While working on my impending comics-inspired site design, I’ve been rediscovering my old enthusiasm for drawing comics, and incidentally rediscovering some tips and techniques I haven’t put into practice in years. Most of my creative juices flow directly onto a computer screen, but there’s great satisfaction in the organic act of making marks on dead… Continue reading Inking A Straight Line
Year: 2005
Things To Come
Obligatory Live 8 Post
I’m all for supporting a good cause and raising awareness of important issues (and this issue is important), but the concert series really seems to be brushing aside the point of the thing. Supposedly all these pop stars are banding together to call attention to the plight of impoverished peoples around the world prior to… Continue reading Obligatory Live 8 Post
Unexplained Absence Explained
Gosh, haven’t posted in ages. Reason being: I’m redesigning. Again. Or rather, I’m finally spending the time and energy to design this thing properly, as the last design (or current one, as of this writing) was rushed and uninspired. I commenced the last revamp in early February 05 with a deadline of March 1 05,… Continue reading Unexplained Absence Explained
Translating Selectors
When writing or debugging CSS, it’s often helpful to describe a selector in plain English as a handy way to sort out things like inheritance and specificity, and just to better understand how the rules are being applied. If it doesn’t make sense when translated, there’s probably something amiss. Some examples: p, li { …… Continue reading Translating Selectors
Designer Nation
Andy Clarke‘s latest editorial touches on the idea of regionally distinctive design. In a nutshell, design trends have always been tied to a particular country (over time becoming part of the national identity), but this doesn’t seem to be happening yet on the web. Can a medium without borders give rise to nation-specific visual identities?… Continue reading Designer Nation
Creative Is Not a Noun
That’s right, the word “creative” is not a noun. It is not a person, nor a place, nor a thing. You cannot touch “creative.” You cannot visit “creative.” You cannot sit on “creative” or put “creative” in your pocket or ask “creative” to wear that dress you like, you know, the green one. “Creative” is… Continue reading Creative Is Not a Noun
Meme: The Musical Baton
All day I was watching this meme spread — I first saw it on Clagnut, thence to Hicksdesign and from there, well, pretty much everyone in my blogroll. I waited, hoping for a baton of my own. I languished in obscurity and unpopularity, mentally composing my lists and checking feeds obsessively. Then lo, patience paid… Continue reading Meme: The Musical Baton
New Breed of Referrer Spam
There’s a new spambot which seems to be targeting WordPress blogs. It passes along a forged referrer which appears to come from a legitimate source, invariably another WordPress blog, and always from a permalink to an older post on said blog (rather than just the main site URL). How I’ve dealt with referrer spam in… Continue reading New Breed of Referrer Spam
Fun With Server Logs
In addition to being a vital part of management and maintenance of a website, examining server activity logs provides me with oodles of geeky entertainment. It appeals to the inner statistician I try so hard to suppress. I like finding clues and tracking someone’s path through the site, and sometimes trying to sort out who… Continue reading Fun With Server Logs