Our own Rob Pierry wrote an in-depth article for MSDN Magazine on using Microsoft StreamInsight to overcome critical challenges when streaming massive amounts of data. It’s chock full of illustrations, opinions, and helpful examples. Go check it out!
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Master Large Data Streams with Microsoft StreamInsight
Adventures in Hungary
When adjusting to a new job, there are a few things that every new employee experiences. You know, just some of the typical things like jumping into a new culture, getting to know coworkers, and traveling to Hungary on your own. What? Doesn’t everyone spend their first two weeks of a new job in a foreign country? Well, that’s exactly what happened during my first two weeks at Captura.
“...a Starbucks barista gets more training than the average agency employee…If agencies want to continue to consider themselves as a “professional service” they have to act more like one by investing the required time and money in their most important form of capital: human capital.”
–Tim Williams encourages agencies to invest more in human capital via http://bit.ly/fuuLCH .
The Other Guys
I recently hung out with some notable web designers at SXSWi. Afterward, I had to remind myself that fame is not synonymous with success.
“We’ve all been raised by television to believe that one day we’ll all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars — but we won’t.” –Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
The internet reinforces this idea. We seek validation in the number of comments we get on a blog post or by the size of our twitter following. Those with the largest following tend to work on highly publicized projects for exceedingly cool clients who seem to grant them utter creative control. Their design sensibilities inspire and instruct the masses. By all appearances, these people have deeply rewarding and successful careers and sometimes it feels like notoriety is the ultimate measure of that success.
“..take an activity—say, cooking, which may be one of the most natural, human things we can do for one another—and break it up into a thousand pieces and you’ll find yourself with a dreary workforce and inferior biscuits.”
–Mandy Brown extrapolates on the "Pleasures and Sorrows of Work" via http://aworkinglibrary.com/library/archives/biscuit_making/.
Pictorymag // New York
The New York edition of Pictory is getting a lot of link love from the design world today. As it should—the site and photographs are stunning.
After browsing the gallery, I wanted to share this photo. The story resonated with me because, all too often, work is about the work. This piece reminded me that the people we interact with on the job and, more importantly, the kinds of interactions we hang on to are what shape us in the long run.
“Just prior to this shot, a police officer drove up and rolled down his window to ask if his tire tracks would have a negative impact on my shot. After I told him yes, he nodded, put his car in reverse, and went the opposite direction. His courtesy and respect had a profound effect on me, and I still hold it close to this day.”
—Eddie O’Bryan, Graphic designer and photographer, with homes in both Austin and New York City.
“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”
–Scott Belsky of Behance reminds us that real artists ship via http://startupquote.com/post/6235607.
Working for The Man. In a good way.
David Lancashire swung by my desk this morning to see what I’ve been working on. I showed him a comp and elaborated on a problem area in the design – specifically, an info-graphic that needed to be more compelling. Without missing a beat, he exposed the business problem the graphic needed to solve, explained it for me in plain english (i.e. without executive-level jargon), and referenced a book where I could find some supplemental ideas.
What he did not do is suggest I add some gloss, gradient, or other gaudy candy-coding to make the graphic “pop.”
From leadership to delivery, Captura is made of smart people. Educators. Problem solvers. Consultants in the very best sense of the word.
Big(D)esign Schedule
If you’re attending The Big Design Conference and you rock an iPhone, we’ve created a couple handy wallpapers outlining the schedule for each day.
There’s one for Friday and one for Saturday. Enjoy!
Pixelated Impressionism
These Mashups of Famous Works by soundofdesign (a.k.a Ty Lettau – Design Manager of Unified Experience at Adobe) want to be on my wall soooooo bad.
The author email link has been fixed.
The broken “Send so-and-so an email” link at the end of every blog post has been repaired. Thanks to Luis Garcia for bringing the issue to our attention. In fact, thanks to everyone who’s provided feedback. You’re a gracious bunch. Keep it coming.
Jobs like software development, design and copywriting often require juggling lots of different things in your head at once ... While open [office] plan might make communication easier, it makes distractions just as easy. The trade off isn’t worth it. Closed offices let you shut your door and get focused.
–David Greiner of Campaign Monitor via http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2342-profitable-and-proud-campaign-monitor.
Encouraging Common Paths
Several years ago (before I even knew what a blog was), Peter Merholz wrote way more about paths at UC Berkeley than you’d ever want to read. The article revolved around the (at that time) emergent technology of tagging and, subsequently, tag clouds. I ran across that article a few months ago when I read his more recent piece on Desire Lines. Ever since, I’ve been thinking about how much I loathe tag clouds. There has to be a better way to demonstrate what’s the most popular/helpful/enjoyable content on a website.
Creating the Dental Wealth Partners Logo
Logo design is hard for me. So, when I complete a branding project and everyone is happy, there’s much cause for celebration. I’ve just wrapped one such project – a logo design for Dental Wealth Partners. Seeing as things went so swimmingly, I thought I’d share my process and show some of the iterations and ugly step children I created along the way.
...my father rose at 5:30, went to his study, wrote for a couple of hours, made us all breakfast, read the paper with my mother, and then went back to work for the rest of the morning. Many years passed before I realized that he did this by choice, for a living, and that he was not unemployed or mentally ill.
–Anne Lamott in "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life via http://ow.ly/1zrQL.
Show me your worst.
This is counter to everything I’ve been taught about portfolios, but I want to see all of a designer’s work, not just his or her best work. Organized by date, the trajectory would be incredibly telling – both in terms of potential growth and the direction of the designer’s sensibilities.
Additionally, it would be equally interesting to include past employer’s honest-to-goodness complaints about you in your resumé, highlighting either how you’ve grown or how you plan to get better (or even how you don’t plan to change). Am I being naïve?
Office Space
An office move is on the horizon for Captura. While TheManagement™ is considering location and cost, I’ve been thinking about workspaces and interior design. Having recently gone through an office move back with EMC, I learned a few lessons about creating collaborative work environments.
Information is Beautiful: When Sea Levels Attack
One can never be too prepared for world destruction. This entertaining infographic from InformationIsBeautiful.net helps you plan for the fallout of global warming… should you live for several hundred years, that is.
