nortypig

Nikon D90 Please Mr Santa?

steven — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:56:15 +0000

No that’s not Santa Maria (although that’s where I found the Nikon D90 first), I mean the real Santa. A quick comparison of the Nikon D90 to the older D80 made me daydream, and several other reviews are worth a look (thanks also to Coudal Partners). Now how do I scrape the cash together in the short term?

Save the Accessibility Institute

steven — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:43:22 +0000

The University of Texas has made a decision to close the Accessibility Institute, founded and led with distinction by the late Dr. John Slatin. Sign the petition to save it.

History of Graphic Design

steven — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:18:30 +0000

History of Graphic Design from lectures by Nancy Stock-Allen, University of the Arts, Philadelphia.

Using Illustrator’s LiveColor

steven — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:54:30 +0000

Another Veerle tutorial - this one explains how to recolour artwork using Illustrator’s LiveColor.

Ricardo Salamanca

steven — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:42:14 +0000

Ricardo Salamanca

CSS Sprites2 And Mapping Memory

steven — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:28:34 +0000

In A List Apart issue 266, Dave Shea expands on the CSS Sprites method he brought us in 2004, now using jQuery to bring us CSS Sprites2. Also, Aaron Rester considers cartography as a new metaphor for web design in Mapping Memory: Web Designer as Inforamation Cartographer.

More vs Enough

steven — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:00:03 +0000

Seth Godin’s More vs Enough - why more doesn’t make you happy and high paying jobs aren’t worth it if you’re being abused. Address the unfixed hygeine issues.

Browsershots

steven — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:47:29 +0000

Browsershots provides you with free screenshots of your web design across different browsers. Place your site in the job queue and wait for the response.

Pool BETA

steven — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:49:36 +0000

Pool BETA from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) - join to share, remix and collaborate on video, audio, text and picture content. The ABC seems to be right out there over the last few years and is fast becoming an organisation I’d love to join. Now who thought I’d have said that a few years ago?

I really like the way they’ve invested heavily in information rich sub-sites and provide an abundant resource about just about anything they show. Big tick Aunty ABC. Hire me and I’ll make your pages validate. How’s that for a deal? Damn the expense wot.

YSlow for Firebug

steven — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:32:50 +0000

YSlow for Firebug offers up a performance report card that grades your site and offers suggestions for improvement, listing all the page components including their HTTP response headers. Check out the YSlow demonstration screencast.

Firefox Throttle

steven — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:27:57 +0000

Firefox Throttle is a Firefox plugin (Windows only) that allows you to do a number of things, one of which is to demonstrate exactly how slow 56K modem users will be viewing your websites. It does a bunch of other stuff you might also find useful.

Git Version Control

steven — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:25:29 +0000

Git is another option for version control that might take a little more of a learning curve than the more widely appreciated Subversion.

An Event Apart via Adactio

steven — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:33:53 +0000

Jeremy Keith has been liveblogging from An Event Apart in San Francisco. An Event Apart, Day One includes Understanding Web Design by Jeffrey Zeldman, The Lessons of CSS Frameworks by Eric Meyer, Storytelling by Design by Jason Santa Maria, Web Application Hierarchy by Luke Wroblewski, Shepherding Passionate Users by Heather Champ, The Framework Age by Liz Danzico and Implementing Design: Bulletproof A-Z by Dan Cederholm. He has a short post at the end of An Event Apart, Day Two as well.

The WaSP Curriculum Framework

steven — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:40:05 +0000

The WaSP Curriculum Framework is an initiative running in parallel to the Opera Web Standards Curriculum. Ultimately, these resources will be what defines the knowledge you need to take into your web development career.

What Makes a Good Blog?

steven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:31:05 +0000

43 Folders have an article on what makes a good blog - have a voice, be obsessed and accept your obsession, they are a product of attention times interest, they make fart noises, they inspire, they try and they know when to break the rules. I’ve had a reasonably good blog before but that led to waking up every morning with 1200 comment spams in the in-box, verbal abuse and various diatribe. In the end I rebranded and hid - Pigwork is no longer my domain name.

