November 2008 Archives
11 entries
Rijksoverheid Serif and Sans
A new typeface designed as part of a new brand identity for the Dutch government. Love the sans u, m and n. A shame it probably won’t be available to the public though (via).
The pixel will never go away entirely, but its finite universe of digital watches and winking highway signs is contracting fast. It’s likely that the pixel’s final and most enduring role will be a shabby one, serving as an out-of-touch visual cliché to connote ‘the digital age.’
New Work: Rogue Amoeba
A redesign by SimpleBits went live last week. Rogue Amoeba creates wonderfully useful audio software for the Mac. And they have a clever name and mascot. Congrats to the RA team for implementing the new design!
JS-909
Cameron Adams has created a fully-functioning drum machine in JavaScript (without libraries or Flash). Incredible.
Sleeveface
“One or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.” Also see the Sleeveface pool on Flickr.
New at the Iconshoppe: Square Dance
Posted at 9:59 AM
Last month, we launched Disco, and today we’re happy to announce the second installment of the Ballroom Family of stock web icons over at the IconShoppe. It’s called Square Dance, and it’s a simple little set of rounded-square icons that come in 7 colors, 3 sizes and 2 formats (GIF and PNG). And just like Disco, it’s also reasonably priced at just thirty-nine bucks.
I’ve been meaning to put more time into stocking the shelves of the ‘Shoppe for a while now, and Meagan has been handling the meticulous color/format production of these new sets, with more to come.
NPR's Hourly News update
New favorite thing to listen to on the short walk to the office: a bite-sized, 5-minute MP3 of the latest NPR news via their iPhone-friendly mobile site (via).
If Photoshop were real
Probably no color profile issues with this version (via).
What's new in Coda 1.6
A few months ago I switched from BBEdit to Coda for fulltime development work. I’m a happy camper for the most part (largely because of it’s integrated local/server syncing). This new version touts a nice new plug-in system to extend the editor.
Tokyo Express
Posted at 10:14 AM
I returned from Tokyo on Monday. I gave a talk at the Web Directions East conference. I’ve never had a simultaneous translation of a presentation before. I hope it went OK. I’ll be forever grateful to John Allsopp, Satoshi Kukichi and the rest of the WDE team for inviting me to speak, being incredibly gracious hosts and generally being awesome people. I’ll never get tired of traveling to faraway places, where (without fail) the quality of people in this industry inspire, impress and humble me. I feel lucky.
I don’t think I’ll travel that distance again without the rest of my family.
I’ll never forget walking through customs after spending the entire Election Day in the air. CNN was on in the airport lobby. ‘Barrack Obama Elected President of the United States’ it said. Twenty seconds later, John McCain started his concession speech. Relief after 14 hours of nail-biting anticipation.
I took a lot of photos. I tried packing as much into a few days as possible. I was amazed by the giganticness of the city. I caught a view of the cityscape at night, at the top of the hotel where Lost in Translation was filmed. They wanted a $20 cover charge, so we left.
I loved that every train station in Tokyo has it’s own unique short little melody (hear them all). I love how this aids accessibility with audio. I’m thinking we need more unique audible melodies for events that happen on the web or desktop. I was also impressed with the grooved sidewalk path found throughout the entire city, which would direct a blind person from station to station, uninterrupted.
I probably didn’t bow enough.
I sang Don’t Stop Believing in a karaoke bar in Shinjuku along with friends old and new. I’ve never sang karaoke before. I had the best doughnut I’ve had in my life in Harajuku, at Tamagotchi Donuts. I was amazed by the depth of the character culture in Japan. It permeates everything and everyone — not just for kids, but a part of general communication throughout the city.
I tried the eel (unagi) and ‘chicken knuckles’, but was less adventurous with the raw horsemeat. I loved the simplicity of the food in Japan. I have a new favorite snack in ‘onigiri’, a triangle of sushi rice, seaweed, and (in my case) teriyaki-soaked seaweed inside. I’ll have to hunt for those here at home.
I learned two Japanese phrases. I should’ve learned more.
Wonderfully candid photos of our next President
Callie Shell followed Barack Obama for much of the last two years, and captured some excellent photos (and micro stories to go along with them). Keep clicking ‘Show More Images’ at the bottom to see them all.
IconShoppe Icons to go
FoameeWho do you owe?
