The minutiæ of 2011

18.12.2011/02.20

As some of you know, I have been using Tumblr since 2007, and when Vox died (at least for me) in 2009, I began using Tumblr more. It was good to record brief thoughts of little consequence, but as I hunted through the archive for 2011, I realized it was quite a good way to […]

Facebook Timeline gets rolled out: here come the complaints

16.12.2011/08.26

Above: My Facebook Timeline, as it appeared in October. As more of the planet gets on to Facebook Timeline, it’s been interesting to watch reactions. When Facebook went to a new layout three years ago, plenty of people—myself included—went to an anti-new Facebook group. Most were there because they didn’t like change, threatened to […]

Intellectual property doesn’t deserve a black mark, but some powers-that-be do

22.11.2011/05.50

After being interviewed about the outcome of the ‘Wellywood’ sign vote yesterday (a summary of what I told Newstalk ZB can be found on my Facebook fan page) I was reminded about how a few Wellingtonians, who supported my quest to stop the sign in 2010 and 2011, were not that thrilled that I used […]

Panos Emporio: dare to be human

10.10.2011/23.53

We weren’t responsible for the layout or photography, but our contribution here is in the tagline, ‘Dare to be human’. In my 12-year friendship with Panos Papadopoulos, the designer behind Swedish swimwear (and now clothing) label Panos Emporio, we’ve often worked on marketing tasks. The most recent one: come up with a tagline that […]

The Murdoch apology does not let us off the hook

16.07.2011/02.34

Above is Rupert Murdoch’s apology for the actions of the News of the World, to run in the UK in the wake of the resignations of Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton. They’re great words, and they’re straight out of the PR 101 playbook. Some might say they’re a triﬂe too late, as was […]

A few more swashes for JY Pinnacle Italic

15.07.2011/13.16

JY Pinnacle Italic will be re-released as a Pro version shortly, and above are some of the extra characters we’ve added. I know the swash k still needs work, and it will be ﬁxed up by the time of release. Pinnacle always had a decent bunch of ligatures, but if you have the […]

As News of the World closes, we might be getting better at making business accountable

08.07.2011/06.32

So James Murdoch has announced the end of the News of the World. It’s no biggie: as others have discovered, a domain name for The Sun on Sunday has been registered, and if this is by an agent of News International, it simply makes sense for the Murdoch Press to consolidate its tabloid brands and […]

Saab to get €245 million if Pang Da and Youngman deal approved

04.07.2011/14.01

Today, from Saab: Swedish Automobile N.V. (SWAN) and Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) today announced the signing of ﬁnal agreements with Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd. (Pang Da) and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., Ltd. (Youngman), thereby converting the non-binding memorandum of understanding relating to the equity investment of Pang Da and Youngman … […]

Wellington Airport ﬂip-ﬂops again, but pennies drop more quickly in Queensland

01.06.2011/10.52

Today, those of us on the anti-‘Wellywood’ sign page got some welcome news: that Wellington Airport would reconsider. But, I had to point out, this is again déjà vu. Last time, the Airport ﬂip-ﬂopped as well, and said it would consult the public. Given that the resource consent for ‘Wellywood’ was for nine […]

The new groups: we’re not spamming you, Facebook is

17.05.2011/12.04

Facebook’s new groups have received criticism for two things: (a) you ﬁnd yourself in groups you never asked to join; and (b) you are suddenly on a spam list. When several of our groups were faced with the options of ‘archiving’ (i.e. closure and the deletion of all members) or upgrading, I chose the […]