Archive for December, 2011:
Speaking at Kscope 12
I’ve been accepted to speak at Kscope 12, the big ODTUG (@odtug) user group conference which is in San Antonio, June 24-28. My session is called Extend Oracle WebCenter to Infinity and Beyond, and yes, you can expect lots of Toy Story references. The session is scheduled for Monday, June 25 from 4:15 to 5:15, so [...]
Seeing Santa Hacks
My daughter is about nine months old now, and she’s thoroughly enjoying all the hubbub of Christmas. We’ve taken her to a nearby grower to cut down our tree, to the zoo to see all the lights, and of course, to sit on Santa’s lap. That last one was an adventure, one that could have been greatly [...]
Helvetica, the Documentary
I recently finished watching Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica. Yes, it’s a documentary about the ubiquitous typeface. Pretty sure I heard about it first from Paul (@ppedrazzi), which makes sense, given the content. I like most documentaries, and this one appeals to the wannabe designer and font, erm typeface, nerd in me. It’s also an interesting historical study in the [...]
Clara Shih Joins the Starbucks Board Of Directors
If you doubted the power of social, this bit of news might serve as a wake-up call, or it might reenforce your beliefs. Twenty-Nine-Year-Old Hearsay Social CEO Clara Shih Joins Starbucks Board Of Directors | TechCrunch Back in 2007, Clara mashed up Salesforce and Facebook into an unofficial app called Faceforce. Creepy, yes, but very [...]
The Scoop on WebCenter Evangelism
Sometimes, I write about work stuff. This is one of those times. You may have seen recently that Noel (@noelportugal) and I joined a brand-spanking, new team called WebCenter evangelism. You might also recall that the team’s mission is: . . . to raise the profile of Oracle in all of the markets/conversations in which WebCenter [...]
The Design of Road Signs
Even though I read several design blogs, it’s not very often I come across anything about road signs, let alone two different pieces about different influential designers. Today, I did. First, there’s this bit on the English pair Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, who were “the graphic designers standardised the road network, created many of its [...]
The LunaTik Pen, Stylus and, Well, Pen
Apparently, I’m not alone in thinking that tablets would be a whole lot more usable and useful with a good stylus, and it’s always good to have a pen. So, why not combine the two into something awesome? Check out the LunaTik Pen, straight from the minds of the designer who created the TikTok iPod [...]
NY Times R&D Has a Sci-Fi Mirror Called Reveal
Check this out, the NY Times Research & Development Lab has a prototype of that smart mirror you see in sci-fi movies like Total Recall and Minority Report. It’s called Reveal, and it looks awesome. Reveal Project – Personal Data Mirror from NYT R&D on Vimeo. More importantly, the NY Times has an R&D lab?
Another Cool Design Tool, UXPin
UXPin (h/t TechCrunch) eases the pain of converting paper prototypes into digital wireframes by making the process as simple as taking and emailing a photo. OK, there are some caveats. First, you’ll need to use their paper prototype notebooks, which look to be very nice. They have web app and an iPhone app notebooks. Then, [...]
Very Cool, Android Design Preview
This is just plain sweet. Check out Android Design Preview (h/t Engadget), a Java utility that allows you to preview your hi-fi Android mockups (or anything on your computer for that matter) live on the device: Sounds like you’ll need the Android SDK too to use adb, Android Debug Bridge. Kudos to Roman Nurik (@romannurik) for [...]
CEO Bans Email, Wins at PR
This smacks of a PR play, albeit a successful one. CEO bans email, encourages social networking — Engadget Even so, I wonder if the results of the experiment will ever see the same level of transparency. I’ve been among those who proclaim email dead, but over the years, email has become more pervasive, not less. [...]
Developeronomics
Presented without comment, I give you The Rise of Developeronomics, please forgive the damn interstitial. It’s six pages without a full-page version; the tl;dr version is invest in developers, ideally the 10x ones because this is the only investment that will hold value over the next few years. An interesting read for sure. I have some quibbles, [...]
AppsLab News
2011 has been a year of change for the ‘Lab. We welcomed a new member in May, Noel Portugal (@noelportugal), but then lost Rich (@rmanalan) to Atlassian in August and Anthony (@anthonyslai) to Taleo in September. Uncertainty played a role in each of their departures. For quite some time, the future of this team has [...]
Three Small and Useful Development Tools for a Monday
Last week, I came across a few development tools that I wanted to share. The first is Mobilizer, recommended to me by a new friend, Noël Jaffré (@noeljaffre) from the Fatwire acquisition. Mobilizer is an Adobe AIR app that lets you preview mobile content from your desktop. Currently, it can render the iPhone 4, HTC EVO, Palm [...]
