Tatsuo Horiuchi bought a computer to start creating digital artwork. He decided to use Excel because: “Graphics software is expensive but Excel comes pre-installed in most computer. And it has more functions and is easier to use than [Microsoft] Paint.”
Horiuhi’s work is absolutely stunning. You will never find a more perfect example that tools do not an artist make.
A lot of nostalgia in those banners.
For something not quite so nostalgic, see WWDC’s history of sell-out times. And for more shots of this year’s banners, check out MacStories.
Kyle Baxter:
Removing your Glass device will feel very much like losing a limb or sense—something that you’ve grown used to depending on and using is gone. Through this much deeper integration, these devices could fundamentally alter the human experience and what it means to be human.
That might sound alarmist, like science fiction, or—if you own a smartphone—just remind you of that small moment of dread, like something’s wrong, when you leave the house without your phone.
Dustin Curtis’ impressions of Google Glass after spending some time using the device:
While some of the human <=> computer interface design challenges facing ambient computers are obvious in theory, many of them are very hard to identify until you actually experience using the device as part of your life. These computers are different. They don’t help you accomplish tasks with programs and apps, but rather they very literally augment the experience of living your life. The technical problems facing these devices are tough ones– ambient computers need to be intelligent enough in software and advanced enough technologically to get out of the way. Glass isn’t there yet. Not even close.
Byword on the Mac is one of the three apps in my writing workflow toolkit — working alongside nvALT and MarsEdit, it is my go-to writing app for anything longer than a few sentences.
And today Byword 2 is out for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
When Byword for iOS first shipped about a year ago I wrote a review of the 3-app suite, and my thoughts regarding the Byword suite still stand: it’s a glorious set of applications that are feature rich and delightfully designed.
On iPhone and iPad, the 2.0 update rocks some nice visual enhancements that really make it the app easier and more enjoyable to use than before. And that’s saying quite a bit since Byword was a handsome app to begin with. Additionally the iOS apps have some stellar improvements to document syncing for the iOS apps which include better offline support, the ability to move files to different folders (you can even move a document that’s in Dropbox to iCloud, and vice versa), and a clever approach to conflict resolution.
Byword can quickly search through the title and contents of hundreds and hundreds of notes. And with the aforementioned improvements to the design and syncing features, it’s fair to say that Byword on iOS now makes an even more compelling option to those looking for a Dropbox-syncing note app.
The paramount feature of Byword 2 is that you can now use the app to publish directly to your site. If this is a feature that interest you, it’s a $4.99 in-app purchase. I can testify that publishing to WordPress works quite well, though I would like to see better support for assigning tags and categories.
To give Byword access to your weblog, you select Publish from the Byword menu and then enter your site’s credentials. Then, when you’re done with an article and are ready to publish you can either select “Publish” from the File menu or you can click the Publish button that presents itself when you’re in Markdown Preview mode.
Once you hit Publish on an article, a popover window appears where you can then set the metadata for your article. For WordPress this includes title, slug, tags, categories, and even custom fields.
My only quibble here is that Byword doesn’t pre-load the categories of my site and allow me to select from a dropdown list or something — you need to manually type in the name of each category — and there is no auto-complete for previously used categories. Which means you must remember and then type without error the names of the categories you wish to publish within.
Needless to say, I’m really excited about all the updates to Byword. Since I type all of my long-form articles within Byword, it’ll be nice to circumvent my copy-and-paste-to-MarsEdit routine and publish right from Byword itself.
Speaking of Feed Wrangler, last week David Smith shared some behind-the-scenes stats and info for how the first month went.
This is great news. Feed Wrangler is my favorite new RSS syncing service because of its clever and forward-thinking features. But Reeder is the best-looking feed reading client. Now it looks like we’ll have the best of both worlds.
Eric Maierson (via David Friedman):
You are alone in a dark room. Across the floor are the scattered pieces of three or four or five floor lamps. You don’t know how many. There are screws and bulbs and fixtures mixed together. You try not to panic as you feel your way across the floor in search of these pieces.
Writing and editing (and most all other creative endeavors) are those things which you never feel like you’re getting any better at.
