If..Else Log

Tim Harford's FT article on the value of insurance has the following wonderfully zen passage:

The correct response is to insure yourself only against the big risks, such as your house burning down. As for the dent in the hire car, you will simply have to tell yourself that in the big scheme of things, it’s not that important. That is the closest that economics will ever come to Taoism.

Tim Harford has a fascinating article on poker and the increasing use and ramifications of game theory.

One ironic possibility looms large: eventually, online poker will be dominated by the only poker players able to master John von Neumann's game theory, the computers. Meanwhile, the humans will retreat back to the flesh-and-blood world of the casinos, where a nervous tic can tell more than a thousand calculations…Rather than conquering traditional poker, the biggest legacy of the poker mathematicians may be to make the game more exciting for the rest of us than ever before.

Jeffrey Friedl writes on the day after enjoying a bag of corn-nut garlic snacks.

Relaxing now in my office, I realize that I can still feel it oozing from my pores. And yes, my eyes. My eyes are still oozing garlic.

If anything, his blog post makes me want to buy a pack¹

1. Even if it's only to let others enjoy the experience; I have an evil side to myself:) [back]

John recently wrote about how he was asked for his postcode when making a purchase at a high-street store which reminds me of a similar incident I had a while back whilst purchasing a TV for my brother at Dixons. Having gone through the usual battle that is off-line shopping, we managed to make our way up to the till whereupon the unnecessary question was asked "Can I have your address and postcode?".

Why was this question unnecessary, you may ask? Well, the reason is because we were just buying a portable TV. Therefore, they didn't need my information for delivery as I was taking it away there and then, and I wasn't interested in being ripped offpurchasing their extended warranty. As such, I asked why I needed to hand over my details and wasn't given much of an answer beyond "because we need to". She wouldn't allow us to go on without a postcode and since I wasn't the only one there and didn't want to be a dick, I decided to wimp out and hand over my details. Annoying but at least it was all over or so I'd thought.

Loss of privacy

Now fast-forward a week or so whereupon a letter in a brown envelope arrived at my doorstep addressed to yours truly. What do I find when I open it up? A letter informing me that I needed to pay my TV licence. It turns out that that Dixon's and other TV retailers are obliged to hand over your details to the authorities once a TV purchase was made. So by giving over my details, I get a nice letter demanding payment. Forget fancy detector vans and enforcement officers with magnetic field detection devices. The way they track you down is by getting shops to rat you out.

Now, I don't mind paying the TV license. I think it's good value for what we receive. In addition, the TV license for our place was already paid (though not in my name).

What I'm not a fan of is my details being handed around without my knowledge or permission. If you're going to make use of my details, and if I'm losing a bit of my privacy in doing so, at least give me some respect by informing me what's going on.

The Stig and the Hamster¹ set out to prove that pub talk favourite: If you drive fast enough, you can beat a speed camera. All you need is a TVR Tuscan, 2 miles of clear road and a death wish. [via]

1. Sounds like an 70s pop band [back]

Kind i Like is a collection of things that look like people.

Now, this is my kind of photolog! [via]

And so another CSS reboot comes to an end. This time around, there have been some real treats in store for design fans but with the sheer number of rebooters this year, you might have missed a few. So here are a selection of my favourite reboots of Spring 2006.

Red

Earth and fire, red is an under-utilised colour amongst web designers. So it's a pleasure to see that those who did choose red were also amongst my favourite entries.

Rob Goodlatte bats off with a wonderfully warm and worn entry; the palatte chosen work well with the style of the site. Kyle's firey entry roars with it's bold background and colour scheme. And Prabhath embraces a more earthy design; natural and personal, Prabhath was also one of the few to have gone with a fluid layout.

Other notable entries: codesign

Green

From one colour of nature to another, though green does appear to be more popular amongst developers. That said, this shouldn't be such as surprise; whilst red is bursting with emotion and boldness, green is altogether more calm and relaxed which, perhaps, makes it more appealing to designers.

Fortyeightdesigns is one such lovely entry; the balanced colour scheme work well with the classic textures and the slightly curvy layout works a treat. Snook has gone in the other direction with his use of green; more edgy than earthy, it has a matrixy, old-school programmers feel to it. And like that programmer favourite, vi, it's crammed with little secret commands that might escape you on your first encounter. Freshbranding makes the most of it's name with a design that has a fresh, clean feel. It's, perhaps, a common studio design but one that's been pulled off well.

Other notable entries: Zooiblog, BusinessLogs, FortyMedia, ThannyLe

Dark

As much as designers like to consider themselves creative and different, it's always funny to see common trends. Light text on dark backgrounds has always been one of those cyclical themes that pop in and out of existance and it appears it's now time for it to reappear. However, dark colours do look good and are relatively easy to pull off so which is why it's had a good turnout this year.

It's probably no surprise to see Bryan's entry feature well. His last design was immensely popular and having done this 21 times before, he's a bit of a veteren to this redesign game. It's also nice to see that he hasn't forgotten the food banners. Alex Graul's entry at m.ossy also caught my eye. A Lovely use of columns and contrast, it's an impressively minimalist design pulled off with class. David Longworth has stopped blogging but he hasn't stopped designing; the reboot for Orange Tape Studios was another one of those simple designs that has been executed well. Background, colour scheme, type and layout have all contributed to a strong design.

Other notable entries: Totalspore, BrokenKode, EchoFaith, Niggle

Light

And from the shadows, we step into light. White has always been an extremely popular choice; whilst grey on black does look cool, it can become a bit of a strain on the eye when you're reading for long periods and thus, it's good to see sites embracing a more content friendly design. Natalie's clearly gone for such with the readable type and generous content area; whilst she's perhaps gone a bit overboard on the homepage, the internal pages are lovely to read. In redesigning his blog, Jeff has clearly gone back to the grid. Both internally and on the main page, Jeff has masterly utilised columns so as to present information with clarity and cohesiveness and nary a hint of confusion. DesignSnack's redesign is reshuffling and tidying of the previous look and feel. It's now less of a gallery and more of a Digg for designs; however, whilst its exterior is aesthetically pleasing, it's lacking from a design and functional viewpoint. I'm not convinced it's a successful reboot but sadly, I'm also a sucker for visual sweetness something which this design is coated with.

Other notable entries: Jorge Quinteros, Yoram Blumenberg, Derek Punsalan, Matt Brett, Intellicode, Twisted Intellect, WebJillion.

The CSS Reboot page is live so head on over there and vote for me¹:)

1. Just kidding; there are loads of great sites there to vote for. I'll probably gather up some of my favourite for a post later today but have fun browsing through all the entries! [back]

I haven't read this book yet but I love the title: "For Every Minute You Are Angry You Lose Sixty Seconds of Happiness".

What a lovely quote.