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Happy New Year

, originally uploaded by amolho4.

Why API Design Matters

This is a rather accessible look at the consequences of bad API design. Interestingly enough, the main example revolves around the inappropriate use of side effects. The last section concludes with cultural changes the author feels is necessary to improve the situation.

via lambda-the-ultimate.org

Come Home Adriana, and Eat Food!

Blog posted here.

Dice Party 2, originally uploaded by Savage Pink.

I think I've settled on the perfect holiday photo.

via leahculver.typepad.com

5QQ: Rex Sorgatz

Isn’t it interesting that Tumblr and FourSquare are NYC’s major contributions to social software in the past couple years? I have a theory! They share this commonality: they’re both semi-closed networks. To wit: Though wildly successful, both platforms still somehow feel clubby and insidery.

In the long run, it will be interesting to see if this distinct (dare I say New Yorky?) quality is a feature or a bug.

(Before I lived in NYC, I had a name for social software like FourSquare’s predecessor, Dodgeball. I called it “NewYorkWare” because those apps seemed specifically made for the hyper-urban. Similarly, Tumblr seems made for the hyper-mediated.)

via www.mediaite.com

Capn Design: What's Not to Like?

It’s also worth mentioning that sites often have two ways to provide gestural feedback, which can cause confusion and frustration. If you look at Twitter’s new retweet functionality, the inability to add your own comment essentially turns this into another way to favorite. It may show up in your user stream instead of a separate page, but it’s the same feature. Google Reader has two gestural responses: like and star (in addition to share and share with note). It seems like they’re just throwing the kitchen sink at the problem.

via www.capndesign.com

Talk with Trek Bike's Mike Pfaltzgraff

Following up on our visit earlier this year to Trek during TrekWorld, Mike Pfaltzgraff will take your questions starting tonight and tomorrow. Mike is the man at Trek, designing all the graphics for the Team Bikes, Lance’s specialty bikes, the Team Shack bike, and more.

via bikehugger.com

DL Byron from Bike Hugger says: "that's the 'dude' at Trek and he wants to talk"

via ffffound.com

Your Eyes Needed

As a journalist, one of the things I enjoy most about running TPM is our ability to draw on our readers to help us monitor events with national implications at the local and even hyper-local level. We first did this with the "DeLay Rule" in 2004 and Social Security in 2005 and then again as recently this summer the Tea Party/Townhall crazy of August. Sometimes it's writes up in the local press, or mail from members of Congress or what goes down at a public event. And even though knowing these things is critical for understanding national politics, these are events and happenings that are hard for the conventional national press to follow. Now we want your help keeping us posted on what members of Congress -- particularly Dems -- are saying over the winter recess about how they're going to vote on the Health Care Reform bill.

via www.talkingpointsmemo.com

The exercise suggested above seems simple, but from a software perspective may actually be very complicated. Think Wikipedia meets Twitter meets Movable Type, in front of an audience of millions, with inputs from every blog post by and newspaper article about every politician (at every level).

(This is what Al calls the "news blob.")