This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago. Visit the Product Blog for more information on our products.

Someone walk right into my claymore that I had just planted in Call of Duty 4.

A webpage dedicated to the old game “Rogue” by my High School buddy Mike Toy.

My 1-year-old daughter’s smile. Smiles are so simple to achieve…sometimes spontaneous. We should see them more often.

A road sign which has had the direction painted over and changed at least twice.

Catching my wife staring at me, and then watching her smile.

I pulled up to a stoplight and waiting to make a left turn was a small car filled with nuns. For some reason, the sight of that just made my whole day.

Two bicycles made of bamboo (really).

A crowd hovering around the Valentines day cards at walmart last night.

My five month-old grandson.

The sunset.

Ice on the trees in my back yard.

The sound of my dad’s voice.

The taste of pickled beets.

The story of a colleague that her son managed to whistle yesterday for the first time after practising all afternoon.

When I was starting to lug the trash barrel down the steps towards the curb, the UPS truck pulled up, the driver jumped out with a book I’d ordered, said, “Here, trade you,” and carried my trash barrel down to the curb!

I took apart a humbucker (guitar pickup) this weekend, to make some improvements. I do all kinds of fancy ‘science’ things these days, but there’s something about seeing that simple copper coil and magnet that reminded me of the 8 year old all those years ago who found a love for science. Sometimes I forget how elegantly simple pickups (or generators, or motors) really are. It’s magical, really that the sound of jazz/rock’n’roll/whatever comes down to a copper coil and a magnet.

Neighborhood doggies laying down together outside my favorite coffee shop.

The look in my six-year-old son’s eyes when he faced Darth Vader last week at Disney World after completing his Jedi training. I still don’t think he’s stopped smiling.

Rocking my 11 month old daughter back to sleep at 3am and watching her in REM sleep, expressions fleeting across her face, and wondering at how often she smiles even in dreamland. It’s pretty neat, isn’t it, Luis?

Two dogs rolling over and over with each other in the snow.

A woman who had clocked another with her purse sincerely apologizing – and the other woman accepting the apology with a good natured laugh.

I just got home from visiting Tokyo, Japan for the first time:

On the bullet train & subway everyone is quiet so as to be courteous to others around them.

A subway snack shop that had “joyful and delicious” printed on the side of it.

Tentacles!

My 5-year-old son bravely walking up to sing in front of the church, even though no one else from his class showed up. Then watching my 7-year-old son run up to join him so he wouldn’t have to sing alone.

This morning I took a dump and it was shaped like a love heart… so appropriate for valentines day

Similar to other posts already…

My 11-month old daughter’s smile when she recognizes me as I walk into a room, and says “pa pa!”

The goofy grin on my dog’s face as she leaps through the freshly fallen snow in our back yard.

- Similar to Martial, I saw a golden retriever run out of its building, across the street into the park and immediately start rolling around in the snow.

- Seeing a bus swerve to avoid a puddle that’d have ended up all over people on the sidewalk.

My 5-year-old daughter handing me a dark chocolate bar this morning.

My wife is pregnant with my third child and my first child (he’s 2) asking her if she needed help getting off the floor after playing with him.

A kid at the park pushed my 2nd son down and my 1st son ran over to him to help him up, gave him a hug and told him that he was alright.

Gotta love kids, they make you smile everyday.

The face of my new born son.

Waking up to So Much for My Sad Song.

The hair coming back on the head of my friend who has been battling breast cancer and has just been declared officially cancer-free!

Reading the 37 Signals blog on Feb 11th titled “Preview: Backpack Multiuser”, viewing the print screen with the photos of 37 Signals staff and noticing that all the guys have Admin rights beside their photos and seeing that for himself, Jason’s description is ‘this is you’, which has not been replaced with something a little more egocentric.

The plus side is if he ever forgets who he is, his Backpack account will never expire, although I fully ‘suggest’ that the others lock him out of the software tomorrow and Jason blog about ‘how he got through the day’. :)

The sight of my 16 year old son doing yoga.

Seeing my son doing dishes last night

Watching our extended ‘family’ of teenagers and young adults gathered around the whiteboard planning their new venture (a community devoted to art/music/custom tees/recycling program and ultimately changing the world for the better)

My puppy’s exuberance every time we go for a walk.

A warm “hi” from a stranger in the chemo lounge where my Dad is being treated.

Walking into my newly painted (non-white) kitchen and bedroom after several years of viewing white walls that had been patched with white toothpaste covering the old nail holes.

