Brian Kerr

From the party-like-it's-2000 department:

A couple of the Mac OS X developer previews had a weird purple button at the top right corner of window title bars, where the magical lozenge can be found more recently. This button appeared in a few developer previews, but was removed before the first really crappy public release.

This button was actually a toggle between normal layered windowing and a nasty “single window mode” which allowed only one window to show at a time. Single window mode simply minimized the existing (single) window whenever an action opened up a new window.

For more on this behavior and screen captures of what the button looked like in disabled and enabled states, see John Siracusa’s review of OS X developer preview 3 (start reading around ¶5).

The magical lozenge which occupies the same spot in more recent Mac OSes has two purposes. First, you click it to show or hide the toolbar. The second purpose — and the reason it’s a magical lozenge — you ⌘-click it to cycle between the various icon/text and toolbar size configurations. Like all forms of magic, this one has its downside as well, in that the odd ugly duck application may manage to do something just totally insane when you click the magical lozenge, at least until they fix the thing.

(tags: design feedback-loop interaction mac visual)

Community Farm of Ann Arbor distribution:

• arugula, the rocket vegetable
• beet
• cabbage
• green onion
• kale
• lettuce
  • strong lettuce ← I am scared to touch this, for fear of being overpowered; in fact I don’t know what “strong” means in this context, but the implication is that it’s a synonym for “crappy”
• radish
• micro zucchini

So far I have pressed several items into service in the world’s weirdest vegetarian sandwich for tonight’s dinner. Arugula cries out for a good pizza, now that it’s cool enough to turn the oven on.

When I dropped by the mitten/ascalon compound to pick up our herbs, I drove through the great June 27 north Ann Arbor power outage of 2007, from which we’ve collectively bounced back to enjoy a super pleasant warm (but not hot) day. For details, see the wiki weather report for Ann Arbor and environs, courtesy of the Microcoworkers. A wiki weather report is a weather report powered by wiki technology.

(tags: annarbor community-farm food wiki)

Thanks to the new and improved Walker Tracker API: an adorable micro graph of my walking activity for the past few months. Find it at the top of every page. Each day is red if I exceeded my step goal, gray if not.

This bitter gray motivates me to get outside even on a hot day like today — which is good, since I’ve hit a rough patch lately on the pedestrianism front. “Increase the red” is the new increase the n.

It’s the simplest possible lashing together of Walker Tracker and Joe Gregorio’s sparkline Python CGI, with Scott Hurring’s PHP Serialize module for wire ties.

(tags: metacrap urbanranger visual walkertracker)

The best networks are the ones that generate a new way of thinking about some part of the world. This way, the network and software and people stick with you, even when you’re not near them. There’s a sense of availability: that the new way of seeing, or measuring, has some nontrivial half-life — that it persists — once you close the laptop and stand up and start walking.

There are plenty of networks that change the way you work. When you find one, you grow into it over time, and it grows to fit you, like a glove.

But there are fewer networks that change the way you are. A network like this is life-changing in some small way. Maybe it gives you a way to relate to people you wouldn’t otherwise notice. Maybe it gives you a new measurement, so you can go out into the world and try to change it. Maybe it teaches you to slow down, or to speed up, or to remember, or to forget. When you find one of these things, celebrate it. You’re lucky.

(tags: collective representation web)

Because AATA press releases get posted online in evil insect PDF format:

AATA to convert to hybrid electric bus technology

ANN ARBOR, MI — Fifteen hybrid electric buses will be introduced into the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) fleet this fall as the next step in its continuing effort to minimize negative impacts on the environment and cut operating costs.

Funding for the fifteen new buses comes from a combination of federal and state grants obtained by AATA. AATA plans to eventually replace its entire fleet with clean-air hybrid electric technology. According to AATA Manager of Maintenance Terry Black, AATA plans to receive the new buses in September and October.

“Hybrid electric buses feature a combination of a battery-powered electric motor to provide most of the power at slower speeds and a smaller, clean-diesel engine that takes over at higher speeds,” Black said. “AATA expects to use 67,600 gallons less diesel fuel, saving more than $2.5 million in fuel costs, over the 12-year life expectancy of the vehicles.”

… AATA plans to eventually convert its entire fleet to hybrid electric buses as its current buses reach the end of their life expectancy, Black said.

Today’s press release isn’t online yet, but essentially reiterates this one from last fall (WARNING PDF follows WARNING).

(tags: annarbor psyops public-transportation ypsilanti)

Community Farm of Ann Arbor distribution:

• arugula aka GARDEN ROCKET
• dill
• easter egg radish
• fava beans
• garlic flowers (shitload thereof)
• green onion
• kale
• lettuce
• snap peans
• strawberries

Gorgeous weather today, I was fortunate enough to have a few minutes to kick around the farm before heading home.

(tags: annarbor community-farm food)

via negatendo’s animated gifs from del.icio.us.