I've been looking for a decent open source project manager for some time now and I keep almost finding what I want; but there's always one aspect that I could never live with - and it's too often the design. Most packages I've looked at have a design that looks like it came from the last century: sharp corners, a flat layout and/or no sense of color at all. Almost nothing is even remotely modern. And this doesn't just affect project management software, a big chunk of open source web software suffers in much the same way.
One reason perhaps, is that good design is so hard, it always takes several iterations to get a design "just right." And, if the infrastructure isn't built to handle design iterations easily (e.g. poor coding practices; such as hard coding the design rather than using templates, etc...) it become a tedious and error-prone process as well, leaving the internet with more than it's fair share of ugly (if functional) software.
It also probably has something to do with the fact that a CS degree doesn't really require any design courses and tends to spend far more time on the nuts and bolts of programming (i.e. how to write an algorithm) than it does emphasizing the interface. I think there would be a lot more good interfaces in existence if this was addressed. Say, require two to four classes in interface design and usability.
It's really a pity that there are only a few projects that really seem to get interface design, because it's definitely worth the extra effort.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert
I was at the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Beethoven's Last Night concert in Boston last night (in the fourth row of the orchestra pit) and it was awesome, they are quite the experience live, definitely worth seeing if you have the opportunity. They're so much more fun to watch and listen to than anyone else I've seen; their music is just so big (the benefit of having a string section and 20ish performers).
Just so you get the idea what it was like a found a few videos from other concerts in the tour on YouTube:
Photographing Boston (The Charles River)
I realized last weekend that I've been in Boston for almost a year now and I don't have the pictures to prove it. So, in order to rectify that problem I made my way down the Charles River and spent over 2 hours walking around and ended up taking about 270 frames (90 photos since I shoot brackets of 3). Out of all those photos, the above four are what I consider to be the best. I've posted a few more on flickr and in my portfolio.
Since there's way to much of Boston for me to ever photograph in one weekend, I've decided that I'm going to try and find one day a week to take photos of Boston and make this an ongoing series where I'll feature pictures from a different area of Boston each week.