Below are the expected setlists for both Muse and opening act, Silversun Pickups at the Fort Worth Convention Center. I would like it more if both bands were playing more of their older songs but I am pretty happy with the selections made. I cannot wait to hear them play Unnatural Selection again.

Muse
1. Uprising
2. Resistance
3. New Born
4. Map of the Problematique
5. Supermassive Black Hole
6. Guiding Light
7. Interlude
8. Hysteria
9. Nishe
10. United States Of Eurasia
11. Feeling Good (Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley cover)
12. Helsinki Jam
13. Undisclosed Desires
14. Starlight
15. Plug In Baby
16. Time Is Running Out
17. Unnatural Selection
Encore:
18. Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture
19. Stockholm Syndrom
20. Knights of Cydonia

Silversun Pickups
1. Growing Old Is Getting Old
2. Well Thought Out Twinkles
3. There’s No Secrets This Year
4. The Royal We
5. Future Foe Scenarios
6. Substitution
7. Panic Switch
8. Lazy Eye

2009 was an amazing year for animation. Despite all the competition from Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and 9, Up was declared the winner. And no wonder. Pixar tells stories better than anyone else. I can’t wait to see what they release next.

One of the best films ever

One of my favorite Pixar DVD extras is the 11-minute short called, Your Friend the Rat. This mostly 2D traditional animation sequence can be found on the Ratatouille DVD. If you blink, you will miss the screen grab below. I just love it when The Beatles make a cameo appearance in anything.

Here are the responses to my trumped up Venn Diagram Challenge. Thanks to all who responded.

Good Times, Bad Times by Bill Harrison

Wonder Twins, by Bill Harrison

NSFW, by Burin Asavesna

Vegetables, by Burin Asavesna

Grandparents, by Dustin Askins

AT&T, by Joe Dyer

At the risk of posting a painfully obvious design technique, I wanted to share something I saw employed recently at work. The group responsible for this has the luxury of having a ridiculously long (18 feet?) dry erase board with which to display a large number of wireframes with annotations.

Rather than just show the UI changes based on user inputs as a static series of printed wireframes, these designers chose to create overlays to show temporal changes. As a fan of lo-fi design techniques, this trick is a winner. Nicely done.

Cool Lo-Fi Design Trick

What could possibly impress the ladies more than math jokes? During the Christmas shopping season, Urban Outfitters gave out postcards with the following Venn Diagram on it:

Since everyone’s a comedian, I open up this comedy goldmine to the masses. Download the blank version below and show the world your mad skills at representing all the hypothetically possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets. Doesn’t that just sound like a party?

Send your submission to joedyer at Gmail. Now go and make Venn proud.

Interesting taxonomy/labeling going on over at the Domino’s Pizza Builder. Users can select meats and unmeats. This, from the people that print ‘perfectitude’ on the box.

meats vs. unmeats

We’ve all heard the announcer scream, ‘A BRAND NEW CAR!” on the perrenial favorite, The Price is Right. Now imagine hearing that phrase in your head as you see the young motorists below as they try not to yawn after getting new cars for Christmas. Compare this with the image of sheer joyous rapture as they cruise about in, “AN OLD LAUNDRY BASKET!”

Kids. Who knew they would be so goofy?

Update: Who knew their dad could be look so goofy?

Having a lot of fun with the following iPhone apps. Most are free, so satisfy your inner cheapskate.

Gowalla - Not sure I am having fun with it as much as I am addicted to collecting stamps and pins (also, I am just trying to catch Jeremy without resorting to checking in to places I haven’t actually visited). Here’s a tip: If you want to be the founder of a lot of locations, go to places most people fear to be associated with such as shanty towns under overpasses, pr0n shops, head shops, and your local municipal jail. Same goes for FourSquare users. Tell the world you are Mayor of Cell-block D.

