January 2011
33 posts
3 tags
Coen Brothers: An Infographic
Graphic design firm Muller created this stunning infographic of all the movies from the Coen brothers. It shows the various characters from each film and the actors behind each. It’s amazing to see that 96 characters have been played — and played well — by only 50 different actors.
Talk about dancing with the one that brought you. Or, sticking with what you know.
[ via Greg Storey ]
3 tags
American Advertising from 1840-1875 →
This past year, anything with texture and old school typography has caught my attention. This post is chalk full of the latter, with examples of advertising from the 19th century. Gorgeous work.
[ via Meagan Fisher ]
3 tags
Read & Trust →
Aaron Mahnke launched a great new idea and site yesterday, titled Read & Trust. It’s essentially a curated list of writers:
Read & Trust is committed to gathering together the best independent writers available—the ones recommended by the writers you read and trust.
I’m honored to be listed with these fine folks. Thanks Aaron!
3 tags
“The key to generating many ideas is to withhold judgment of them as good or bad...”
– Mike Rohde in Sketching: the Visual Thinking Power Tool on ALA. I’ve always loved Mike’s work so it’s great to see him explaining the value of sketching here.
3 tags
A Pretty Good Script Gets a Little Better
At least, that’s my opinion. Sadly, I somehow missed Shawn Blanc’s apple script for importing bookmarks from Safari to Yojimbo in Oct. 2009. I was probably messing around with Evernote or some such skullduggery. Anyways, after Shawn linked to his post the other day, I’ve been using the script — and loving it!
However, there was one other item I wished the script would do: allow...
3 tags
Fragmented Attention
This weekend I read a (re)tweet from a talented person that expressed this basic sentiment:
How come the guy reading a book at a park bench doesn’t come under the same scrutiny as the guy checking his email at the park bench?
My initial thought was, “Hm, good question.” But after thinking it through, it makes sense to me why these two activities are different and why people have had...
3 tags
The iPad: The Best Thing to Happen to Meetings... →
I’m all for giving proper attention in a meeting. But at least one person has to document the meeting — otherwise it never happened. Ben gives a good argument that the iPad is an ideal device for this task.
I agree.
4 tags
Rogie's Lab →
Rogie King has a new lab set up to explore various implementations of HTML, CSS and JS. Check it out.
3 tags
Sweet Decay →
Last #pastblast of the day, a great read from Rands. How could a guy who runs a notebook store not post something like this? The answer: he can’t.
I am a social introvert, but will stop a complete stranger on the street if they’re sporting an unknown notebook.
3 tags
Where's My Vertical Margin →
Last design link for the day, another favorite of mine. Noah Stokes lays down the law on the CSS display property. And does so with all the @motherfuton wit we can handle!
5 tags
The 960 Grid System Made Easy →
More on the design front again, this post really spelled out how beneficial and easy to use 960gs from Nathan Smith is. Another great tutorial.
4 tags
Shawn Blanc on Yojimbo →
Shawn has written a lot of great in-depth interviews and reviews in the past (although I think, like John Gruber, I almost enjoy his short commentary on shared links more), but the Yojimbo review was probably my favorite.
Third paragraph in, you knew is was going to be a special read:
This is not the same as your tried and true System for saving and finding things. The System is for everything....
4 tags
A Revised Font Stack →
Another entry in #pastblast, but not focused so much on writing. This article by Amrinder Sandhu is one I revisit with every site I work on. Even with great tools like Typekit bringing more alternatives to the web, I still like to build a font stack that will work well for everyone.
This is another example of a tutorial that brings depth and steadfastness.
4 tags
Advice from Frank Chimero →
From another new favorite writer of mine, Frank gives advice supposedly targeted at a design student. But the contents are applicable across all occupations and walks of life. Example? Gems such as:
Quiet is always an option, even if everyone is yelling. Libraries are a good place. The books are free there, and it smells great.
and:
Keep two books on your nightstand at all times: one fiction,...
3 tags
Computing Simplicity →
A bit of self-congratulation here, since a good portion of this post is my writing. But it was one of my favorite Minimal Mac posts because Patrick was able to reiterate what his site was all about. And then add those details to his About page.
We’ve had a few good conversations via blog posts — all enjoyable, but this one is dearest to me.
3 tags
Bobulate
Liz Danzico is one of my favorite writers, but picking just one post for a #pastblast is a bit futile. Instead, here are a collection of my favorites. Liz speaks eloquently on many topics, including:
Making real commitments in A Canceling Culture:
Rescheduling appointments has suddenly become acceptable. Whether it’s because our calendars are digital or our schedules are triangulated moments at...
