Richard Pearse

posted August 3, 2010 #

Richard Pearse
Though there isn't a ton to see I am really enjoying these pieces from Richard Pearse. The piece meal canvases lends itself very well to the grid style onslaught of colors and patterns. I'm also a sucker for the hand painted type (and a double-sucker for the extruded ampersand). Hope to see more work at some point... it's a great style.

Via Jeremy Okai Davis.

Pinterest

posted August 2, 2010 #

Pinterest
Thanks to JAson I spent some time this weekend checking out Pinterest, a new site that lets you mark any image on the web as part of a collection. Sort of like SVPPLY but more open ended in terms of what you can post. The official description says it best:
Pinterest is a place to curate and share things you love. Think of it as a virtual pinboard -- a place where you can post collections of things you love, and "follow" collections created by people you admire.
I'm not entirely sure how often I will be using it but it has a nice layout, easy UI and solid potential. If you're looking to try it out, let me know.. I've got five invites.

Continuously Nerdy

posted August 2, 2010 #

  • Fix for Flash Video Stuttering in Firefox - so far this has worked quite well. I assume the stutter exists in the first place because Firefox just can't make things run smoothly in general but I can't stop using it, so it's nice to have a decent fix.
  • Raphael Icons - a set of web icons for use with Raphael; a canvas Javascript library you might end up using sometime.
  • Stackable Web Hosting - affordable web hosting that lets you scale at any time at no extra charge? Sounds too good to be true and you know what they say about things that sound too good to be true...

Sencha Dev

posted August 2, 2010 #

Sencha
Over the weekend I decided to play around with the Sencha mobile development API to see what kind of learning curve was involved and to see if I could get this list looking more like a native Webkit application. The results can be found here but I suggest only looking in a Webkit browser, as that's what Sencha is designed for.

Overall, the experience was pretty tough. Once I figured out the basic in's and out's of the API it still took some time to dig through all their documentation to find out what I needed to do. They really need to develop some "Introductory Tutorials" to get new users familiar with the fundamental concepts.

The biggest bummer of the experience was realizing that all of the markup for the applications it creates is provided by the Javascript. Your <body> tag is completely empty on page load; not exactly a boon to SEO.

I think I'm going to try out jQTouch next to see what kind of experience it provides. Anyone have any anecdotal insight on what I should expect?

Friday Videos - July 30th, 2010

posted July 30, 2010 #


Nine Videos
The weeks where there are so many videos in the playlist I worry that I'm forcing it.. but, honestly, I find all of these incredibly amusing for their own reasons.
  • Wal-Mart Moonwalk - short, simple, sweet. I would go to Wal-Mart if I could be promised I'd see this.
  • Pop Gear Dance - taken from a 1965 TV Special featuring a ton of British Invasion bands these little instrumental interstitials are just the perfect thing to improve any Friday afternoon.
  • Inception Music Comparison - no spoilers, just a nice observation about the Zimmer score and the Edith Piaf song heard throughout the film.
  • Dramatic Inception Cat - watch the whole thing, it gets funnier the longer you stick with it. Trust me. Via Zach.
  • Iron Chef America Montage - I don't watch this show but the enthusiastic calls all cut together is pretty amusing. I wish it was a little faster paced... okay, this one is stupid but I couldn't resist.
  • Banana Sax - pair this with Sexophone and you've got yourself an entire day of entertainment.
  • Intruder Alert - listen, rape isn't funny. However, Antoine Dodson's commentary on it is. "Hide your husbands!"
  • Hedonism II - I have so many questions about this but I know it's better to not have any of them answered.
  • The Future of Music - youtube meme's edited together into one big mashup.. I suggest making it to the end portion with the Panda and David After Dentist. I suspect we're going to see a whole lot more of this sort of thing over the next few years and it'll never stop.
Have a great weekend.. you deserve it.

I Usually Call Them 'Nerd Links' But You Can Call Them Whatever

posted July 30, 2010 #

  • HTML5 Video with CSS3 and JQuery - really nice tutorial about using the HTML5 video markup and integrating that with some jQuery / CSS goodness to get the look you want. via Keegan.
  • Google Me in the works - If Kevin Rose rumors are to be trusted there will be Google Social Network aimed at competing with Facebook. Haven't they already got a social network? I realize they are a powerhouse but I'd absolutely love it if they'd focus on Web Applications like Google Docs and Google Voice instead of trying their hand at absolutely every aspect of the web. Focus on what you do best, Google, and that's not the social side.
  • Open Market App Store - great writeup about the potential of the new endeavor Open App Mkt - a web / HTML based app store that allows developers to function outside the official App store but still create compelling apps. Worth checking out for sure.

Impossible Color

posted July 30, 2010 #

Impossible Project: Color Film
The Impossible Project is at it again; they've just announced their first round of Color Polaroid Film available for sale. I'm still blown away that these guys were able to tackle the task of manufacturing any Polaroid film, much less a variety of it. Read more about the Color Shade film right here and, if you're interested, order quickly as I am sure it will sell out before you know it.

HT Casey.

