I came across a post this morning about a new service called Sendible. The basic idea is this: create messages of various types (email, sms, twitter tweets, facebook messages, etc) in advance, then sit back and relax as they get sent out right on schedule. Interesting idea -- apparently there are a few other services out there who do something similar -- not something I knew I needed, but intriguing enough that I decided to give it the old college try. This isn't a post about how Sendible works; I wasn't even able to get that far. This is a post about inspiration and, dare I say, plagiaration. What struck me from my first interaction with sendible was the remarkable likeness it bore to Facebook, in terms of visual design. Take, for example, the login screen:
I thought: "Wow, those look a lot like the Facebook blue buttons. Interesting... perhaps Facebook is inspiring some sort of standardization in UI elements". Then, I thought: "Wow, look at the sidebar over on the right side; that kinda looks like Facebook too. Lemme take a look":
That was enough to get me thinking, and mentally prepare this blog post. But I waited and decided to give Sendible a little more time. Next stop: my homepage:
Maybe it's just me, but I was again really blown away by the near exact likeness this (albeit in reverse) that this bears to Facebook:
Of course, I'm all for "fake it till you make it" and "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but this seems to take it perhaps just a step too far. At least make it green or orange! Thoughts? Now, time to me to get back to the real business of deciding whether or not I need a message scheduler in my life...
I came across a post this morning about a new service called Sendible. The basic idea is this: create messages of various types (email, sms, twitter tweets, facebook messages, etc) in advance, then sit back and relax as they get sent out right on schedule. Interesting idea -- apparently there are a few other services out there who do something similar -- not something I knew I needed, but intriguing enough that I decided to give it the old college try. This isn't a post about how Sendible works; I wasn't even able to get that far. This is a post about inspiration and, dare I say, plagiaration. What struck me from my first interaction with sendible was the remarkable likeness it bore to Facebook, in terms of visual design. Take, for example, the login screen:
I thought: "Wow, those look a lot like the Facebook blue buttons. Interesting... perhaps Facebook is inspiring some sort of standardization in UI elements". Then, I thought: "Wow, look at the sidebar over on the right side; that kinda looks like Facebook too. Lemme take a look":
That was enough to get me thinking, and mentally prepare this blog post. But I waited and decided to give Sendible a little more time. Next stop: my homepage:
Maybe it's just me, but I was again really blown away by the near exact likeness this (albeit in reverse) that this bears to Facebook:
Of course, I'm all for "fake it till you make it" and "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but this seems to take it perhaps just a step too far. At least make it green or orange! Thoughts? Now, time to me to get back to the real business of deciding whether or not I need a message scheduler in my life...
In addition to being the first day of summer, yesterday was the second annual Make Music New York festival. It's really an incredible event -- musicians of all abilities and genres take to the streets to play free mini-concerts. The event came to NYC for the first time last year, and we had a great time playing, but it's been going on across the world for over 25 years:
Make Music New York is based on France's Fete de la Musique, which has been a great success for 25 years. Since it was inaugurated, the festival has become an international phenomenon, celebrated on the same day in more than 300 cities in 108 countries, including Germany, Italy, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Australia, Vietnam, Congo, Cameroon, Togo, Columbia, Chile, Mongolia, and Japan.
We didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked exploring the event, but we saw a few nice moments. Sax on the Brooklyn Bridge, above, and this accordion concert (!) at Houston & 1st:
I've heard this story in various forms over the past few years, but according to the London Times, pedestrian power is ready to be harnessed:
Underfloor generators, powered by “heel strike” and designed by British engineers, may soon be installed in supermarkets and railway stations. The technology could use the footsteps of pedestrians to power thousands of lightbulbs at shopping centres. It works by using the pressure of feet on the floor to compress pads underneath, driving fluid through mini-turbines that then generate electricity, which is stored in a battery.
Apparently, this technology can also be used to harness power from anything that regularly moves due to environmental factors: train & car bridges, antennas, buildings, etc. Photo: Preshaa on Flickr, who is also working on turning this graphic into a t-shirt. Vote for it on Threadless! Story via Antonio
In addition to being the first day of summer, yesterday was the second annual Make Music New York festival. It's really an incredible event -- musicians of all abilities and genres take to the streets to play free mini-concerts. The event came to NYC for the first time last year, and we had a great time playing, but it's been going on across the world for over 25 years:
Make Music New York is based on France's Fete de la Musique, which has been a great success for 25 years. Since it was inaugurated, the festival has become an international phenomenon, celebrated on the same day in more than 300 cities in 108 countries, including Germany, Italy, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Australia, Vietnam, Congo, Cameroon, Togo, Columbia, Chile, Mongolia, and Japan.
We didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked exploring the event, but we saw a few nice moments. Sax on the Brooklyn Bridge, above, and this accordion concert (!) at Houston & 1st:
I've heard this story in various forms over the past few years, but according to the London Times, pedestrian power is ready to be harnessed:
Underfloor generators, powered by “heel strike” and designed by British engineers, may soon be installed in supermarkets and railway stations. The technology could use the footsteps of pedestrians to power thousands of lightbulbs at shopping centres. It works by using the pressure of feet on the floor to compress pads underneath, driving fluid through mini-turbines that then generate electricity, which is stored in a battery.
Apparently, this technology can also be used to harness power from anything that regularly moves due to environmental factors: train & car bridges, antennas, buildings, etc. Photo: Preshaa on Flickr, who is also working on turning this graphic into a t-shirt. Vote for it on Threadless! Story via Antonio
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