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After four years, JSM is leaving Jeffrey Zeldman’s agency, Happy Cog.

Make no mistake, Happy Cog is the best company I’ve ever worked for. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to work on a variety of great projects over the years, but it’s time for me to move on and try some new things.

I had the privilege of working with Jeffrey and Happy Cog on projects as well as with A List Apart, and those are some of the best experiences I’ve had in this biz.

Update: Here’s Jeffrey Zeldman’s take.

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Yesterday, Google announced a beta version Picasa for Mac. Picasa is an application that is designed to make finding, sharing, and editing your photos easy. I had a chance to download and use the Mac OS X version app for the first time yesterday shortly before the release, and I was pretty impressed.

Picasa is an intuitive application. It quickly found every image on my hard drive, but didn’t try to reorganize them. I’m primarily a Lightroom user, I really appreciate that Picasa found all of my images and allowed me to view, upload, and even edit them without doing trying to restructure, move, or change a thing. The integration and syncing with the Picasa online gallery is outstanding, the basic editing tools are effective and handy, and the collage tools are cool.

One area that I feel could use some improvement, though, would be the user interface. Generally speaking, Mac users like Mac OS X because it provides a consistent, reliable, trustworthy interface and user experience. We know how things should work, and what to expect. Applications that step outside of that framework, creating an entirely new user experience with its own set of rules, physics, default options, and base for user interaction, regardless of how great they might be, can have a jarring effect on the user.

While this kind of thing is typical in third-party Windows applications (probably because the Windows user interface is so lacking and prime for improvement), on Mac OS X, it’s an impediment. Many of us don’t want to learn how to use a new interface. We just want to get our stuff done.

I’m hoping that a future version of Picasa might be designed for Mac OS X, as opposed to running on Mac OS X. Now that would be a killer app indeed.

User interface issues aside, I think that Picasa is a great app with lots of potential, and it’s certainly worth checking out.

Steve Jobs himself puts the fears about his so-called ill health to rest with a public letter:

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

He explains the cause of his weight-loss, and it sounds like he’ll be fine. I especially appreciate the way he ends the letter:

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Good! Let’s all move on and look forward to the Macworld keynote tomorrow.

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When I first started blogging back in 2000 (we just called it writing in those days), there weren’t very many blogs yet, so it was easier to get visitors and decent traffic by posting quality content on a regular basis. This was back before the time of MySpace and Facebook, before social networks, Gawker, Vayniacs, Flickr, Last.fm, and that kind of thing. There were just websites and the people who created them. Not so different from what we have today, but different tools, fewer people, and a lot more uncharted territory. The playing field was wide open, and everything felt new.

To be honest, I really don’t look back on those times a some kind of golden era, because although what we thought of as the web was much more simple, behind the scenes, everything was a lot more tedious and complicated. Things are beautiful and simple and amazing today. Anybody, even a novice, can get themselves heard in ways we couldn’t have ever imagined back then.

The web is a lot more grown up today than it was when I first got started writing here about 9 years ago. We have more mature publishing tools. We have CSS. Web standards are important, and everybody knows it. We have cool social networks. We have, comparatively speaking, very stable network connectivity and server reliability. These things are all conducive, I think, to a more stable web.

So over the years we’ve built this thing people call the personal web. A big collection of individual websites, blogs, blogrolls, linked lists, online presences.

But the social networks are changing things. In the same way that Apple’s iPhone was a game-changer and a destabilizer, some of today’s newer websites and social-networks, especially really great sites like Twitter, are destabilizing and tweaking the way we think about the so-called personal web. Some people would even say that sites like Twitter are killing the personal web.

Twitter

I’ve been using Twitter since 2006 when it first launched. It feels like a million years ago, and thinking back, I can’t even remember how I first heard about it. Of course, it’s since exploded, and I’ll go so far as to say it’s mainstream now (NPR coverage, two times, is always an indication).

In case you don’t know what Twitter is, here’s what the website says about it:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Twitter serves a completely different purpose than this website. For me, Twitter has become a sieve, a filter, and a repository for information that entertains but that doesn’t quite warrant an full-on article or post, and I think this phenomenon has swept across the web, cleaning things up a bit, and putting many sites on a diet. Twitter really shines in soliciting a response to short thoughts, quick exchanges, and simple ideas. It’s great at kicking off a dialog. What’s left behind is space for better writing, more fully developed thoughts, and in-depth discussion. I think Tom Browning really hit the nail on the head earlier today when he said that Twitter creates a more level playing field.

I see Twitter as supplementary to this website, to my “online presence.” It couldn’t replace the kind of writing I like to do here, but it’s certainly a great way to compliment it. If you’re using Twitter and would like to follow me, you can do that here.

