White Edition
Work Notes
Meetings - The Practical Alternative to Work
Seth Godin recently published this excellent ad for the one thing we all hate - meetings. »
Dot.me
Big news for all those web developers who annoyed that del.icio.us is already taken, and wants to get a similar cool sounding domain name. »
Is Twitter using Misleading Stats?
I was watching a video about Twitter, and one thing that caught my attention was when they said "People Twitter in average 3 times per day". My guess is that they are extremely wrong - or rather that the stats are misleading them. »
Flickr Video
Flickr has finally opened up for the one thing that, in my opinion, was holding it back - video. »
It's Time to Change that Metaphor
Icons has allowed interaction designers to create a friendly face for otherwise complex things - like saving a document, email text, backing up your hard disk etc. But then the world changed, and today, none of the traditional icons makes any sense whatsoever. »
Shine - Cool Introduction
Yahoo has created a new site - for women - call "Shine". The interesting thing about this site (apart from its nice design and content) is the way it introduces itself to newcomers. »
Photoshop Express Online - it's here!
About a year ago I was told that Adobe was going to create an online version of Photoshop - and that was big news. It is relatively easy to create an online mail application (it is just text), but an online version of Photoshop? That would be a spectacular example of advanced application design. »
Enterprise Application Complexity
Eric Burke posted this "screenshot" illustrating the complexity of company applications. And he is right. I cannot tell how many times I have seen enterprise applications that look exactly like this (or even worse at times). »
I hate Google AdSense...
It comes as no surprise (to my long time readers) that I do not particularly like Google AdSense. It is just "one of those things" that constantly annoys you. »
Twitter in Plain English
The Common Craft Show has created yet another video. This time they are explaining what Twitter is in plain English. »
Advice from Steve Jobs
Futune Magazine recently interviewed Steve Jobs, and while there have been many such interviews in the past, this one is filled with great advice. »
Blending Seth Godin
Seth Godin recently appeared in the "Will It Blend" show - one of the most successful examples of Viral Marketing.»
iPhone SDK - its ready!
In the midst of all the things going on at Mix08, Apple asked the media to come to a special iPhone SDK Roadmap announcement. »
IE8 Beta is Out
Internet Explorer 8 (beta) is now available for download, and as I predicted in my web trends "the web community will love it - nobody else will notice any difference."»
The Most Elaborate Gmail Tutorial Ever!
Google Russia has created the most elaborate Gmail tutorial I have ever seen. Even though the instructions are pretty basic, and you will not learn anything new, I will give them 10 points for creativity and effort. »
Lenovo X300 is Not a Cool Computer
Today, Lenovo launched its new ThinkPad X300 - which many newspapers have named to be a serious contender to the MacBook Air. "PC Pro" even went as far as to say "The X300 is an astonishing piece of design that brings something entirely new to laptops". I have never heard so much crap in one day. »
Morale-O-Meter - track your day
In both my yearly trend forecast and my rant against social networks I advocated for more valuable social networking applications. I'm sick of having to pretend to be a teenager to be "social". Luckily, a shift is forming and more and more social network initiatives can be used by everyone.»
Interaction 08 Conference Videos
So... You didn't have time, opportunity, or [insert any other excuse here] to go to the Interactions 08 conference. But fear not, "Putting People First" has published a list of (almost) all the presentation videos for you to consume in the comfort of your home.»
Web & Usability Posters 2008
January is always the month of cool posters - and this January is no exception. Here are 3 cool posters that have found their way to my inbox.»
Online Photo Sharing in Plain English
I really do like The Common Craft Show - and how they explain web concepts in plain english. Yesterday they published yet another one: "Online Photo Sharing in Plain English".»
Multi-touch Whiteboard - Wii Style
Johnny Chung Lee, from Carnegie Mellon University, is making wonders with his Wii remote. First of all he has turned it into a multi-touch receiver that you can use for whiteboards - or practically any surface you can think of. »
Blogging tips from Seth Godin and Microsoft
Here is a bit of information that you can digest over Christmas. Seth Godin recently released a new eBook (for free) about how to build websites and traffic - including blogs.»
YouTube - Wiggly Wobbly Blobs?
As you have probably seen, YouTube has changed the way it visualizes related videos. Instead of a nice list, that you can understand, they have created a bunch of blobs?»
