6ix Passions

An interview with Jason Rohrer on The Setup

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:43:39 -0500

An interview with Jason Rohrer on The Setup:

Jason is an independed game developer. He has released 13 games in four years. His most known game is probably Passage.

I’m sure you are thinking that he is developping on a quad core Mac Pro with a 30 inches Cinema display. You cannot be more wrong!. You need to read the article to see how you can be low-fi and still be in the game.

And the best part is when he answers the question: “What would be your dream setup?”

Jason, you are awesome!

"You cannot become something new without leaving something behind…"

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:30:39 -0500

“You cannot become something new without leaving something behind…”

- Jen C - via Amber Rae The Ah Ha moment

Where is the Max? - Planet Funk on their album Non Zero...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:36:05 -0500

Where is the Max? - Planet Funk on their album Non Zero Sumness

It’s when you are going full throttle with no helmet!

Eye Gazing

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:38:00 -0500

Ok for this edition of Show ‘N Tell, I’ve decided to talk about something unusual. Jason, the initiator of this project, told me last time there are no rules and I can talk about what I want. Remember Jason, you told me so ;-)

I’m currently reading the book of Timothy Ferris, The 4-Hour Workweek. Probably one of most important book that has been written since the Internet exists if you ask me.

In one of the chapter, Tim introduces the Comfort Challenge. Most important actions are never comfortable, but according to Ferris you can condition yourself to the discomfort and overcome it by doing a series of uncomfortable exercises.

I’ve decided to play along and accept each of his challenges as I read the book.

The first one was Eye Gazing. For the next two days you had to gaze into the eyes of others - whether people you pass on the street or conventional partners - until they break contact. Some of his hint goes from blinking from time to time for not looking as a psychopath, to maintain eye contact while speaking and to practice it with people more confident or who impress you.

What did I discover? With all the technologies around us, we are more and more distracted and we are lacking attention and focus. The first victims of this technological omnipresence are the persons around us. By keeping an eye contact with them, we learn to really focus our attention and be more present. So it is not only give you more confidence, it’s giving you the edge of reading the other person mind and body language by keeping all your attention at them and to what they say. They will also be more interested to you and tell you more about themselves.

Since I’ve done that exercise for two days, I’ve decided to always keep a regular eye contact with most around me. Some will ask you why you are looking at them, but then you simply need to smiles to distract them.

That was my little Show ‘N Tell contribution of the week.

Missing - A minimalist logo A loyal reader, Isy, has sent me...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Missing - A minimalist logo

A loyal reader, Isy, has sent me this link with 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less. Of all the logos on the page, I just fall in love with this one. I think it is just brilliant of simplicity and aesthetic.

Thanks Isy - please keep sending stuff like this.

The joy of being a freelancer

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:23:10 -0500

The joy of being a freelancer

18 minutes with an agile mind: Clifford Stoll The passion of...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:56:15 -0500

18 minutes with an agile mind: Clifford Stoll

The passion of knowledge. “Once I do something, I want to do something else.”

(thx Antoine)

Instapaper - The iPhone Killer

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:18:00 -0500

This week, it’s the Instapaper blog that I have suggested in the Tumblr Directory.

Lately Marco has spend some time explaining the how and why he has chosen to implement some new features in his new Instapaper 2.2 iPhone app and why he has chosen not to listen entirely to his customers.

I particularly like the posts explaining the reasoning behind the pagination zones and the scroolback features.

As I wrote in my personal The Setup profile, Instapaper is the iPhone Killer for me:

If I had to choose a single app on my iPhone, it would be Instapaper to read the Web while I’m commuting. I would even buy an iPhone for that application alone (yes even before the possibility of making calls - I know, I should buy a iPod Touch then). Because of it, I read more (or should I simply say: I take the time to read). It is the most valuable application I ever used. Period. And I mean it.

Continue the ~~good~~, ~~great~~, awesome job Marco.

Thanks!

Your are most welcome Marco! It comes from the heart.

“And Then There Was Salsa” on Vimeo

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:06:00 -0500

“And Then There Was Salsa” on Vimeo:

This viral video ad by Frito Lays for their new Restaurant Style Salsas on Vimeo is simply outstanding. This is refreshing.

How to save an unconscious man from fire and make sure he stays...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:54:24 -0500

How to save an unconscious man from fire and make sure he stays unconscious

(via jacobd)

My Setup - What I use to get the job done

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:38:00 -0500

Inspired by the interviews at The Setup, what do people use to get the job done? I decided to replicate it for myself for the Show N’ Tell Friday. Not sure it fits in what you had in mind Jason. Sorry!

