Cameron Moll's Blog, page 33
February 1, 2011
Matryoshka Nesting Kitchen Knives
The knives are beautiful. Sean Michael Ragan's commentary is even better:
I am normally immune to high-design tomfoolery, but if I lived in a universe where I could justify spending hundreds of dollars on a set of nesting kitchen knives, I would snap these up in a second.
Croatia House by Rees Roberts + Partners
What a lovely blend of natural elements and classy design. Definitely saving this one as inspiration.
Old Spice Stats Campaign Poster
Nicely designed by Shelby White. Saved for inspiration influence.
Frank Chimero, "The Shape of Design"
The latest runaway success on Kickstarter. Currently at $42,000 and rising, and that after just 21 hours since the initial announcement. The intro video, albeit a little long, is quite creative. Frank's book is sure to be worth backing.
January 31, 2011
Western Spaghetti
This has been around since July 2008, but it's the first I've seen of it. The stop-motion animation short shows a meal being prepared, but with toys, currency, bubble wrap, and other non-food items creating the meal. See also Human Skateboard by the same studio.
For Non-Startups, Things Just Take Time
That was a nice 10-day break from blogging. I'm back after turning my attention to some projects that needed full-time attention.
Accordingly, I'm growing convinced that, unless one works late nights and weekends like a Bay Area startup, it's difficult for an independent team of two or three to move much faster than a corporate team of twenty.
The team of twenty has quantity on its side — more hands and specialists to execute the work. With that, of course, comes all the red tape, political baggage, and countless meetings that accompany such teams and the organizations that employ them. Quantity suffers at the hand of seemingly endless structure.
The team of two or three has independence on its side — they call the shots, whenever and however they choose. With that, of course, comes all the requisite components for supporting and maintaining the thing they're creating. Customer support, billing, advertising, blogging, tweeting, client and customer acquisition, and the like. Time suffers at the hand of a seemingly endless to-do list.
The independent team soon realizes that speed isn't a luxury; its currency is late nights and long weekends. For those who prefer to keep a semi-regular schedule and who have other things to care for outside of work, we eventually learn to accept that things just take longer than we hope they'd take. Problem solving takes time. Details take time. For, in the words of Charles Eames, "the details are not details, they make the product" (thanks H&FJ).
I'm learning, rather forcibly I suppose, to be okay with things taking time. I'm also learning that often you end up with a better product when you take your time to get all the big and small details just right. It's time well-spent.
Or, at least that's the sales pitch I'm giving myself. So far, I'm sold.
Update: Some additional commentary by Paul Armstrong on the subject.
January 21, 2011
On Wearing the iPod Nano as a Watch
John Gruber, referring to an article by Nilay Patel:
Relevant today because I just got my TikTok band for the Nano, as my reward for backing the wildly-successful Kickstarter project. The TikTok is everything I could have hoped for: the Nano fits perfectly and the wristband is supple and comfortable. But for the reasons outlined by Patel above, the current Nano just isn't ideal for use as a full-time wristwatch.
Not promising for me, as I believe my TikTok is sitting in my business UPS mailbox as I write this. The good news? I ordered the TikTok before shelling out cash for a Nano, which I still haven't done.
On Hiring Front-end Engineers
Speaking of freelance gigs and jobs, Chris Zacharias, former YouTube engineer (I believe), authors some thoughts on what to look for in front-end engineers.
On scripting:
Bad front-end engineers are dependent on jQuery and other libraries. Good front-end engineers make use of libraries like jQuery to empower themselves, but are not beholden to them.
On art:
Nearly every first rate web developer I have worked with had some kind of extracurricular, no matter how casual, that focused around some form of art. I have worked with painters, photographers, singers, writers, actors, musicians, sculptors, printmakers, and graffiti artists. One question I started to ask candidates was 'Do you play an instrument?' If they did, it was usually a good sign.
Naturally, I might disagree with point #5, having seen many successful hires online including a couple of my own (and still working with one of them today):
If you want to find good front-end engineers, look to the newspaper and print industry.
But a solid read nonetheless.
/via Hacker News
RØDE VideoMic Pro
I like my current RØDE mic, but I definitely don't like how cumbersome it is. Not only is this Pro version more compact, but supposedly it sounds much better, too. Scheduled to be released in a few weeks and retail at $230, or about $90 more than the current version.
Additional details and a sample video available over at Philip Bloom's site.
Freelance Gig: iPad / iOS Developer
Possibly the shortest listing ever posted to Authentic Jobs:
Worry Free Labs in Austin, TX is looking for an experienced iOS casual game developer to help us develop an iPad game in progress: http://fiveredwoods.com.
Work remotely.
Full stop.
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