design is

The “design is” is a concept created by J. Hicks as a wallpaper. I doubt this is a real message, it is mostly a humorous approach to design. However it soon became a trend and many designers made their own wallpapers with their own messages.

There were so many that a public group was created in Flickr under the name Designer Wallpaper. It is a group for geeks mostly, but anyone can use these wallpapers.

It came to me intuitively and I created my very own versions. You can find them in the group or download them by clicking on them right here. They are of fine resolution and dimensions of 1900x1200 px.

Magazines

I love magazines. As child I used to read every magazine my parents bought and I also bought my owns. Now, there are 2 magazines I never miss, despite the fact I don’t keep archives.

A reason why I like magazines is that a magazine is the mirror of many people’s work. This work might include research, opinions, artwork etc. The feeling you got when you flip through the glossy pages is great. The weight of the paper, its essence, the colors, the layout of a page are foreign lands waiting to be discovered.

Magazines are also a part of my work even though I am not a graphic designer. The leading and the space between columns, the typography, the illustration and the logos are ideas which can be used in Web design as well. The way an article is written can be also a guide for the Web writing. Of course paper and screen are two different areas. However there are certain similarities.

Greek Magazines

While good magazines can pull different trigers in your mind, Greek magazines do not fall in this category. Their layout is boring, sometimes real sad. Articles are conservative and you don’t gain a lot of things after reading them. Once, I read a Greek translation of an article which happened to have read it before in English. Despite the fact that English is not my mother language I found reading the Greek version extremely difficult. In the end I don’t want to pay for something so unimaginative. Not to talk about the cheating of design layouts. So I abandoned Greek magazines and I am fine with it.

The only issue is that I can’t find the magazines I want on time. Most of the times foreign magazines arrive at Greece weeks after publication. So I keep looking in kiosks for my favorite magazines and people around me think I am trying to steal them. Subscription could be a solution.

After buying my Mac I tried to get into the world of magazines around Macs. I bought Macworld, it is good, but I expected more. So I stick to Practical Web Design which I discovered lately and to WIRED which is my favorite one since years. If someone knows any other good magazines, for geeks or not, please go ahead and let me know what’s your favorite one.

Jobs vs. Gates

Hard to believe, if you are not an eye witness. But it’s true. The two most important men of IT (whatever it may mean) shared the same stage at the same time sitting next to each other. And they talked seriously among many intervals of joking.

All this happened during the latest All things Digital conference. It is the new of the week, the month and the year.

I ‘m with Jobs because he makes better products and because he is a reason to think and move ahead.

However it would be foolish not to appreciate Gates. His work and products gave us the opportunity to become aware of a new digital era and find work. If he hadn’t computers so popular we would probably still use those green monitors. Is there anyone who remembers them?

They appeared wearing their typical costumes. Jobs wore his black sweater, blue jeans and sneakers. Indeed we switched back to New Balance despite the cooperation between Apple and Nike. Gates was again a nerd. He wore his classic shirt and trousers. No surprise.

It was obvious that Jobs was going to be the star of the show. However both were nervous at certain moments. I noticed Jobs while Gates did the talking: a hidden smile and the eye of the tiger before the attack. When he had something obvious to say he did his magic. When he didn’t he was somewhat awkward.

Gates let his opponent talk more, but he didn’t halt making jokes and even talking about the Mac and the PC guy. He apparently was less expressive than Jobs and more unassertive. He was Gates himself.

The people who took the interview did magnificent work: they were loose but they made some inconvenient questions to their guests. On the other hand, what can be really inconvenient for there guys? Maybe nothing.

Such an event can be the beginning of rumors and a new episode of the battle between the fans of each other. What I suggest is to relax and relish this one moment.

Sketches in notebooks

I have no talent at sketching. It is impossible for me to sketch anything which resembles a real thing, unless diagrams. I ‘ve learned to create diagrams during my studies in Physics at the University. However, in Web design it is useful (and sometimes relieving) to sketch your next project on paper. Of course it is also much easier than making e.g. a human silhouette.

Some months ago I bought I notebook (partly affected by Khoi Vinh) and I said to myself “I ‘ll make something in the end - no matter how useless am I”. In the end I was surprised. Not because I discovered a hidden ability but because I saw that sketching can help you a lot sometimes:

• You create a mockup faster and you focus on usage. It is easy to fix a scenario by beginning from a single word.
• To make mistakes is good because you can’t delete them. It is easy to come back later and see why you shouldn’t make the same mistakes twice.
• Mockups quite oddly are very friendly to other people
• A mockup is a future guide for something completely different
• Your notebook is a field of experiments. The other day I started from the notion “tag”, I tried to make a metaphor on the paper and I ended up with something very original and interesting.
• You can carry your notebook practically everywhere
• A notebook is much less tiring for your eyes than a screen

I am sure there are plenty of reasons why sketching is good for Web design. What were written here are the impressions of a newbie.

