I wrote a piece on behalf of Publicis Commerce for Media Village, primarily focusing on brands/retailers' push for sustainability practices. Essentially driving the notion that ensuring physical and digital communication alignments are in place is critical to drive awareness and shopper confidence. Kudos to exemplar brands in the space...

Creatively nuanced ad campaign by messaging app Signal. So creative, and so transparent (literally the point of the campaign), they got banned by Instagram from deploying it. Seems like talking about the ad campaign in a blog (and likely assuming they’d get banned) was the goal, and here we are. It works.

A notable ad tracking blocker, 1Blocker on iOS/macOS, has performed a tremendous service to those using it over the years: building a library of trackers and maintaining it as a Content Blocker extension within Safari. I’ve used it on and off for several years. It mostly works. The elimination of reading hostile formats like auto-playi...

About a year ago, my wife and I went through a camping equipment buying spree to fortify our activities for the long pandemic summer. Part of this load out was a bright green Yeti mug. Little did I guess at the time, this would become one of the best at-home office products you could possibly invest in. I use this nearly every day afte...

A few fleeting images from around the yard and garden before we get to work on seeding and planting. Chives, per usual, coming back strong already.

I'm subscribed via RSS to a guy named Collin Donnell's Hey World posts. I don't really know him, but must have followed him when Hey World popped off several weeks ago. Anyway, I stumbled on his recent post about blog analytics and how he doesn't care about how popular his writing is or who/how many people are reading it. Couldn't agre...

Technically-driven, smart apparel has found a permanent home in my wardrobe, and comprises nearly all of my day-to-day uniform. There’s something about comfort, stretch, water resistance, breathability, packability, and tonally minimal colors that make wearing and traveling with the stuff a pleasure. And so I wrote a multi-product revi...

Literally. Aquavit in a Nick and Nora glass, with the nonsensical Godzilla vs Kong in the background.

The smart folks behind the spectacular camera app Halide have launched a new site called Lux. For a while now, they’ve been writing tremendous pieces on camera tech, taking photos, and processing them. I’m sure the recent news about their prior platform, Medium, had an impact on their decision to reboot, but they also arrived for even ...

I took the recent news that Apple pulled the plug on its primary HomePod line with an air of frustration and disappointment. So, too, did it seem the rest of the Apple tech community. The gist I'm getting is that Apple seems to be entirely focusing on personal tech items, like Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and the primacy hardware that po...

Because I seemingly write about zippers now, thought I'd share a re-threading of two YKK interior pocket zipper pulls inside my Evergoods Civic Access Pouch 2L (which, by the way, is a phenomenal organizer). There was nothing wrong with the original pulls, but they were metal, and you know me. I clipped them and replaced them with DSPT...

Speaking of zippers... just happened to come across this piece on the dedication to quality from the Japanese zipper manufacturer, YKK. YKK zippers are simply the best, and you’ll know it right away when you pull them. Of note, “...what makes YKK zippers so good:” “• Square-tooth technology that ensures smooth, reliable zipping • Self-...

Nice write-up from Om Malick on the HEY World release and concept. “Sharing our thoughts with the help of distribution platforms and algorithms triggers a deep narcissism in all of us, creating an addictive loop. The ability to feed this addiction explains why certain platforms have become so outsized. Facebook is a blog with social di...

A fleeting thought about zipper pulls -- the kind that are either natively part of your bag, purse, dopp kit, etc., or those that you add on to an accessory because the native one sucks. The more I enjoy bag construction and the meticulous materials, fabrics, and fastening devices used to build them, the more I scrutinize zippers. Main...

Gruber posits a very good question about up-ending the “default” way of searching in his commentary about Google’s declining search results quality. “How many people actually go to google.com to search, and how many just type search terms in their browser location field? If most people just type search terms in the location field, a br...

Of course, after all this time, the easiest way is to just send an email. HEY World nails simplicity. Maybe I can now, finally, ditch Squarespace and its overwrought CMS.

As I noted in my other writing space, January 7th brought disappointing news to an enthusiastic group of bank users in the US -- Simple, a clever fintech banking experience, informed users that it was closing shop. The email was blunt, pointing to BBVA USA (the current back-end housing Simple's deposits) as having "made the strategic d...