Linkdump for May 27th
¶ by Rob Friesel-
at Boing Boing — a quote within a quote, re: Exxon Valdez:
Despite heroic efforts involving more than 11,000 people, 2 billion dollars, and aggressive application of the most advanced technology available, only about 8 percent of the oil was ever recovered.
In other words, off-shore drilling (and petrol, in a more general sense) is a fundamentally bankrupt institution and we better start in earnest on our alternatives right fucking now.
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at blog maverick (via DF):
If you dont think the company you are buying is worth at least a quarter more than what you are paying , why are you buying shares ?
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at Etsy's Code as Craft blog — an awesome (and thorough) run-down of their push-button deployment process. Good readin'.
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A List Apart:
In recent years, I’ve been meeting with more companies that request “an iPhone website” as part of their project. It’s an interesting phrase: At face value, of course, it speaks to mobile WebKit’s quality as a browser, as well as a powerful business case for thinking beyond the desktop. But as designers, I think we often take comfort in such explicit requirements, as they allow us to compartmentalize the problems before us. We can quarantine the mobile experience on separate subdomains, spaces distinct and separate from “the non-iPhone website.” But what’s next? An iPad website? An N90 website? Can we really continue to commit to supporting each new user agent with its own bespoke experience? At some point, this starts to feel like a zero sum game. But how can we—and our designs—adapt?
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via DF:
If it were only that the prequels were ruined by subpar writing, I would be okay. Disappointed, but hardly inconsolable. Maybe Lucas had just caught lightning in a bottle with the originals. But unfortunately, the nature of the prequels seems to spoil the originals merely by occupying shelf space near them, via some sort of heinous osmosis. Now, if you watch the prequels before the original trilogy (in chronological order), the ending of Empire is completely without weight. The biggest reveal in the history of cinema is ruined. Sure, there’s the dramatic irony of watching Episode IV and V knowing Luke and Leia are siblings and Vader is their father, but it’s not played for dramatic irony; for that you need suspense, and the climax of Empire is dependent on surprise, not suspense. It is the reason I will ensure that my children not watch the prequels until they’ve seen the original trilogy (in whatever form it exists by that point).
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at merhl (via JL) — The implicit question here: at what point does distinctive look-and-feel become a barrier to user comprehension and/or adoption?
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