Here’s a huge opportunity. Reply to spammers, global manufacturers, etc. with an offer to rewrite the broken English in their communications. 24¢ per fix. You’d be a millionaire in no time.
Category: Uncategorized
Meeting doodles
Pony’s
WordCamp Buffalo ’22 wallpaper
Beach doodle
Stop using px as a measurement
The size of a pixel is relative to its output device, aka screen resolution.
Some screens are 72 dpi. Some are 300 dpi. So if you specify your font size to be 12px, it should rightly appear legible on the 72 dpi screen, and tiny on the 300 dpi screen.
Instead, use point, or pt. A point is 1/72 of an inch. 12pt will appear legible on any screen, regardless of its dpi.
The University of WordPress
I bought uofwp.com a long time ago and in a spark of inspiration decided to launch the site. There’s not much there for now.
Check it out:
Staff meeting doodles
My MFA professor, the great Harvey Breverman, used to doodle his colleagues during meetings and it rubbed off on me. Here’s my latest from yesterday, done on my iPad in Procreate.
Chess thoughts
If you know me, you probably know I’m a big chess fan. I’ve been playing it almost all my life, having learned it from my friend Chucky’s grampa and being fascinated by every aspect of it ever since.
I definitely play too much–the internet makes it so easy to grab a quick game on a whim, and I have racked up thousands of 1, 2, and 3 minute games this way.
On the one hand, I could argue that it keeps me sharp; playing chess forces me to exercise my brain power, analytical thoughts, and concentration.
Regarding that last point: concentration, I heard an interesting comment by renowned chessmaster and Twitch.tv streamer Eric Rosen recently. He was asked by someone in the chat box: “Does playing chess help you concentrate?” His answer was something like: “Getting lots of sleep, eating well, and exercise helps you concentrate. Chess depletes your concentration.”
Some Vikings inspired doodles on the iPad
Chess Set v1
Over the past COVID afflicted year, I’ve spent countless hours learning 3D design and printing. I find that the best way to both teach and learn new skills is to take on a project with a tangible outcome––in an area the student is passionate about. For me, this was the perfect chess set.
I wanted a set that could be beautiful but also utilitarian. I wanted one that could be used in a competitive setting, heavy and hard to knock over, with pieces that were distinctive and easily identifiable. I wanted the pieces to stay upright during chaotic, tumultuous speed chess matches.
I’ve also had time to survey my house. There are pennies everywhere. Under any and all pieces of furniture, tucked inside every crevice of laundry rooms and cars, and abandoned in pockets of rarely-worn jackets and jeans are these useless copper disks that cost more to store than they’re worth. I could amass thousands to be used as wights for the pieces.
I’ve pondereed discarded things that could be used as boards. Sidewalked leather couches, old wooden panels, large swathes of fabric. Anything I could silkscreen print checkerboards on would be fair game.
And there you would have everything you need to play chess, especially in these times. A good, weighted, tactile set, that won’t tip over in a lightning game.
So here it is, all 32 pieces printed, polished to an ebony/ivory finish, weighted with pennies, felted with leather, on a hand-silkscreened board.
I’m making more and giving them to friends and family, but also thinking about a kickstarter campaign to help me build a distribution model, where I could sell this and other designs Jeanne and I are working on. Stay tuned for that.
Shoe Stories #1 part 2
Shoe Stories #1
The Green Runners
Context Queries in CSS
Media queries are firmly established methods for serving custom experiences based on the media being used to access content.
However, there’s no way to an experience based on the context being used. How crazy would it be would it be if this were possible?
Imagine some code that went like:
@context (currently-traveling:yes AND role:driver)
{ * {display:none;} } /* hide app from a distracted driver }
That’s some scary stuff, privacy-wise, but you know if it were possible people’d be writing it. But just think of what you could do with
environment:outdoorsor
noise-level:loud
Phone as mobile’s days are numbered
The portrait-oriented, single column design approach that’s become so dominant since the advent of smart phones can only last for so long. The new paradigm of wearables, particularly visors/glasses, will see us return to landscape designs. Augmented reality will enable a screen of any size and format to appear in a multitude of contexts. The physical limitations of the handheld phone will become characteristic of a primitive era in the digital age.
On Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma”
It’s no wonder the machine (however you want to define that, the powers that be, the man, our corporate overlords) is mining our data. It’s always mining something: iron, gold, oil, electricity (although the more elegant term for that is harvesting) – it’s just incredible how much data we produce and how easy it is to mine it.
The Social Dilemna does a good job of exposing that, although I could have done without the cheesy scripted stuff. However, it fails to point out the counterpart to our data, and what is in fact infinitely more valuable: our content.
Every post we make-video, photo, rant, tweet, comment, is like food for the machine. Without content, there is no internet. No one logs into Facebook so they can click on ads or fill out surveys or practice browsing habits. They go for content–to consume others’ and to post their own.
Content self-propagates; the machine doesn’t have to invasively collect it, analyze it, reconfigure it, or present it to its paying advertisers, as it does with data. And there’s mountains of it, and we give it away for free!
One of the interviewees suggests that we tax the machine for its data. That sounds great in theory, but I have a hard time understanding how it could be enforced. Instead, they should be taxed on their content they collect. It’s far easier to monitor.
Better yet, we could demand compensation for the food we’re keeping the machine alive with. Kind of like selling the glut of solar power you’re harvesting with your roof panels back to the utility companies. Let’s figure out how to do this.
Blintzie, a new font
Just finished v1 of this design. Feel free to download and use!
Stickball
We used to play this all the time growing up. I don’t see kids playing it anymore.
Other sports are easy to get pickup going. You can play one-on-one hoops. 2-hand-touch only really needs 4 players. Same with street hockey.
Baseball is so fun to play, but you never have enough kids, or equipment, or a field. That’s why stickball was invented. Heck, all you need is two kids, really. Offense and defense. One kid hits. One kid pitches and fields. Pitching, fielding, hitting; that’s baseball in a nutshell.
You don’t even need a field. You need a building, one with a nice flat wall (don’t they all have those?), with a parking lot or grassy area in front (again, don’t they all have those?)
I’ve been on a stickball obsession lately. I decided to act on it a bit today, and did a little shopping. Dick’s: various balls (they didn’t have handballs, which is what I really wanted. When I was a kid, the handball truck came around every day after school), hockey tape, orange cones. Michael’s: decent sidewalk chalk (gotta make sure it washes off). Home Depot: three different options for the bat; a dowel, a railing, and a broomstick.
Lastly, I registered stickballgame.com. Stay tuned on that one.
Easiest Pizza Recipe Ever
Mix salt, pepper, oregano, or whatever with some olive oil and brush it on some flour tortillas.
Place face down on a baking sheet.
Spoon on tomato sauce.
Sprinkle mozzarella cheese and any other toppings.
Bake at 400º for 15 minutes or whatever.
A theme for artists
WordPress is great place for writers. But what about for artists? Are your needs fulfilled by the built in tools WP provides, or do you rely on plugins to present your images the way you want them to look?
Is there a theme that works best for you, or does it lack certain features? Are you concerned about your images being copied or reused in some way without your consent?
Do you prefer to present your images on your site or on social media? What are the pros and cons of either approach?
These are some of the questions I’m hoping to answer over the next few months as I build a theme optimized for artists, and other folks for whom presenting their images online is the primary purpose for having a site.