October 3, 2014 at 10:14 am
When moving points and control handles around in Illustrator I’m not thinking about the math and numbers the computer is crunching to create the curve I want. I’m just thinking about what kind of curve I want. But this video is a great breakdown of how things happen. It’s not really going to help you have better curves — there’s plenty of other places for that — but knowing how your tools work is a sign of a good craftsmen.
September 23, 2014 at 4:16 pm
Technology gets better, faster, stronger every year. But what does that actually look like? pulls out all eight iPhone models and shoots the same shots to compare the progress Apple’s hardware and software have made over the years.
(via @tomstandage)
September 19, 2014 at 1:53 pm
This article popped up in my RSS feed yesterday and it was too much. Something welled up inside me to fight the evil design in the world in what little way that I could. I gave myself 24 hours to code a new landing page from scratch. (I had to give myself a good buffer because I knew nothing was getting done last night while I watched the football game. War Damn Eagle!) Along the way, I cleaned up the information architecture and rewrote some copy.
There’s way more that could be done, but I wanted to give myself a hard deadline. By putting myself on the clock, I didn’t futz around. Nor am I holding on to it because it’s not perfect. It’s just an unsolicited redesign of a landing page — nothing more, nothing less.
The current site lives at warioworld.com while you can see my redesign live on my new playground space.
Warioworld.com Current Screenshot
Warioworld.com Landing Page Redesign
September 15, 2014 at 3:01 pm
Last Wednesday, September 10th was a call to action for supporting net neutrality. Lots of great companies and people joined in spreading the word including yours truly.
Makes me warm and fuzzy to see my hosting company @bluehost supporting #NetNeutrality #TitleII https://t.co/5hEtcYHr5T
— SpareType (@sparetype) September 10, 2014
The funniest thing to come out of this public outcry so far is Comcastify.js by The Onion. This script covers up your images and slowly reveals them like an old dial-up connection. It’s witty, snarky, and spot on. It could be used for good since you can control the speed and amount of reveal for each step.
September 10, 2014 at 4:44 pm
Using data from the OpenStreetMap project, the folks at Stamen made a watercolor overlay algorithm way back in 2012. Well, it’s new to me and totally awesome. It also makes great imagery for places where water is important to the community identity — ie. the Gulf Coast.
(via Kottke)
September 2, 2014 at 11:30 am
Holy crap, this is exactly what I needed the other day. I wanted to do a GIF of the fullscreen overlay technique I linked to but the file size was ridiculous. Plus it was also a pain doing it the way I knew — QuickTime screen recording into Photoshop. I love simple, single focused software like LICEcap — though I’m not thrilled about the name. I do love the price though, free.
And it’s GIF as in gift. If it was the other way it would be spelled JIF.
I don’t care what the inventor says.
(via DesignerNews)
August 13, 2014 at 1:43 pm
This is such a good touch, so cheeky and funny. I was culling the myriad of tabs I had opened when I noticed something odd about one. I didn’t recognize the snippet of the title “Don’t forget to r…” Sure enough, when I click on the tab, the tab title changed back to the article title. Very clever. Now back to actually reading the article. (via Invision)
August 6, 2014 at 2:45 pm
Maybe I’m in an expletive accessible mood, given the Samuel L. Jackson compilation the other day, but this felt good to read. The FCC released all the comments it received during the public hearing portion of its net neutrality proposal. Then The Verge created infographics for the more colorful parts of speech used.
George Carlin (and Lenny Bruce) would be proud of us. In comments to the FCC, citizens used the combined list of suggestive, raunchy, rude, crude, lewd, and off-color terms a total of 8,289 times. Here’s a detailed breakdown, plus a couple of bonus words that are sure to offend the bureaucrats who have to slog through our anger.
My opinion on the matter is that all traffic should be treated equally. It’s all the same — ones and zeros, bytes and packets. Build and expand the infrastructure to keep pace with demand. Plan and factor those costs into doing business. Price services accordingly. It is amazing how simple that formula is, and yet how easily internet service providers screw it up.