unknown unknowns

posterous as remembering machine

I've been experimenting with posterous.

Having pushed my slouching round the interweb up another notch, I was beginning to realise I was losing touch with things I was saving to delicious. Over the years, it has become the digital equivalent of the drawer in which you stuff everything that will be useful one day. Only infinitely bigger.

The problem is, I only turn to it when I know what I'm looking for. I tend not to look through it for inspiration, which it clearly could be really good for, being crammed with everything I've found interesting for the last three or so years. Instead, I tend to use it like I use the drawer: when I'm looking for something I know exists (that power adapter for India, the MOT certificate...), not when I don't know what I'm looking for.

I concluded that if I haven't developed the habit of using it like google by now (after three or so years of use), I never would. So I wondered if a visual record of everything, rather than the text record that delicious gives you, might at least help me remember more of the stuff I'd saved.

Enter posterous.

I'm using it in much the same way I would delicious. With the bookmarklet installed in my browser, it's no slower than saving to delicious, but you get a far richer record of everything you've saved. One that I feel much more inclined to browse through as it builds. I'm guessing that that alone will help my feeble mind recollect more of the stuff that's buried in there. 

It's slowly filling up with a somewhat random collection of weird videos from YouTube, social web stats, and bicycle related nonsense. It will probably mean nothing to you but if you fancy having a gawp and a rummage, you can find it here.

The Artikcar

Nice little behind-the-scenes film of Mr Wilson's Artikcar.

I want one. It would be perfect for the commute.

Microsoft Excel v. Mario Paint Composer

As I mentioned a week or so back, in between bike stuff and other stuff I've been working on an animation using Excel. Here's the finished article, complete with a soundtrack I knocked up with the amazing Mario Paint Composer (hat tip to Bud Caddell for this. I - somehow - had never encountered it until he linked to another MPC video on YT).

Despite the mind-numbing effects of creating 707 Excel spreadsheets, photographing them and then wrestling with iMovie to make them sync with the soundtrack, I quite enjoyed the perversity of it. I might even do another one.

Fork test

Fast prototyping

For the last few months I've been working on the development of a new product, a new type of bicycle no less. The client got me involved to do plannery sorts of things and it makes a refreshing change to be able to apply that to an actual object.

My first contribution was recommending Ben Wilson. Ben is a talented product designer who also happens to be a vehicle nut. And he particularly likes bikes, so he was a natural choice for the gig.

The added bonus of working with Ben is that he is a very hands-on designer, and by that I mean he likes to make the things he designs, usually the prototypes but sometimes the finished article. So rather than spend days drawing what the thing might look like, he just got on and made it. That's not to say Ben doesn't draw, I can personally vouch for his abilities with a CAD file. It's just that he has approached the project like an agile software development process: plan a little, build a little.

Whilst this working style doesn't suit everyone, we've found it hugely helpful. Not only do you get to something tangible much sooner, you also learn what won't work much quicker too.

Lastly, it suits a more collaborative approach to working. Because if the initial drawings are less definitive, it helps if you're around to provide regular feedback during the build.

More to follow, NDA permitting.