Category Archives: design

screwing squinting customers instead of helping them

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

computers: my legendary Herman-Miller Levity standing desk

For months I tried to give my old adjustable desk to a museum, or at least to someone who has a use for it. It’s the Levity by Herman-Miller, an impressive piece of late 90s office design. It goes from … Continue reading

Posted in computers, design | 4 Comments

art: the greatest walks away from her canvas

This is like Morris Louis, Agnes Martin, or Piet Mondrian putting away their brushes. (And Jhane Barnes is way better at geometric abstraction than every capital ‘A’ artist who’s practiced it.) Jhane Barnes’ blog post is frank and clear, in … Continue reading

Posted in art, design | Tagged | Leave a comment

buying a new bicycle

After years of service, my Univega bike gave out. The gel seat (long since turned to solid foam) is disintegrating, the wheels can’t be trued any more, the crank grinds in the bottom bracket, the brakes squeal more than they … Continue reading

Posted in design, eco | Leave a comment