Author: Daniel

Daniel https://turnings.phrasewise.com/ In the 4th grade Daniel was asked to step in into the hall because he was coaching fellow students on a similarity assignment he provided the class. Since then, Daniel’s passion for helping people has propelled him to be a creative developer of software and systems, and a team coach who excels at successfully delivering business value. Daniel founded QuietlyHelping in 2009 in order to have a direct hand in helping families with the struggles of debilitating disease. QuietlyHelping is an organization of compassion and empathy that brings ease, comfort, smiles, laughter, healing, and love to people battling cancer and other diseases. Spare time activities include cycling, occasional work as a musician, woodworking, photography, and reading books he never got around to in school. Unsurprisingly, Daniel is able to cook minute rice in just under thirty seconds.
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Rob Walker: Swoosh. Repeat.

Rob Walker: Swoosh. Repeat. : Observers Room: Design Observer:

The other thought is maybe a little less upbeat: It involves a paper (PDF) published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2007, titled “Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity.” The underlying study built on the intuitive and well-established notion that if a lot of people express belief in some idea or point of view, we tend to figure there is likely some legitimacy to it. In this set of experiments, researchers presented subjects with homeowners’ opinions about a land-use proposal. As expected, those exposed to more positive opinions had a more positive assessment. More surprisingly, that turned out to be true even when the positive bias came by way of the same homeowner expressing the same favorable opinion multiple times. And it wasn’t a case of mistaking the source of the repetitive voice; indeed, the effect even held up when a statement was repeated merely by way of what looked to subjects like a software glitch. The paper’s subtitle sums up the implication: “A repetitive voice can sound like a chorus.”

Obviously I don’t mean to suggest that either of these comparison points can be carried directly into the realm of a repeated graphic mark. But something about the success of the Swoosh, and the way the brain apparently relates to repetition, does seem relevant to logo design. After all, we’re constantly hearing about this or that brand hoping to boost “awareness,” thus sales, by freshening up, tweaking, or flat-out re-inventing its logo. Maybe they lesson of the mighty Swoosh is: Just don’t do it.

[It’s been around for 40 years? Sheesh.]

Beyond the Uncanny Valley

Beyond the Uncanny Valley:

One of the great charms of the Tin Tin movie (besides its solid story, and uplifting sensibility) is the incredible degree of detail, texture, lighting, and drama that infuses every scene. Because the whole movie is synthetic, every scene can be composed perfectly, lit perfectly, arranged perfectly, and captured perfectly. There is a painterly perfection that the original Tin Tin comics had that this movie captures. This means that the stupendous detail found in say TinTin’s room, or in a back alley, or on the ship’s deck can be highlighted beyond what it could in reality.

[It’s already on my “toosee” list.]

Source: The Technium

The best American wall map

The best American wall map: David Imus

The best American wall map: David Imus’ “The Essential Geography of the United States of America”:

By contrast, David Imus worked alone on his map seven days a week for two full years. Nearly 6,000 hours in total. It would be prohibitively expensive just to outsource that much work. But Imus—a 35-year veteran of cartography who’s designed every kind of map for every kind of client—did it all by himself. He used a computer (not a pencil and paper), but absolutely nothing was left to computer-assisted happenstance. Imus spent eons tweaking label positions. Slaving over font types, kerning, letter thicknesses. Scrutinizing levels of blackness. It’s the kind of personal cartographic touch you might only find these days on the hand-illustrated ski-trail maps available at posh mountain resorts.

[snip -Ed]

This object—painstakingly sculpted by a lone, impractical fellow—is a triumph of indie over corporate. Of analog over digital. Of quirk and caprice over templates and algorithms. It is delightful to look at. Edifying to study. And it may be the last important paper map ever to depict our country.

[Beautiful, and loaded with visual information. If you love design, maps, or geography this is amazing. Available here, and there’s a downloadable explanatory text here. The index and other stuff are available as well. Wishlisted.]

Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking

Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking:

Here is the advice – and remember it is wrong:

All those apps in the multitasking bar on your iOS device are currently active and slowing it down, filling the device’s memory or using up your battery. To maximise performance and battery life, you should kill them all manually.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. There are caveats to this but anyone dispensing the advice above is clearly uninformed enough that they will certainly not be aware of these subtleties.

[Listen up.]

Source: Fraser Speirs

A VeloDramatic Report Card

Fran and Alberto Contador

A VeloDramatic Report Card:

I took it to my friendly neighborhood Apple store and remarkably they confirmed they had a known video issue with the original mainboard. They wrote up the $500 repair then credited me for the whole amount promising a five-day turnaround. The next day, less than 24 hours later, the store called to say the repair was done and the MBP ready for pickup. Superb!
Now you could chalk this video resurrection up to luck, but twice during the year I had power bricks fail. The Apple mag connector is very cool, but like all cables eventually wires pull loose. Both times, with no prompting from me, Apple representatives replaced the adapters free of charge. In an age where service and customer loyalty are largely forgotten, Apple does all the little things to earn my trust. I don’t think I’m alone and that’s why Apple is doing so well.
Because of that experience my next laptop will be a Mac.

[Nice. Interesting changes for Michael this past year. Nice to see his business flourishing.]

Cipollini’s take on Andy Schlek’s Tour

Cipollini Warns That Cavendish Must Not Waste Talent:

While Cipollini expects that Contador and Cadel Evans will again be the men to beat at the Grand Tours in 2012, he is somewhat less enthusiastic about Andy Schleck’s prospects and has scant regard for his cautious tactical approach.

“His problem is Fränk and vice-versa,” he said. “How they rode the Tour de Suisse is an example of that. They’re incomprehensible. They cancel each other out in turn. I’d like to see him more decisive, but instead he attacks and after four pedal strokes he turned around. He gives the impression of being a radio-controlled rider.”

[I’m curious to see if this changes with Bruneel at the helm.]