The Wilson Project Blog of UX/Front-End Developer Ivan Wilson [in a whisper] Unbeknown to the client, we’ve replaced their old Cufón font replacement with new CSS font-face licensed fonts, now with WOFF *twinkle, twinkle*. I wonder if they’ll notice the difference? #webfonts
Yes, the limit is really annoying. But that’s why you need blogs.
Sorry for the month delay in blog entries but it’s been a non-stop rollercoaster of travel and events.
Here is the shortlist of what happened in after the last blog entry and a few important things happening this month:
This event happened at Fathom Creative, down the road from CDG Interactive. It was well attended and the sponsor even got an internet stream for online viewing and questions. Matt was really relaxed, calm guest who talked about how WordPress was started (at the heart, WordPress started as a image gallery) and answered plenty of questions about it, running a business, some things in the works/future as well as what could be better. I asked about how it was doing in the mobile world and got the surprising answer (700% in two years! – with apps in almost every mobile platform).
Decided to arrive early to this conference (third time for me) to relax in Boulder and get to a workshop for the first time. However, I fell ill Tuesday morning and spent the following 24-48 hours in bed. Missed the workshop but attended the full conference. I even got to attend an after-party on the first night (it was definitely an experience, especially the music and its location inside the Boulder Theatre). This conference was well attended and did not disappoint, concluding with the keynote speech from Bruce Sterling (design critic as well as sci-fi writer).
All the keynotes as well as the individual lightning lectures were all interesting in one way or another. However, the tone, in my perspective as a developer, was different in that were was more of a focus internally than the last two years. Whereas I was more in sync in the last two (especially with mobile coming up big during this duration), this was more internal than anything else.
One of new additions to this conference was a day for design-related activities. In my case, it was geocaching, where I spend a few hours in the streets of Boulder playing hide-and-go-seek for hidden treasures. (Thankfully, I was well by then!)
I will be doing a CDG blog entry on my geocaching adventure later on this month.
Oh, BTW…it snowed 3-5” and went from single digits (Tuesday) to 60s (Sunday) in one week.
You thought DC had crazy weather!
I packed bags again the following weekend, for a trip to NYC for The Met’s presentation of John Adams’ 1987 opera Nixon in China. I last heard this opera on CD a decade ago in college but the performance did not disappoint. Well sung by all the performers and John Adams (who conducted his own work) got a standing ovation.
What was interesting about the opera, apart from the music, was the whole scenery. As a person who grew up during the last glimmer of the Cold War, some of the scenes were familiar from all the news broadcasts during this time (you know, when you only had TV and print). The opening scene of the Nixons stepping out of the plane matched the videotape footage to a point where it was eerie. Of course, the big irony, particularly those in the audience, is how much has changed in the almost 30 years that meeting. As a point, during a scene in the second act, Pat Nixon was presented with a jade elephant. The official near her remarked "We can make hundreds of them cheaply!", which was followed with laughter (with a tinge of irony) from the audience.
The second act ended with the agitprop play (the music the basis for a Adams’ stand-alone work The Chairman Dance), which really reminds someone of my age about the old Socialist/Communist displays in the 80’s, or more recently, in North Korea. Of course, the big irony is that so much of that change would start two years later.
Leaving memory lane, I spent a quiet following day listening to three Shostakovich quartet (11th, 12th, and 15th) and Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue, Op. 133 at Bargemusic with the St.Petersburg Quartet. Back home on Monday (President’s Day).
And that was my month of February.
Will be returning to NYC for two concerts:
Hopefully, things will slightly quieter further in the year.
Later (multiple crossing of digits…)
Currently attending the Future of Web Apps conference here in London, UK. The first time that I have gone outside the Americas in my life. Got off to a bad start by missing the first day due to the Tube strike (thanks for a memorable start, guys…) and mobile phone problems.
Hopefully, things will get better. Even as a write this, planning to do a few new things and the next two days will still hold some importance with regard to the work that I will be doing for the rest of the year.
And then, two free days in the city…yes!
Later.
(Originally published on CDG Interactive/Innate blog)
It’s back-to-school time, so here’s a pop quiz on today’s new buzz word: HTML5.
Answers: 1) see below, 2) yes, 3) not yet but soon enough
So, now that you’ve taken the quiz, may I suggest a textbook? Specifically, HTML5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith.
Now, I’ve known about HTML5 for a while (and some of the preliminary work around it). But when I heard about this book, I was curious how much more information could I gleam from its pages about HTML5. Judging by the title, I thought that it would be just an introductory text for web designers (not necessarily for experienced web developers).
But, I took a chance. I ordered a copy and waited. And the package arrived.
And when I first opened the box and held the book, the first thing that popped into my head was “Wow, this is a pamphlet!”
OK, not a pamphlet but a brief, concise book (under 100 pages).
However, from the very first page, it was evident that conciseness is the intent of the author. What Jeremy Keith does, with good effect, is to give the reader a brief synposis about HTML5, bypassing W3C language. (Alert: W3C documents are so precise, they could turn a cake recipe into a DVD instruction manual.)
Of course, he starts off by answering what HTML5 is and is not–not a new version, but a much-needed upgrade for building future web applications. This means it not only adds/removes features, but also adds more semantic meanings attached to the current set of tags (important for Internet devices like mobile phone or screen readers.)
For the remainder of the book, Keith highlights some important features and gives bits of advice for the newly introduced. The best thing is that he engages the reader enough to encourage further study in HTML5, which is not easy. This book could have easily become just another five pound dictionary. Of course, he remarks that there are others more experienced with this and points to some online resources. (As I am writing this, a number of new HTML5 books have popped up in the stores.)
In the end, the author does what he planned out to do – give a nice gentle push in the right direction towards HTML5.
Now, if you don’t mind. I have a list of HTML5 books to read.
Last week, I finally escaped DC for NYC. Got the chance to finally see the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, which is part of the large Smithsonian family. This museum’s focus is on design, whether functional or artistic. I got the chance to look at the exhibit Why Design Now? – part of the National Design Triennial.
This exhibit reminds me of MoMA’s Design and the Elastic Mind a few years ago but on a smaller scale. In this case, the various themes were grouped into areas such as communication, mobility, and energy. I was very interested in the Materials section, looking at some very beautifully crafted items made with processes that had little environmental impact. For example, packaging or dishware that used local materials (paper/plant material) while being easily biodegradable. And then, there are the eyeglasses…
I spend most of the day at the museum, soaking in all the design and getting recharged again after three months of work. Anyways, the exhibit is open until 1/9/2011. Enjoy.
After a some thought and some revisions, I decided that the homepage will take on the blog lister template. This caused the following changes in the primary navigation:
An additional change was the addition of the site byline to the header.
As of today, this was the final substantial change to the look and feel of the Charles site. After almost a year and three concepts, Charles has its look and now I can move forward toward Charles’ completion in 1/1/2011.
Next steps:
First screenshots of Delta TWP “Charles” site (with the exception of the homepage)
