links for 2010-01-20

so goddamn true.

"This wiki collects information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively. Whether you need software to help you manage citations, author a multimedia work, or analyze texts, Digital Research Tools will help you find what you're looking for. We provide a directory of tools organized by research activity, as well as reviews of select tools in which we not only describe the tool's features, but also explore how it might be employed most effectively by researchers."

"UX professionals are some of the most professionally unhappy folks I’ve ever encountered."

“Altruism is a good reason to do something once, but not to repeat it,” says Timothy Prestero, founder of Design that Matters, a nonprofit social-enterprise design company based in Cam­bridge, Massachusetts. The organization teams student volunteers, professional consultants, and aid agencies to tackle some of the world’s thorniest design and distribution problems. The company’s current collaborations include a low-cost, low-energy microfilm projector to promote literacy in West Africa and an intuitive intravenous-drip flow controller to allow nonmedical personnel to assist ailing family members. “There’s a reason design isn’t beating a path to the doors of nonprofits and aid agencies,” Prestero says. “They don’t tend to have a lot of money.”