minimalsites.com - Minimal Web Design Gallery and Minimalist Community

Why Apple’s iTV Will Change Everything | Kevin Rose:

The rumor: Apple will be releasing a revamped/renamed version of their ‘Apple TV’ set-top box, called ‘iTV’. The box will run the Apple iOS (same as the iPhone/iPad), and be priced around $99.

Why will this change everything? Read more…

(via Shawn Blanc)

luigidr:

(via ladyblackice, wisher, thatgeeklover, geekhideout)

I want to talk about something very important. Something that, I feel, has gone increasingly unnoticed – in fact abandoned in many cases – on the internet today. It’s increasing disappearance is akin to that of an endangered species. It’s so small that, when its population dwindles, people stop noticing. Pretty soon, we will look up one day and it will simply be gone. If we do not take action now, only those of us who remember the early days of the Internet will remember it. Then it will be too late. For this reason, I plan to take drastic action now. What is this rare yet important part of the online ecosystem?

Via

The “via”, as we online writer types call it, is what you see at the bottom of a post giving attribution to the source where you found the link. For instance, take a look at the recent via I gave for this link to Scott Adams’ The Less Feature:

(via Chris Nuccitelli)

Not only did I acknowledge who pointed me to the article. If you click the name, I link directly to the exact place and words he used to point me to it. Obviously, I can’t do that in every case. But where I can, I will.

Here is another example from one of my other websites, The Random Post:

(Though I saw this in my own feed, I’m giving the via to Randy Murray, who linked it on Twitter and reminded me I had something to say)

I made it very clear the events that happened that led me to not only the link, but also the fact that I initially saw it and passed it over but then, thanks to a trusted source linking to it, gave it secondary consideration.

Then, there are cases like this:

(via Ben Kogan who, despite my offer, said it was not necessary to link. He was just excited to share it.)

Ben sent me the tip off for the link via email. Therefore, I could not have linked to the exact source. Even though I asked if he wanted me link to his personal site or some other place when I gave him the via, he told me he did not. Guess what? I still need to make it clear why I am not linking to the source.

Attribution and acknowledgement of sourcing are not only the right thing to do, the honorable thing to do, they are the very strands in the thing we call the web. They are what connect it all together. They help to explain how I got here from there and why. They also help you navigate back down that thread and, hopefully, onto other places filled with wonder, curiosity and delight.

Many on the web have become far too relaxed at doing the simplest of vias:

(via Minimal Mac)

I wont call out any specific examples. It really does not matter. What does matter is that I not treat my vias with the same lack of care. Therefore, I feel I must overcompensate for my own transgressions in this area. To make it up not only for the ones I have failed to do, but to make it up for the rest of those who do not. Especially those who fail to link this site in that chain of knowledge, thus potentially robbing their readership of examining the threads herein. Therefore, you will be seeing a lot more hyper-explanatory vias from me. I will not be perfect at them. I will forget and fail. In fact, the iPhone photo from my friend Jorge that I linked earlier failed to receive a proper via. It will go like this:

(via Ian Hines. Despite Jorge being my friend, and I a reader of his photoblog, I failed to see this photo before)

See, one less missing via. Baby steps.

The less feature | Scott Adams:

I recently wrote about my new watch that has GPS for tracking my running. It has so many features that I fail 50% of the time in getting it to do anything at all. I literally don’t know what sequence of tapping, holding, and humming gets me to the right mode. When it works, I start yelling “What did I just do?! What did I just do?!” I would pay 50% more for a watch that only tells me the current time and my running distance.

Apple often gets the less features thing right. The iPad didn’t add a fast boot-up speed, it subtracted a hard disk. It didn’t add a touch screen, it subtracted a keyboard. You want to print? Forget it. The iPad is awesome precisely because it has fewer options. If I want more complexity I can purchase apps.

Let me say it again: World, I’ll pay extra if you will please give me less.

(via Minimal Mac, with apologies to Patrick)

Haiku Productivity:

The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential