Misc: 2005 Calendars for Download

PDF calendars to download and print:

• Comadivision
  
• FontFont (my favorite)
  
• Lounge72 (first 3 months available)

Update: I've heard the FontFont calendar doesn't work with older versions of Acrobat Reader. You may download version 7.

Art: A Couple Paint Links

• Article: Custom Paint Created For Pollock the Movie
  
• Painting: Gravy's Number 3 and Number 4
  
• Forum: Wet Canvas' Acrylics

Category: Art

Quote: On Luck

Luck is the residue of design.

From Branch Rickey, a baseball executive in the Hall of Fame (1881 - 1965).

Category: Quotes

Web: Smooth Flash Headlines with sIFR

• sIFR: The Healthy Alternative to Browser Text: Learn how to implement smooth Flash headlines that display CSS styled text if Flash is not installed. Release Candidate 2 is now available.
  
• View an example page using sIFR.
  
• Originally developed for ESPN and also in use on ABC News.
  
• How and when to use sIFR is a great set of guidelines to keep developers from abusing sIFR.

Category: Web

Web: Free PDF Creator

CutePDF Writer installs as a virtual printer and works great for quick PDF creation. I use it mostly for converting Word Docs and web pages.

Create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document. Free for personal and commercial use. No watermarks. No popup Web advertisements.

The download is 4MB (1MB PDF writer plus a 3MB converter).

Category: Web

Art: Carl Fudge

Carl Fudge's abstractions may be viewed on Pace Prints and Artnet.com.

His work involves the intersection of the oldest and the newest printmaking technologies. Many of Fudge’s prints are complex digital reworkings of Japanese 17th century woodcuts and contemporary popular images.

Category: Art

Music: iPod Socks

Not to be outdone by C. Ronson’s iPod hoodie, Apple offers iPod Socks, as reported by iPodLounge:

Viewed by some as a cynical marketing ploy and heralded as perfect holiday fun by others, iPod Socks are six-packs of two-toned colored baby socks that serve as quasi-cases for any size of iPod.

Category: Music

Art: Christopher H. Martin

Christopher H. Martin is a "Dallas-based abstract impressionist artist" that paints on the reverse of acrylic panes. This gives a smooth, glossy look to his work. You may view his most recent collection along with the rest of his online gallery.

Category: Art

Music: Beastie Boys vs The Beatles

Apparently DJ Dangermouse has inspired other folks to mashup classic Beatles stuff. Go download DJ BC Presents The Beastles (9 tracks and cover art).

Category: Music

Art: My Painting "Attack"

Category: Art

Music: Download Sites

I've been meaning to post these links to sites with free music downloads for a while (mostly MP3 blogs), so here they are:

• ChristopherPorter
  
• Cocaine Blunts
  
• Fluxblog
  
• Gabba - Pod
  
• Largehearted Boy
  
• Londonlee
  
• Music (for robots)
  
• Royal Music
  
• Said the Gramophone
  
• Soul Sides
  
• Sticker Shock Music
  
• Tofu Hut
  
• And more . . .
  

Category: Music

Art: Marla Olmstead

Four-year-old Marla Olmstead's paintings are receiving global attention:

They have vibrant colours, they're very expressive in the way the paint is applied, brush, spatula, her fingers. Some are Kandinskyesque and some are Pollockesque.

View her work on marlaolmstead.com.

Category: Art

Art: Stuart Davis

A couple selections by American abstract painter Stuart Davis (1894 to 1964) from the WebMuseum:

• Colonial Cubism
• Report from Rockport
• New York Waterfront
• Untitled (Variation onWindshield Mirror)

Category: Art

Web: Thoughts After Web Design World 2004

Molly has some interesting points in her web design world cool-down:

Thinking over my experiences at Web Design World 2004 in Boston last week, I’m compelled to write about some of the hot issues and areas of concern I see for the contemporary web designer.

Category: Web

Design: Geometry of Design

Textism's quick animation What the Hell is the Fibonacci Series? is a nice introduction to geometry in design. An interesting and inexpensive book Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition delves much deeper into the topic with many examples of how geometry is evident in nature and how it has been applied to design since the beginning of history.

Category: Design

Misc: The Dog Has His Reasons

This is so funny I had to pass it along. Go read Dooce's blog entry Another Reason I Probably Shouldn't Be Allowed to Care for Living Things:

This now makes two members of my family who run (or sit in the case of Leta) shrieking at the site of the vacuum cleaner, the other member being the dog, but the dog… the dog has his reasons.

Web: More Extensions for Firefox

Here are several more recommended extensions to add to the Firefox browser:

• CTC: Adds "Close Tab" option to the right-click menu.
  
• ieview: Allows a link or the current page viewed in Firefox to be opened in IE.
  
• Linky: Allows users to open or download all or selected links or text web addresses in new tabs or windows.
  
• Web Developer Extension: This is the biggie. Adds a nifty toolbar of options for web developers. Here are a few highlights:
  
  • Display, disable, or edit stylesheets.
    
  • Disable JavaScript.
    
  • Display image dimensions, filesize, or path.
    
  • Outline tables, table cells, or block elements.
• Here's the current list of Firefox extensions I use.

Categories: Web, Firefox

Web: 'Google Suggest' Beta

Try out the beta for Google Suggest:

As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time.

[via WebmasterWorld]

Category: Web

Misc: Nostalgia in a Video Game

Atari® Anthology™ includes 85 classic games for PS2 or XBox:

Take a step back in time to the early days of video arcades with an unmatched compilation of unforgettable and authentic Atari titles. All of the games are faithfully reproduced with the great sights, sounds and fast action that made them so popular.

Web: Photo Fades Without Flash

Couloir fades in photos very smoothly without Flash. This effect would look great in anyone's photo gallery. Clagnut posted the code for an accessible cross-browser version of the technique.

Update: Couloir added a version with photo resizing and Clagnut issued a response to make it more usable and accessible.

Category: Web

Web: Gmail Doesn't Dig CSS

ClickZ.com confirms my assumption:

Gmail strips virtually all CSS code out of HTML messages. If you rely on CSS to correctly format and display your content, the message arrives as an unreadable mess. At minimum we've noticed lots of messages with the text font size appearing nearly twice its intended size, but the rest of the message appears normal. To address the lack of style-sheet support, make sure you use inline HTML formatting (such as font tags) to build messages.

Category: Web

Art: Nostalgia in a Found Object

Category: Art

Quote: Think Creatively

Creativity can't defend itself against fear. If you're in a culture where people are fearful, they're not going to think creatively. Cultures based in fear - which many corporations are - kill creativity just by their nature.

From Michael Gold of Jazz Impact.

Category: Quotes

Design: Icons

Last year I created a series of icons for the AA.com Admirals Club Locations grid. Reading the SimpleBits article The Anatomy of an Icon gives me the urge to recreate the set.

While I'm posting about icon design, Susan Kare designed the original Macintosh icons in 1983 and the playing cards for Windows 3.0 Solitaire in 1988.

Category: Design