gmail is down. sadness.

Gmail is down way more often than I care to mention. Whether it's the SMTP server failing or the IMAP server just refusing to authenticate, I am starting to get unhappy with the level of service. It's really getting to be almost not worth the money I pay the-- oh wait.

When you look at two choices and can't tell immediately which one you want, the choices don't matter.

I love facebook. They have a great design aesthetic. Overall, the new design is awesome. I like how it opens the page up, and I think it'll do wonders for their ads.

OK, that being said, can someone please tell me why this UI exists?

Unfortunately it's the equivalent of the Vista Shutdown bar -- don't give me these options. One-line, small, large? I do not care how big this story is. I care about my post and my friends' comments and that's it. Every choice you give the user is a decision they have to waste precious brain cycles on.

Paul Graham from YCombinator says that when you look at two choices and can't tell immediately which one you want, it's either that the two choices are too similar, or they don't matter... or most likely, BOTH. This applies perfectly in the UI shown here. As Sachin and I work on Posterous, one of the most important things we can do as designers and engineers is to make sure we actually take away choices that don't matter. We internally talk about how we want to be the Apple of blogging. How do we do it? Just make a decision and move on. We hate preference panels.

Be opinionated, as 37signals so aptly notes. And I quote: "The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they're not just looking for features, they're looking for an approach. They're looking for a vision. Decide what your vision is and run with it."

Meta-aside: It's such a trip to be giving product feedback on another product now that I see the emotional impact of feedback on the creators of whatever feature. On the one hand, it makes me want to lighten how strongly I deliver my feedback since creating user experience really is quite an emotional process. You can't even make decisions without emotions (they've done studies on this!), so really whenever someone challenges a design decision you've made, you're really just thrust into the same tumult of choice that forged the decision in the first place. On the other hand, harsh feedback is the only feedback that matters.

Got something to say about posterous? Would love to hear it -- garry [at] posterous dot com

FlickrMail - Mea culpa, it will never happen again.

Hey friends. Listen, bad news. I got banned from Flickr today.

I made the mistake of wanting to tell my 1,600 contacts about this thing, posterous, that me and a friend created. We're proud of our community and our work and wanted to share it with more people. We just worked all weekend to provide autopost to Flickr functionality. Then this morning, I had a thought to share my excitement with my friends on Flickr by sending mass Flickr Mail.

I've been a member of the Flickr community since 2004. I've been a really active member since 2006, when I got my first Canon Digital Rebel XTI. I've joined countless groups, and uploaded over 1,000 photos, many of which I've spent HOURS or DAYS postprocessing. I've had over 60 photos make it into the top 500 photos on Flickr for the day they were uploaded. That was always a rush. I've probably spent close to $20,000 in camera equipment along the way, as the Flickr-frenzy of enthusiasm for photography became a great obsession -- one of the great hobbies I'll never stop loving.

Along the way, I've commented and made contact with 1,600 great flickr-ites along the way. I feel like there's a real connection between me and many of them, and it's really kind of like just wanting to show your friends this cool thing you created. I think one part of online communities like Flickr is that you get an illusion that you know people well, and that the link between you and others is closer than they really are.

I myself get unsolicited mass FlickrMail from my contacts all the time, but I never really considered it awful. It was always on topic, something to do with photos or even a Flickr contact being in the San Francisco area and asking if anyone had a couch to crash on. I don't mind that stuff at all. That's awesome. That's what makes Flickr great.

A bunch of my contacts from flickr thanked me for the note and are now using posterous. That's great. I'm excited you're here.

Unfortunately, some of my contacts saw this as spam and emailed me so. To them, I am very very VERY sorry.

I spend hours of my day fighting spam and defending the posterous community, and it pains me to know that I was part of the problem on Flickr. I will never EVER willingly contribute to spam of any kind, good-intentioned or not.

You have my word.

I knew java was inefficient, but not THIS inefficient

WTF, Java!? Why you gotta be all like eatin up 16 MILLION TERABYTES n'shiet!?

OS X is handling this millions of terabytes of virtual memory like a champ. Go Apple. You guys rock.

I shudder to think what would have happened if my Vista machine had 16 million terabytes of virtual memory. My house would burn down or something. I can't even open Paint without Vista halfway ruining my life.