January 2004
Playing Sloan Standards
It just came to my attention that the Sloan website we developed has been featured on Adam Howell's Daily Standards. His site has consistently updated features on standards-based websites. It's a really nicely designed site itself and his content is superb (he even has RSS sydication). Really nice.
Forming Style Sheets
There's a good discussion going on over at Web Graphics challenging web designers to format their forms with CSS as opposed to tables. I've actually been meaning to write about this subject on this site and the discussion over there is a good catalyst. • At silverorange, we've been moving toward …
Waiting for Bubba Ho-Tep
The movie Bubba Ho-Tep finally arrives at City Cinema in Charlottetown on Wednesday. I haven't had this much anticipation for a movie in a very long time. Oh, the suspense is killing me. Anything this preposterous has to be good... • “ • Elvis, confined to a Mud Creek, Texas, rest home with …
Shadow Boxing
This isn't revolutionary, but I figured out a nice simple way to make a shadowed box with a tiny bit of CSS. See the result and the code over at the silverorange labs.
Posting Great Posters
In the past week or so I've happened to run across a number of great posters available online (some of them thanks to the great links over at Coudal Partners). Please feel free to add to this list with your own suggestions if you've seen something recently worth mentioning. • The Computerlove …
Giant Man Devours Meal
My brother-in-law is twice the size of the average man! Um, nope, the food's just tiny... Apparently Martin has always wanted to feel like a giant by devouring a meal of little foods. • My twin brother and my sister prepared the meal. My brother explains: "Because little food like brussel …
Daniel Lanois Shine
Following Mickey Acorn's endorsement of Daniel Lanois' album Shine on Acts of Volition, I went out and purchased it from Amazon. Nice suggestion Mickey. I just finished listening to it all the way through for the first time and it's fantastic. The opening song with Emmylou Harris and the title …
Rudie Can't Fail
A few years ago I took a history course at university on twentieth-century Britain. Among all that we studied one particular tidbit of knowledge was especially valuable. I learned what a Rude Boy (abbreviated Rudie) is. • I've sung or hummed along countless times to the Clash's "Rudie Can't …
Referencing Words
I ran across this excerpt from Roald Dahl's notebook earlier today. It's interesting how organized he was to record an extensive vocabulary for quick reference. • “When I began my career as a writer, I started collecting words in an old school notebook. Half of the pages in this book have …
Helped by the Beatles
When I got out to my car last night around one in the morning, the windows were thickly coated with ice and it was about -20°C outside. Amazingly, I've made it this far into the winter without an ice scraper in my car, but last night my procrastination finally caught up to me. I didn't even have …
Top 5 People's Names
Some people have truly fantastic names. I'm stuck being called Daniel (sorry mom and dad) while there are people out there with names that exude power and intrigue. It would seem that naming one's child is a fundamental element to ensure their future success or infamy while avoiding mediocrity …
All I Need is a Spoon
If you can put up with the annoyingly cool Flash interface¹, CBC Radio 3 is a fantastic source for listening to new music. Will Pate directed me there this morning to listen to a jazz group called Baron Samedi ESQ and I found a lot more. It looks like they have a regularly updated playlist you can …
Silence Sweet Silence
(Warning: annoyingly detailed nit-picking ahead) • When a number of us at silverorange purchased IBM Thinkpad laptops last year, we all instinctively complained about the functionality of the audio controls built into the keyboard. At the top of the keyboard on the ThinkPad T30 laptops there are …
Hiroshi Yoshii
I was just looking for a piece of illustration to use for a project when I came across the work of Hiroshi Yoshii. Some of his drawings are fabulous. I also discovered that he illustrated the glum pear I've always liked on Mena Trott's weblog Not a Dollar Short. There is a whole collection of …
Formosa Tea House Update
I'm a fairly regular customer at the wonderful Formosa Tea House on University Avenue in Charlottetown. Since hearing they planned to expand into a new space this coming spring, many excited rumours have been flying around our fair city. Well, last weekend my girlfriend, my father, and I happened …
Focus on Groups
I stumbled across an old copy of Critique magazine, which Heather had left at our office, and came across a fascinating article about the design of the United States Census forms. The article covered the design process of the forms and explained the amazingly extensive user testing that the design …
Sweet Joke for the New Year
The great online cartoon Diesel Sweeties has the absolute worst New Year's joke ever and Metal Steve doesn't like it.
