Archives for 2007

The Vile Musk of an Ash Tray

"Today, it’s difficult to recall vividly that time when smoking was so prevalent in New York. Memories of that era are hazy and absurd compared ...


Use Your Common Sense, People

A coworker of mine recently sent me a link and said "Cool, I didn't know the Germans had a walking tank!" After a few seconds of ...


Half-Life 2 Episode 1: One Paragraph Review

I was going to write a review, but instead I'm going to quote from an email Miles sent me, because he puts it better than ...


The Email Standards Project

In 1998, Jeffrey Zeldman co-founded the Web Standards Project to fight for better support of web standards from the browser manufacturers and web developers. It ...


Last FM Charts

What you're looking at here is one small slice of a waveform graph of my music listening habits over the last year, as recorded via ...


Pop Art is Hiring

Pop Art, the interactive marketing agency where I work, is currently hiring for several positions, including an account director, a .NET web developer, and most ...


Duplicate Work is a Bug

"You’ll sometimes hear people joke that good programmers are 'lazy', and what this means is simply that good programmers tend to see duplicated work as ...


Good Web Designers are like Good Newspaper Designers

"The experienced web designer, like the talented newspaper art director, accepts that many projects she works on will have headers and columns and footers. Her ...


Zoe is Nine Months Old

Dear Zoe, Well, let's see. This month you had your first Thanksgiving dinner at Eric and Jill's. You caught a nasty cold and then gave it ...


Battlestar Galactica: Razor: One Paragraph Review

Last week, Annie and I went to Seattle to see the special two-hour episode of Galactica, Razor. Microsoft was sponsoring a free screening in select ...


A Few Dumb Questions

"I’d rather answer a few dumb questions than put up with a few dumb assumptions." -- Aaron Cannon, in reply to a question about whether he ...


Will Wright on Simulation

"Implication is more efficient than simulation." -- Don Hopkins, summarizing Will Wright, discussing why SimCity isn't as realistic as it appears. Update: Edited to properly attribute the ...


When Stock Art Attacks

This magazine cover is a perfect example of why you should always have someone else review any art decisions you make. There are several things ...


Annie was Right

Annie: "I just wanted to let you know that I was right, she was pooping." Scott: "This is the weirdest phone call I've ever received." -- Annie ...


Rove on Blogging

"The Web has given angry and vitriolic people more of a voice in public discourse. People in the past who have been on the nutty ...


I Was A Baker

"I was a baker. You can’t just turn up the oven and expect to take the bread out sooner." -- Eric Danielson, NorthTemple.com QA lead, commenting ...


Post-It by Number

For the Pop Art 10-year anniversary party, the creative team laid out a 20-foot-wide grid of three-inch squares on the wall of the conference room. ...


The Last Man on Earth: One Paragraph Review

As far as he can tell, Dr. Robert Morgan (played by Vincent Price) is the only survivor of a plague that turns its victims into ...


Zoe is Eight Months Old

Dear Zoe, Writing these newsletters each month is daunting. I always feel like I'm struggling to find enough to write about, but by the time I'm ...


Octo-Baby

Annie has been planning this costume for a ridiculously long time, and the final result is adorable. I, for one, welcome our new octo-overlord. On a ...


41 Useful CSS Links

I was clearing out my bookmarks recently, and noticed that I had a pretty large collection of web development and CSS-related bookmarks that I never ...


Portal: One Paragraph Review

Portal is absolutely good. The only criticism I have is that it's really short. That said, in the commentary track, the developers mention that they're ...


Best. Crossover. Ever.

In 1963, Marvel Comics published what became the first issue in a three-part crossover event that covered three different books and three sets of authors ...


Tomato Pie Recipe

At a recent family reunion, my Uncle Bob and Aunt Susan brought a Tomato Pie. It sounds horrible, but it's the most delicious thing I've ...


Web Design for Sara Ryan

In January, I got an email from Sara Ryan, asking if I would be interested in designing a website for her: Hi Scott -- I found ...