I finally got around to reading John Maeda’s book “The Laws of Simplicity“. Under 100 pages, the book is an easy commitment and can be read over a couple of coffee breaks.

Simplicity and organization are near and dear topics to my heart, so I happy to report that I believe John creates clarity around some important topics that other efficiency books obfuscate somewhat. He also lends some humanity to the topic of organization, which is sorely lacking in other literature, which typically address information and habit. His seventh law, emotion, specifically addresses the concept of Aichaku, the Japanese term for the attachment one can feel for an item, and how this concept can lead to better design. Having carried a Palm device for a decade and now an iPhone, I can deeply relate to this concept. Each time I upgrade such a device to the newest model, it takes time for my old attachment to fade and a new one to grow, even if the device is theoretically identical to the last.

In addition to emotion, Maeda includes trust as one of his core laws, and he discusses the concept of omakase, translated “I leave it up to you.” I believe the short discussion of the concept alone is enough to warrant reading this book.

Watch out for acronyms, this book is full of them, and luckily also full of self-deprecating humor about them.

The many deep positives of the book outweigh the trivial negatives, so this book makes it to my definitely worth reading list.

If you are looking for a new neighborhood in your existing area or are moving to an area with which you are unfamiliar, look no further for the perfect tool to help you in your search for that perfect place to live. Neighborhood Scout a service by Woonsocket, RI, based Location Inc. just launched a complete revamp of their already popular neighborhood search service.

The new launch includes a much-improved user interface, some very unique nationally-comparable school district ratings, and crime statistics at the neighborhood level. Worth checking out.

Rentometer has just launched a free flash widget for folks who would like to add a Rentometer to their own website. In addition to the standard user search, the Rentometer widget also includes the ability to present local rent data for several locales. Colors are also configurable to match your site’s color scheme. It took me about 2 minutes to configure, including sign up time.

Well, I finally made it through Ray Kurzweil’s latest book, “The Singularity is Near When Humans Transcend Biology”. It was a good, dense read that raises and supports a very interesting future we’re heading into. Definitely worth the read.

Looks like the folks over at Humanized have brought the command line back to Windows in an exquisitely elegant way with a product called Enso.

Enso has beautiful interaction and visual design, as does the Humanized website. Easy to install and easy to use, especially for folks familiar with command line environments, Enso returns a feeling of control and productivity to the Windows desktop. I expect the Enso model will translate well to any computer system with a windowing user interface paradigm.

I’d like to extend my sincerest thanks to the Humanized team, I’ve been waiting years for someone to do a great implementation of this concept. My only request at this time: a ‘locate’ concept so I can eliminate the need to use Window’s clunky search tools.