Urbanized

posted July 30, 2010 #

Urbanized
If you loved Helvetica and Objectified - the two documentary films on design by Gary Hustwit - then you are bound to love the third in the trilogy, Urbanized. The film will look at the design of cities and how they come together through such a massive, disparate, team of people. There's nothing to see on the site yet but the film will supposedly premiere in 2011 so it shouldn't be too long before we start seeing details and footage emerge.

Summer Mix Series 2010: Round 5

posted July 29, 2010 #

A Day in the Life
Tender Times
Whales
A funny thing happened the other day - respectable music blog I Guess I'm Floating submitted a mix to the Summer Mix Series - putting the site into a realm of visibility that it has not experienced before. Furthermore, Hype Machine tweeted about it and brought even more traffic. I am quite grateful for the exposure to say the least but there's a downside to such visibility - I like to call it Death By Popularity. Let me explain.

Aside from the fact that my Dreamhost shared server likes to crap out if too much RAM is being requested of it (a common problem with too much incoming traffic) the quality of submissions seems to drop exponentially with such visibility. I can fully affirm the notion that people don't really read on the Internet - I have received loads of submissions from people that ignore every guideline put forth for submissions; mixes that are too long, mixes without album art or tracklisting, mixes with no theme and loads of mixes comprised of Best Of Summer tracks - a concept that I specifically point out in the Guidelines as being unwanted.

So, I'm not complaining - I'm proud of the site, the concept and the execution. I'm just a little bummed that once it reaches a wider audience the imagination and creativity levels drop so harshly. I'll be ending the 2010 Series pretty soon so if you've been slacking on finishing that conceptual mix of yours, please get it in there. In the meantime, be sure to check these out:
  • A Day in the Life - one song for every hour of the day comprised of a nice mixture of familiar favorites and a few unexpected surprised.
  • Tender Times - the latest compilation from yvynyl - one of the most rabid consumers of music I've ever encountered. It's not themed per se but it's music that should be heard.
  • Whales - a mix of ambient music inspired by Eno's liner notes on Music for Airports.. an excellent arsenal to have at hand when you need to really get some work done.
As an addendum I'll say that there are still lots of quality mixes being submitted as well as the frustrating ones and I'm certainly not trying to be a complainer - it's just an interesting phenomena.

Between Two Ferns: Steve Carell

posted July 29, 2010 #

Between Two Ferns with Steve Carell
The latest Between Two Ferns goes straight into the antagonistic banter between Zach Galifianakis and Steve Carell; no faux build up into discomfort - it just dives right in. I don't know what it is about two people that are obviously friends tearing into each other that is so entertaining but it is.

Steve Fitch Photography

posted July 29, 2010 #

Steve Fitch
Bryan Schutmaat recently launched the photography portfolio site for Steve Fitch; a man who has been documenting the American West for many many years but, until now, has had very little online presence. I love the Diesels and Dinosaurs and Llano Estacado sets. I wish could see enormous versions of all the pieces involved in the Vernacular Assemblages but I'll take what I can get.

Long story short, lots of goodness to see - so get to it.

Wallblank

posted July 29, 2010 #

Wallblank
The folks over at Wallblank have taken on a pretty admirable task - saving and restoring multiple pieces of old printing equipment. You can read the story behind their endeavor here but here's the gist of it - 90-year old retired printer is forced to sell home and print shop in order to join his wife in retirement home across the country and Wallblank swoops in to save his equipment from being tossed out.

Like I said, it's an admirable endeavor. They've been posting pics from the equipment cleanup that is yielding plenty of great images of vintage type - go take a look.

Maki: Web Design Mockup

posted July 29, 2010 #

Maki
The Maki App is designed to allow you to take your Photoshop design of a site layout and overlay it on to your actual web build so that you can match the two with pixel perfect precision. I've not tried it out myself but can attest to the fact that I've been asked to nudge items in development a pixel or two in one direction and it seems like Maki could help prevent that. It might be overkill but it's at least worth taking a look at.

Via Renaud.

Everything. Part 9.

posted July 28, 2010 #

Once again, Danny Jelinek and Jason Whetzell bring the goods of my favorite Internet series - Everything. Be sure to keep an eye out in the Scott Garrison piece for a fun little birthday banner but, honestly, I enjoyed every vignette thoroughly and can't imagine why you wouldn't as well.

Claire Morgan: Frozen Sculpture

posted July 28, 2010 #

Claire Morgan
I'm loving these Animal Sculptures from contemporary artist Claire Morgan. Each piece in the series features a taxidermy beast of some sort integrated with a surreal enclosing environment. The pieces with the Fox and the Owl are certainly my favorite but it's hard not to love all of them.

I highly suggest browsing her entire portfolio - there isn't a page in it that doesn't have some worth seeing.

Misc Speaking

posted July 28, 2010 #

  • Japanese Cat Cafe - for $9/hr you can have your own cat to play with. This is ridiculous and awesome; though the interview with the lady that feels so connected to her favorite cat is a tiny bit sad.
  • Audiko - a website service that allows you to upload an mp3, snip out your favorite part and save it as a Ringtone. Quite handy for someone that may not be that familiar with GarageBand editing.
  • Liberal URL Regex - John Gruber improves upon his liberal URL matching.. a handy bit of code to have laying around.
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