The look on my face when I opened my MacBook Air yesterday. Quite priceless I assure you.

my daughter’s smiles as I bounce them on the trampoline

an amazing sunrise in the Wairarapa yesterday

watching myself finally get some js animation working (YUI)

seems to be a lot of “kid” related smiles here- I’ll add mine:

The sound of my 6yo moving his hands through his LEGO tub every couple ten seconds or so for a good hour or two.

This sound is rivaled only by the sound of his hands moving through the pile of LEGO dumped on the floor (it has less “echo” from the tub in this case, but is just as satisfying.

SteveF’s really gets to me… nice job with those kids!

Reading this post, and all the comments have made me smile. It’s nice to be nice.

This one’s a couple of weeks old, but …

I watched a guy drop his scarf one evening, while pacing like he had somewhere urgent to get to. He was heading the same way I was, so I picked it up and went after him, even running after he started running. I caught up with him at the exact moment he felt round his neck and realised he’d lost his scarf (something like 200m later) and put it into his hands just as he turned round to look for it. The smile on his face and genuine joy in his voice is probably my favourite thing so far this year.

That my gilfriend called me this morning to be the first one i talk to today (she lives 700 k’s away), eventhough she does not “believe” in valentines day.

Seeing the smiling faces as we were able to get a dropdown list of 25+ statistical types down to 4!

This TED Talk on collaboration http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/216

The obvious: newborn laughing during diaper change.

The unexpected: the orange rubber non-skid sidewalk cover (looks like a buried Lego) that keep me from falling on my butt on Chicago ice.

The first crocuses of the year

music

A coyote leaping and bounding through belly-deep snow out near my home in Galena, Illinois.

Two columnar ‘rainbows’ ascending from the horizon into a layer of cloud on that rarity this northern Illinois winter, a mostly sunny afternoon.

My dog bounding through 2 feet of snow.

A mother walking with a 3-year old who dropped his candy wrapper. She said “pick it up, we don’t do that.” He said, “yes Mama.”

the sheer uncontainable excitement of my dog when i pick up a tennis ball and it’s time for a game of fetch.

The suspense of driving 120km with my girlfriend to another city to collect my own present, but not allowed to open it until we’re home.

(it turned out to be two tickets to a Radiohead concert, so that made me smile!)

A valentine that my three year old niece sent me – written in crayon and full of non-existent words (such as Moom).

This page.

@mike

LOL

DVDA

We just received a bunch of Thank You cards from the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. It seems that instead of wanting gifts for her birthday, a friend of my wife requested that gift givers should make a donation to the MFS on behalf of my wife, who was recently diagnosed with MS. A very simple gesture that will have a ripple effect we will not be able to measure.

While at a deli near Times Square, watching a non-employee straighten out a rumpled up mat just inside the entrance so others wouldn’t trip on it.

“Pitchers and Catchers Report!”

Watching Mo Rocca enjoy Paczki Day on The Sunday Morning Show.

It’s such a wonderful Detroit tradition that I miss every year now that I’m in NC.

Watching men flirt with women while picking out a Valentine’s Day card for someone else (that’s a goofy smile as if to say, “what are you thinking?”)

Cleaning my apartment only to find the paperwork for some old bill I forgot about and need to pay (a smile that says, “life just keeps moving forward, and I have the bill to prove it!”)

Waking up in the morning with my eyes closed (a smile that says, “Sure I could open my eyes and get up, or I could just wait it out to be certain the day is really sure it’s going to happen after all.)

Watching tourists and their children waddle past my place, dressed to the teeth, like a family of ducks (I live in a beautiful small town in the Garden State where NYC folks come out and “day vacation” in their fur coats, cigarettes in hand… my smile is to acknowledge the self-important production that is their life.)

The joint that I just smoked.

My son asleep at home after 106 days in the hospital.

Snow, the most beautiful sight my eyes have seen this long winter. Mostly cause we didn’t get any up till now…

Watching from a distance my 4 year old son completely engaged in learning activities on NOGGIN .com.

I saw a girl give a boy a cup of coffee and a note at the student library. She giggled and ran away, he never stopped smiling. It made my day, what a brave girl!

Getting asked by a stunning girl to go out on a date.

waiting for the sunrise with my girl, early this morning with a cup of tea at my home’s ceiling.

Roman Bercot
My son asleep at home after 106 days in the hospital.

that made me smile too!