Sometimes the world is okay.

This report on an IRIX OS release from 1993 shows that the more things change, the more things stay the same.

It’s full of great advice such as:

Aim for simplicity in design, not complexity. Make a few things work really well; don’t have 1000 flaky programs. Be willing to cut features; who’s going to be more pissed off: a customer who was promised a feature that doesn’t appear, or the same customer who gets the promised feature, and after months of struggling with it, discovers he can’t make it work?

And a few brilliant burns:

Marketing - Engineering Disconnect: “Marketing – where the rubber meets the sky.”

(via O’Reilly Ideas’ 4 Short Links)

I also know that any man who is uncomfortable with the empowerment of women is simply afraid that the only thing he has going for him is that he is a man.

William Stubbs

I’m simultaneously horrified by the amount of shit women have to deal with, and in awe of their fortitude in the face of all that shit.

It’s a world wide web out there. There’s plenty of room for everyone. And I, for one, love reading the words of others.

Jeremy Keith

I have been very lax about writing anything of substance on here recently, apart from the end of year lists. I must try harder.

Obviously, open by default is the new fashionable, but I’m pretty sure it’s no longer enough for organisations to be “open” because no matter how hard you try, eventually that just becomes PR and marketing fluff. Much better to aim to be porous. For people and conversations and ideas to flow in and out irrespective of departmental and organisational boundaries. Rip down the barriers to conversation and collaboration internally and externally.

Michael Smethurst

Well, the less said about the state of 2016 in general, the better.

However, it’s been another inspiring year for music and film, so here are my picks of 2016. In no particular order, and as it’s my house I didn’t limit them to ten.

Albums

• Wussy - Forever Sounds
• Stephen Steinbrink - Anagrams
• She Makes War - Direction Of Travel (As I mentioned last year, it was always going to make a second appearance)
• Gitta de Ridder - Feathers
• Sad13 - Slugger
• Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
• Martha - Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart
• Julia Jacklin - Don’t Let The Kids Win
• Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation - Mirage
• Agnes Obel - Citizen of Glass
• Angel Olson - My Woman
• Car Seat Headrest - Teens Of Denial
• Cavern Of Anti-Matter - Void Beats / Invocation Trex
• Emma Pollock - In Search Of Harperfield
• Heron Oblivion - Heron Oblivion

Films

(If you want to see what I picked when limited to ten films, then you can have a look at my Letterboxd Top Ten for 2016)

• Arrival
• Deadpool
• Zootopia
• Sing Street
• Hail, Caesar!
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople
• The Nice Guys
• Swiss Army Man
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Midnight Special
• Captain America: Civil War
• Jungle Book

Don’t make up your mind about Progressive Enhancement by reading reductive blog posts or presentations that gloss over or outright ignore the details and nuances of actual web work. Read up on the individual tactics used. Judge them in terms of how effective they might be at solving the problems you are tackling. Every tactic strikes a different balance. Unless you plan on only solving one kind of problem, again and again, throughout your career, you owe it to yourself to study the tactics that lie outside your comfort zone.

Baldur Bjarnason

So here is my rule of thumb. If someone comes to me with an idea, even if my immediate reaction is very negative, ask at least three questions about that idea to make sure you really understand it and appreciate it.

Leisa Reichelt

The service is of the internet, not just on the internet. The team has used the internet to rethink how the service of sexual health testing is delivered to users. By focusing on user needs and working in small, agile teams, you can transform a public service.

How the Sexual Health: 24 service used GOV.UK patterns