When I read some of my old work and cringe then it’s proof (to me, at least) that I’m pretty sure I’m a better writer today than I was 5 years ago. But the day-to-day act and work of doing the writing itself? Well, that doesn’t feel any easier at all. It’s still a difficult and lonely endeavor. All we can do is keep on trying our darndest to do our best creative work.
Something I wrote a few years ago:
Suppose one day I do arrive at some level of skill where the ink flows like honey and the prose like fine wine. I wonder if I’d even realize it. It may very well feel just like it does right now — like today — when it seems as if I can’t even put two words together using copy and paste.
A huge congrats to Pete Licata, the QA manager at the downtown location of Parisi coffee, for winning the 2013 World Barista Championship.
Over the last 10 years, Kansas City has exploded with some absolutely fantastic coffee shops: Broadway (of course) and the Roasterie have been around for a while. We now also have Oddly Correct, Quay, and Parisi, among some others.
A few months ago Parisi opened up a second cafe that’s closer to where I live, and it’s become my new favorite spot to work from on Tuesdays (the day I leave my home office to get out and work from somewhere else).
Rick Stawarz’s story of switching from Things to OmniFocus back in 2010 and then switching back again a few weeks ago:
During my three-year affair with OmniFocus, Things had grown up quite a bit. It finally gained cloud sync and a couple other powerful features.
It’s hard not to pit these two apps against one another because in they’re the two kings of the to-do list hill when it comes to powerful, feature rich, well-designed task apps for the Mac.
And, Rick does a good job at comparing them without claiming one is better than the other, or vice versa. Because one isn’t better than the other — they are both good, they’re just different.
Personally, I love the look of Things as well as Things’ OTA sync, which, though late to the game, is incredibly well done. Also, the scrolling date picker within Things on the iPhone is one of the best and easiest-to-use date picker designs period — Apple themselves should adapt its design.
But I’m an OmniFocus user not so much because I’m a “power user to-do guru”, but because I’ve become too hooked on the Forecast and Review modes of OmniFocus, and the new-ish Mail Drop feature. Also, I use OmniFocus on my iPad a lot, and arguably the iPad version is the best of the 3-app suite. Whereas with Things, the iPad version is arguably the worst of their 3-app suite.
While OmniFocus certainly serves well the “extreme power user” it also has some great features which still suite the more casual user as well. You don’t have to be hardcore to use OmniFocus (though it helps).
Radium is a new way to listen to internet radio. It sits in your menu bar and stays out of your way. And it just works.
With its clean user interface and album cover display, you’re always just a click away from beautiful sounds. Add your favorite tracks to the wish list and check them out later on the iTunes Store. Take the sounds with you using Radium’s built-in AirPlay streaming support. It’s all there.
With the proliferation of services like Spotify and Pandora, why choose Radium? Because with Radium, you don’t have to build up playlists, constantly answer questions about your music preferences, or navigate a cumbersome user interface. Radium is all about the sounds. And these sounds come from over 6000 free stations, maintained and curated by real people like you.
Available for $10 on the Mac App Store. Check it out.
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My thanks to Radium for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Sponsorship by The Syndicate.
Fantastic short documentary about Baltazar Ushca, the last man who still mines and sells ice from Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo. (Via Patrick Rhone.)
Okay, so here’s where I admit that I’m an avid John Mayer fan. His live show in LA back in 2007 is perhaps one of my all-time favorite recordings ever — I wish I could have been there in person.
You know how at a concert it’s normal to have an opening act, a 2nd band, and then the headlining band? Well, for this show Mayer did all three: his acoustic songs as the opening act, then a blues jam session with the John Mayer Trio, and then headlined with his studio band playing his more popular hits.
The video of the concert has a couple songs and other behind-the-scenes tidbits that you don’t get with the audio-only version. I have the iTunes version, and I often turn this on and then just listen to the audio while working. But just recently I saw that the full-length version is also on YouTube. So, boom. Here you go.
Kicking off today’s first YouTube Friday video is this how-to for making one of those huge mall pretzels. Via Cameron Moll’s whimsical new Tumblr, Check This, Boys.