http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A3NP8G6G91X364 Brendan Dawes' Amazon Blog en-us Copyright 2005-2007 Amazon.com Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:50:51 -0800 Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:50:51 -0800 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Amazon.com Blogs 60 http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK4CPWUKM5Q2CI Brendan Dawes
So I've had some lovely reader feedback including "Timing couldn't be perfect though. I am in the crossroads right now of making something out of my being and your book has made a very strong statement to me. A BIG THANKS TO YOU!" which made me smile. But then I got some feedback from a very well known New York based graphic designer who pretty much hated it. And I'd be lieing if I said it didn't depress me for a little bit. Eventually I came to my senses and realised that there are always going to be people who just don't get what I'm trying to say with this book.

Anyway, yesterday morning I opened up my email to get a message from someone I have massive resepect for and was one of the reasons why I got into this thing in the first place. Here's some of what he said:

I just had the pleasure of reading AIDO and, despite having to give a lecture early the next day, I stayed up to finish it late into the night.

I'm not sure if our paths have crossed before - I was one of the co-founders of Antirom along with Tom Roope and Andy Cameron amongst others. So we may have been around at the same events. On the other hand we were very cocky and young in the Antirom days and possibly a bit aloof. Sigh.

I think you perfectly summed up the spirit of diving in and trying to see what you can do - ripping things apart, connecting one idea to another, really exploring this new form - that we were also into. Except you said it with much greater clarity and enthusiasm than I have heard for a long time.

I'm teaching interactive media at the Bauhaus university in Weimar at the moment ... I told them all to buy your book.

Andy Polaine.
For those who aren't familiar with AntiRomthese guys changed things. Nothing was the same in the world of so called multimedia ever again. I remember seeing the amazing, different work for Levi's which had a massive impact on me.

AIDO is simply my very honest approach to interactive design which some people will either love or hate. As long as there is some reaction to my thoughts and observations then I'm happy.]]> Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:50:51 -0800 PLNK4CPWUKM5Q2CI http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKMTVFXZNRQW64 Brendan Dawes
DSF was written in 2001 and covers Flash 5. Right now Flash is on version 8 and soon to be Flash 9. While some of the core principles of actionscript programming can be learnt from the book I can't really recommend anyone learning actionscript from this book anymore. Many many things have changed in actionscript since I wrote DSF - after all it's five years old - which is a long time in software terms.

As for dragslidefade.com, unfortunately due to my overzealous junk mail filtering the domain was not renewed and that was the end of that. I will however put the source files for download via my site, brendandawes.com but like I said I wouldn't suggest you learn from these file anymore.

DSF helped many people see the light (judging by my emails) with regards to the creative use of actionscript. But its time has now passed.

I hope that helps.

P.S. The reason I didn't reply to that reviewers email for two weeks was because I was on vacation - without email, or any sign of technology. Apologies for taking time off.]]> Sat, 07 Oct 2006 02:35:06 -0700 PLNKMTVFXZNRQW64 http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK13ZQXWVYLJPBZ Brendan Dawes
I had a lot of people asking about the posters Peachpit raffled - using artwork from the book. These were limited edition one-offs, so I'll never be printing those exact pieces again, but due to the interest I'll look into making some other artwork available  through my site. More news on that soon.

The night ended with a great party hosted by Wallop. It was like the old skool dot com days - free bar, limos etc.]]> Wed, 13 Sep 2006 07:48:58 -0700 PLNK13ZQXWVYLJPBZ http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK1P17OCU38DPZN Brendan Dawes
Last night, as the previous night, was spent along 6th street, the main bar area in Austin, including going to the Flux party that Craig Swann put together. A big part of Flashforward is seeing old faces and meeting new ones. Tonight it's more of the same, this time with a party being thrown by Adobe.

Copies of Analog In arrived yesterday so it'll be great to get some feedback on the book from people here at the conference.]]> Tue, 12 Sep 2006 07:20:44 -0700 PLNK1P17OCU38DPZN http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK1IODD90NRQ19C Brendan Dawes
Now I love self serve check-in machines. Contrary to the English stereotype I hate to queue so I always head for these machines - which hardly anyone ever uses. I think that's mainly because many people have a fear of putting themselves in the hands of a machine when doing something so mission critical as getting your boarding card so you can get on your flight. That's why British Airways have nice friendly people stood by them to help. Plus when people see other people queuing it's very hard for them to break away from what everyone else seems to be doing and go and use some faceless machine. Anyway like I said I totally embrace these machines - except when these systems are so badly designed - then it can all get a bit messy.

So when we arrived at check-in on our way to Spain we took one look at the sizable queue and headed straight for the self-serve. All went well - it found us on the system, we chose our seats and then it told us we were all set, simply collect the tickets that are now printing at the bottom of the machine. Thank you and goodbye. Only nothing happened. No tickets appeared. There wasn't even any sign of it attempting to print. But yet its just told me they've been printed. Take them and have a nice day! No problem I thought I'll just try it again. But I couldn't - me and my wife were checked-in. The computer said no. And that was that.

The only thing left was to ask for help - from a human, not a machine. Twenty minutes later it was sorted by a nice friendly gentleman from the airline. And what was the problem with the machine in the first place? No printer paper in the machine! But the machine had not been designed to notice such a vital flaw. As far as it was concerned it had printed the tickets. It was crazy that it didn't even check if paper was available. All this pain could have been avoided by simply getting the system to check for paper, and if there wasn't any available simply give a message to say this machine is currently out of use.

For many people this kind of first time experience with a self-serve machine could easily have put them off for life. All it needed was a little bit more thought in the design process. It's not hard. It's just about a little care and attention.]]> Sun, 10 Sep 2006 07:42:18 -0700 PLNK1IODD90NRQ19C http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKWZOCD8ZJ5955 Brendan Dawes Analog In, Digital Out and to celebrate I've created 4  posters of artwork from the book which you can have a chance of winning if you're going to be attending the event. For more details of this and other happenings you can check out the Flashforward blog. Peachpit's Ted Waitt has also posted a little piece about the book on the Peachpit Commons blog.]]> Sun, 03 Sep 2006 05:10:06 -0700 PLNKWZOCD8ZJ5955 http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK3SSH6IPLMWLG7 Brendan Dawes uploaded to Flickr , taken by my publisher.]]> Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:56:51 -0700 PLNK3SSH6IPLMWLG7 http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKF5G5PXF8B55B Brendan Dawes
But this is not a book for me to simply vent my spleen. Hopefully this is a book that will inspire you to make stuff and to view the world in a slightly different way. The very visual design of the book contains an eclectic mix of content; interfaces made with modeling clay, origami swans left on trains, books wrapped in brown paper and string, glitch making machines, Steve McQueen, Elvis and even my Mum. From a technology point of view it features projects created with Processing, Flash, PHP, MAX/MSP and even a doorbell bought from the local hardware store. But this is in no way a technical book. This is a book about my very personal views on how as a designer I use this analog world that surrounds us to help me make more human digital, interactive experiences.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed creating it.]]> Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:35:30 -0700 PLNKF5G5PXF8B55B