Earlier today I was confronted with what is probably the winner in my all time best error message competition:

The mentality behind thinking that this is a useful message to display to a user is simply remarkable. You might as well go the whole way & just display Nietzschean aphorisms:

The more abstract the truth is that you would teach, the more you have to seduce the senses to it.

At least that way I could be sure that it was a joke.

If you are going to communicate to someone, make sure you have something to communicate to them. Otherwise you are just wasting their time.

Love regards etc

favourite things: an occasional category of post with a sensible name

In terms of blogs, there are very few that I automatically read as soon as a new post turns up in my google reader. a working library is one of these.

Mandy Brown shares the most interesting passages from her current reading, along with her thoughts and observations on life, philosophy, criticism & whatever else. It is by far the most intellectualised thing that turns up in my favourites folder, but always welcome to shift me into a different mental gear.

Recent favourites have been Robin Kinross on typography, Adorno on Marxism and Terry Eagleton on Ideology.

The stimulation of receiving someones thoughts and observations along with key passages as they read fascinating books is brilliant. Short, dense posts with a real weight behind them this is a series of deft punches rather than lectures, and all the better for it.

Thank you

Twice this week people have managed to excite me by doing mundane things with brilliant imagination. Which is a feeling i love. & so I’m sharing them.

I now have a favourite stationary company, D!rektrecycling. They make envelopes by recycling old maps.

[photo via notcot.com]

I can assure you it is far more fascinating to receive your invoices along with a snapshot of Schleswig-Flensburg than it is to get them in a plain envelope.

Then later that day, via FriendFeed I came across barcode revolution

Who are doing fantastic things to make barcodes more interesting. Which is a wonderful example of people putting great time & creativity into something that is normally just ignored and left as the standard “good enough”.

In fact both are things that can so easily be ignored, left at the default setting. But when you bother to think about even these things with a sense of vision & identity, well then now you’ve really got my  attention.