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All Things D redesign

My two favorite kinds of phone calls to get at work are: a) new clients referred by old clients, and b) old clients coming back for more work. Either of those are a sign of good service.

So when Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, one of my all-time favorite clients (and yes, YOU are the other one), called for a home page refresh we were extremely happy to work with them again.

The first incarnation of the page featured great big photos of Walt and Kara and did a great job of establishing the site. But, ultimately, the site needed to get more active to keep up with the news cycles. We went for a mix of blog and prominent features. More of a blog/magazine hybrid, or a blogazine, if you will.

Take a look and/or read Kara’s post about it.

Written by Mike Monteiro on May 13, 2008 with 0 comments | Permanent link to All Things D redesign

Feedstore Summer Blowout Sale

ftw_sm.gifToday the temperature in San Francisco will reach 75 degrees, which means it’s warm enough outside to wear short sleeves. In celebration of this (and also because warm weather makes us want to SLASH things) we are reducing the price of many of our fine wearables to just 10 DOLLARS!

Get your clever t-shirt soon, at these prices they’ll be going like hot cakes*.

*Or something else that sells out very quickly.

Written by Katie Spence on May 13, 2008 with 0 comments | Permanent link to Feedstore Summer Blowout Sale

RIP Robert Rauchenberg

Rober Rauschenberg died last night. He was 82.

“I really feel sorry for people who think things like soap dishes or mirrors or Coke bottles are ugly, because they’re surrounded by things like that all day long, and it must make them miserable.”

As an awkward immigrant kid growing up in the 80’s I was obsessed with “American-ness” and the ultimately stupid idea that discovering this American-ness would lead to “belonging.”

Discovering the work of Robert Rauschenberg, among others, made me understand that difference and not belonging, or even better—rejection!—were the most American traits of all. And that attempting, and failing, on a larger scale was far more exciting than succeeding on a small one.

Thanks for that, and rest in peace.

Written by Mike Monteiro on May 13, 2008 with 2 comments | Permanent link to RIP Robert Rauchenberg

“Copy As Interface” Deck Now Available to You at Home!

Erika_presentation.jpg

By popular demand, Erika has posted her Web 2.0 Expo presentation, “Copy As Interface” on Slideshare. You’re welcome.

Photo by Matt Jones

Written by Katie Spence on April 29, 2008 with 1 comment | Permanent link to “Copy As Interface” Deck Now Available to You at Home!

Web 2.0 Expo: Copy As Interface

Yesterday, Information Week picked up this quote from Erika about the trends of today’s technologies:

“Given [the controversy surrounding Google Street View] and tools like Twitter and Dopplr, and Yahoo’s Fire Eagle, I think George Orwell would be stunned by the extent to which people are embracing the eradication of privacy.”

She made that remark in a preview of her upcoming speech at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. If you’re attending the conference, make sure to check out her speech, Copy As Interface, Wednesday April 23 at 1:30pm. You’ll learn something.

UPDATE The slides are here for your convenience:

Written by Katie Spence on April 22, 2008 with 6 comments | Permanent link to Web 2.0 Expo: Copy As Interface

Six Apart Deals Itself a New Hand

The big news in the blogging world today is Six Apart’s expansion out of the software and blog hosting provider fields with their announcement of a new line client services. With the purchase of Apperceptive, Six Apart gets the benefit of some of the most experienced Movable Type site builders out there, and with its new partnership with ad network Adify, presents the possibility of a complete money-making ecosystem for bloggers of every level. It’s an ambitious move, and could be very good for both Six Apart and the people who use its entire range of products, from Vox to Movable Type Enterprise.

It remains to be seen, though, exactly what shape the new services branch will take. Some smaller Movable Type developers are wondering if the provider of their software is going to be taking away their customers. I don’t see that happening because, frankly, the market is still huge, and there are plenty of other software vendors with their own client services departments that also support a thriving market of smaller client services companies. In the best-case scenario the experience of the client services department will benefit the smaller developers directly: When a Six Apart client requires some custom functionality, that functionality will make it into the developer community’s hands in some way, even if it becomes a paid plug-in and not part of the core product.

It could be quite a trick for Six Apart to juggle its related but distinct products and communities: Vox, TypePad, and Movable Type all have their target markets. And now there are the side-by-side commercial and open source versions of Movable Type, both of which are dependent on having a healthy developer community. There’s still a huge need for plug-in developers who know Perl, especially as more people move to MT4, whether the commercial version or the OS one, and find that some key plug-ins don’t work. If Six Apart shares the wealth of knowledge that they’ve gained by bringing in Apperceptive, their developer community could flourish, which would benefit everyone.

See also: An interview with 6A’s Anil Dash.

Written by David McCreath on April 21, 2008 with 0 comments | Permanent link to Six Apart Deals Itself a New Hand

Muxtape

If you didn’t hear about Muxtape.com this week, then you were living under a rock. The virtual mixtape-making app went live on Tuesday morning and by lunch that day, all of our internet friends had mixed some of their favorite tunes. Why did it take off so quickly?

  1. Simple design and user interface, observe: Muxtape%202.png

  2. People love both hearing about and sharing new music. There wasn’t a super easy way to do so before.

  3. Muxtape, with it’s name and concept tapped into a nostalgia for mixtapes that has been floating around lately. For example, this USB drive, designed to look like a cassette was a popular Christmas gift last holiday season. Picture%204.png

Justin Oullette, the creator of Muxtape offered these stats, from the first 24-hours:

8,685 users / 19,731 songs / 35,000 visits

Here are some of our favorite muxtapes. If you haven’t made yours yet, well what are you waiting for? If you have, please link to it in the comments.

Written by Katie Spence on March 28, 2008 with 0 comments | Permanent link to Muxtape

I swear this is the last Battledecks recap

… but rocketboom put together an awesome highlight reel:

Written by Mike Monteiro on March 13, 2008 with 1 comment | Permanent link to I swear this is the last Battledecks recap

Battledecks

Just got back from SXSW where our “panel”, Battledecks, was a huge success. We filled the room and people had a blast. I’ll be posting the decks on slideshare as soon as we have the audio synched. For now, here’s Battledeck winner Anil Dash.

I’ll have a fuller recap of the conference once I’ve caught up on some sleep and played with my son a lot.

UPDATE: Here’s a slideshow of the Best of Battledecks:

Written by Mike Monteiro on March 12, 2008 with 1 comment | Permanent link to Battledecks

Welcome Squid Overlords

It’s a good Sunday when Dr. Oliver Sacks shows up in the NY Times wearing a t-shirt we designed.

Written by Mike Monteiro on March 11, 2008 with 0 comments | Permanent link to Welcome Squid Overlords

Grazing

Grazing feed