George Chen

All Posts by ‘George Chen’

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How to Disagree by Paul Graham – via Daringfireball

April 10, 2008

I thought this is a pretty good article by Paul.

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Why anti Flickr Video people are full of (sh)it.

April 9, 2008

The Flickr folks just released their video sharing service with plenty of negative feedback from the vocal (extremist?) Flickr users. These vocal Flickr users want Flickr to stay “Photography only” and I think they are full of (sh)it.

Two of the key anti Flickr Video arguments are (and my counter argument follows):

Flickr is for photography only. (Me: Flickr over the years been allowing illustration upload. Those aren’t photos. Flickr, as a tool, actually started out as a part of MMORPG which later turn into a chatroom, then the current format. So a “photo site” is actually an after thought)
Flickr will turn into YouTube. (Me: No, it will not. We have Vimeo for that role, or try to anyway.)

Initially, I feel a little unsure on how Flickr will implement their video user interface, and I am glad to report their video UI is so underwhelm that it should work for both video and non-video users.

In my Flickr contacts, I’ve already start seeing amazing creatives video content from many. In fact some of them are just “strangers” that I so happen to like their pictures over the years. It’s actually very interesting suddenly start seeing their pictures “come alive”.

Finally, it’s actually sadden me to see the “creative types” on Flickr can be so conservative and close minded on what Flickr is, should, or can be. Shouldn’t the creative type usually the most opened minded to change and new ways of doing things?

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You are only as good as your last design project

March 27, 2008

Let’s face it. We all work on shitty project sometimes. Sales team needs help on the PowePoint. Marketing wants you to convert a PNG file into EPS. Don’t ask.

Oh, and George can you send us our corporate logo please? ASAP.

But once in a while, you ended up working on something really cool.

It could be a personal photo project you always wanted to do. Trying out new techniques in CSS, JavaScript, or you are leading other designers on a product that will save the company from hostile take over (just a random example – not a real project). Now that project’s over; back to the shitty projects.

As a designer, my philosophy has always been, “You are only as good as your last project” (it could be a shitty project, or a good project).

Congratulation if your last project is AIGA award winning + you find personal satisfaction completing it. But you are only “as good as it”. Can you do even better in the next project? What if your next project is one of those shitty project? /panic 🙂

Shitty projects come and go. You last project might suck, but that’s just a milestone before you get to work on the next-big-thing. The fact there are both shitty and kick ass projects make the whole design exercise interesting.

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Save the Developers

March 25, 2008

It’s pretty amazing IE6 on PC are still being used. In fact, 10% of the users coming to this site are still using IE6. For those users, you should see a little drop down image on the top right.

Time to update your browser and save the developers.

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Learn whenNOT to file a lawsuit, then again, do so if you are just after the $$$.

March 21, 2008

From The New York Times: Gibson Guitar filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Guitar Hero’s publishers. Gibson said the games, in which players use a guitar-shaped controller in time with notes on a television screen, violate a 1999 patent for technology to simulate a musical performance.

Well, duh.

I think this act is actually bad for the Gibson brand image.

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