onfocus

When Jesse meets Bootsy, magic. Update: Now that it's out, be sure to listen to Jesse's Best. Interview. Ever. It will improve your day.

Nice! Rdio is a great streaming music service with social features. It used to cost a monthly fee to listen to full songs, but now you can listen to a certain amount each month for free.

Oh man, the Olson database is a key piece of Web infrastructure. I hope they can get legal challenges sorted out and get the database back online. [via waxy]

Congrats to Jeff and team, they completely changed the way designers work with type on the Web. This makes sense, and I hope Adobe lets the Typekit folks take the lead.

Adobe also purchased PhoneGap, a service that turns HTML5 Web Apps into native phone apps.

Andy put together a handy list of geeky Portland spots. Wish I could be up there for ROFLcon tomorrow.

A great blog about futures past has moved to the Smithsonian Magazine. Seems like a good fit.

huh, Corvallis has the largest percentage of bicycle commuters in the country.

Nice sampling of speedometer design.

Handy tool to unminify JavaScript.

"Sears used to sell houses by mail." Someone please put old catalog pictures side by side with modern pictures of those houses still in use.

"From now on, when I want to visit Facebook, I’ll be using the private browser setting in whatever browser I’m using." This is my new strategy too. What a hassle.

ok, this is worth getting upset over. Update (9/28): Facebook Fixes and Explains.

Ben discusses Moore's law, Internet = Modernity, and changing expectations. I love the "translator" metaphor to describe our generation that has lived in both Internet and non-Internet worlds.

haha (not laughing at, with). I can sympathize.

Ajax spinning image with no image! (A bit heavier than an image, though.)

"...it would seem that many who claim to be pro-business are trying to 'save' us from exactly the inclusive, creative, tolerant values that have made America's most successful company possible." Anil connects the dots.

UGH. "AT&T's killing their $10/1,000 text plan. Now, you'll have to choose between $20 for unlimited, or forgo a plan and pay $0.20 per message. AT&T calls this 'streamlining.' We call it what it is: an outrageous, gigantic scam."

Mat Honan quoting Mike Monteiro: "We used to design things to take us to the moon, now we design things to keep us from getting out of bed." Like!

Nice toolkit of design elements for building websites.

"So, my hypothesis is that IAMA [I am a...] and AMA [ask me anything] are an important type of citizen journalism. Call it 'community journalism.'" TIL (today I learned...) is also a nice convention. [via waxy]

This command line browser that can run JavaScript looks handy for testing web apps.

"If you’re into experimentation, manual focus lenses, or just enjoy 'vintage' gear, at around $50 it is a bargain..." Nice review of an old 50mm Soviet lens. eBay, activate!

Why "Love it or leave it!" isn't a valid response to criticism of social networks.