Who are you, and what do you do?
I’m Jean-Philippe Cyr. I’m a freelance user experience strategist in Montreal. I work with marketing agencies and private companies at transposing their business and communications needs into interactive solutions. I edit a blog since 2004 called 6ix Passions.

What hardware are you using?
I use a MacBook Pro 2.16 Mhz with 3 Gigs of RAM and a small hard drive of 100 GB. I use a PC Goldtouch ergonomic keyboard that makes everyone say: “Wow, your keyboard is broken!”. I listen to my music with a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro. My sensitive data, including my music and photos are daily backup on remote server using iDrive. I use a small My Passport portable external drive of 500 GB to backup my all computers and any other medias every month. I carry my laptop with me between my home and office. I always cary my iPhone 3G in my left pant pocket.

And what software?
I’ve been on Windows for many years before switching for OS X three years ago. I had the fear not to find the appropriate software for my needs, to loose productivity and to go from a power user to a user. I could not be more wrong and today I cannot think for a minute to go back.

I use Google App intensively for my mail, calendar, text documents and spreed-sheets. I synchronize everything with my iPhone using Google Caldav for my agenda and Google Mobile Synch for my mail and contacts.

I surf with Firefox. I tried Safari and Chrome, but both of them, even being quicker at rendering HMTL and parsing JavaScript cannot compensate for the increase in productivity I get from my customized Firefox. I use a single address and search bar with plenty of quicksearch shortcuts and “I cannot live without” the extensions: Tab Mix Plus, FireGestures and Easy DragToGo.

On a daily basis I use TextEdit and Notepad (on the iPhone) to take notes. I didn’t find anything more simple and easy to use.

I keep my workspace clean and to the bare minimum. My menu bar is clean and only the applications I use on a frequent basis are in my dock: Finder, Firefox, Adium, Transmission, Offline access to Google Gmail, Calendar, Docs, iTunes and Parallels Desktop.

I’m a shortcuts addict and always look to increase my productivity with little tools and apps. I use Spark to customize all the keyboard shortcuts to control system functions, iTunes and launch apps from my PC keyboard. I use TextExpander to speed repetitive writing and signatures and Google Desktop as a replacement for Spotlight to access files and apps easily.

I use Parallele Desktop to use Microsoft Visio in Windows XP. The only software I use with a custom build plug-in: WorkFlow, that I co-inspired to develop, to do information architecture and wireframes when I really need them into a digital format.

I use Dropbox to share files, but also as a hosting platform for the media on my blog. I have a custom script, that I called ImageReeSizr that resize any screenshot to 400 pixels wide, put it into the appropriate Dropbox folder and copy the public Dropbox link, so I can simply paste the link when I’m ready into my post.

On the personal side, I’m a big fan of Lightroom and iMovie. I think that iMovie is a revolution in way to edit movie inspired from the old days, when film strips where stick together manually. I enjoy doing personal storytelling in videos from the raw data I acquire.

If I had to choose a single app on my iPhone, it would be Instapaper to read the Web while I’m commuting. I would even buy an iPhone for that application alone (yes even before the possibility of making calls - yes I know, I should buy a iPod Touch then). Because of it, I read more (or should I simply say: I take the time to read). It is the most valuable application I ever used. Period. And I mean it.

What would be your dream setup?
I’m pretty close to my dream setup in term of software, I would just like to have Visio native for OS X or to find something better to do digital wireframes. I have tried them all and nothing is quite productive enough to my taste.

Regarding the hardware, I cannot live with a resolution lower than 1440 x 900, but I would dream to have a MacBook Air 15 inches with the CPU clock, graphic horse power, and battery longevity of the new unibody MacBook Pro 15 inches with SDD.

Taking small steps along the way with Jason Fried “For me...

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:02:25 -0500

Taking small steps along the way with Jason Fried

“For me it’s about the tiny little things because you can course correct along the way… I think there is this myth in entrepreneurship that you have to take the big risk and you have to quit your day job and sink all your life savings into this thing in order to be successful… I think you’re better off taking small steps along the way. You can still have a big plan, just take small steps along the way.”

Interview part of the upcoming documentary: Life in perpetual Beta by Melissa Pierce

"Don’t ask users for feedback. The burden is on you to make your product awesome; don’t..."

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:32:00 -0500

“Don’t ask users for feedback. The burden is on you to make your product awesome; don’t waste their time.”

- Dustin Curtis - How to build a great product Provocative, check. True, check.

Crush+Lovely A beautiful portfolio site with scrolling trickery...

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:34:00 -0500

Crush+Lovely

A beautiful portfolio site with scrolling trickery and a nice keyboard navigation.

Is keyboard navigation in HTML/CSS Web sites the next trend? I don’t know, but as a keyboard shortcuts maniac, I truly like it. It’s practical, efficient, neat and gives a new dimension to the user experience. A more controlled and directive one.