Pros and Cons of Rich Media Interactions
Bill Scott, the former AJAX Evangelist for Yahoo, recently gave a talk about Rich media interaction - or more precisely the pros and cons of many the modern interaction methods that are being used in today's websites and web applications. »
Defining Blogs in Plain English
The CommonCraft Show has made an easy to understand video about blogs - or more exactly - what blogs is all about. »
The Web 2.0 Bubble Song
The Richter Scales has made this funny video about Web 2.0 bubble - funny...»
The Christmas Magic Came to Town
Coca Cola is known for its wonderful Christmas commercials, especially the Coca Cola trucks that bring Christmas with them wherever they go... And today the magic came to my little part of the world .»
Free Silverlight and WPF Training
Here is your chance to really learn about Silverlight and WPF. Lynda.com has published 4.5 hours of Silverlight training videos to get you started - presented by Mike Harsh from Microsoft's Silverlight team. »
Amazon Kindle
Today Amazon released the very first "real" eBook - "Kindle". It is a device that enables you to read books, newspapers, blogs etc. no matter where you are.»
iPhone Users have Problems Spelling
When Apple's iPhone was unveiled, a lot of usability professionals expressed concerns that the touch-screen interface might prove to be harder to use - despite its impressive user-friendly design. Now it seems that they are right - at least with some part of the iPhone user experience. »
EA never made it out of the 1990s
When you buy something from Electronic Arts, they recommend that you should create a backup of your downloaded files. Good advice, except that they are not really up-to-date.»
Google's Galactic Empire
Is this where Google is heading? Total domination?»
Fake Blogs are About to Die
We have seen more and more blogs, viral campaigns, and websites made to create fake publicity for a specific product. I wrote about one of them about a month ago.»
10 Ways to Create Better Presentations
I did plan to write a relatively long article about how to create effective presentations, but then I watched this funny video which said it all in less than 4 minutes:»
Lifeless Grey
It might just be me, but isn't the new Mac OS X Leopard just a bit to grayish? - I might even go so far as to call it lifeless grey...»
Multi-Touch for Your Laptop
You have already seen Microsoft Surface, and the incredible interaction it brings with it. But one of the really big problems (literally) with Microsoft Surface is its size. Wouldn't it be great if you could move the technology to smaller and much thinner devices?»
The HD Web
Akamai, the number one provider of high-end hosting (including HD video hosting) and Verizon FiOS (a high-speed ISP) has launched an HD site to showcase the potentials with HD video. »
Information R/evolution
You might remember Michael Wesch's last movie "Web 2.0", which swept through the blogosphere. Now he has made another one exploring the changes in how we store, manage, edit and share information.»
How to do Everything Better
Seth Godin has compiled the most insane list of good resource I have ever seen (I need to take a year off just to read it). »
ALA Web Design Survey Findings - finally
A List Apart has finally published the findings from their Web Design Survey conducted in April (after a rather astounding long waiting time). »
Biggest Website Mistakes 1995-2015
Vincent Flanders have created a list of the 15 worst website mistakes people have made since 1995 - and will continue to make until 2015 - because, as he writes, "It's human nature to repeat mistakes".»
Laws of Simplicity
I just watched John Meada's presentation at TED about simplicity. Worth a look:»
Useful Products with Multi-Touch
We have seen an explosion of multi-touch examples over the last 6-12 months - From pure technical demonstrations, to stunning rich media presentations like Microsoft Surface. But, almost all of them looks and works the same way.»
Apple's 8 Secrets
ComputerWorld recently "revealed" 8 secrets to why Apple is make such successful products. They are:»
Microsoft's Babelfish
Microsoft has launched their own little Babelfish - perhaps better known as an online website and/or text translator. »
What makes us Happy?
I recently watched Psychologist Dan Gilbert's excellent presentation on happiness. It is from 2004 - but I think the message is just as fresh today as it was back then. »
The Silverlight Download Marathon
Today Microsoft released Silverlight 1.0 (final version), which isn't that spectacular since the version we need is actually Silverlight 1.1 (coming out later). But, since I am "fiddling" with Silverlight I immediately went to download the latest version - and that turn out to be a bit of a marathon. »
Seth Godin talks about Web 2.0
Seth Godin recently talked about Web 2.0 in an interview with Selling Power. Take a look:»
90 Adobe Air Applications + 50 Silverlight Applications
There has been a lot of buzz about Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight and many people are experimenting with it. Most of these experiments are... well... just "an experiment", but some are actually very cool.»
