Hey, please, under no circumstances should you pin social buttons
to the top or bottom of mobile screens. In an effort to try to
boost mobile use of share buttons, About.com experimented with
fixing them to screen bottom and separately to screen top, so that
the buttons were always visible when scrolling. While this did
modestly increase share-button usage, it also caused overall
session engagement to go down.
You read that right: adding a locked toolbar to the small-screen
experience shortened sessions and reduced page views. The very
small increase in share-button usage was far outweighed by reduced
site usage. (I can’t explain why this is the case, but I’ve seen
it elsewhere with locked toolbars, too. They chase small-screen
users away.)
Read the whole article. First, Clark’s advice is based on actual results, not just opinion and hunches (like mine). Second, he doesn’t advise against ever showing custom sharing buttons — but he does say only to show them to visitors coming from social media referrals. And but even then, don’t put them in fixed position dickbars.
As for why dickbars actually decrease site usage, I think the answer is obvious: when people see user-hostile fixed position bars at the top and/or bottom of their display, especially on phones, they’re annoyed, and the easiest way to eliminate the annoyance is to close the fucking tab and move on to something that isn’t annoying.
He advised the graduates of Liberty University that “nothing is easier—or more pathetic—than being a critic, because they’re people that can’t get the job done.”
This was apparently the entirety of the development hardware Masahiro Sakurai used to start programming Kirby's Dream Land. (credit: Source Gaming / Famitsu)
Any programmer of a certain age likely has a horror story about some rinky-dink coding and workflow environment that forced them to hack together a working app under extreme hardware and software constraints. Still, we're pretty sure none of those stories can beat the keyboard-free coding environment that Masahiro Sakurai apparently used to create the first Kirby's Dream Land.
The tidbit comes from a talk Sakurai gave ahead of a Japanese orchestral performance celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original Game Boy release of Kirby's Dream Land in 1992. As reported by Game Watch (and wonderfully translated by the Patreon-supported Source Gaming), Sakurai recalled how HAL Laboratory was using a Twin Famicom as a development kit at the time. Trying to program on the hardware, which combined a cartridge-based Famicom and the disk-based Famicom Disk System, was “like using a lunchbox to make lunch,” Sakurai said.
As if the limited power wasn't bad enough, Sakurai revealed that the Twin Famicom testbed they were using "didn’t even have keyboard support, meaning values had to be input using a trackball and an on-screen keyboard." Those kinds of visual programming languages may be fashionable now, but having a physical keyboard to type in values or edit instruction would have probably still been welcome back in the early '90s.
It's incredible to think that Gordon Murray, the man who designed this…
McLaren F1
…has now designed this:
OX
That's the OX, a low-cost vehicle designed to be shipped, flatpack-style, and assembled on-site (with tools included in the kit).
The target market is the complete opposite of the wealthy McLaren F1 owner; the OX is intended for folks in developing nations for whom motor transport is typically out of reach.
It may not look like much, but it is loaded with clever, utilitarian design:
The tailgate can be detached and used as a loading ramp.
The bench seats in the rear can be used as sand tracks.
The space behind the front bench seat is sized to hold jerry cans, as gas stations in the target countries will be few and far between.
The canopy can be removed and used as a temporary shelter.
The nose and tail of the undercarriage is raked to provide a 42-degree approach/departure angle.
You'll notice it has three separate windshields rather than one. That's because it's easier to replace one small one that sustains a crack rather than an entire regular-size windshield. They're also interchangeable, so that if two of them become damaged en route, the unbroken one can be placed in front of the driver.
Everything on the truck, from the glass to the body panels, is flat to keep costs down. All of the body parts, which are made from "extremely strong and waterproof bonded wood composite" (marine plywood, we're guessing) are interchangeable from left to right—including the doors. This makes it easier to acquire replacement parts.
Also keeping the costs down are the off-the-shelf engine—a 2.2-liter diesel found in Ford's Transit vans—and the fact that four-wheel-drive was eschewed. "Four-wheel drive systems add weight, complexity and cost to a vehicle, reduce ground clearance and increase tyre wear and fuel consumption," the GVT claims. "Through clever and innovative design, the 2-wheel drive OX has most of the attributes of a 4-wheel drive vehicle, without the negative aspects." I'd like to see more detail on this, but none are provided other than that the "weight distribution [is] 71% over the front axle when unloaded and 50% when fully loaded, producing easy handling [either way]."
The OX itself is also meant to serve as a generator. When jacked up, either front wheel can be removed and replaced with an adapter, allowing that wheel to drive a belt connected to whatever the user wishes to power. Additionally, a power socket is provided on the front of the vehicle.
Some compromises had to be made, of course. The steering wheel is in the center of the cab, avoiding commitment to right-hand or left-hand drive, which varies from country to country.
As for why it's designed to be delivered flatpack: Import duties on vehicles are stiff in Africa, making vehicles unaffordable for most. As one example, in Nigeria the duty is 35% to 70% of the vehicle's total cost. But by shipping it as cargo and having it assembled within its country of destination, the tariffs can be avoided, dropping to just 5% in Nigeria. Also, more of the flatpacked OXen can be stuffed into a shipping container than if they were pre-assembled.
"I'm more proud of this than any other vehicle I've done," Murray told Top Gear.
Gordan Murray
Murray was hired to do the design work by Sir Torquil Norman, the philanthropist and "ex-fighter pilot, lawyer, economist, banker and retired toy magnate" who conceived of the project. "It's a crime, almost, that only 20 percent of the world's population has access to a motor vehicle," says Norman. He set up a charitable organization called the Global Vehicle Trust to develop the vehicle and has spent £3 million on development thus far.
Sir Torquil Norman and Gordon Murray
"The most satisfying elements of the project for me are that the OX will make such a difference to so many people and that it has no competitor in any part of the world," says Murray. "It has been a privilege to work alongside Torquil to make his vision a reality."
"Our priority now is to raise the funding to complete the testing and take the project to fruition," Norman reports. "We believe that the OX has huge potential for charities, aid organisations and development programmes. My dream is to one day see an OX in every village in Africa."
