People You Need to Know: Part 1

Instead of the typical Follow Friday thing that Twitterites do, I find that the people who really deserve to be followed, really deserve more than 140 characters.

For the first installment, I’ve randomly chosen 3 of these people - mostly because I only had a few minutes of free time:

Patrick Rhone: I discovered Patrick’s main blog a long while ago and returned to it every so often, because I loved the design. Something happened this past year, though, and he’s really taken it up a notch. My favorite of his sites is Practical Opacity. Every post is not only interesting, but useful to every day life (how rare is that?). His most popular site is Minimal Mac, but you can also find his random posts on…The Random Post.

Nick Cernis: Nick is best known as the guy behind the iPhone app Put Things Off, but it’s his blog - now titled Modern Nerd - that encourages me to believe that someone out there really gets it. His article, Rise of the Tablog, was a big hit when everyone in the world seemed to link to it, but the entire archive of his blog is worth a read (good thing it isn’t very large yet). In particular, I love his contrarian view on personal branding.

Adam Howell: Back in 2003 or 2004, I hired an increasingly popular blogger/web designer for a new site I needed built for the Association of Music Writers and Photographers. It was the smoothest web project I’ve ever been a part of and never forgot the name. I looked him up on Twitter years later. I’m not at all sure he’s the same Adam Howell, but this guy always has something to say that cuts through the techno news crap.