Microsoft and Eolas Settle Patent Dispute
If you have been using Flash within the past year, you also know about the annoying "click to activate this control" in Internet Explorer. But now Seattle Post reports that Eolas and Microsoft have agreed to settle the matter. »
Visualization Gallery
CatalogTree has a nice collection of diagrams, graphs, info graphics and other elements used for visualization. Most of them is made for the print world and wouldn't work on the web, but it is always interesting to see how other people visualize things.»
Mixing Bjork with a Multi-Touch Computer
What do you get when you mix the Icelandic singer Bjork with a multi-touch computer? Well, unfortunately you get incredibly bad music. I mean the best place to hear it would probably be from a large concrete bunker some thirty-seven miles from the stage. »
Our Shifting World
Here is a very interesting video about the changes we face in an ever shifting world - and the importance of preparing for the future.»
WEB2DNA in Illustreret Videnskab
WEB2DNA is just mind-boggling. I made it one Saturday afternoon because I was feeling bored and rather silly. I never imagined that people would actually use it. I was wrong, it has been huge success.»
Trying too hard to be hip
I do not particularly like Second Life. I think it's a waste of time - especially when you mix it with work related activities. IBM, Sony, Sun, and Dell all embrace it - but I think Time explained this phenomenon very well when they wrote:»
FoldSpy - Actual Browser Sizes the easy way
Eoghan and Dave have created an amazing statistical tool to get "Actual Browser Sizes". Their new product is called FoldSpy - and it's free.»
It is not my job
This has to be one of the best examples of "it is not my job" I have ever seen. "Not my job" is when people do stupid things, and they know it, but it is "not my job" to fix it, so it stays broken.»
How not to make a first impression
We all know that first impressions are important - as in the first time potential customers come into contact with your company. This is the time when you want to make the all important personal connection. »
When things are running too smoothly
One of the key success criterias of developers and usability practitioners is to create application that runs so well that nobody realizes that it is there. This is something you want to aim for - allowing people to focus exclusively on creating instead of the interface elements, dialogs, system processes and whatnot. »
There is more to email than TEXT vs. HTML
There has been quite an attack against HTML based emails the last few weeks - probably started by Zeldman's post about the same. But they forget about the advantages of HTML formatting. »
Safari for Windows Vista
This was one thing I never expected to happen, but Apple has release Safari for Windows. They claim that it is twice as fast as IE7 - but it does have a cool text-field resizing feature. The days of annoyingly tiny text fields are over. »
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Joint Interview
The big news today - everywhere - was the joint interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. It is really funny and interesting stuff. »
Shift - Using Small Devices with Fat Fingers
Microsoft Research is looking into an age old problem. How do you hit small targets on phones and PDA's when you got fat fingers? ...or even with regular sized fingers.»
Google Analytics is not making much sense...
A week ago I wrote that I was in the process of writing an article about how to make sense of Google Analytics. Since then a number of people have asked me when I planned to publish it. Well, soon...»
Google Analytics has been redesigned
Google has redesigned their analytics package to what seems to be a much more user-friendly and illustrative rich interface. »
Make sense of Microsoft's and Adobe's new technologies
Microsoft and Adobe has both been putting out a tremendous amount of new technologies, development tools and varies types of applications. But many people seem to be confused of how they compare to each other - not to mention what function each of them holds. Thankfully Ryan Steward has written an article that makes it much clearer. »
RobotReplay - a cool way to track mouse movement
Darren Barefoot pointed me towards RobotReplay - yet another tool to measure how people are using your website. »
Great Site for Freelancers
Liferhacker pointed me towards Freelance Switch, a great resource for would-be and established freelancers - or even to semi-consultants like myself. »
Heads up! Silverlight is here
Microsoft "just" released Silverlight. What is Silverlight? To put it plainly - it is Microsoft idea of a Flash player, but instead displaying flash animation, video and applications, it plays WPF content (or more precisely what we used to call WPF/E). »
The Usability of Interruptions
There was recently a very interesting seminar at Stanford University about interruptions - specifically how to make better reminders and notifications in your products. »
The Usability of Atypical Positioning
I was recently asked what I think about placing elements in unusual places. One example could be to place the search bar in the lower left corner vs. in its usual upper right. »
Desktop vs. Browser
Ryan Stewart has written a list to help you decide when to make applications for the browser vs. developing a desktop application.»