Things Are Changing

My friend Jeffrey Zeldman eloquently expressed the effect Twitter has had on his own website:

There are blog posts here, but I post Tweets far more frequently than I write posts. (For obvious reasons: when you’re stuck in an airport, it’s easier to send a 140-character post via mobile phone and Twitter than it is to write an essay from that same airport. Or really from anywhere. Writing is hard, like design.) I have more readers here than followers at Twitter, but that could change. Are they the same readers? Increasingly, to the best of my knowledge, there are people who follow me on Twitter but do not read zeldman.com (and vice-versa). This is good (I’m getting new readers) and arguably maybe not so good (my site, no longer the core of my brand, is becoming just another piece of it).

When I read that post in early 2008, I thought he might have been jumping the gun a bit. But in recent weeks, I’ve noticed that once prolific writers are slowing down, or worse, transforming their sites into “hubs” that merely collect the random bits of information they’re sharing elsewhere, aggregating their Twitter posts, Flickr stream, Facebook updates, and Delicious bookmarks into a one-page, tedious, single-serving website sporting oversized fonts and giant outbound links.

In a way, this kind of thing isn’t all bad. Maybe the people who weren’t really into publishing their own sites now have a better way to communicate with their audience. But do these changes mean that the personal web dying?

Andy Budd seems to be struggling with the issue:

Rather than publishing fully formed ideas on your own website, you could post snippets of an idea with much more ease and to a more targeted audience. So I started to find that my desire to express myself was sated by a stream of nano thought published to Twitter rather than a few bigger ideas published to my blog. The format my be different, but the psychological result was the same.

Dave Shea recently wrote:

I’ve come to realize that my content-creating has become a lot more distributed, which means the long-form post format of this site has been seeing less and less love in recent years. Much has been written about Twitter killing the urge to write longer blog posts, and I won’t dispute that as a cause [...] So for the past month I’ve been working on a way of piecing together content I produce on other sites and funnel relevant bits into a stream that I could present on this site.

While Twitter seems to make some people want to write and blog less often or at a slower pace, I’ve found that I’ve been inspired to write and publish much more often. I think it’s because of the inherent constraints of Twitter, the 140-character limit, that I’m driven to write more frequently here. Certain topics, ideas, and conversations fit perfectly within that kind of space while others beg for the bigger space, the larger expanse of an article.

Maybe this is because I’m lucky enough to already have an audience reading this site (and I do mean that, I feel incredibly lucky every day that you visit this site —thank you.) Maybe it’s because I have an English degree and I think writing is enjoyable and important.

Or maybe I’m just old fashioned. Although I use a feed reader, for example, it’s just a starting point to let me know what’s new. I still use a web browser to actually visit websites and read the articles, just like I always have. There’s something personal that I like about that kind of experience. Like maybe the authors have invited me into their living room. I get a glimpse into their life and get to see things framed the way they want, enjoy the experience they’ve crafted. Presentation can play a big role in the way we experience content.

You’ve Got To Be Everywhere to Be Somewhere

I don’t think the personal web is dying, but I do think it’s changing. I think people who weren’t serious about building their own brands, about writing, and about creating that singular space that a website with unique content offers will focus on third party sites and social networks, where great tools and big audiences make it far easier and possibly even more fun to build an online presence.

I also think that in order to have the kind of success we enjoyed five to ten years ago — just by showing up and dropping solid content — the personalities behind today’s personal sites need to be bigger than they needed to be in the past.

I’ll go one step further: I don’t think it’s possible to have a successful presence or brand today without being a part of the social networks, without contributing more than just one kind of content, without using multiple channels. I think Twitter is awesome, and all of these channels are a great way to get involved in some excellent communities, in a way a single blog just can’t. Hey, check the sidebar or my contact page and you’ll see, I’m using them all too.

But I have no plans to stop writing and publishing here. Actually, I still feel like I’m just getting started.

New from Colin Barrett of Adium fame, Springs & Struts is a new software engineering company providing Objective-C and Cocoa development services and interface and interaction design.

I love this simple, honest, 1-page site design that successfully conjures a brand while sending out a clear message.

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As if the An Event Apart website wasn’t already hot, Zeldman and his Elves have just launched a fresh redesign for the new year.

Smart sites in 2009 will reflect this design direction.

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My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious.

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Ever since the latest Mac OS X 10.5.6 update which I installed simultaneously to the Safari 2.3.1 update, I’ve experienced an issue where cookies seem to get clobbered despite selecting the “keep me logged in” option, and I’ll find that I’ve been suddenly logged out of the site I was on. This happens on many sites (e.g. Gmail, Facebook, Sporting News, etc.), and I’ll usually see an error like “You must login to use this website.”

