"I’ve been playing with glanceables and synecdoches for a while now, until I came up with something that had to be got out of my head, and into the world. So here it is: Romance has lived too long upon this river; a single-serving web page that tells you how high the tide is at London Bridge: explicitly close up, but also, roughly, at a glance". This is great. Also: James has an ear for domain names.

"...it’s become apparent to me that social software is a medium turns all communication into a self-representation game whose ultimate goal is popularity."

In 2000, a group of seventh-graders were asked to draw what they thought scientists looked like and describe their pictures. Then, after visting Fermilab, they were asked to repeat the exercise. Some of the quotations are genuinely excellent, cf "Some people think that (scientists) are just some genius nerds in white coats, but they are actually people who are trying to live up to their dreams and learn more." Aren't we all?

"Users need to see results before they can ask better, more detailed questions. These feedback loops provide critical learning. Users need to get to data as quickly and easily as possible. A screen without data is delayed progress."

"This requires a light touch. This requires respect for the gap. The gap is part of your toolset." The importance of gaps is cropping up everywhere. It's in the gap that magic happens.

30 Rock: Tracey wants to make a porn videogame. Frank tells him you can't, because of the Uncanny Valley. "Explain it to me with Star Wars". Priceless.

The quality of a representation that makes it easy to handle, discuss, reshape, pass on: this is how semiotcratic it is.