xBlog: The visual thinking weblog
22nd March 2001

Ayn Rand on creativity and genius

“Does Objectivism hold that all individuals have something valuable to contribute? What about people who lack creativity or ability? Would they fit into a pure capitalist society?”

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22nd March 2001

Confessions of a Flash Addict

“My name is Squid Vicious and I’m a Flash-aholic. I’m not exactly sure when I first became addicted to the abuses and misuses of Flash as it was a subtle seduction. It started out with nothing more than a bloated demo here, an oblique navigational system there, but the next thing you know, I was building entire sites with the damn stuff whether it suited the job or not.”

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22nd March 2001

The church of usability

“Throughout history, people have sought wise leaders to show them the true light, and Web designers are no different. In the quest for effective sites, designers seek enlightened individuals — sages — to guide them to a truer path. These gurus of the GUI are respected; their books are sold out, and their lectures and seminars become standing-room-only love-ins. When they speak, the masses hang on every word, and they are quoted as if their words were divinely inspired.”

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22nd March 2001

Amazoning The News

“Adapted from a presentation by Ellen Kampinsky at The Editor & Publisher Interactive Newspaper Conference, Feb. 21, 2001: What if we told stories on the web the way Amazon sells books? Storytelling on the web demands its own vocabulary and strategies — indeed a whole new way of thinking. The web site that does the best job of telling stories in a web-appropriate way is also the most successful: Amazon. So blow up your old notion of ’story.’ See what happens when you apply Amazon’s user-savvy approach to typical news events.”

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