Recent Articles

Elizabeth Kolbert:

A second theory that Schulte considers is that “the overwhelm” is a function not so much of how many things Americans have to do but of how much time they spend thinking about how many things they have to do. A doctor who’s running through the list of groceries she needs to pick up on the way home is not actually any busier than one who’s concentrating on the task at hand, but she may feel more beleaguered. Conversely, a lawyer playing with his kids is technically at leisure, but if all the while he’s checking his phone for texts from the office he may feel that he hasn’t had any time off. Schulte terms this the “mental tape-loop phenomenon,” and she argues that it’s sapping our precious energies, so that we can’t even “decide what to think about, worrying about home stuff at work and work stuff at home.”

Jason Kotkke on Amazon’s latest bullshit:

No question about it: this sucks on Amazon’s part and demonstrates the degree to which the company’s top priority isn’t customer service. Better customer service in this case would be to offer these books for sale.

David Sparks on what I think is the most powerful, and underutilized feature of OmniFocus:

Conversely, I rarely use due dates on tasks unless they truly are something with a deadline. Arbitrarily assigning due dates to tasks means that you’re going to be getting lots of alarms for missing due dates on tasks that really aren’t overdue. Eventually you’ll start ignoring the alarms entirely and then you’ll miss a deadline on something that is important. Use your due dates sparingly and make them count.

Start dates, or defer dates as they are now called, are so powerful. Get yourself into the habit of thinking about time spans instead of due dates. Yes, paying your pills needs to be done by the 5th, but it could also be done anytime between the 1st and the 5th. So defer it to the 1st, and make it due the 5th. Then you can see it and maybe act on the action before it becomes urgent.

I am forever grateful to Mr. Sparks for showing me the light on that one.

From Mark Wilson’s interview with Mark Kawano, former Apple designer, has this nugget:

You see companies that have poached Apple designers, and they come up with sexy interfaces or something interesting, but it doesn’t necessarily move the needle for their business or their product. That’s because all the designer did was work on an interface piece, but to have a really well-designed product in the way Steve would say, this ‘holistic’ thing, is everything. It’s not just the interface piece. It’s designing the right business model into it. Designing the right marketing and the copy, and the way to distribute it. All of those pieces are critical.

It’s all too often overlooked that design is more than just the way something looks. Designing a good product is to design a product that is well thought out and consistent through all parts of the product. The business model, the name, the looks, the colors, the target market, etc — every piece matters.

Neat use of Keyboard Maestro, alas I cannot try it as it requires you to use the OmniSync Server (if I am reading it right) — and I am far too paranoid to do that.

Nice set.

Tim Bajarin:

Now, I realize this statement is pure marketing hype and the reality of the Surface Pro 3 replacing all the demand for laptops is absurd. But the message overall that the Surface Pro 3 could replace laptops is going to resonate with many in the enterprise. If Microsoft pushes this message too hard even consumers may start to think this new form factor is a laptop instead of what it really is — a tablet with a keyboard.

I can't get this same thought out of my head. employees may want this and not know it won't (likely) be a good laptop replacement and IT managers will see it as a way to save on costs (laptop + iPad).

Federico Viticci:

The new design modernizes the app, but I feel like usability and legibility have been sacrificed for good looks in some areas of the interface. I'm skeptical about the decision to separate action titles from the checkcircles, and long lists of actions can be difficult to scan quickly. This appears to be a problem in common with many other designs inspired by iOS 7, and I would like The Omni Group to tweak some of their decisions and offer user-configurable settings.

Agreed.

Shawn Blanc:

Every one of the design changes in OmniFocus 2 for Mac is an improvement on an app that has been desperate for a visual overhaul for years. The visual overhaul has been worth the wait.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but it is substantially better.

Finally.

Belinda Luscombe:

A new study out from the Council on Contemporary Families suggests that contrary to most surveys, people are actually more stressed at home than at work.

Men and women, with or without children, doesn't matter.

Josh Ginter on deciding to go with micro four-thirds:

In complete contrast, Micro Four Thirds cameras don’t deliver the same image quality and they are certainly held back technically by their 2x cropped sensors. I don’t think there’s any denying that Micro Four Thirds cameras are not capable of doing the best portraiture.

That entire paragraph isn’t quite correct. The sensors are very good and really only have trouble with huge prints. Beyond that they are on par with most other sensors. This is a long debated topic, but I’m in the camp that the sensor size doesn’t matter.

What’s different between micro four thirds and say Fujifilm is that the latter has different color rendering and the best noise control I’ve ever seen. Different sensors and sensor sizes really only give you different looks in your photography. It’s up to you to decide which look you like.

Emily Oster:

There is no definitive answer in the literature, but reading it all together I find myself more convinced of the sit-stand desk’s benefits than I expected — sufficiently so that the next time I move offices, I’m getting one.

It’s the best way to work. I miss my standing desk when I am at home.

Ladar Levison:

In Virginia, the government replaced its encryption key subpoena with a search warrant and a new court date. I retained a small, local law firm before I went back to my home state, which was then forced to assemble a legal strategy and file briefs in just a few short days. The court barred them from consulting outside experts about either the statutes or the technology involved in the case. The court didn't even deliver transcripts of my first appearance to my own lawyers for two months, and forced them to proceed without access to the information they needed.

His story is absurd, but not because of his stance, but because of the overall lack of due process and — you know — justice.

Brett Terpstra on the DuckDuckGo redesign:

My favorite part of the redesign is that image and video search results are available on the main search page.

It really is a fantastic update.

Rolfe Winkler:

In a December letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was disclosed Tuesday, the search giant said that it could be serving ads and other content on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”

Enjoy your Nest…