(via Strake)

"Programming is an art that becomes a business when its value is effectively communicated and demand..."

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:45:32 -0500

“Programming is an art that becomes a business when its value is effectively communicated and demand for that product is high.”

- Amber Rae - Creating awesome from scratch

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Reel Green screens are...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:55:05 -0500

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Reel

Green screens are everywhere. Just watch this video and you will be amazed at how many things, even seemingly random ones are simply added later in tv series and movies.

(via Chartier)

Outdoor and Me

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:14:00 -0500

You may also read this post with a different title, like “Sport and Me” or “Outdoor gears and Me”, but let’s start by the beginning. When I was young, in time where teachers where still asking their students to stand in line from the taller in the back to the shorter in the front, I always been the closest one to the teacher. I only got to my full extension after high school, so all the harm to my self-esteem has been perpetrated during my junior years.

While my teachers was treating me like I was an angel - I always succeed to avoid detention after school even after having committed the worst of childhood crimes - to the other classmates, I was a continuous annoying pain. It was my way to defend myself against judgment and persecution for my lack of vertical inches. No way they will get it easy on me!

It was a pretty good all around technique except in the sport classes. Here’s the teacher didn’t really care about me. The line was mostly the other way around, the taller ones where favored for their athletic superiority while the short ones were the last considered when it was the time to choose the best assets by the team leaders.

I never succeeded to excel in team sports and my parents where not big fans either of our national sports (hockey and baseball). I didn’t grow liking sports in group and the competition around it. When I was a kid, I even asked my mother to stop going to a sport center every Saturday because I was missing all my cartoons! In fact, the reason was that the only sport I performed in was swimming. My mother was also a great cross country skier, so I learned to like it very young. 30 years later, I still practice cross county skiing almost every weekends in winter. During summer I switch my skis for my road bike going, two or three times week, at 30 km/h along side the Lachine canal here on Montreal. Both of those sports are outdoor, near the nature, and they are the perfect exit scenarios to my working life.

I got hook to outdoor, hiking in the woods in the good as the worst conditions, by getting an interest, more like a compulsive fanatic passion, for outdoor gears. I like tech gadgets, but I like even more outdoor equipments. I find the science of it fascinating. The ultimate goal being to feel naked while being protected from the outdoor elements. Meaning that your equipments should be as less heavy as possible for not slowing you down and the fabric of your clothing needs to protect you from the wind, rain, snow, sun, heat, cold while letting your skin breathes as much as possible, pushing the moisture from perspiration out. The equilibrium needs to be perfect and the quest for acquiring the best set of gears can become an obsession.

As for many things in life, like cooking, everything rests in the implementation and use of quality ingredients. To understand outdoor equipments, you need to know how it is done, but more importantly from what. For outdoor clothing, it means to know everything about the fabrics and how, in the field, the overall construction reacts and holds-on to its promise. For this reason I begun to read everything I could find about outdoor fabrics and gear reviews. I bought equipments, tested it in the field under various conditions, sold them, and bought ones I thought better, always in the ultimate goal of finding the perfect match. Once, I knew so much about each pieces of outdoor equipment, memorizing their little names, fabrics, weights, construction details, retail prices, performance on the field and how they compare to each other, that a manager, in a large outdoor retail store, has offered me a job on the spot, telling me that the only thing I didn’t knew was probably the SKU of the items. You learn with time that nothing can be a do-it-all, but certain pieces of gear have been so versatile that I can count on them in mostly any circumstances.

In short this is why I practice solitary sports and I got addicted to outdoor, in the most perverse way, by its outfits.

Sketchpad - an HTML5 / Canvas-based Paint...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:50:10 -0500

Sketchpad - an HTML5 / Canvas-based Paint Application

strake:

The UX seems a bit wonky, but as a technology demo it’s wicked impressive.

Truly impressive! Flash is dieing slowly…

The Setup - What do people use to get the job done?

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:38:19 -0500

The Setup - What do people use to get the job done?:

A bunch of nerdy interviews with professionals in their own field (game designers, developers, hackers, interface designers, illustrators, photographers, etc.) and their answers to the simple questions: “Who are you and what do you do?”, “What hardware do you use?”, “And what software?” and “What would be your dream setup?”.

They are all in my Instapaper ;)

(via Frank)

Thinking For a Living This website is a piece of art in itself...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Thinking For a Living

This website is a piece of art in itself for everything that it is: good copy, content/design grid, clean user interface, amazing use of the horizontal scroll shift and an intuitive keyboard navigation (arrow to move left-right, up-down, first letter of each sections).

(via Jarred)