The Magic Smoke in Electronics: "a reminder of how easy it is to attribute magical properties to technology when there's no obvious mechanical functionality. Not even engineers can see moving electrons, and (I suspect) this "naive" gut-level explanation easily emerges, and regularly reappears."

Does anyone make a USB device that will blow smoke, belch, make smells, vibrate, and otherwise let us expose all sorts of digital happenings into the real-world, tapping into all of our senses? Nabaztag is good for sound, and to a less extent sight, but there's a whole range of other stuff out there.

Imagine if code smell *actually smelt*... or in a less geeky, more Everyware stylee, if my living room start to get a bit musty when I'd forgotten to take books back to the library. One of the things we've noticed from our Nabaztag is the subtle way that rabbity announcements get straight to the subconscious when they're part of the background noise of an office.

The Interface is the Program, and it ain't Agile: "I've seen a lot of Agile projects crash and burn after about their third external iteration for lack of good architectural foundations. It doesn't take much architecture to shape the whole -- just enough to keep Conway's Law happy and to lay a foundation for the interface -- but it takes much more than Ron Jeffrie's fabled "ten minutes of design." Maybe a sprint's worth is enough to get started.

If an interface is unproductive or inhumane, users notice it only after a long enough time has elapsed for habit formation to be a factor. You don't notice such things when you test drive the program; the clumsiness is hidden behind the familiar Redmond look-and-feel or behind some graphic artist's sugar coating. "

Pacifism is fruit of family tree: ""bring the other side to their senses, not their knees.""

Nabaztag 2 to launch tonight: "AT MIDNIGHT (FRENCH TIME) DECEMBER 12th, or today as it's otherwise known, Violet is set to launch the second-generation of wireless Internet enabled rabbits, with some big improvements we've mentioned before."

Our Nabaztag is a vocal member of staff now. Last week we were pondering that, as we have him tied into our build process and announcing progress/setbacks there, perhaps we should also get him into our new biz/contacts database (for which we use FogBugz) so we can have him scream for joy when we bring in a new project...

Analysis Paralysis: "If you can’t define what it is you actually want to achieve then you need more analysis.  If you are in the 10th hour of meetings to discuss what particular shade of green will most inspire customers without having developed a functional prototype to see if the solution is even viable then you are wasting valuable time and brain power with analysis paralysis. "