One of the rules I have when I consider writing a piece for Kickingbear is that it must be, to my mind, something contrary or a worthwhile addition to the discussion. There are many fantastic writers out there covering the same topics, their thoughts and conclusions most often align with my own. I…

"Today, a programmer is someone who complains unless the problem being solved has already been solved" http://t.co/wl5qLdlC

December 26, 2011 Learning from Games «Gamification» is a word and concept invented by idiocrats who confuse humane with manipulative . There are many problems with «gamification», but I don’t think this is one of them. Essentially, all UI design is about manipulating users, whether you’re coming up…

It is time to end the war on drugs worldwide. Portugal’s 10 year experiment shows enough is enough http://t.co/W7cBO4uV

Dear TextMate, I wanted to write you this letter after we bumped into each other on the street yesterday. I guess it’s long overdue. I’m glad you’re doing well, and that you’re going to be at 2.0 soon . I know you always wanted that. You look good, and I’m happy for you. We didn’t have much time to…

The secret history of about:jwz and the Netscape throbbers: http://t.co/G7WV8cZZ

In my earlier 20s when I knew everything, I was a much bigger evangelist for my technology choices. I’m accused of fanboyism a lot more these days, but only because Hacker News keeps sending huge waves of people here who tell me I’m an idiot. But I used to be much more annoying with pushing my…

The ability to read uncluttered web pages is going mainstream. I made the point recently that technical people can avoid, or at least cut down on, ads, sharing buttons, and clutter when reading web pages — they have RSS readers, Instapaper, Readability, Safari’s Reader button, AdBlock, Flipboard,…

What is it that we do now? This question was posed to me by the digital editor of a longstanding print magazine. It came at the end of a discussion that ranged from tablet apps and workflows to business models and markup, in which we agreed that everyone needed to learn and adapt, but no one quite…

Exhibit A in the case against Walter Isaacson’s flawed Jobs biography: Malcolm Gladwell in last week’s New Yorker, arguing that Jobs was “a tweaker” : In 1779, Samuel Crompton, a retiring genius from Lancashire,invented the spinning mule, which made possible the mechanizationof cotton manufacture.…

Adobe announced today that they won’t be making any more versions of Flash Player for mobile devices , but as usual for large companies, you have to work hard to decipher what they’ve said. Confusing, marketing-voiced corporate communication is a terrible problem in this industry, and it’s damaging…

So, here's a Vision Of The Future that's popular right now. It's a lot of this sort of thing. As it happens, designing Future Interfaces For The Future used to be my line of work . I had the opportunity to design with real working prototypes, not green screens and After Effects, so there certainly…

New on ZM: The effects of Chelsea’s pressing game in 2011/12 http://t.co/gHQDuBAZ

I last saw Steve Jobs a year and half ago. I spent an hour alone in his company while he showed me the latest piece of magical hardware to have come from the company he had founded in 1976, the yet to be released Apple iPad. Naturally I was flattered to have been approved by him to be the one to…

Apple’s cycles Over the past week or so I found I have seriously misjudged the iPhone 4S announcement, and I’d like to set the record straight. After reading a few interesting pieces I realised I’d misunderstood Apple’s patterns and cycles, and I saw how brilliant the 3GS move is. I decided to write…

The recent announcement of changes coming for Google Reader worries me some. Though I don’t use Google Reader directly, I — like many iPhone, iPad, and Mac users — use RSS readers that sync via Google Reader. This announcement isn’t just a reminder of the fragility of the system: it removes some…

Waffle is winding down and will be revisiting some subjects in an apocalyptic manner. Four years ago today, thanks to connivery and the collaboration of a helpful friend , my first iPhone arrived, the US GSM-only, first-ever iPhone model. In four days, the Swedish iPhone 4S will be launched, and…

21 October 2010 Note: I wrote this about a month ago. And like many writing exercises for me its value turned out to be cathartic more than anything else and I never pushed publish. Then I read something John Allsopp wrote yesterday and got excited. This is a response to a blog post by Joe Hewitt,…

Is the software industry trying to quietly kill development of open education resources? http://t.co/niOazALV