The next photos show my notebook as well as a mockup of a project I ‘ve been developing for some time now.

Visiting Friday’s

I admit it. When someone proposes Friday’s for dinner or lunch I accept with enthusiasm. It is too American for us, Greeks, but I like it.

One way of thinking is: “I would go anywhere to eat because I am hungry”. Another is: “I am going to eat somewhere where I like to be”. There are dozens ways of thinking in between. In Friday’s eating is just a part of the whole thing. The rest of it is hard to resist.

Going there is an experience

Friday’s is more than a restaurant, it is an experience. It gives you a certain mood. Items which carry a specific American tradition are on the walls. We are talking about accepted symbols such as a baseball cap or an electric guitar. Not the American flag of course.

Music is also accepted by the vast majority of the customers. You would never listen to “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen in Friday’s but you would listen to “Sultans of swing” by Dire Straits. We are happy in this place and we want you to be happy too.

Waiters with their budges and their hats are polite and clean. They seem so happy to carry drinks or to go through to each customer’s nonsense.

Seats, tables, lights, bars and generally everything that a restaurant should include seem to follow the rhythm. Everything there is waiting for you. Menus are well designed, photos are clear and each dish is described in a way that you covet everything in the list.

I still have said nothing about the food and I won’t.

Usability and business culture

The way Friday’s work is a lesson for anyone who runs business. Because everything there is usable. As a customer you ‘ll never have to worry if your drink is out or whether you ‘ll find soap at the men’s room. The cozy exaggerations of the restaurant end in decoration or in the way staff is dressed. The glasses are big and the plates white. Cutlery are special but you can easily use them. The seats are benches but huge and soft ones.

The high levels of Friday’s usability is a characteristic I would like to provide in my work. Do you think it is irrelevant? Not at all. Everything is organized. If one would criticize Friday’s it would have been for the style not the services.

When you go to the restaurant you know that it is not cheap. Then why would you go back? Certainly not only for the taste of the food. You go for what mentioned above as well. I also like the trio: berger-french fries-beer, I don’t have any problem with it. Neither do I want to go Friday’s very often.

What I do want is my work to be at Friday’s level not at burger-french fries-beer level. Who wouldn’t?

Greek webmaster gets arrested for aggregating content!

This is a story which makes us feel ashamed for being Greeks and for developing web services.

Mr Antonis Tsipropoulos, a webmaster which runs an aggragating service got sued by a public greek persona because among the collected feeds there was one which (according to the suer) offended him.

So far we have no idea who is the suer or which blog/website caused all this issue.

The only thing we are pretty certain is that the service (http://www.blogme.gr/) has been suspended and mr Tsipropoulos was arrested. His personal and professional life have been already seriously damaged.

Of course we don’t know yet all the details of this story. However what we know so far seems to be enough to raise our voice and defend an innocent man.

I want to make this story known to everyone not only because it affects me (since I run a similar service: Mindblog) but also because it affects all of us. Do you get it? Instead of this man it could have been anyone else who works for the Web and publishes web content. It’s about democracy, privacy and human rights.

As a Greek citizen I am ashamed of what happens in my country. If anyone needs more details please contact me at: porcupine @ porcupine . gr

Who ‘s stupid?

- What appals you in people?
- Stupidity.

Try this question to a number of people. You ‘ll get the answer above.

So what is happening here? People do not like idiots. OK.
If you hate stupidity (or you claim so) means that you are not stupid. Right?
So everyone around us thinks he/she is not stupid. Right?

Indeed. Everyone thinks so including me. (However I keep a door open just in case I am an idiot and I don’t get it. Who does?)

What is stupidity?
- Stupidity is not the absence of intelligence - that’s clear to me.
- According to Wikipedia stupidity refers to the poor use of judgement, or insensitivity to nuances in a person who is otherwise intelligent. I couldn’t agree more.

Dear friends, dear people around me, dear world check it out. Are you sure you don’t suffer from poor use of judgement when it comes to me? Have you ever tried to think what is going on in my mind? Because if you do you will see that things are crystal clear. I defend you no matter what. I defend my choices even if you never cared about them.

I can’t help you. Sorry. In this case you are the stupid one.

Coffee

I ‘m sick and tired of the same coffee every day.

I want a new, real good blend which will be different than the others. A refreshing blend. A tasteful blend. A coffee which will covet to be drunk. Something like these:

It’s October

Fall in NYC.

Globalization

The other day I was walking to my car. It was a distance of approximately 100m to be covered. In my way I saw Chinese people pushing carts, black people selling watches and walkmans, I saw gypsies on their lorries, I saw people from neverneverland. It seemed I was the only native among familiar foreigners. The clumsy host among his guests.

I am so lucky my country can invite so many different people to share its happiness. I am so lucky we are so generous and hospitable nation. If only we didn’t push these people to the poorest area of the city. If only we didn’t look down on them.  I forgot, we are superior. Sorry.

So this must be globalization.