January 2010
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Is there any good reason to use title case?
The convention followed by many British publishers (including scientific publishers, like Nature, magazines, like The Economist and New Scientist, and newspapers, like The Guardian and The Times) is the same used in other languages (e.g., French), namely to use sentence-style capitalization in titles and headlines, where capitalization follows the same rules that apply for sentences. This...
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Apple's iPad design
via apple.com/ipad/design
I am not a big fan of the new iPad design. Perhaps it will appeal more when I get to handle one, but I’m not blown away by what I see.
The pad itself is very much like some of the lamer mock-ups: A big ass iPhone. The way the icons on the home screen are all spaced out looks odd too. Perhaps future OS updates will improve this.
I’m really not keen on...
Sleepover →
Sleepover is a very earnest attempt to make the world of online publishing better. Sleepover comprises David & Tag, designers of web and print, respectively, and working on the same page,…
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Twitter introduces local trends
I mention this for the benefit of those who may be unaware, although I see ‘Local Trends’ is a local trending topic, so I guess you knew! It’s a much needed improvement.
I’d like to make a suggestion to Twitter though for a refinement though (because I know they read this!): Can we have multiple trending regions? I’d like to be able to monitor the UK and Cardiff,...
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Use pwdmkr to generate secure and unique passwords...
Pwdmkr takes the URL of the site you sign into, your username, an unchanging password and generates a unique password for you to use. You run the tool on your own server, and part of the installation process has you add some salt to your generated passwords for another factor of security. You can also define how limited or extensive you want your character sets to be.
The tool also works well as...
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Clipboard anxiety
I get this weird feeling when I have something in the clipboard. If it’s something I have copied it’s a kind of pregnant “holding onto something” feeling. If it’s something I’ve cut, then I have an additional anxiety that I will have a crash, forget about it, or most likely of all, copy again before I have pasted. via archive.ncyoung.com
I get this!...
WatchVanishing Point
Dynamic Dummy Image Generator →
Sometimes you just need a placeholder image right at your finger tips. Just enter the width + x + height at the end of this URL and off you go!
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Run your own OS in the cloud with eyeOS
This is exactly what it looks like - a web based operating system. eyeOS is open source and requires a server running Apache and PHP5. These screenshots were taken from the eyeOS demo at opensourceCMS. It looks rather fantastic.
It’ll be interesting to see if this approach has future. Google seem to believe that a tabbed browser is all most of us will require from an OS in the future, and...
goats: the comic strip →
Goats, a comic strip by Jonathan Rosenberg
del.icio.us: goats: the comic strip →
del.icio.us: pwdmkr →
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Beginners Arduino Workshop Cardiff, 27 & 28...
Beginners Arduino Workshop Cardiff, 27 & 28 February Platform 1, Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Cardiff CF5 1QE Do you have an interest in open source software, constructing your own hardware, simple electronics or interactivity? This weekend workshop will provide a basic introduction to the Arduino platform for artists, designers and hobbyists. The workshop will be led by...
del.icio.us: Quix →
3 tags
Rocketship sketch (and my retirement from...
Last weekend I bought a nice heavy weight sketch pad and some new technical drawing pens, and I’ve finally had some time to sketch something. I’m not thrilled with the wonky proportions and I rushed some of the details, but I’m generally happy with the result, considering I haven’t sat down to draw something like this in years!
This also seems like a pretty good time to...
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Trying post.ly because I'm not sure I understand...
I’m assuming that it will post the above message to Twitter, and you’ll only get to read this thrilling text on the post itself. It looks very cool, so I’m going to add a screengrab too. Posted via web from foomandoonian’s halfblog | Comment »
del.icio.us: ignore the code →
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I'm looking for a super-simple CMS. So far, I like...
OneFileCMS is just that. It’s a flat, light, one file CMS (Content Management System) entirely contained in an easy-to-implement, highly customizable, database-less PHP script.
I played with the demo at opensourceCMS, and got the feeling that I could have a lot of fun building a small website using this, and even styling the CMS itself. Actually, as the author himself admits, its more of...
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The dog's bollocks :—
:— Citing usage from 1949, the OED calls this mark the dog’s bollocks, which it defines as, “typogr. a colon followed by a dash, regarded as forming a shape resembling the male sexual organs.” This is why I love scrounging around the linguistic scrap heap that is the OED. I always come across a little gold. And by “gold,” I mean, “vulgar, 60-year-old emoticons.”
via The Secret History of...
Type Trends 2010 - FontShop →
While no one can predict what will be a hit, we can make some educated guesses based on the latest shifts in style. Here’s what we see taking pages and screens by storm in 2010. Beat the curve and be among the first to put these trendsetters to use.
claimID: Geek Cluster →
del.icio.us: Television Tropes & Idioms →
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Tumblr vs. Posterous?
In fact, that sign-up-via-email feature: engineering feature. When Posterous came out, that was the thing that set it apart: it’s so simple you don’t need to sign up, just send something via email! Cool! Except — who really does that? Very long signups can discourage users, but if you have only a few forms to fill, is there a single person who wants to sign up for a service, can’t be bothered to...
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OK Go explain why you can't embed their YouTube...
The catch: the software that pays out those tiny sums doesn’t pay if a video is embedded. This means our label doesn’t get their hard-won share of the pie if our video is played on your blog, so (surprise, surprise) they won’t let us be on your blog. And, voilá: four years after we posted our first homemade videos to YouTube and they spread across the globe faster than swine flu, making our...