desigr.net development log

Playing with drop caps.

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:44:25 -0400

oom! (courtesy of the Daily Drop Cap).

Theming Drupal Panels block panes as blocks

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:00:00 -0400

I wanted to theme Panels block panes as blocks… not as a block-pane. To do so, simply add this code to your template.php. This also has the added benefit of making block panes recognizable to the Admin module as blocks (meaning anyone with privileges get the handy “Configure” contextual link when you hover over it).

function chhs_panels_pane($content, $pane, $display) {
  if (!empty($content->content)) {
    if($pane->type == 'block') {
      $output = theme('block', $content);
      return $output;
    }
  }
}

Using Automator and a dash of Ruby, I’ve thrown together a...

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:19:00 -0400

Using Automator and a dash of Ruby, I’ve thrown together a Snow Leopard service that takes selected text in any application and replaces it with your very own Lessn’d URL. Click the screenshot to get a template for your own Lessn service.

NB: don’t just use the template workflow directly. As you can see, I indicate where you should plug in your own Lessn URL and API key.

michellechilds: CNN: Just Imagine: City visions (via...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:46:01 -0400

michellechilds:

CNN: Just Imagine: City visions

(via swissmiss)

A fix for text rendering in Safari 4 under Snow Leopard.

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:07:00 -0400

Well, it looks like Apple once again “fixed” something about the text rendering under Safari 4 in Snow Leopard.

To be honest, I personally believe what they did was proper. They disabled a hack that could seriously screw up text rendering if, in the future, they finally get around to fixing the way that text renders in Safari (c’mon Apple, just make it pretty already).

So, here’s what I believe to be a more reliable hack to fix it. Bear in mind, however, that this is still a hack… if they ever fix text rendering, this will make your text heinously ugly. ~~Also, you need to use whatever your background color is… there’s no panacea now as far as I can tell~~.

-webkit-text-stroke: 1px rgba(0,0,0,.01);

It's Web site.

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:15:45 -0400

Web site. Not website.

Web: a shortened version of World Wide Web. Can be used as a noun or adjective (similar to how there is America and American, except “Webican” would sound stupid).

Site: a place.

So, a place on the Web? A Web site.

“But I like website… it’s not as stuffy, more people use it, and the English language should just adapt.”

No, it should not. Not when there is a grammatically-correct term that is already in existence. This isn’t German, where we mush all this stuff together to make our nouns. It’s not Website, website, or whatever, just like it isn’t Microsoftwindows, Applecomputer, Kleenextissues or what have you.

That is all.

I just saw something which solidified for me the idea that J.J. Abrams did the right thing with Star...

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:48:34 -0400

I just saw something which solidified for me the idea that J.J. Abrams did the right thing with Star Trek.

What I saw was the trailer for Star Trek: Online, the MMORPG that I had heard about a while ago and had great hopes for. I was excited that there would be a game that would allow me to immerse myself in the Star Trek universe again, the way I used to when I was growing up watching The Next Generation.

What I saw was a MMORPG set in a Star Trek universe years after any familiar Trek series. I saw a game filled with Borg battles, bizarre “gee-whiz” starship designs, and little to no design influences from real, established Trek lore. While there are many parts of the new game that intrigue and excite me, the reality is that these things aren’t Trek. Trek, apart from the new reboot, has become too “anything goes” for my tastes. As if the fan-made series where every fantasy starship was built by Starfleet to combat the latest scary-as-shit enemy in epic battles wasn’t enough, now they can whip out machinima versions like crazy. Trek has lost it’s focus. Thank you, J.J. Abrams, for bringing it back.

Star Trek: Online really ought to be renamed to Star Trek: In Name Only.

I’m getting a little tired of hearing from fellow designers that systems in code should take a...

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:23:53 -0400

I’m getting a little tired of hearing from fellow designers that systems in code should take a back seat to systems in type or form or color; that code is merely a means to the visual end. It is not.

Content

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:47:00 -0400

I really should work on a first post for the site. I can’t launch without any content.