English

  • Tori Amos in Paris in June and I’m not going. (27 April 2005)

    Tori Amos will be in Paris in June. Oh yes, I should be pleased that the diva comes to France. In a way, I am.
    Yet of all concert halls she chose the Zenith. My gosh.
    I saw her the last time she came, with my good friend Kidy (yes, one ’d’ only, but it’s pronounced ’kiddy’). And it was not good. I’m not blaming the singer of course, and why should I? She was as good and sexy and energetic as ever. But this concert hall had such an echo one felt as though in a covered market place.
    Not (…)

  • Symbolizing accessibility: redoing an icon (17 January 2005)

    I was surfing Joe Clark’s website for an upcoming project (teaser, anyone?), and found this little jewel: an explanation of how to make an icon more readable in all kinds of situations, even on a degraded interface such as a TV screen.

  • Crazy skeletons (31 December 2004)

    I love what Michael Paulus did: rip off cartoon characters’s skins and try to imagine the underlying skeleton. Very funny. And the thinking involved is a good read, too.

  • When does a job become a way of life? (4 December 2004)

    When you are so close to your work, it’s no longer just a job, it’s a way of life.
    Exactly the way I feel about the web.
    The whole piece is touching. You can see how a geek (of sorts) retires and explains how his life evolved around design and computers. Sigh. Where will I be when I’m sixty? (Via Digital Web Magazine)

  • How Content Aggregators Change Navigation and Control of Content (5 November 2004)

    The home page is no longer the centerpiece of sort it’s always been assumed to be in a user’s experience when accessing a web site. Aggregators are promoting a shift in the control of content. Thus we’re slowly moving towards user-centric, faceted classifications. As well, I might add, as a redefinition of the congruent portion of what’s available on a given page.

  • Metadata for the Masses (25 October 2004)

    Peter Merholz explains how freely-entered keywords (adaptive classification, so to speak) can make indexation easier, as opposed to a strict classical hierarchical structure. (via Digital Web Magazine)

  • Nickame or not? A recurrent question (28 August 2004)

    I’ve been wondering for quite a long time now about "noms-de-plume" on the internet: how can one establish a coherent and unambiguous presence online?

  • Fitts’ Law (20 August 2004)

    According to Fitts’ Law: The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target.
    Dave Shea has put this principle to use on Mezzoblue v5 and explains how.

  • The Daily Flight: Long Live Line Length (18 August 2004)

    Note to self for future reference: 10-11 words on a line, 10-11 words on a line, 10-11 words on a line.

  • Computer age (and time) (17 August 2004)

    I’ve just finished Marshall McLuhan’s Book of Probes and among many fascinating points, there was this one which sticks very well to our internet times:
    With the computer we all move out of the age of number and statistics into the age of the simultaneous awareness of structures.
    As a proof, one needs only mention the fact that everyday I write code, and at the same time read technical blogs, reply to professional emails and participate in our company’s IRC. All at the same time. It’s (…)

  • RSS won’t get you laid (9 August 2004)

    Funny, but quite realistic. Mark Pilgrim has a point:
    But really, you should ask yourself if you need to keep up with 100 or 200 or 1400 different “sources” of “content” on an hourly basis. Shouldn’t you be spending more time with your family or something? Or, if you don’t have a family, shouldn’t you be spending time building one? RSS won’t get you laid.

  • Have Content? Get Blog. (5 August 2004)

    As often, D. Keith Robinson is pertinent. His point is that especially if you provide a content-management service, your online presence has to show it’s updated often. And what’s better than to have a blog for that purpose?

  • Redesign and tag transformation (30 July 2004)

    Dunstan Orchard does a magnificent job of explaining how his manic mind reworked all the tiny details that you don’t notice but which make a difference in the end.
    I’m a bit of a tidy-freak sometimes, quoth he. You bet.
    A must-read.

  • Copy-controlled, my foot (5 July 2004)

    Last week I bought Annie Lennox’s last CD, Bare, and it’s copy-controlled.
    How does it work, you ask? Well actually it’s got an ’autorun’ file, so that when you put it in your computer’s CD drive, the CD does not play as a plain CD but a program is executed.
    Just hold the SHIFT key and you’re on, you can play it in Winamp like any other CD... and of course create MP3s in the blink of an eye. Yes, I did test it. The french law authorises you to copy works of art as a personal backup, in (…)

  • Web Design Not Sexy Anymore? (19 May 2004)

    D. Keith Robinson rants about the idea that being a web designer is not as sexy as it once was.
    Are we getting old and grumpy or what?
    Here’s what I posted to his blog:
    I worked in one of those startup dotcoms. Heck yeah it was sexy. Every single day was an adventure in itself. People would ask you in the morning for something you didn’t know how to do it, and by the evening it was up and running. Mad times, but yeah, you’re right: that was sexy.
    Actually right now I’m doing sexy (…)

  • Bad day, so what? (22 March 2004)

    Zach is right: you shouldn’t take on whoever’s around you in the office because you’re having a bad time. If it’s not their fault, don’t blame them for anything.
    That was my five minutes wiseness of the week. Now I can be hellbound again, he he.

  • Twelve weeks, smile! (24 February 2004)

    A baby in six months’ time, and here are the world’s exclusive first pictures!

  • Hush! (24 August 2003)

    Bobby McFerrin, I love you!