Author Archives: Steve Mays

flickr interestingness

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UPDATE 5/27/19: Looks like these features are no longer available.

Flickr has something called “interestingness.” I don’t know if this is new or I just never noticed. A photo gets included based on “where the click-throughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags” and other stuff. You can spend hours on interestingness so don’t go unless you have some time.

Not sure why, but there’s a calendar view in case you wanted to see interesting photos from June, 2008, for example.

Screen shot 2009-12-07 at Mon, Dec 7, 7.39.16 AM

MacWorld: Waiting in line in the dark and the cold

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Sarah Palin has another book signing at noon today at the Barnes & Noble in Sioux City, Iowa. Supporters spent the night in the parking lot in hopes of getting their book signed. My friend Kay drove up from Des Moines to cover the event and took some photos. The wind chill was about 9 degrees.

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Her story and photos got me thinking about things about which I care enough to wait in line, in the cold (I hate both). I couldn’t come up with much.

There was the time George (pictured), David and I waited in bitter cold weather to attend a taping of Digg Nation in St. Louis.

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I had not idea San Francisco could be so cold at 4:30 a.m. or I would not have waited in line to see Steve Jobs give a keynote at MacWorld.

But the coldest of the cold will always be (I hope) the inauguration. My hands are shaking just typeing these words.

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For whom/what have you/are you willing to wait all night in the freezing cold?

“How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell”

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This little horror story (from The Oatmeal) woud be funnier but for the sad truth that I have committed some of the client sins described here. I like to think I paid for them (on the other side) and now make a concerted effort to let designers do what we hire them to do.

I too have no idea what “pop” means but assume it is a euphemism for: “I don’t like what you’ve shown me and want you to keep doing it over and over until I do.”

Better email

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Nick Bilton came up with 10 ideas for fixing the email glut. These are my favorites:

  • Add reply buttons for YES, NO and MAYBE – Some messages just don’t need a comprehensive reply. If someone e-mails me and asks if I’m available to attend a meeting, rather than take the time to write back with a detailed response, why can’t I just click a YES, NO, or MAYBE button? One click and the e-mail has been dealt with.
  • Cut off anything longer than 140 characters – Speaking of Twitter, do we really need more than 140 characters for most messages? E-mail applications could add a button that would cut off all content longer than 140 characters.
  • A monthly word limit – We have limits on Internet bandwidth, and surcharges to limit the number of minutes we can talk on our cellphones. Why not limit the number of words an e-mail account can pump out each month? (If you go over, that new government e-mail tax kicks in …)