Author Archives: Michael

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Announcing Montgomery Studios

After much work, I’m excited to unveil the new portfolio site for “Montgomery Studios”:http://montgomerystudios.com/!

Some notes about the site:

* It validates as XHTML 1.0 Strict.
* Web standards: semantic markup, content separated from CSS stylesheet, etc.
* Fully liquid design.
* Portfolio page uses the “Hoverbox gallery”:http://sonspring.com/journal/hoverbox-image-gallery by “Nathan Smith”:http://sonspring.com/ and “Craig”:http://solardreamstudios.com/.
* Text cross-fade for the taglines uses “Image cross-fade” technique from “Steve”:http://slayeroffice.com/code/imageCrossFade/xfade2.html and “Patrick”:http://www.splintered.co.uk/experiments/65/.

Some items yet to do:

* Not yet happy with the shadow under the fountain pen.
* Contact page styling needs a little work.
* Needs a print stylesheet.
* Needs some work to render correctly in “a certain popular browser”:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/.

::sigh::

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General

Gadgets Make Moral Statements (?!)

Excellent “article”:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114419429783417125.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks in today’s “Wall Street Journal Online”:http://online.wsj.com/, in the “Portals” column by “Lee Gomes”:mailto:lee.gomes@wsj.com.

The title is “Apple’s 30 Years Of Selling Cool Stuff With Uncool Message”:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114419429783417125.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks (subscription may be required), but I think “my title”:http://michaelmontgomery.net/article/gadgets-make-moral-statements is better.

He begins by discussing Apple’s 30-year anniversary, and their record of technology milestones, in glowing tones.

But he finds “another important Apple creation” to be problematic, if not insidious:

bq. The idea is that *moral values can be attached to technological objects*; that certain kinds of technology are inherently more ethical than other kinds; and that, by extension, the simple act of owning or using one particular kind of technology somehow makes you a better person than you’d be if you didn’t.

He welcomes a feisty debate on the relative merits of computers and other technological gadgets.

However, he believes the “idea of the virtuous computer”, or by extension any conclusion that “[g]ood deeds became equated with good shopping” is a bit much.

I agree.

_Photos from_ “Wikipedia”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_%28television_commercial%29.

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SXSW Third Day Thoughts

h3. CSS Problem Solving

_Christopher Schmitt (Heatvision.com), Ethan Marcotte (Vertua Studios), Dave Shea (mezzoblue.com), Charles Wyke-Smith (Nacio Systems), Tiffany Brown (Webinista LLC)_

* Great material, if rushed.
* The slides are available: “Ethan Marcotte”:http://sxsw2006.vertua.com/, “Dave Shea”:http://mezzoblue.com/presentations/2006/sxsw/css/q1.html, “Charles Wyke-Smith”:http://mezzoblue.com/presentations/2006/sxsw/charles/sxsw_files.htm, “Tiffany Brown”:http://www.tiffanybbrown.com/sxsw06/

h3. Does Your Blog Have a Business?

_DL Byron Principal (Texturadesign), Phoebe Espiritu, Eric Rice (Audioblog.com), Shaun Inman (haveamint.com), Jeffrey Zeldman Founder, (Happy Cog Studios)_

h3. Keynote Interview

_Craig Newmark (craigslist.com), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia)_

h3. WaSP Task Force Panel: Getting the Job Done Right

_Molly E Holzschlag (Molly.com), Steven Champeon (hesketh.com), Matt May (Blue Flavor), Drew McLellan, Dori Smith (Writer), Jennifer Taylor (Macromedia), Chris Wilson (Microsoft), Kimberly Blessing (KimmieCorp)_

* Web Standards: great cause, great group.
* The WaSP site redesign was unveiled later in the day.

h3. Design Eye for the List Guy

_Keith Robinson (Blue Flavor), Andrei Herasimchuk (Involution Studios), Cameron Moll (cameronmoll.com), Paul Nixon (Apple), Ryan Sims (Neubix)_

* They redesigned craigslist, which was described as being “undesigned.” That’s about how I would characterize it, and about where I would’ve stopped.

*Final note:* Denim is *in.* Khaki is definitely *out.*

_Photo courtesy of_ “Sooz”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/sooz/.

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SXSW Second Day Reflections

h3. Sink or Swim: The Five Most Important Startup Decisions

_Michael Lopp (Apple), Evan Williams (Odeo), Joshua Schachter (del.icio.us), Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software), Cabel Sasser (Panic Software)_

Some good points, including:

# Avoid “sink or swim” decisions.
# Are free sodas necessary for software development?
# _Lots_ of new logos (and thus, new businesses) out there right now
# Some of the panelists took VC funding; some refuse to do so.
# Investors don’t seem to mind if 8/10 of their investments fail, as long as two of them go big. And fast. So they urge more risks. However, the entrepreneurs tend to want less risk of failure, at the possible risk of slower growth.

Then all the panelists answered “Why did you say no to Google?” (And Joshua explained why he said yes to Yahoo!)

h3. Smaller, Faster, Lighter

_Eric Hellweg (Harvard Business Review), Gray McCord (M3 Design), Renuka Rayasam (Business Reporter, Austin American-Statesman), William Bull (frogdesign), Andrew Horwitz (Seagate Technology)_

h3. Keynote Conversation

_Heather Armstrong (dooce.com), Jason Kottke (kottke.org)_

* Hmm. Heather seems to be very popular, but I just find it hard to relate to her. Charming and eloquent (and loquacious!), but ….
* Her best line was, “I have to _live_ the content, before I can write it.”
* Jason seemed nervous.

h3. DIY: Now More Than Ever

_Mike Hudack (blip.tv), Lynda Keeler (Delight Network), Matt Mullenweg (WordPress), Gina Trapani (Lifehacker), Ted Rheingold (Dogster)_

* Matt’s discussion of WordPress and open-source software was fascinating.

h3. Holistic Web Design: Finding the Creative Balance in Multi-Disciplined Teams

_Garrett Dimon, Shaun Inman (haveamint.com), Jason Santa Maria (Happy Cog Studios), Carl Sieber (fd2s Inc), Eris Stassi_

* *Best session yet.* This all-star team described how they worked together on a proposed redesign of the “Plazes”:http://plazes.com/ site.
* They had clearly done a lot of work.
* Their discussion of how they approached the project, collaborated, the challenges of the current site, and design decisions were tremendously educational.
* They also described a new cross-functionalism: each team member could intelligently describe all of the others’ roles, decisions and reasons. Yes, even in a “holistic” way.

The “slides/mockups”:http://www.someguynamedcarl.com/plazes/ are available.

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