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Top Drupal Gotchas: "Access Denied" and Permissions Problems
October 31 2009
The Drupal Content Management System keeps getting better and better. But the learning curve is still steep and the interface is still tricky - even after working with it for several years, some gotchas keep tripping me up. That tells... read moreWe Need to Teach Visual Critical Thinking
March 16 2009
I was just looking at yet another vacuous presentation graphic, this one purporting to illustrate the SMART test for defining objectives. It looked something like this: This is of course rubbish. Infographics guru Edward Tufte would object strenuously to its... read moreTaming an Airport Express WDS Network
March 14 2009
Apple earns enough goodwill with its usually beautiful design and usability that every now and then it gets away with murder. Case in point: the Airport Express. I recognize that many people are happy with their AE's. I've found that... read moreMarch 06 2009
Microsoft Songsmith, designed to be a software aide for musical composition, has instead proved to be a great tool for comedy, as early adopters have exploited its bent for generating hilariously inappropriate accompaniments to famous artists' vocal tracks. This is... read moreMore Creativity in a Can: When Thomas Dolby Met the Rhinestone Cowboy
March 04 2009
Microsoft Songsmith has been stuck in my mind lately like, well, a bad song (follow that link at your own risk). It's got me reflecting about the long trend towards using music technology to increase productivity, but not creativity. And... read moreFebruary 10 2009
For me, what's wrong with Songsmith is not that it's so uncool. It's what's wrong (though maybe not so egregiously) with a lot of music technology: the underlying premise that productivity is an absolute good. read moreDoes Brainstorming Actually Work?
December 11 2008
It's a staple of corporate retreats: gather staff, whip out the flip chart and announce that "there are no bad ideas". Many attendees just groan inwardly. Are they just cynics, or are they onto something? Apparently several studies back up the Dilberts of the world, at least to an extent.… read moreNovember 19 2008
Creativity is a good thing. But I think we sometimes fall into the habit of thinking it's the only good thing. Not happy in your job? You probably need more opportunities to be creative. Not happy in your personal life? If you could just express yourself more, you'd feel better.… read moreEsession Version 2: Online Recording, Now More Collaborative
April 06 2008
A little while ago I wrote an article about my experience using esession.com, a web-based "virtual recording studio". Esession struck me as having a very well-integrated collection of professional features. Now comes esession.com Version 2, and it looks like it's going to be better - largely by incorporating more non-professional… read moreAll You Need to Know about Creativity, in 48 Pages
September 20 2007
When I worked in Silicon Valley, I realized after a short while that a big part of my job as a manager amounted to finding ways to help people be creative. After all, if you have a collection of very... read moreWonkosphere: Political Reputation - or at Least Buzz - Management
September 19 2007
It’s early days, but just like the record industry, American democracy is being taken apart and rebuilt by digital technology and the web. Why should ONLamp readers care? Many of you will be designing and building our new democracy. Several trends are converging to make this possible and, I think, inevitable.… read moreMore Political Reputation-Management: The Truth-o-Meter
August 28 2007
Following my recent post about a color-coded reputation management system* for politicians (indicating their truthfulness by the color used to display their names on web pages), I came across Politifact and its Truth-o-Meter. Politifact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly that will “analyze the [presidential] candidates’… read moreFlow Award Nominee: FrameForge 3D Studio 2
August 20 2007
Recently I needed to develop a storyboard in a hurry for a TV commercial. Problem: I can't draw. Solution: FrameForge 3D Studio 2, a pre-visualization tool popular with film & TV directors. Unexpected extra: Flow! I loved working with this... read moreProposal: A Politicians' Reputation Management System
August 20 2007
News of University of California Santa Cruz computer scientist Luca de Alfaro’s Wikipedia trust-coloring system revived - and improved - an idea I’ve been playing with: automated reputation-management for politicians. The idea is to make the concept of honor meaningful again, by creating new social rewards and penalties for behavior… read moreThe Missing Drupal Manual: "Pro Drupal Development"
May 21 2007
Drupal, one of the leading open source content management systems, is amazing. The more I learn about it the more impressed I am by the depth of thought (and amount of work) that’s gone into making it so powerful and flexible. But, thanks to its complexity and to the large gaps… read moreRecent Posts | All Posts
