Wednesday linkfest
- Why are phone keypads in that order? One of those ubiquitous designs we forget someone designed. Very cool to see the alternative designs they experimented with.
- The one man castle builder. The castle is real, and amazing. The man is, well, shall we say, passionate? If you’re into DIY projects or Hundertwassser style architecture, this is a must watch.
- Ten design lessons learned from Las Vegas. One of my favorite things about Vegas is studying how the casinos are designed: there’s tons of thinking going on most people never thing about. This is a good piece on learing about UI design from LV.
- Google, the Printing press and stupidity. Puts the whole question of whether tech makes us stupid into a good historical framework. Includes thoughts on Socrates, multitasking, wikipedia and more.
- Five centuries of board games. If you think the world of board games started with monopoly and Sorry! you’re in for a surprise. (via cynical-c).
Regarding tech and stupidity, my most recent post on my seanessay.com site proposes that “surfing while at work” is causing prose to be read, and created, with a left brain sensibility. I feel a loss. A pre-net writer such as Orwell would have an ending “conclusion” sentence that meant one thing literally, but another thing figuratively. This is not possible with pure left brain.