nzeldes 
There is a progression in the components of electronic computers. In the forties and fifties they were made of vacuum tubes; in the sixties, of transistors; in the seventies and later of increasingly dense silicon chips. And in the future, according to the vision of SciFi master Isaac Asimov, there will be positronic brains, small … Read more
Apple Computer’s incredibly talented design team has had a major influence on the design of contemporary mobile electronics: just visit a cellular phone store and you’ll see how all the companies are scrambling to copy the iPhone’s sleek look and feel, both the hardware and the software. Well, apparently this influence goes beyond mobile devices. … Read more
This morning my notebook’s battery died an ignominious death, and I had to hurriedly procure a new one. Not a good start for the day. I called the vendor’s customer support center, and plodded through the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu, fully expecting a harrowing experience. Instead, I was routed to a service rep who … Read more
I parked at an Intel plant in Israel, and was delighted to note some conveniently located parking spaces marked “Expecting mother”. I just love this idea: employees carrying a next-generation employee inside certainly deserve this convenience. Besides, just because we provide parking for the handicapped (and very rightly so) doesn’t mean there aren’t other people … Read more
There is no place quite like Israel, and this is reflected in many design decisions made in this country. For instance, consider the Arrivals Hall at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, which is designed around our family-centric cultural attitude. While in many airports arriving passengers just go out into the street to pick a … Read more
Here is a screenshot from the form you fill to join the El Al Frequent Flier club. The form has the usual fields (take my word for it, you to whom Hebrew is Greek), but the one that drew my attention is the Title field preceding the first name. This uses a drop-down box, which … Read more
Cross-posting this from my work site… a look at the original Blackberry from 1998, a winning design with different functionality, different constraints and a quite different usage model from today’s designs. Read all about it here!
Edible fruit have been on this planet since the Cretaceous, but they know how to move ahead with the times. See the photo: this pear, recently arrived from our greengrocer, has a barcode on it! Why does a pear need its own barcode? I could understand putting one on the crate, for easier shipping control … Read more
I was in a building where someone decided to give the signage a modern look, and I saw this sign outside a restroom. The people have this angular look, with slanted heads – why not? Anything for effect… But it does occur to me that the guy on the wheelchair with the nonagonal wheel (yep… … Read more
Check the new article on my History of Computing exhibit: a century old teaching aid from Germany, with the added twist that it anticipates today’s well known slogan: “To each pupil his own counting machine!”