The golden rule missing from this post is that good blogs please you FIRST. In other words, its about making yourself happy by talking about your own passion and NOT about ‘problogging’. Yes problogging can make a few bucks, but I’d argue that’s a business model not necessarily an obsession with information sharing for it’s own sake.

Now, what makes a good business blog? Hey read the 43 Folders article!

iPhone Interface PSD File v1.0

steven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:24:11 +0000

iPhone Interface PSD File v1.0 is a downloadable Photoshop set of iPhone interface elements in sensible layer sets that are worth picking up. (via Veerle)

Update: 22 August, 2008
Today Veerle posted a fuller editable set of iPhone interface elements in iPhone GUI PSD that is even more useful.

Command Shape in Illustrator

steven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:21:48 +0000

Veerle’s tutorials are becoming a notoriously lush collection. Here’s Command Shape in Illustrator.

Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky

steven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:19:39 +0000

Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky were a big influence on the man I grew up to become - hey getting a come-back. Cool.

Emily

steven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:13:43 +0000

Emily is not real. She’s the result of a new animation technology that allows small facial gestures to be captured under a control system. Would you take her out? Would you give her 20 dollars if she called you late at night? Would you fork over thousands of dollars on the promise she’d fly in to meet you tomorrow morning? Well, not me of course. I mean other guys out there. Vulnerable perverted guys, mostly.

Society’s most vulnerable men are in terrible danger. Seriously. Hey we could make a movie about that scenario starring Emily herself. Now that would be creepy uncanny valley stuff.

Amy Stein

steven — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:52:19 +0000

Amy Stein

4 Simple Shapes in Illustrator

steven — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:36:20 +0000

4 Simple Shapes in Illustrator is another excellent tutorial from Veerle.

iPhone Resolution

steven — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:08:52 +0000

Edward Tufte puts forward his view of the iPhone interface with a video demonstration in iPhone Resolution.

Stefan Sagmeister on Happiness

steven — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:38:29 +0000

Stefan Sagmeister’s Yes, design can make you happy presentation from the TED Ideas worth spreading conference.

Keith Barry’s Brain Magic

steven — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:33:15 +0000

Keith Barry’s Brain Magic presentation from the TED Ideas worth spreading conference. Magician’s misdirection is an interesting association with web interface design, so I enjoyed this.

The Rise and Fall of Twitter

steven — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:03:58 +0000

The Rise and Fall of Hitler subtitled parody that kicked around a year or so ago as Adolf Hitler - Sex Addiction, Somebody Stole Hitler’s Car, and later Hitler Gets Banned subtitled parody, gets another subtitle update with the Rise and Fall of Twitter- Hitler’s dog just died and Twitter’s server is down. How can a man cope with such incompetence in the bunker? Subtitles of this parody were created by Nicholoas Deleon and his brother Gabriel. There are a lot of these around now.

Zing

steven — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:48:48 +0000

Jeffrey Zeldman in his recent post Zing discusses a four year old essay on Daring Fireball titled Ronco Spray-on Usability. Its not just something you tack on after the site is built. I particularly like Jeffrey’s last sentence.

There are even (although there are far fewer than there used to be) some designers who think their primary job is to wow the user with their skills.Jeffrey Zeldman

Embedded Font Business Model

steven — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:35:39 +0000

Richard Rutter proposes some business models for font foundaries in The Future of Web Font Embedding. He’s right, the horse has bolted and foundaries should be looking at ways to capitalise on the opportunity rather than bemoan their customers as potential thieves.

HTML Headings and Accessibility

steven — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:28:43 +0000

A brilliant screencast on YouTube - Importance fo HTML Headings for Accessibility - demonstrating the importance of marking up your web pages with correct headings and how it affects the accessibility of your site for screen reader users. Demonstration is a good way to get this across to people.

Bear Tools

steven — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:24:26 +0000

Kevin Cornell’s Bear Tools series of articles is now complete - part 1 was on drawing implements, part 2 was on pen and ink, part 3 was on painting tools and part 4 concludes with paper for your tools.

Checkout and Simple Pay

steven — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:13:07 +0000

Checkout and Simple Pay from Amazon offer the ability to use Amazon’s shopping cart facility in your website or to sign into Amazon remotely and Amazon handles the process itself. (via TechCrunch)