinction.

Jeff Atwood has a great piece on the relentless pace of programming change:

“It’s no longer unique for something to be new, no longer interesting when something is shiny. Eventually, you grow weary of shiny new things.”

The Magpie Effect — no sooner do we finally get a chance to check out some new programming platform, it’s already obsolete and out-of-favour.

Why should anyone invest time and energy developing in the latest craze, when even it’s biggest proponents and drum beaters change their minds on the current framework flavour every other week?!

There in, gentle readers, is the moral of the story and why it’s a rare thing indeed to see such technologies embraced by a wider audience or why they seldom seem to gain much long-term traction, despite the hype.

The pace of change is such that both platform and programmer alike become their own worst enemy, dooming the platform before it has any real chance of taking wing.

A conspirational hat wearer believes Rands in Repose is Garbage:

“I really don’t know how to approach this; I thought it was sarcasm until I read the rest of the article. Is it supposed to be profound?”

Profound? No.

Is it an interesting insight into “data on data”, that is, taking an existing data set and performing statistical analysis on it? Yes.

Indeed I’ve noticed the article cropping up in discussion already — along with some fascinating patterns regarding twitter usage.

Rands in Repose is a smart read as it’s author takes the time to break often-complex concepts down to a level the lay-person can grasp, not because it’s pitched as some esoteric Mecca.

Once again Jessica Hagy finds the mark:

“Please, give the writers whatever they want.”

Could not agree more, lest we suffer more reality show tomfoolery.

Joen, a smart chap whom I read quite diligently perhaps passes the comment of the week:

Usability is not a Jackson Pollock painting.

Whilst Joen argues that Wordpress is the single best blogging platform out there, and to be fair his comments are true to an extent, it does suffer mix of legacy design elements with an assortment of new css-slicing techniques that result in a UI challenged (at best) product.

The interface is, quite frankly, shocking. Traversing the UI isn’t a fun process — and the less spoken of the template engine and it’s propensity to mix structure and presentation, the better. It’s not uncommon to hear the phrase “it should not be this hard” within the community.

The demo Joen points to is a classic example of why the Wordpress developers just don’t seem to “get” the idea of smart UI design — repeated vertical scrolling just to post and or edit an entry isn’t the bastion of great design.

The community has attempted to help out in the past and received little more than passing interest — amusingly whilst there is now some hint of ’shuttle’ in the 2.3.x releases, it’s at best a passing shadow of what could have been. Without a solid commitment to get it right, Wordpress will always be an ungainly and navigationally challenged beast.

Whilst Habari may have been a haven for ex-Wordpress developers, it’s yet to really gain any traction. One wonders what would have been if the same creative and design flair had been welcomed by the Wordpress project team instead of the litany of excuses reasons why it’s always just too hard.

Shawn Blanc takes a fresh look at an increasingly popular herb and notes:

“And Shaun Inman’s Mint is a website analytics program for those kinds of people: The people who highly appreciate spectacular (and tasty) things.”

I’ve often wondered quite why folks are so wrapped up in this web statistics product. Sure, I’ve been aware for a while now that it’s a good application. But there are many good statistics applications out there. What makes this any different to the rest?

Mr Blanc answers that question in spades, tracing the progress of the tasty snack that has become an addictive narcotic for an increasing number of users. And it’s reviews like this that really make me — as a prospective customer — salivate at the thought of what it might do for my appetite in turn.

Mr Dunlop-Walters has recently redesigned:

“I have redesigned this ‘ere tumblelog.. Personally, I think it’s rather nice (though the header is a little boring).”

I’m an absolute sucker for a minimalist design.

Soft browns and large clear font choices for navigation and informational elements makes reading a joy — numblr is yet another fine example showcasing tumblr, and that it isn’t yet another haven of re-re-regurgitated scum and villainy.

If there is one thing you read today, make it this:

“Could a morbidly obese goalie shut out an NHL team?”

So begins a fantastically comical excerpt from the book “Andy Roddick Beat me With a Frying Pan” by Todd Gallagher.

Stumbled on a short article relating to that weird effect where stressful moments seem to happen in slow motion:

“To see if danger makes people experience time in slow motion, scientists at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston tried scaring volunteers.”

“Scientists had volunteers dive backward with no ropes attached, into a special net that helped break their fall. They reached 70 mph during the roughly three-second, 150-foot drop.”

Interestingly the research done seems to suggest the unusual time dilation occurs based more on how memories are laid down, rather than as a result of reactions to body chemistry, such as adrenaline or dopamine.

An entirely fascinating read.