coley

I’ve commented about this book here before. It’s very useful across multiple disciplines. What drew me to it was video game level-design. There’s a section on how churches and temples often have these increasingly smaller and more intimate chambers as you go deeper into the building. I found it super helpful as a lot of these little details are difficult to intuit. I appreciate that you can open the book to almost any page and gain tremendous insight.

Odd that the music only kicks in for me after I tab away. When I tab back, the music stops.

> More ugly wire-frame skeleton design compared to it's original counterpart. Where is the call to interact with any of these elements? Where is the hierarchy?

Is it just me that finds the old iOS settings design ugly, and not* the new one? I think the new design is a vast improvement. I guess you could say that heavy-handed gradients and drop shadows exhibit more personality than the flat design, but so do children's toys & interfaces compared to professional tools & interfaces.

I'm not sure what the author means by "call to interact" in this sentence. Are they referring to the right arrows and how they've been muted? Maybe they mean the on/off switch indicators that are put front and center in the old settings screenshot, but are scrolled off-screen in the new settings screenshot(even though they're still present in the new UI).

I also don't understand the "where is the hierarchy?" question. They hierarchies of the old and new settings panes are strikingly similar. Maybe if the author cared enough to show the same things in each of the screenshots it would be more clear. It feels disingenuous to me.

*edit: spelling

I also own a hard copy of this one and know nothing about architecture. I've found the patterns helpful for video game level design. Whether it's the layout of a small town, window placement, or the tiered chambers of a church or temple, this book is extremely insightful for someone who doesn't know where to start when it comes to this stuff.

This is my experience as well so far. It took 15-20 minutes to learn about it, install it, and setup configs. Since then I haven't had to think about it once.

I'm looking forward to playing around with this. Vim is my editor of choice, and it would be nice to configure/extend it in something other than vimscript. Gives me a good reason to familiarize myself with Python as well.

Not to mention I'm a huge Metal Gear fan. =]

Are the pins sent by email via an SMS gateway? If so, why not just let people sign up with their email address?

I'd like to join in on the fun, but not with my personal phone number.

I don't know if this went into the decision making process, but with the cursor at an angle the OS can use the x,y coordinates of the cursor to find it's target, instead of having to offset the coordinates to compensate for a straight cursor.

I'm not sure if that's how cursors work.. just a thought.

edit: grammar is hard

I've had problems with un-bundling all ready. I've had Comcast for almost two years now - the top internet service for 19.99/mo. Of course they tried to raise the price on me once but I was able to call and get it back down. The next time they raised the price, there was no 19.99 internet only option. The customer service agent checked and checked and checked, but "couldn't find it available in the system". There was, of course, a 19.99 deal for the same speed internet AND basic cable + HBO/HBOGo. So I'm riding this promotion out for as long as I can. Although they were required to send the set-top box, I asked them not to send out a tech to hook it up. I honestly couldn't care less about basic cable. The HBO Go on the other hand, I enjoy thoroughly. I was finally able to get around to watching Sopranos =].

Eventually they'll learn that story-telling isn't meant to be interrupted by advertisements. The content is gravely diminished when this happens. I find myself not caring about plot after so many commercial breaks. Made worse by the terrible, "coming up next on blah blah blah" hook.

I can see some sports fanatics enjoying the 'luxuries' of basic cable, as I don't believe there are any fool proof options online yet - I also don't care.