This Google Groups thread discusses the issue in the context of Fluid, which uses WebKit to create site specific browsers for your favorite web apps.

The problem isn’t limited to Fluid, but rather to all apps that use WebKit, like Safari, NetNewsWire, and more.

Are you experiencing this issue as well?

A new Campaign Monitor case study takes a look at Sifter (which I’m involved with) and its creator, Garrett Dimon.

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Have a MacBook, MacBook Pro, PowerBook, or iBook? Here’s the skinny from Apple on how to get the most from your battery:

The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate. With all iBooks and PowerBook G4 computers, except the aluminum PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD), you should perform this procedure when you first use your computer and then every few months thereafter.

It’s a bit of an involved process, but if you use your battery (something Apple recommends, as opposed to running it plugged in 24/7), it’s probably worth the trouble.

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The Jets head coach Eric Mangini has been fired.

“It’s extremely frustrating. I’m disappointed in the season,” said Johnson [the team’s owner], who rarely voices his anger in public. “We have a lot of talent. I’m unhappy with what turned out. I hate to disappoint the fans. I feel badly for them. They deserved more and we wanted to give it to them.”

It’s clear that things in New Jersey need to be shaken up after this season, but this was a surprising move.

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Bloody Monday begins for NFL coaches around the country, and the Detroit Lions kick things off by firing head coach Rod Marinelli.

Marinelli won only one of his last 24 games and was 10-38 in three years after former team president Matt Millen gave the former Buccaneers assistant his first head coaching job.

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Me at about 7 years old, meeting the Philadelphia Eagles (circa 1979)

The odds were against the Eagles making the playoffs this year. In order for it to be a possibility, two other teams, the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who were favored by 13 points against the Raiders) would have to lose. Not only that, but the Eagles would have to defeat the Dallas Cowboys, who were themselves fighting for a place in the playoffs.

Both Chicago and Tampa lost their games, and the Eagles had to know this as they took the field in this important late-afternoon game, because they sure played like their season was on the line, defeating Dallas by an amazing 44-6.

This lifelong Eagles fan was holding his breath even into the 3rd quarter — we’ve learned not to take anything for granted in this NFL — but there would be no late-game comeback for the Cowboys this time, as there have been so many times in the past.

Maybe it had something to do with the Phillies World Series win earlier this year, making Philadelphia teams hungry for another big win.

And while nobody knows for sure if McNabb or Reid will be returning next year, they did get us where we are today, and that’s worth something.

As much as it might be a long-shot for the Eagles to get to the Super Bowl, it’s more of a possibility today than it was before yesterday afternoon. There’s a chance, and that’s enough for this Eagles fan on a brisk, cool Monday morning.

John Gruber, fellow co-host of the The Talk Show, re-watches and reviews the movie E.T.:

E.T. takes this to heart in a way that is reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. 2001 is cool and E.T. is warm, but in neither film is there any attempt to explain alien science far beyond our ken. There’s no attempt to explain how E.T.’s powers of levitation or healing work, or the mechanics of his symbiotic relationship with Elliott. They’re indistinguishable from magic and so Spielberg treats them as magic. (George “Midi-chlorian” Lucas could learn a lesson here.)

I wish John would write pieces like this more often. A great read that really took me back to my first time seeing E.T. when I was a kid.

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Not a single win … how can this happen in today’s NFL?

The Lions are the first in NFL history to start a season 0-15, and if the they lose in Green Bay on Sunday, they’ll go down as the worst NFL team ever.

It’s a shame really, especially with one of my favorite UCF Knights, running back Kevin Smith, who just turned pro and drafted to the Lions. What a tough first season.

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Writing for 24 ways, Matt Riggott explains how you can use Google App Engine as an affordable content delivery network:

A content delivery network, or CDN, is a system of servers spread around the world, serving files from the nearest physical location. Instead of waiting for a file to find its way from a server farm in Silicon Valley 8,000 kilometres away, I can receive it from London, Dublin, or Paris, cutting down the time I wait.

A CDN is a nice compliment for any website or web app, and Google’s App Engine makes it easy.

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Now there’s a Pew survey to tell us what we already knew: the Internet has surpassed all other media (except TV) as the main source for national and international news:

For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%.

I predict this Internet thing will really catch on in 2009.

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A nice roundup of great typefaces (some of which are free), including a couple of my favorites like Museo and FF Utility.

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Always a good read, here’s Andy Ihnatko’s list of “Favorite Things” for 2008. I agree with him on most points, especially his take on the Flip Mino HD.

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