3 tags
Make Your Mockup in Markup →
Shawn Blanc has stated that today, Jan. 20th, 2011, is the day of the looking back at great articles past. In this online culture where things shift so quickly and yesterday’s news is tomorrow’s digital detritus, a look back at writing that inspired me is a welcome change.
Here’s my first link.
Meagan Fisher wrote this past for 24 ways at the end of 2009. It was overall, one...
3 tags
CSS3 Gradients
The webkit team has started on some improvements regarding the syntax of using gradients in your css. The new method:
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(red, green, blue);
is a little friendlier than the old method. [ New webkit nightly build required to see the gradients displayed ]
3 tags
Lobster War Machine →
This is an interesting new company that provide addons for Expression Engine. Their first addon, Postman, works with Postmark to give you a transactional email module for EE.
3 tags
Alex Payne — Shortchanging Your Business with... →
This post from Alex Payne is a good read, and apparently one that caused a lot of discussion. He touches on a few subjects that are ripe for flame wars (Adobe AIR, Adobe period, and Campfire and the search for replacement options), but being Alex, does so in an articulate and thoughtful manner.
Whether you agree with his opinion, it’s a good read.
Sidenote: I’ve heard plenty of...
3 tags
Frank Chimero: Whiteboard Accounting →
viafrank:
The idea is this: the whiteboard acts as a quick visual dashboard to see your financial situation in regards to income. We always say freelancing is feast or famine (and it typically is), but the purpose of the whiteboard is to make you go less insane in both instances: to feel okay that things are slow if your costs are covered from the overflow of the busy months, and to give...
2 tags
Watch Diary →
For fans of the Muji Chronotebook, this is an interesting approach. Same idea, except with a real clock built in.
3 tags
4 tags
TweetNest →
The app, as described by its creator:
A browsable, searchable and easily customizable archive and backup for your tweets
I’ve seen this tool mentioned a few times but never had a chance to check it out. Over the past couple years, I’ve had a few tweets that I would have loved to find easily. TweetNest looks like the best way to accomplish that.
Hat tip to Ian Hines for getting me...
3 tags
What Should a 4-Year Old Know? →
If you have children, this link and commentary from Christian Ross is spot on and a great reminder of what we parents should know. And cultivate in our homes.
2 tags
CollageWall →
This is a fantastic looking service for creating an artsy presentation of your photos. Upload and organize your photos on the online service, then they ship you everything needed to create the collage (includes your photos, a paper grid, painter’s tape, and pegs for the photos).
[ via Jorge Quinteros ]
3 tags
Why Wasn't I Consulted? →
This piece was linked to far and wide last week, but deservedly so. If you are building for the web, this is a must read. Actually, if you partake of the web, if the web is your primary source of relaxation, entertainment, and/or education, then this is a must read.
“Why wasn’t I consulted,” which I abbreviate as WWIC, is the fundamental question of the web. It is the rule from which other...
4 tags
Curator →
Curator is a fantastic service that allows you to create a clean presentation of your work. The end product is a very streamlined PDF that can be passed on your client, or added to your iPad for in-person client meetings.
For a small cost, this a tool many folks could put to good use.
4 tags
Optimal EE Install →
One thing I’ve learned from the web over the years: a good tutorial has depth and details. With so much fluff these days, an explanatory, thorough how-to is refreshing. This description of how to make the most out of Expression Engine from the folks at HiFi is just that.
[ via Sean Sperte ]
3 tags
Early Impressions of the Mac App Store
In order of revelation, here are a few of my first impressions of the Mac App Store:
The icon — I’m not one to rant on about app icons. If I don’t like one, I’ll change it. This one wasn’t too surprising as it resembles the iTunes icon. Like them or not, it makes sense for the two to be similar.
Flight Control? — I still find it weird to see iOS apps coming over to the...
3 tags
Something to Look Forward To
The near arrival of the Mac app store has generated a lot of buzz, rightfully so. For this guy, software is where the action is, so today is a lot more exciting than a lot of Apple’s keynote events throughout the year (where hardware is often the focus).
Those familiar with my opinions may remember that I feared this moment however. The last couple of years were good for Apple and their...
3 tags
CMS Musings
Like many others, I’ve had some thoughts lately of moving from Tumblr. Not because of downtime so much, although I understand the frustration. For me, the biggest compliant I have is the implementation of the archives and the nearly unusable search.
Today I had a great example. After rebuilding my Macbook from scratch over the holidays, I’ve found myself missing a few keyboard...
3 tags
Staggering Resolutions →
On the same topic as yesterday, Jack Cheng shares his interesting take on resolutions and looking at the coming year as a whole. All the while remaining realistic. If your going to make resolutions (I’d call it time specific goal setting), this looks like a good way to do it.