Web Standards
Recent Red Herrings
My only major irritation with the iPhone has been the calendar. In the beginning, I subscribed to my Google Calendar through iCal and then synced to my phone. Of course, then you can’t add or edit entries. (And since you also can’t edit entries through the mobile gCal website, I found myself scribbling down appointments on scraps of paper in my purse. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a paperless calendar system?) A few months ago, I finally found a way to sync my gCal with my phone via Exchange. But it only syncs calendars you created — not subscribed calendars, like holidays and moon phases. When you’re using Exchange, you can’t sync anything from iCal to the iPhone (which I don’t understand… why are they mutually exclusive?). I tried MobileMe for all of five minutes before I realized that it didn’t solve my calendar problem either. Today, I: a) subscribed to the gCal holidays public calendar in iCal; b) exported it from iCal to .ics; c) imported into my own gCal; d) synced with NuevaSync. Now I have an eternity of holidays that repeat on a predictable schedule (Columbus Day, Christmas, etc.) and at least a few years of Easter.
How did I not know about Oh So Beautiful Paper until this week? Now this is a girl after my own heart. Blogging exclusively about lovely, creative, unique paper goods… It doesn’t get much better.
“Recognize that college is more about developing personal responsibility and improving your analytical and creative thinking skills. Going to school is not about resume building. College is about learning theory (how to go beyond this place in time) and history (how we got to this place in time) in a well-balanced array of subjects. This knowledge gives you depth and helps develop character. Learn how to transpose solutions from one discipline or event to another in order to solve a problem or create an opportunity.”
Brilliant use of Flash by August to deliver an auto-resizing background photo.
I want a high-resolution copy of Jesse Owen’s CD packaging for “The Bright Sadness” to use as my desktop wallpaper. His portfolio has one of the most novel UI schemes I’ve seen in quite some time.
Very few people can tout themselves as designer, illustrator, animator, filmmaker, photographer, musician — oh, and don’t forget dreamer. Joe is fantastic on all fronts.
I must’ve overlooked the articles archive in Jason’s redesign when I oohed and ahhed over it before, because it’s really fantastic and I feel like I’m seeing it for the first time. Just like the front page of the site, it brings all the best things about print (well, except paper, of course) to the web.
“The critic also knows how difficult it is for any design owner to receive a critique. This means going beyond basic cordiality and politeness. A skilled critic will understand the design owner is invested and works to reduce the ‘attacking’ feeling that is a natural reaction to any criticism.”
Super sweet tiled background generator. Choose foreground and background colors, texture, and pattern image, opacity, angle, and size.
I bookmarked a NWT article back in February that I just got around to reading. You know, I really should’ve been one of the students in this test. I’m all too often paralyzed by the paradox of choice — an inability to eliminate options for fear that I’ll “miss out” on something. Tierney: “They should have ignored those disappearing doors, but the students couldn’t. They wasted so many clicks rushing back to reopen doors that their earnings dropped 15 percent. Even when the penalties for switching grew stiffer — besides losing a click, the players had to pay a cash fee — the students kept losing money by frantically keeping all their doors open.” I’m not sure which of the five simple rules this falls under, but I’d say it’s somewhere between #2 (free your mind from worries) and #3 (live simply).
Want pretty ampersands in Wordpress-generated content? Enter Classy Amp. Designed for headings but a breeze to apply to any function.
Something new to try the next time I need to use PNGs: Unit PNG fix. (Sidebar: I long for the day when we can pretend IE6 never existed. Oh wait… That may be never.)
I never thought this day would come, but I’ve migrated this little bloglet to Wordpress. Farewell, MovableType — it’s not you, it’s me.
Quote of the day, thanks to Gmail: “Life is something to do when you can’t get to sleep.”
I’ve been living under a rock design-wise these last few weeks (or longer), so today I did a bit of catching up. Noteworthy: Viget Labs blog, Poccuo, Northtemple and Matt Brett.
I found NuevaSync on Saturday, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it has changed my life. Being able to enter and modify appointments directly on my iPhone instead of having to wait until I’m at my computer… How did I survive with it any other way?
I had scribbled down Hydra Studio on a piece of scrap paper well over a year ago and finally got around to perusing their portfolio. Really fantastic work there. They clearly have a broad range in their aesthetic — clean and modern, organic, high-impact, delicately refined.
Gorgeous typography work on Words Are Pictures. So many powerful statements told through type.
“The handwriting of typographers intrigues me because it raises so many questions… Has the rise of digital communications made handwriting redundant? Do modern typographers, born of digital tools, lack the finesse of their more wizened counterparts?” Most interesting to me are the multiple handwritten “typefaces” of Bantjes.