A History of the GUI. Look around you, every piece of hardware you own, GUIs have become the default intermediary between man and machine. Until the day we can read and process code like those in the Matrix movies, we'll be using GUIs for quite some time to 'control' our mechanical subordinates. Most of us know of Xerox's poor management of the GUI system their engineers at PARC developed. But not many of us know that the idea of the GUI appeared in the 1930s, and that Douglas Englebart, with funding from the Air Force was the first to demo a GUI system in the late 60s. The article also uncovers which system or group of developers were behind certain functions we now accept as everyday items in current GUIs. Based on society's increasing ability to think abstractly because of these GUIs, it brings up this recent article in WIRED where they state that the overall IQ or G rating for society has actually increased over the years even though I personally think society overall is going the other way.

Over in the ID sector, most have probably read about the new Target medicine bottle, here's an article by the New York Metro covering the SVA graduate who created the original design titled Safe Rx for her senior thesis. She now works for Milton Glaser!

IBM is moving into the design consultancy business! Arrivenet offers a more indepth look as to the reasons behind the decision. Anyone working in IBM's Design Consulting division? I wouldn't mind slaving away for Big Blue, I'm a true believer since they have been so proactive in the open source community (though I still haven't gotten around to using Linux, maybe Linspire will change that)!

William McDonough, an architect I wouldn't mind working for should teach at CMU. CMU is all about sustainable design and McDonough executes the idea to near perfection, especially the Rohner textile plant in Switzerland. He makes the impossible, possible and Newsweek's Designing the Future article gives you a snapshot of his work.

Recently read William McDonough's section in Bruce Mau's Massive Change book which is why the Newsweek article above caught my attention, but something I found more interesting was Rick Smalley's interview in the same book. On the C60 (carbon-60 molecule) he states, Garfield Comic Strip Collection it's not C&H, but it'll do...