Pay $165 for New York Times Reader
When I wrote about the New York Times Reader, about a year ago, it was an interesting concept. It is a news reader based on WPF, it looks really good but it also has it shares of problems. One being that it only displays news from the New York Times (I don't want to start a new program for each type of news I want to read). »
Designing Interactions
Bill Moggridge from IDEO recently hosted a great seminar at Stanford University on the difficulties on designing interaction (in relation to his new book).»
Bad Usability Calendar - in Danish
Every year, a Norwegian company called NetLife Research publishes a "Bad Usability Calendar" - illustrating common usability problems in the form of a calendar. I really like and it is a good thing to put up in your office or project room.»
Google Sketchup 6 released
Google has released a new version of Sketchup, adding mostly presentation effects (see new feature list). Sketchup is the most user friendly 3D modeling tool I know - and a tool I have been using for varies projects (mostly private stuff). »
Tons of new stuff from Apple
Updated: Link to Steve Jobs Keynote (see below)
There is a ton of new stuff from Apple today - the AppleTV, the iPhone etc. ...»
Yahoo messenger WPF showcase
I have been talking a lot about WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), because I think it is really pushing us to make applications at a completely new level of user experience. We see a lot of cool things on the web - but they are all built in this low-definition environment. »
Microsoft's Keynote from CES
Bill Gates recently presented Microsoft's take on the future in terms of consumer electronics at CES (Consumer Electronic Show 2007).»
Cautious Cars - chapter one from Don Norman's coming book
Don Norman has posted "Chapter One" (Word Document) of his coming book "Cautious Cars and Cantankerous Kitchens: How Machines Take Control". He writes about how machines are starting to take over our lives, limiting our freedoms. And, illustrates that we need to approach usability and HCI very differently instead of designing them to be our slaves, we need to design them to be companions. »
Usability Feedback when building Windows Vista
Gayna Wiliams from Microsoft recently gave a lecture at Stanford University about how they evaluated and managed usability during the development of Windows Vista. It is a very interesting look at how the big companies do things. »
Personal Notes
Le Mans 2008 on Baekdal.com
The 2008 Le Mans is only a month away and people have already asked me if Baekdal.com is going to create a live tracker - like I did last year. The answer is: yes, of course!»
Facebook Reality
The comedy group "Idiots of Ants" has made this hilarious video about the perils of Facebook. I couldn't agree more. »
Using Bandwidth like it was Free
Some of my readers have told me that my site is occasionally slow. And I agree. I have noticed it myself at times. So I took a look at my statistics - specifically how much bandwidth that is being used. And it's a lot. »
I want to be reincarnated as a cat
Yesterday, Carmine Coyote (one of my favorite bloggers) published this picture. It is a good example of how we should approach working with a computer - and I couldn't agree more. »
Being a CEO suddenly doesn't seems that great
Last week Jessica Hagy created this simple illustration - and I think it is true in most cases. »
I am NOT a Spammer!
A spammer has violated baekdal.com to send out spam emails in my name. This is something that I am very angry about, since I hate spam as much as anyone else. And, let me assure you that I am not the sender of these emails. »
YouTube in High-resolution
YouTube has long been the place to watch low-quality videos. While most other video sites allow you to see videos in high-quality, YouTube has stubbornly stuck with its abysmal 320x240. But there is actually a way to boost the quality.»
How Developers would do Detention
I know this is incredible geeky, but I just had to post this. »
My Improved Home Office
I promised a friend to put up some images of my new improved home office. I spend about 50% of my time working from home, and recently upgraded my home environment. »
Linkin, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster, Orkut, Bebo etc…
I am "sometimes" asked if I have a profile on MySpace, Facebook, Linkin etc... and I get a couple emails every month from varies people inviting me to be added to their profile as a "friend". So, I thought I would clarify why I rarely answer or take action to any of those requests.»
That's so last year...
