It’s rare that I post tech news on this blog but I think this deserves it. Yes its true, only a few hours ago, Microsoft just made an unsolicited bid to acquire all of Yahoo’s outstanding shares at $31, pricing Yahoo at $44.6 Billion. NY Times reported this so it can’t be a hoax. TechCrunch even shared the letter of Steve Ballmer to Yahoo! Now with all this hype circulating, I’m not sure how Jerry Yang will react.

I for one love Yahoo! products, not particularly its search engine, but I think it did some great web 2.0 acquisitions like delicous and flickr. So I think it is a good move by Microsoft, and probably a good idea for Yahoo! to take the offer as well since they have been lagging behind Google as well as recent news of Yahoo! laying off a thousand employees.

This is not the first shocker Microsoft pulls on us, remember last years deal with Facebook? Valuating Facebook at $15 Billion, which I personally think was ridiculous.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what will happen next and how this might affect our daily web lives as well as our ‘office’ life.

I have been on a blog vacation for a while and aside from being swamped with work, having a week of flu, and a wedding. The Perlas clan from different parts of the country and the world came over the holidays for a reunion 2 years in the making and a first in maybe 15 years family gathering. I have a lot of stories about the reunion but I’ll save that for my personal site. But during one night where everyone was there I was able to take portraits of all of them.  Using my newly acquired Canon 400D with 50mm lens I quickly went around the venue taking a total of 53 portraits of the family.  This is the first time I do quick portraits and I was happy with it.  Here are some: 

While reading about new brand resign over at Brand New, I noticed one article that was written by a guest editor with a familiar name: Christian Palino. Christian is my batchmate and friend over at IDII.  I have not gotten in touch with Christian for a while now and didn’t know that he had redesigned his website.  He messaged me while I was writing this post… funny coincidence.  Since then he had written about 2 or 3 more articles in Brand New.

I was always impressed with Christian’s command of visual design and typography.  I am guessing that this was because of his RISD education.  You should visit his site to see what I mean.  I also remember him binding a book with found materials over at IDII.  To me that was quite a feat.  Christian is still based in Italy now and his work spans from branding to interaction design.   

Congratulations to jplamano for getting the Moleskine Planner plus A5 Muji sketchbook! And thank you to everyone that joined. I feel that the contest was successful since I was able to get a good amount of comments from you guys. So I’m thinking of holding another contest sometime. Stay tuned. In the meantime, please enjoy my blog.

As you can see from the screenshot above, I used my randomizer engine to draw the winner. I actually had my wife push the button from her computer so that it will be fair. So to the winner please email me your shipping address so that hopefully you can get your shipment before Christmas. :)

Please submit your comments and linkbacks/trackbacks for my Moleskine Giveaway before Nov. 30 at 12mn. I will draw a winner the next day, December 1.

I’ve also created a page, with the help of some friends, that will randomly pick a winner. Visit the page and try it out for yourself.

On another note, I saw a bigger and better Moleskine Contest… but the chances of winning in that one is rather slim. There are already over 600 entries!

Before I announce the winner of the Moleskine Giveaway, let me tell you guys about another stationary that is getting some hype, it’s called Field Notes

I have yet to see this thing in person but I guess the fact that it was designed by popular design-slash-business firm Coudal Partners along with Draplin Design Co. makes the hype reasonable. Coudal has had success in turning its company from a strict design service to a manufacturer of products before with its products like jewelboxing. And their blog have been one of the authority figures in the online world of design. Coudal also hosts a live match between designers called Layer Tennis

I suspect that this will be used, like the Moleskine, by artists to keep their sketches. More images can be found on flickr. I’m thinking of getting one of these myself, except shipping will probably cost more than the notebooks.

I’ve been thinking about having a contest on my blog for a long time. Since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought it would be the perfect time to do it! So, I’m giving away a Moleskine Weekly Panner + Notebook 2008 . These are the smaller ones (9 x 14cm) you can find in Powerbooks/Fully Booked stores. This link actually has a better description of the product. It’s priced at Php680.00/ US$15, and I’ll ship it to you!

What you have to do:
Comment on this post! - say hello or whatever… simple enough. One comment per person. 1 point per person. Be sure to leave your email address so that I can contact you in case you win.
or
Blog about this contest! - create an entry on your blog and create a link back to this post. (make sure you link to the permalink). By doing so, you’ll get 3 points. That’s 3 times more chances of winning than just posting a comment. Drop me an email at noelperlas at noelperlas.com in case your trackback doesn’t reflect on the comments area of this post.

To sweeten the contest a bit, I’ll throw in an extra MUJI A5 Craft covered sketchbook if the number of comments + linkbacks equal to twelve (12).

Why these notebooks/sketchbooks? I blogged about how I love these things and I wanted others to share my joy. Why a contest? Well I honestly wanted to hear from you guys. I didn’t know that Greg Moreno read my blog until he commented, I didn’t know that old German friend Basti also reads it until he messaged me about the iPhone. So please comment or link now!

UPDATE: Winner for the contest was announced here.

While looking for a magazine last weekend, something made me do a double-take: the latest BusinessWeek magazine.  I like BusinessWeek because they regularly have articles and even issues that are dedicated to design.  They also “host” the annual IDEA awards.

An extensive review about the redesign can be found in Brand New.  I just want to add that I like the redesign even if it is a bland and safe one because content comes first in publications like these so design has to be invisible.  They also redesigned their website, looking slightly more like NY Times.  I wonder if their redesign was sparked by the fact that TIME magazine also had one recently?

Big news in the tech industry this week was Google announcing the Open Handset Alliance and Andriod. The announcement says that this is bigger and more ambitious than the rumored GPhone. Google is essentially trying to bring the open source mentality from the desktop/web to the mobile industry. Ambitious indeed since it will level the playing field for developer vs proprietary technologies and closed carrier systems.

But what is news to me is that in the announcement video for Android (a truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices) they had not One (1) but Four (4) interaction designers explain the technology and talk about the possibilities of the new open platform. This reflects the same ideology that I talked about in my last post which is this: In a complex world, where technology and innovation develop at a blink of an eye, it is the designer that help make the experience of them simpler, better and more pleasant.

Here’s a nice post over at one of my favorite blogs, 37signal’s SVN.

They answer the question: “Do I need a designer..?” And I love how they answer it:

“… start thinking of them [web designers] as someone who decides what goes where, which form elements to use, how to split features between screens, what words to use, and how everything fits together in a coherent experience. “

Yes, I couldn’t have put it more perfectly: designers (like me) create coherent experiences. I remember reading a post a while back from one of the interaction-ivrea students (if you’re reading this please tell me where that link went), she said that designers synthesize. They [designers] process multiple inputs of information and translate it to an understandable (and pleasant) product/service/experience. I deal with new technologies or multitude product features in some of my projects, my goal is always to hide the complexity from the users and show only the necessary ones… Or making them simpler.