Linux-powered cigarette machine. Looks like they nailed it in terms of user experience.

Also on Twitter

Arrow towards door: fails, arrow pointing away from door: door opens (click for full size)

Whoever made these things needs to re-read his usability 101 book.

• Started out as one cell, then gained about 1m78 in height.
• Went from illiterate and unknowing to a university degree and a slightly better insight in the way of the world.
• Started a PhD, abandoned it and started a company (going strong! [1]).
• Saw parts of the earth and while doing so found out that I have much more to explore.
• Found a bunch of friends and the most wonderful girl on earth.
• Met a huge amount of interesting and inspiring people along the way.

I cannot wait to see what the next quarter of a century will bring!
To anyone I’ve encountered: thanks, it’s been a pleasure.

[1] And growing, more on that soon!

Parking tickets on thermal paper

Parking tickets made of thermal paper, in a country where temperatures frequently go over 30° C (86° F). This means that after two or three hours in the sun, it’s impossible to read them. I’d love to meet the genius who considered this to be a good idea.

I’ve been looking for a way to collect and archive my data from social networks, online services (such as Flickr) but also things like e-mail, Google Docs and regular files.

Backupify comes close, but when we’re combining this much data, I’d love to have a bit of privacy. The idea of turning over all my private data to yet another service [1] doesn’t appeal to me all that much.

Spideroak nails the privacy aspect but only seems to be doing files. In their model, it is completely impossible for them to read your data, as you are the only person holding the key (unlike Dropbox).

Anyone has some suggestions of a digital archive that is capable of combining files/folders and online services? On-site or off-site doesn’t matter, as long as it gets the privacy right. Bonus points if it has full-text indexing and search.

Update [Jun 5, 2011]: Interesting, yet very young and unstable candidate: The Locker Project

[1] Considering how even a giant like Sony screwed this up, I do not consider privacy a nice-to-have luxury anymore.

Like this one, yet digital.

In the past few months I’ve spent time traveling, read a pile of books and started swimming again. Work-wise, I’ve been talking to a couple of very nice companies, but unfortunately most of them proved to be impossible due to my inability to relocate (at least for now).

In the end, I ended up with not just one, but two new adventures:

• Wondergraphs: I’ve joined Wondergraphs, a start-up based in Leuven which is building a cool product around data analysis and data visualisation. A nice combination of tough engineering and user experience design work.
• Flow Pilots: Together with Jan Van de Poel (who was my teammate during my internship at IBM) I’ve founded Flow Pilots, a creative agency that designs and builds innovative web and mobile applications.

Life is definitely different now compared to back when I was working on a PhD. I’m definitely doing a lot more hands-on work, which can be hectic, bus is delightfully fast-pace. I’m also doing loads of design work which is a nice balancer for the analytical work that’s software development. And I’m learning a ton about running and developing a business. Considering all this, I’m happy to say that the decision I made six months ago was a good one.

Do what you love doing in life. It’s a crazy ride, so remember to have fun along the way!

What I find most interesting about Quora is how they take a fundamentally different approach from other social networks: they are building an ecosystem around content, as opposed to the usual cult of personality on social networks (which mostly seem to revolve around self-promotion and not actually valuable information).

This has a nice result: opposed to the short-lived nature of Twitter/Facebook updates with very little use outside the circle of ones acquaintances, the result is generally high-quality content that is useful to a wider audience. And most importantly: it naturally demotes personality to a lower rank than meaning/wisdom. This won’t prevent the larger personalities from trying to stick out, but good moderation can go a long way to make sure that value gets the highlight.

Is this something that can be kept up? Are they truly building the opposite of the normal overload-of-meaninglessness on social networks? Only time will tell, but it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves.

Quora

Good thing someone told me or I would have missed it. The interview (which I unfortunately can’t share) covers F-Spot, Mono, photography on the free desktop and my own experiences and advice on taking your first steps as an open-source hacker. Never expected it to be published after so long.

Update: Added a shot from the inside:

Hitting the F-Spot -- Jono Bacon grabs an oversized digital camera and puts Ruben Vermeersch from popular photo management tool F-Spot under the lens.

More info on his website.

What’s even more fun, for the camera geeks among us: all of this was shot using a Canon EOS 5D and a Canon EOS 7D. We’ve come a long way in digital cameras!