I stopped by today to answer a comment question and realized my site was being redirected elsewhere. I had to drop my blogroll because they were inserting redirect code. That’s bit low. I’ll leave it off for now. I don’t need any traffic and I doubt that it’s helping anyone else. So apparently I was gone for a while but now I’m back. The site is still tragically out of date.
The question was asked if I was still here. Yes I am! I’m doing well. Doing a lot of artwork of various kinds. I’ve been doing a lot of photography for the last few years. I’ve always done some, but my muse seems to have turned more that direction of late. I’m considering reinventing this site as some sort of photo-blog. I’m thinking I would feature other outdoor photographers more than my own work, but I’m still undecided. If anyone has any thoughts on what a good site featuring outdoor photography should be, I’d love to hear it.
Months ago someone sent me a link to some beautiful desert photos. I should have linked to these months ago, but better late than never. Go take a look at the Desert near Riyadh.
I don’t know why I relate to this, but I really do. Maybe it’s his obsessive nature, maybe it’s the history behind the objects of his obsession, I don’t know. He may be strange, but this is the kind of person that makes sense to me. I’m a little afraid of what that says about me.
Done any traveling, and have pictures you’d like to post? Photos don’t have to be of the high desert, but I’m fond of remote areas that take some work to see. If you have something like that, drop me a comment and we can discuss putting something up. If you already have your own blog, I’d be happy to link to appropriate posts. I would like to post at least one teaser image per post.
I keep saying I’m going to start blogging again… and yet I don’t. Just can’t seem to find my muse. Working, reading, enjoying the weather. Yes, I actually do like Winter. Nothing quite as these guys though. Beautiful dogs, beautiful photography.
Today is the beginning of a new era. A time of change. A glorious new beginning… Politics aside, we now have a President who understands the power of the internet. As of 12:01 p.m. EST, White House dot gov has a new look.
Powered by some form of ASP, it’s a valid XHTML site. Getting a Microsoft based site to validate is an impressive feat all by itself, but this one is done with style. As well as the usual stuff you’d expect on a government site, they’ve included a blog and photo galleries. Not only included the blog and galleries, but made them the face of the site. Rotating imagery, dynamic content, and enough RSS feeds to satisfy even… me.
I have to admit, I’m rather impressed. Who really knows how the Presidency will go, but I like the start. Neat, clean and very professional looking. You could almost say, Presidential.
My hat is tipped to the designer. Beautifully done.
This makes me want to quit painting. Not really, but Esref Armagan really makes you think, doesn’t he? I’m fascinated by how he can keep track of what he’s done.
I’ve keeping my eye on newspapers and online commenting for a while. Letting people comment on the newspaper like a blog seemed like an interesting idea. My interest was that I thought that newspapers wouldn’t stay on top of controlling spam comments. I was wrong. Where they lost control was with the actual commenters. Without some sort of accountability, apparently people feel free to say anything they want in this sort of forum. Threatening and abusive language, insults, random and profane comments… Apparently it’s all OK, as long as nobody knows who you are. It’s time somebody with a brain took control. This sort of thing doesn’t help anything. You need a moderator, and you need some accountability.
My first thought was that requiring accounts would be my first suggestion. Putting a name to that filth would stamp most of it out pretty quickly. While I came up with one idea, Derek Powazek has has come up with 10 Ways Newspapers Can Improve Comments.
Here are ten things newspapers could do, right now, to improve the quality of the comments on their sites. (There are lots more, but you know how newspaper editors can’t resist a top ten list.)
How long before newspapers start taking these sort of measures? I’m betting it’s going to go downhill quite a bit further at most papers before it gets better. I don’t think the newspapers grasp the negative effects of this sort of thing. Sure their site numbers are going up, but is this the sort of traffic that’s going to make you money? I don’t think so.
The results of a fascinating study of the design of the top 50 blogs is available at Smashing Magazine. Some interesting results, but I was most interested in the ratio of fluid to fixed width layouts. 92% used fixed width. That seemed a little high to me, but I have noticed a strong trend that way in design lately. I was even more surprised to note that the writer describes the other 8% as “uses fluid elements”, but none used “used an elastic layout”.
I’ve always thought that a fluid width layout was a better design solution for most websites. Defining a minimum width for a site isn’t a bad thing, but a full fixed width layout is just too rigid. It doesn’t take the viewer’s preferences into account. You’ll also note that 56% of blogs surveyed used a site width of 951-1000 pixels. I don’t know about you, but that means if I’m viewing the site with my feed reader open, then I have to scroll left and right. Annoying! I’m sure I’m not the only person who dedicates less than 1000 pixels of screen width to their main browser window.
My favorite statisctic though was about the percentage of the layout used for main content.
“on average, 58% of the overall site layout is used to display the main content.”
The most important part of thelayout only deserves 58%? That’s the best you could do? That’s just sad, it really is.
It is truly remarkable that among 50 top blogs not a single one used an elastic layout (width of layout grows with the growing font size) and only a small fraction uses fluid elements (layout changes depending on the size of the browser window). Here are the exact findings:
* 92% of top blogs used a fixed layout, * 8% used a fluid layout or a hybrid layout with fluid layout elements (Engadget, Smashing Magazine, Gigazine, Coorks and Liars).
I would recommend reading Baekdal.com on a regular basis, but there have been two posts lately that are especially interesting to me. He posted about had GINA last month, this month you need to go take a look at the BMW Museum’s Kinetic Sculpture. I’m not normally a big fan of BMW, but both of these concepts are fascinating. Great design mixed with clever uses of technology.
BMW has created a new concept car, and it is unlike anything you have ever seen before. It is a shape-shifter, has a textile skin, and it challenges our perception of what a car should look like.
I’m going to classify this car under art, because it really is a work of art. An innovative way of thinking about car design.
Jessica Claire has a new site design. I always love to see a blog merged seamlessly with the rest of a site. Honestly, I just love to see a complete site working seamlessly together, but it’s often the blog that gets left out of the design loop. They’re an afterthought, left on some default theme. Or worse, linking to an entirely different site on Blogger. Nothing wrong with Blogger, but if you’re going to the trouble of writing and maintaining a blog, shouldn’t the improved stats benefit your own URL? There are ways to use Blogger and WordPress.com and still use your own URL.
Back to Jessica Claire’s new site. Seamless is the key word. Red Door and infinet design did a beautiful job putting all the pieces together. I’m a sucker for classic design elements like they’re using in the background and elsewhere. The colors work well for me too.Nicely done. Good luck with it Ms. Claire.
I’m fascinated by this. The elephant has a a better eye for perspective than a lot of people I’ve seen paint. Of course the flower is huge, but look at the portrait’s legs. Beautifully done.
A very kind reader of mine just sent me a copy of Lisa Sabin-Wilson’s book, WordPress for Dummies from my Amazon Wish List. This may sound like an odd book to put for a designer to want, but I believe in learning everything possible about my profession, and learning from a recognized expert is the way to go. Even thought I’ve used and designed for WordPress for several years, there’s always something more for me to learn. I’ve just started reading it, but it looks even better than I thought it would be. I’m looking forward to finishing it.
Adam Jahiel is In Search of The Last Cowboy. Now personally, I don’t think they’re quite rare enough to warrant that sort of search, but he’s taking some stunning photos along the way.
“Remuda, Spanish Ranch”, the opening photo of the The Last Cowboy gallery is one of my favorites, though Rancho Grande is quite stunning as well. I learned to work horses in a round pen that looked just like that. That brings back a lot of good memories, and a few painful ones. Go take a look through his galleries.
from my