Thundergod - This pricey ($10) app is worth every penny. Recorded in 3D sound, it sounds like you are surrounded by thunderstorms. I use it to concentrate at work or sometimes fall asleep. Or sleep at work. Whatever works. Check out the free app by the same company called Naturespace. It is of the same quality. I guarantee you will love it especially if you like to close your eyes and imagine being abandoned somewhere in the country without the keys to the handcuffs you’re wearing.

Dragon Dictation - Pretty amazing and free dictation software that can port your words to email or clipboard. I tried it in the car and was amazed at how well it captured, “You are an elf. You are how to work with us on an email to your sludge.” I was able to email it to the office just in time to save the day. Thanks Dragon!

Wootwatch - Woot! found a niche in bringing limited quantities of merchandise nobody wanted the first time around. Using this app, you can be the envy of all your friends when you score that stunning Casio Calculator/Weather Forecaster watch in limited-edition gray PVC. Hurry! Download the app now, as quantities are limited!

Check back soon when I delve into the new trail map/stock ticker app for the skier needing to execute that important trade while mid-piste.

My wife had the day off from work and was shopping with the kids near my employer. Thinking our elevator-obsessed three year-old would enjoy multiple rides to multiple floors, she brought our little toddlers to $largecompany. A good time was had by all as our darling little cherubs explored daddy’s workspace, known as The Hive. In an unsupervised quarter of a second, our son picked up a tiny bottle of whiteboard cleaner and sprayed himself directly in the eyes thinking it was a can of EVIAN Mineral Water Spray. Hilarity did not ensue.

Loud crying did. And like prairie dogs, many wearing headsets on conference calls popped up as I rushed our son to the break room to a makeshift eyewash station (paper towels and plastic cups).

Apparently burning eyes cannot compete for his attention like a row of vending machines as he stopped crying the moment all the buttons screamed at him, PRESS ME! Melt-down averted. All systems green again.

Come back kids and visit Daddy again real soon.

I am nearly finished constructing our son’s robot costume for Halloween and it is apparent he wants nothuing to do with it. Sensing imminent danger from not having a costume in time for parties or trick or treating, I asked my son what he wanted to be for Halloween. Sitting at the kitchen table, we had the following exchange:

Me: What do you want to be for Halloween?
Son: I want to be the red one.
Me: (Not knowing at all what he is talking about) OK, you can be the red one.
Son: I don’t want to be the red one.
Me: (Sigh)

And so here I am with clear direction on what to choose as I rummage through the remnants of the local Target store’s Halloween merchandise. If he’s lucky he’ll get a pair of Scooby Doo pants and a Hello Kitty mask. All he needs is a chainsaw and it might be pretty cool.

I took this photo earlier this year in Puerto Rico. It just makes me laugh. Something about the little stickman dude meeting an untimely death in the form of an icon warning.

Moving gate can cause serious injury or death

The Big Design Conference was a huge success! Over 500 in attendance. It was a fantastic inaugural event. Overall, I think my presentation went very well despite display issues at the beginning, the person introducing me did not show up (shamelessly had to plug myself) and I had a complete brain freeze that lasted maybe an AGONIZING 2.5 minutes. Here is a version of the slides. I will be updating the presentation with some additions soon. Thanks to everyone who attended and thanks for the kind words on Twitter. Enjoy.

I really really wish I had taken the time to look over and rehearse the presentation I gave way back in March at IA Summit 2009. Why do I do this to myself on nearly every single public speaking engagement? I think I am an adrenaline addict. Or, I must like hurting myself in this way for the endorphin rush. Will post how well/badly it went.

File this under Last Year’s News, but a new font called Calibri is being distributed by Microsoft and it is actually good. If you have installed IE8, any Office 2007 product, or are running Vista, you have the font installed. In fact, it is the default browser font replacing Arial in IE, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. It has also replaced Times New Roman in Word.

I like that its taller x-height allows for increased legibility at very small type sizes. In fact, I may be changing the CSS declarations of this site to see if I like the fit. Think of it as the new Trebuchet. Remember the day you woke up and every website under the sun was sporting the Treb look?

Now opening a Microsoft application is just a bit less painful. Here that bell, Arial? It tolls for thee.