Lock Door Control: Cultural Cues?

My dad told me he's always confused by the door lock controls in cars.
Does the raised dot mean lock? Does the indented dot mean unlock? Or is it the other way around?
Looking at our two cars, it seems that the Japanese have a different logic from the Germans. I wonder what the thinking is behind each.
It makes more sense to me to press the indented dot to lock the doors, and the raised dot to unlock the doors.
What do you think?

Cleaning Up the Menu Bar

 

 

 
I just noticed how my menubar had icons of applications I didn't use. After doing a quick google search, I figured out how to remove them: command + click + drag out of menubar. I love how simple that was to do :)

Gmail: Drag&Drop Attachments

Did you all know about this cool new gmail feature?? Update to the latest version of Firefox now to use it! This is the way things should be.

The Trouble with Flying

I don't know the band Orba Squara, but I came across them somehow this weekend through a nicely made map of their road tour from the eastern to the western tip of the United States. A closer look at their website, the images, and most especially the words, had me realizing that I had found something somewhat magical.

The Trouble with Flying is the name of their album and the site opens with the question "What is the trouble with flying?" which they answer in the literal sense with...

"The trouble with flying is that you miss out on so many little things along the way when you hop on a plane and zoom from one end of the world to the other.

So I could not think of a better way yo explore this idea and to celebrate the release of the new album than to get on a bus and drive cross country!

In our own attempt to "discover" America, we performed songs from the new album and previewed the CD for fans along the way. The Goal was to take the road less travelled to meet, interview and interact with people and learn that "The Trouble With Flying" means to them... and maybe discover a little about ourselves too."

And exploring this idea, they did! The website is designed to let the user travel from point A, to B, to C, and so on, discovering little crumbs of honesty along the way. There's a little piece called "If God had wanted us to fly, he would've given us airplanes." Also, a fog photo montage with the quote "Fog is just a cloud that had to come down for a rest." I still have a long way to go til I get to the end, but so far, so very good.

Edit: Interview with the designer, Jose Cobaco of Random Collective, here.

UX

One UX article a week for a year by interface designer Joshua Porter.

A discourse on the process of designing for real people.

Thinking for a Living

Another really interesting website/experience! What is it keyboard controlled sites and pale colored backgrounds that draw me!
Thanks to my ghostwriter, Javi, who will hopefully never start his own blog and take away all my goodies! :)