Phil Bowell

a humane interface — or a humane system, even a humane technology — is considerate of human frailties. It acknowledges they exist and works with them, rather than taking advantage of them.

Jim Nielsen

It’s rare that I find something strikes home so early in the day; this did. Much of my job as a designer is spent defending users, a battle of taste over numbers in a dashboard, but this might be how I start framing some of my arguments going forward. Juicing the numbers is the exact opposite of this, the methods used, more often than not, take advantage of human frailties to make them go up.

Today marks my 42nd trip around the sun. I opened OutPost with the intention of writing something, typed out the first sentence and froze. My brain once again seemingly blocked whatever prompted me to begin. So instead I find myself typing whatever is coming to my mind.

Being an end of September birthday means I am often in a reflective mood. The changing of the season brings with it feelings of new starts and the end of long days. Soon the nights will be longer than the days and with that comes woolly jumpers, scarves, and cosy nights on the sofa. The world turns from green and colourful to orange and brown. Footsteps stop being crisp and instead become crunchy as the paths snuggle down under a blanket of fallen leaves.

This summer has been hot, too hot. Will the winter be cold or will we be in for a mild one? Only time will tell. For now, I’ll settle down for the afternoon with a coffee and my book before dinner out tonight to celebrate. Japanese. Perhaps BBQ or hotpot…

In what can only be classed as a state of wishful thinking, I changed my Mac wallpaper to a more autumnal theme.

Trying out the new Outpost app that Manton linked to. It feels like a more modern version of MarsEdit. Time to give it a bit of a test drive.

I’ve integrated the new books feature Manton launched at the end of August into my blog, so now the book details pages feel part of my blog. I may revise the design a little in the future but I’m happy with how it works right now. If I’ve posted about the book the details page also displays those posts as well.

To my surprise I really enjoyed it. It turned out that writing and learning are a lot of fun, and I was constantly looking for ways to practice my new found writing skills. I think that's part of why I still love typing - I just find creating words on a screen a lot of fun.

Kev Quirk

I couldn’t agree more. It makes my recent writing block all the more troubling. After a message from a kind friend who saw my post yesterday, I’ve decided to try and start small with posts like this one.

I have a problem, that some might call a block. Simply put, I want to blog but don’t know what to write. Every time I sit down I am left with a blank brain, every time I think I should post about that nothing comes out. A blockage that won’t budge that results in nothing being written.

Catching up on the new Apple stuff over coffee this morning and so far there’s one thing I want from the Duo on my iPad. The dock on the side, some of those controls on the side of apps especially when in tablet mode and detached from Magic Keyboard.

Finished reading: Odyssey by Stephen Fry 📚

Very enjoyable. I wish I had been able to read it all before I saw the new film, but even so, it is worth a read afterwards.

First day back at work after a very relaxing and enjoyable week and a bit off exploring the North East coast of England.