Phil Scott's WebLog

Quite exciting this computer magic

  • Don't Make me Think

    One of my favorite books on usability is Don't Make Me Think by Steven Krug.  One of my favorite examples he presented in the book was the old BN.com “Quick Search” button.  It left you wondering, even just briefly, if there was a more in depth search option that might take longer, but return better results.

  • Graphic Designers and Longhorn

    Yao by Cat ScottAfter seeing Adam Kinney's Snow Covered Textboxes, it has become clear:  I need to get my sister developing with Longhorn.  My sister is pretty wicked good at Illustration, and is currently working as a graphic designer in Indy.  But she grew up with computers, just like me, and has always displayed an uncanny knack for being technically oriented, but never really got into anything because she's more artistically oriented. 

  • 'Tis the Season

    The guys at Penny Arcade have started an Amazon.com wish list for the kids at the Seattle Children's hospital with amazing results.  Check out all the goodies these kids have in store for them at the Child's Play section of their site.  We are talking PS2s, Gameboys, DVD...the works. 

  • Some Cool Icons

    I've been exploring the Glyfz website that the man, the legend Mike Gunderloy pointed towards in a recent daily grind.  Pretty nice looking images, but since most of my apps are ran in house, I have no real reason to drop even 60 bucks on some images when I have the Common7\Graphics folder at my disposal. 

  • Gradient Ahoy!

    I've been playing around with Longhorn, and checking out the Whidbey demos, and it's become clear there must be a position some place deep within the bowels of Microsoft that is perfect for me based on my past hacks I've taken at Graphic Design:

  • Value PC

    Being the nice son and daughter that me and my sis are, we decided to hook my mom up with a computer.  For the record, my mom is the reason I have any semblance of computer skills.  She and my dad purchased a 286/16mhz beast of a machine way back in the day for my sister and I.  They upgraded that to a 486 and later to a 200mhz pentium before I took over the PC purchasing for the fam damily.  She also showed me the ways of DOS and WordPerfect 5.1, and showed me the tao of keyboard shortcuts.  She helped me install my first modem, even though she had no clue either.  Good times.