Category Archives: design

design: dimmer light switch de-evolution

Posted on 2025-03-20 by skierpage

The electrical industry came up with the perfect light switch over 60 years ago: a plastic thing you flick up to turn on and down to turn off. You can see by looking at it which lights are on and … Continue reading →

Posted in design | Leave a comment

design: Parker pen pals

Posted on 2025-01-05 by skierpage

TL;DR: bring back the Parker 25! I’m interested in pens, but as with watches (and hi-fi, ski pants, raincoats, etc.) once I find what seems the best design, I’m done. Until I lose it or it wears out. I wasn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in design | Leave a comment

art: Jhane Barnes greatness

Posted on 2024-08-25 by skierpage

Jhane Barnes‘ legendary shirts are just too beautiful to hide in a closet. I need a glassed-in mobile of shifting shirts that move close and recede. Failing that, after I wear one I leave it out to catch my eye … Continue reading →

Posted in art, design | Tagged | Leave a comment

screwing squinting customers instead of helping them

Posted on 2023-02-13 by skierpage

Companies treat government-mandated disclosures as a bureaucratic cost to be minimized rather than a chance to help their customers. So I get illegible tax form verbiage on Umpqua Bank’s 1099-SA form, printed on the envelope of my form to save … Continue reading →

Posted in customer non-service, design | Leave a comment

computers: put the screen above a laptop

Posted on 2022-12-31 by skierpage

If you search for “external laptop monitor”, most images show a screen beside the laptop. So you have to look sideways at it, or use a separate keyboard. Some even show a tray raising the laptop to the screen height … Continue reading →

Posted in computers, design | Leave a comment

design: buttons barred, suit yourself

Posted on 2021-05-13 by skierpage

When I had Perry’s of Bangkok tailor a suit for me (in a very different time and place!), I knew I didn’t want that anachronistic row of buttons on the jacket sleeves. They used to work: I had a science … Continue reading →

Posted in design | Leave a comment

eco: reviving an IKEA Jansjö light

Posted on 2021-01-21 by skierpage

The IKEA Jansjö was amazing 12 years ago, a cheap bright LED lamp when others cost $150. It was $40 (went down to $15 and now may be discontinued). But the switches on them were awful. Both of ours flicker … Continue reading →

Posted in design, eco | Leave a comment

design: a Black Lives Matter poster

Posted on 2020-09-03 by skierpage

It is the least I could do; downloading this PDF and printing out the first three pages is the least you can do. I made it in the free and open source LibreOffice program, using the fonts Cantarell Extra Bold … Continue reading →

Posted in design, open source | Leave a comment

skiing: technical wear as fashion

Posted on 2020-03-13 by skierpage

Keegan Brady wrote an article in GQ about the rise of “technical outerwear” in fashion. I wear and love this stuff while skiing, but once I’m off the mountain it goes in a storage tub. He mentions the rise of … Continue reading →

Posted in design, skiing | Leave a comment

Minox James Bond off-hours camera

Posted on 2018-09-22 by skierpage

Minox was moderately famous for making a tiny spy camera using 16mm film. But they also made the smallest 35mm camera in the world (100 x 61 x 31mm or just 2.4″ tall), and I owned several as each broke … Continue reading →

Posted in design | Leave a comment