Blog
Metra ticket design: February 2008- January 30, 2008
It looks like all the designs for 2008 might be from the Metra Safety Poster contest that I mentioned in my post about the January 2008 ticket.
Metra ticket design: January 2008- December 23, 2007
A winner from the second annual Metra Safety Poster Contest kicks off the new year with a simple, yet effective reminder to stay safe around trains: Life doesn't rewind.
Metra ticket designs- December 2, 2007
As any commuter knows, it's the small things that make commuting bearable—sometimes even enjoyable. Here in Chicago, its the monthly Metra ticket designs that add a little fun to my commute each month. While largely unnoticed by most riders, they they add a pinch of variety to an otherwise monotonous trip.
Excel's undo madness- April 20, 2007
If you've used Microsoft Excel, you've probably experienced its frustrating "undo" function. It's the only program I know that still can't get it right.
Valencia, Spain fractal exhibits- February 2, 2007
Is anyone going to be in Valencia, Spain between now and mid March? The City of the Arts and the Sciences is hosting two fractal exhibits. I'm pleased to say that three of my images are being shown but that aside, there are some truly amazing pieces on display.
Mengermania, round two- January 11, 2007
Almost four years ago, I completed a large origami project over the course of seven months that comprised 66,000 units and resulted in a very intricate cube-like structure based on a fractal called a Menger sponge. I've decided to begin again, but this time with a much larger goal in mind.
Tips for organizing your CSS- September 10, 2006
While CSS is a powerful technology, managing it can be tricky—especially when working with someone else's style sheet or an old one you haven't looked at in a while. There's a lot going on in style sheets so organization is key. I've worked with CSS for several years now have developed a few simple techniques that work really well for me.
Check it, don't select it- December 17, 2005
Usability and accessibility are all the rage right now and that's great because it's slowly making the web a better place. Unfortunately, some of the goodies in our bags of tricks aren't quite up to snuff when it comes to these two areas. One such goody is the good old
selectelement—specifically with themultipleattribute enabled. How about we do away with them and try something different?
On one condition…- October 17, 2005
Last week, there was a post made on the IEBlog recommending the use of conditional comments instead of CSS hacks to target IE browsers. The IE team has diligently been working to fix many of the parsing bugs present in previous versions and they claim that continuing to use CSS hacks will cause sites to look peculiar in IE7 since the common hacks won't work any more. My response: Why?
- IE's beta Developer Toolbar
- September 17, 2005
The folks on the IE team announced the availability of the beta of a new toolbar for IE geared towards web developers. Taking their cue almost directly from Chris Pederick, developer of the popular Web Developer extention for Firefox, the new tool has plenty of features that are remarkably similar to its competitor, but also some new handy ones.
DIY or DIFM?- September 6, 2005
Almost everything happens in cycles and I've been noticing the mindset towards web development going through its own cycles lately. Most, who care about the future of the web agree that web standards are crucial and can ultimately make our lives easier when it comes to maintaining code, saving money, etc.; but what about the tools we use to create our sites? This is what has me excited but pretty worried and a bit cheesed off as well.
Zazzle gets new investors- July 18, 2005
According to an article on ZDNet, my favorite poster/card/t-shirt producing company Zazzle has some new investors and according to their short but successful track record, the outlook is pretty good.
Google Earth, first impressions- June 28, 2005
Google Earth has just been released and after playing with it for a few hours, there is plenty to go over.
Wildly useful free Web development programs- May 28, 2005
There are probably tens if not hundreds of thousands of programs out there for almost anything you can imagine and a small portion of those are geared solely toward Web development but they're not all top notch. Now, when I refer to Web development, I mean all sides of it including graphics, coding, and everything else. Sure, there are the usual players like the Adobe/Macromedia products but what I enjoy the most are the small free programs that someone made in their free time and decided to release to the world in case anyone else might need them. These sometimes require some hunting down to find and can be well worth it.
Virtual Earth- May 24, 2005
It was announced by Bill Gates today that a new service will be revealed this summer called MSN Virtual Earth—Clearly a direct competitor to Google Maps.
Exposé 3 arrives- May 12, 2005
After a long wait, Exposé 3, the industry's finest art book around has been unveiled featuring fantastic art once again. Each of the books in this series continues to amaze me and this one is no exception.
Public browser development- April 23, 2005
The amount of progress on browser development made available to the public between companies ranges from almost anything you want to know to next to nothing. There are others but those are the extremes. This has me wondering, why aren't we given answers to the questions we ask about the development process?
Zenfandel- April 16, 2005
I recieved an unexpected but wonderful email this afternoon. It was from Dave Shea and it informed me that my submission titled Zenfandel has been accepted into to the CSS Zen Garden as an official design.
Anatomy of Sanctuary- April 16, 2005
I had a fun time analyzing and documenting how I made Confidence in my previous article so I figured I'd do it again but this time with Sanctuary.
Anatomy of Confidence- March 27, 2005
I'm not trying to toot my own horn here but I'm often asked how I'm able to create fractals the way I do. There is never an easy explanation—especially since the answer can often get technical very quickly and few people even know what a fractal is let alone the program that I use to make them. This is an attempt at trying to explain how I created my Confidence fractal.