publications

English blog - Total Recall

Per Axbom

Nov 8, 2011

So yes, I am back to blogging in English after having had a successful Swedish blog for almost 10 years now, and yes I will be keeping both blogs alive. What most people do not know, however, is that I started out blogging in English as early as 1997 (on this domain! — axbom.com). The sites are on a hard drive backup somewhere but thanks to The Wayback Machine I was able to get this incredibly nostalgic screenshot:

Mobile first 13 years ago

What is really cool about this particular screenshot is the footer. I was desigining this site for fast loads (if memory serves this was the second or third redesign of my site) as I had just won a Palm III at the builder.com conference in New Orleans. So in essence I was doing mobile first 13 years ago! I was also a big fan of XML apparently.

Pretty comfortable with English

Yes I am Swedish but I also grew up in Yekepa, Liberia; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania attending English international schools. So I have been longing to get back to writing more in this language as well on a regular basis, also of course because it will allow me to connect with a much larger audience and give me a platform to network with peers I meet at industry conferences.

Fresh content vs pulling from the archives

I have written some English texts over the years, I just have to find them, but I will in fact be focusing on writing new fresh posts for this blog and doing interviews with smart people. Also, make sure you check out the UX Podcast I am already doing with James Royal-Lawson (@beantin).

Work in progress

Most of this new English site of mine will be a work in progress, at least until end of year. But do stop by and give me feedback. It’s what us bloggers feed on.

Anyway. It’s good to be back. Real good. Now go subscribe to my feed or newsletter so you don’t miss anything 😉

Per Axbom posing with his Remington typewriter and several close-up details of the typewriter.

Typewriter design we still rely on

What did the SHIFT key really shift and why do computer programmers still have to care about carriages? Learn all about it, and why the original Qwerty layout didn't offer keys for the digits one and zero.

Bluesky and the Power of Your Own Domain Name

With the option of using your own domain name as a username, Bluesky becomes extra appealing.

Close-up from video with someone peeling off a sticker with a fake QR code pasted on top of a valid QR code.

Fake QR code in a car park

I often warn people about QR codes, but it's easier to understand the seriousness of these warnings when you can clearly see what a scam looks like. Here is a film I was given the okay to use for educational purposes (with my voiceover). In the video a

Close-up of smiling Per Axbom in a yellow raincoat with the hood up. Greenery in the background.

Back to work

On Monday October 14 it's been eight weeks since my open heart surgery. This means that my sick leave comes to an end and I'm back to work at my regular capacity. "Regular capacity" might be pushing it a bit. I obviously feel a