Home - Ian Mikutel

Monday

19Jan

TechCrunch Shows Off "CrunchPad" Web Tablet Prototype

Ian Mikutel /

January 19, 2009 / in

Technology,

Usability

Technology blog, TechCrunch, introduced a second prototype of its low cost touch screen web tablet today, named the CrunchPad. The device began development 6 months ago after TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington wanted a "dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen web tablet to surf the web" and found that no company was developing such a device. TechCrunch reached out to its community and 6 months later has the second working prototype to show.

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Thursday

15Jan

Final Verdict On Bush: Good Guy, Poor President

Ian Mikutel /

January 15, 2009 / in

Politics

Tonight President George W. Bush gave his farewell address to the nation, his last scheduled public appearance before President-elect Obama is sworn in on Tuesday as the nation’s 44th president. As President Bush used this speech to look back on his Presidency, I too, decided it was time to reflect on the man that led our great country for the past 8 years.

Ultimately, President Bush is a good guy, but was a poor president. A man with good intentions, a caring heart, and a strong, deep love for his country—but also a man who did not surround himself with good people, made many poor decisions, and had an unyielding lack of curiosity.

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Wednesday

14Jan

3 Reasons You Shouldn't Sell Your Apple Stock Due To Steve Jobs Absence

Ian Mikutel /

January 14, 2009 / in

Technology

Today Apple CEO Steve Jobs sent an email to all Apple employees letting them know that he would be taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June. There are many implications to an announcement like this, however in this post I want to discuss the most immediate--what Apple shareholders should do.

My first reaction, as many probably had, was "#@$!, how fast can I sell?". Yet that was my emotional side talking, not my rational side. After my emotions subsided, my pragmatic side was able to prevail. Here's why you absolutely should not sell your Apple stock now.

Jobs joking about his health at Apple's "Let's Rock" event in San Francisco on September 9, 2008

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Tuesday

25Nov

A Team of Rivals

Ian Mikutel /

November 25, 2008 / in

Politics

I haven't had much time of late to write about the election, but as most of you know I explained why I supported Barack Obama for President back in February.

I've been following the transition process closely, and am currently reading A Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln to learn about how one of our most successful Presidents used this period to build the team necessary to lead our country out of darkness.

Amazon.com Editorial Reviewer, Shawn Carkonen, explains:

Goodwin makes the case for Lincoln's political genius by examining his relationships with three men he selected for his cabinet, all of whom were opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. These men, all accomplished, nationally known, and presidential, originally disdained Lincoln for his backwoods upbringing and lack of experience, and were shocked and humiliated at losing to this relatively obscure Illinois lawyer.

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Sunday

23Nov

My Take On Google's New Wiki-Style Features

Ian Mikutel /

November 23, 2008 / in

Technology,

Usability

Google recently launched, then took down, then re-launched a set of new features that add Wiki-style capabilities to the search results pages of their site. The features (see video below), let you do things like put comments on search results and adds Digg-like voting to results that consequently change the ranking of that result.

These changes are substantial to the rarely modified Google Search user interface, and as someone who studies and works in the User Design field, I thought I would share my thoughts on them.

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Tuesday

23Sep

WordPress To Get Threaded Comment System

Ian Mikutel /

September 23, 2008 / in

Technology

Automattic, the company behind the popular blogging software platform WordPress, acquired enhanced commenting system IntenseDebate today. With this move, WordPress users will begin to see IntenseDebate's enhanced commenting features by default, such as threaded commenting.

WordPress has been in need of an update to its comment system for some time, as features like threading and the ability to rate comments were absent. While larger sites such as Digg were able to build their own systems with such features included, most bloggers using platforms such as Wordpress were left out. Fillling this void, companies such as Disqus and IntenseDebate flourished, creating plugins for users to install the code on their site and enjoy an enhanced commenting system.

Most notably, however, is the social aspect to IntenseDebate's platform that provides benefits to both the commentor and publisher.

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Monday

22Sep

New Look For IM.com Launches

Ian Mikutel /

September 22, 2008 / in

Blog

Yep, this is still the blog of Ian Mikutel. But if you've come in the past you may not realize that, given the huge overhaul in design that's taken place here today.

This new design achieves the look and feel that I want—simplicity. The wider pages take advantage of larger monitors and resolutions, something anyone with a wide screen monitor should appreciate.

The sidebar to your right allows you to Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS, connect with me via all the places I'm in on the web (like Twitter), features popular posts, latest video posts, latest Tweets, Nike+ running stats, and my personal bookshelf.

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