IFTTT is Fantastic, and You Should Use It

I'm pretty late to this party, but I am falling in love with task-automation service ifttt (if this then that). Basically this service allows you to create "recipes" of behavior using "channels", which is just a codeword for the list of different services involved, such as Facebook, Evernote, Instagram, Dropbox, Twitter, Youtube, SMS, email, and a LOT more.

The idea is that you can have ifttt check one of these channels for a certain type of activity, and then trigger a second channel in a specific way. For example, I have a recipe that checks for any new photos I post on Instagram, and then saves those photos to a folder of my choosing in my Dropbox account. Another recipe watches my Unretrofied RSS feed and auto-tweets any new entry it sees.

These are two simple uses for the service, and aren't even considered a drop in the bucket of what ifttt is capable of. There are currently 47 channels available, and most (if not all) of them have multiple trigger types, AND there are more being added all the time, so the number of possible combinations is staggering. Luckily, you can already see some of the interesting things people have come up with on their public recipes page.

I recommend at least checking it out and seeing if you can get something useful out of it. There's a little something for everyone.

ifttt

2012's Most Amazing Tall Buildings

Another set of great images, this time of interesting skyscraper architecture around the world, collected by a Chicago-based group of engineers and architects called CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat).

Buildings like this are only going to become more and more common as time moves along, but for now it's nice to simply admire their uniqueness. Go check out the full gallery.

CBTUH | Best Tall Buildings for 2012

via Jason Kottke and Business Insider (where they have a nice single-page view of all the buildings)

Stunning Images of America

Daily Mail has gathered a series of incredible aerial photos the United States, all of them taken for the upcoming four-part PBS documentary 'AMERICA REVEALED'. They show various sets of data, from pizza-boy deliveries in New York to national wind patterns and transporation routes. Every single one of them is fascinating and beautiful.

I'll post one more image from the gallery here, but you should really head over to Daily Mail and check all of them out.

Daily Mail | The Art of GPS

via The Techblock

'I Give Up'

Andre Torrez:

But somewhere in between that new iPad, the unserviceable laptop non-story, and that idiotic comment about the new Retina displays something in my brain snapped. I give up. I surrender. The war is over. I can’t care about this stuff anymore. Getting annoyed at the pace of technology is fruitless for me. Being cynical about any new bit of technology that doesn’t fit into my view of how stuff should work has been a dragging anchor in my life.

'The Art of the iOS Icon'

Great collection of interesting iOS icon designs. No matter how limiting the format, designers will find a way to produce compelling work. I love it.

Mobile Inc | The Art of the iOS Icon

Meer.li

If you're interested in mobile app design, Meer.li looks like a good site to check out. It's basically dribbble for mobile apps and looks very nice.

via Beautiful Pixels

Pat Dryburgh's 'Helvetcia' T-Shirt

Nobody's perfect, right? Pat Dryburgh doesn't think so. That's why he's going to be selling a nice new t-shirt to celebrate the little mistakes in life, Helvetcia:

I know I'll be buying one.

Pat Dryburgh | Helvetcia Tee

'Buying Adobe Photoshop CS6'

Pat Dryburgh, after happily attempting to purchase a copy of CS6 once his beta was up:

"I’m no expert at payment processing, but I’ve bought a thing or two on the Internet. Some of these things have been software applications, and some of those have been from indie development shops run by a single developer. Each of these experiences has been flawless, allowing me to use the software within minutes, if not less.

And yet Adobe, a massive company with thousands of employees, can’t process an order sooner than 24 hours?"

My experience with software companies outside of Adobe has been much the same; I can't recall a single occasion where I've had to wait longer than a minute or two before my order has been processed, even for games. Yet in the case of a product that is actually relied upon by many thousands of people to do their jobs, there is a wait period of a day or two? This seems arbitrary and thoughtless, if not straight-up unprofessional.

Pat Dryburgh | Buying Adobe Photoshop CS6

Dieter Rams' 10 Principles For Good Design

Vitsoe compiled Dieter Rams' 10 principles for good design, and they're all fantastic.

'The New Codas'

Shawn Blanc gives a very good overview of the newly-released Coda 2 (Mac) and Diet Coda (iPad):

"The premier difference between Coda 1 and Coda 2 is its improvement between components. The workflow. Though each individual component (the text editor, the FTP client, etc.) has been improved upon, the most significant improvement to Coda is its central aim as a one-window web development tool."

There's plenty more to read on Shawn's site, so go check it out.

Shawn Blanc | The New Codas