Found this today. I bet he will grow up to become a web designer - sounds like one already... :o)»
Poor Man's SteadyCam
As you might have noticed, I haven't published anything new since Christmas, but that is because I am taking some time off to rid myself of all the stress that I had been building up in December (an extremely busy month). »
Google - You Win…
Regular visitors might remember when I blacklisted Google AdSense about 3 months ago. They accused me of cheating their system, by artificially boosting my ad revenue - something I did not do (at least not on purpose). So I blacklisted Google, and started to look for another ad supplier. »
Finding People
There are only two people in the world with the name "Thomas Baekdal", so I am pretty easy to find. But what if your name is "James Smith" or "Mary Smith" (the most common names in the US)?»
Flooding…
Northern Europe has just experiences its first winter storm, and with it came the risk of flooding. Not being shy of getting my feet wet, I went out hunting for water. »
Brain Freeze...
I have been working on a lot of projects lately. Most of them were very small in size, but all of them required that I came up with some kind of idea. »
Design Inspiration on Baekdal.com
I have always wanted to make a site about design and today I made just that. Baekdal.com now features a dedicated section to "Design Inspiration".»
This is why I write on a computer
Writing on a computer is a great leap forward. We have spell and grammar checking, we can edit our documents, and prevent small accidents from happening:»
The US Economy is killing me
Things have not been going well since George W. Bush decided to leave the US government's MasterCard at the bar. Especially not for people like me - who doesn't even live in the US. »
Amazon - New vs. Old
I was browsing around Amazon today (read: wasting money), and came across this book. I think I will buy a new one...»
Funny Microsoft Surface Parody
Sarcastic Gamers has made a slightly different version of the Microsoft Surface promotion video - funny stuff.»
Why I don't like Dogs
Yes, I'm in my silly mood...»
How do you rank your profession?
Getting loads of money and loving your work is much better than being underpaid and grumpy...»
I suddenly like Dentists
I am one of those people who do not like dentist. I mean I have nothing against the people, just the tools they use. They are evil things that cause you nothing but pain and misery - or rather I used to think that. »
The Resolution of Your Eyes
Have you ever wondered how many megapixels our eyes are capable of? I have, and it turns out that we can see with the astounding detail of 576 megapixels. That is 30 times better than any HDTV. It is similar to a computer screen running with a resolution of 32,000 x 18,000 (try designing a fluid website layout for that...)»
Redesigned - again
Yes, I have completely redesigned this site - again. I guess it was the spring air that made me do it. I wanted whiteness, spring colors and a fresh experience. »
Wireless trough your toilet
He he - a new service from Google - Free in-house wireless broadband internet - trough your toilet»
Cyber bullying gone bad
Today I learned that one of my favorite bloggers Kathy Sierra is threatened with death threats. Yes, you did read that right - death threats. Was is the world coming to? What makes a person do that? I cannot imagine how terrible this must be to Kathy, but I am sorry to hear about it.»
No computer, no email, no nothing
My trusty computer has crashed beyond the point of recovery - and with it my emails, documents, calendars... you name it. I do have a backup, but I will not be able to restore it until I get my new computer in 10-12 days.»
Lunar Eclipse
One of my hobbies is to watch the marvels of the universe unfold before our very eyes, like last night where we could see the first of this year's two lunar eclipses.»
Computer bags? Any ideas?
I am currently looking for a new computer bag and I want something that looks good. NOT something that looks like this:»
Under water...
My city is literally drowning this weekend, as the rain and storm is creating massive amounts of water. At this moment my car is stuck (but still on dry land), but I can forget about going shopping. »
Better Whiteboard Sketching
I sometimes have to draw on a whiteboard. But when I do, it very often looks like something from a 6 year old child - just much more boring (no colors, only boxes, frames, buttons and labels etc.). »
One week in: I need new colors
This new design is only one week old, but I am already beginning to hate the colors. It's not me, it's not right.»
A book will never let you down
I must admit that in terms of reliability books are better than computers - masterly illustrated in these ads.»
HTML Image jokes
Jesper, over at Justaddwater.dk, have published a set of very funny html image jokes.»
Amazing Can Tossing
You know, I am usually too lazy to stand up and walk over to the trash can - instead I toss whatever I want to throw out (and usually misses). But, these guys rocks!»
Merry Christmas
Christmas is just around the corner - and I want to wish you all»