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Strange Loop 2009 Keynote: Minimalism in Computing

With this keynote talk, delivered at a conference in St Louis in October of 2009, Minima is done. I've been thinking about minimalism and simplicity in technology for the past two years, and this tumblelog has been my scrapbook as I've explored the topic. It remains an important influence on my life and work, but I no longer have a need to gather materials in support of it. The talk was my opportunity to synthesize my thinking about the influence of Minimalist art on computing, and hopefully it provides some context for what I've gathered here.

If you'd like a daily dose of simplicity-related content, the Minimal and Minimal Mac tumblelogs have both been extremely active of late.

If you value Minimalist ideals, go out into the world and share them in everything you do. Thanks for reading.
“ Some standards are sound and indispensable; some simply celebrate bureaucratic littleness of mind. A harvest of gimmicks to save appearances within the standard has grown up, then gimmicks to save the appearances within the appearances. ”
— Doug McIlroy
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→ www.autoblog.com
The cockpit of the Honda Ev N Concept.
“ In many ways [Google Wave is] overly complex. In fact it's too complex for the era of the Attention Crash where all of us, especially knowledge workers, are crying for simplicity. ”
— Steve Rubel
Reposted bymkhl mkhl
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→ www.iittala.com
Trio stackable pitcher and bowl set by iittala.
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→ www.stelton.com
The "Simply" line of coffee accessories from Stelton.
“ Perfection is attained not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ”
— St-Exupéry
Reposted bychantelle chantelle
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→ limi.net
The homepage and weblog of Mozilla interaction designer Alexander Limi.
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→ www.homenormal.com
Home Normal, a record label that "seeks to release unique works of a loosely minimal, organic, folk and/or electronic nature".
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→ www.simpletext.ws
"[S]tores your text and keeps it synced between your work, home, and devices like the iPhone. Open source, suitable for self hosting, a public API."

This is what the next versions of WriteRoom and TaskPaper for both Mac and iPhone will sync to.
Reposted bygrahamgchantelle
“ What we are seeking is the minimum amount of technology that will generate the maximum number of options for all. ”
— Kevin Kelly: "The Technium: Why Technology Can't Fulfill"
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Philip Glass portrait by Chuck Close.
“ The best way to increase your productivity, hack your life, and be minimalist is to stop reading those sites. ”
— Marco Arment
“ By avoiding complexity when possible, and containing it when it is unavoidable, we can [...] maximize the probability that the number of security vulnerabilities found remains zero in the future. ”
— Colin Percival: Complexity is insecurity
“ The languages are not meant to compete in speed or complexity with their bigger cousins from the real world. On the contrary, they are deliberately very simple, as each language introduces only one or two new basic ideas. You should find the source code useful if you want to learn how things are done. ”
— The Programming Language Zoo
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→ www.engadget.com
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Pure, a throwback to the clean lines of last century's best German industrial designs.
“ Thanks to the speed and connectivity of the digital age, we've stopped fussing over pixel counts, sample rates, and feature lists. Instead, we're now focused on three things: ease of use, continuous availability, and low price. Is it simple to get what we want out of the technology? Is it available everywhere, all the time—or as close to that ideal as possible? And is it so cheap that we don't have to think about price? ”
— Wired: "The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine"
“ There is a certain appeal in closing the meta-loop of minimalism in programming. Writing simple, efficient code in languages which themselves are simple and efficient. To that end, I've collected programming environments which are small and self contained, while still useful. ”
— Tiny Code
Reposted bymkhl mkhl
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→ www.flickr.com
“ I think [Steve Jobs's] choice of a minimalist aesthetic comes from his fear of making the wrong aesthetic choice. ”
— Alan Deutschman, quoted in "Steve Jobs: The man who polished Apple" in the Times of London.
Reposted byfunkyboy funkyboy
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