This website has a huge collection of fonts which are all free to download. I have downloaded a bunch and they all work great, and seem to have all the special characters included as well.
The only problem I have with this site is restraining myself from downloading hundreds of new fonts, which I will probably never use. Of particular interest to me was the Blackletter Revival collection. I started looking at these typefaces when I was designing our wedding invitations, and I think they are beautiful.
The entire collection is great, but I am particularly fond of Jaecker-Schrift. Check out this gorgeous eth character from that font.
Go get yourself some new fonts but don't go crazy; you know you'll never use them all.
Ivory is a German Spitz that made her way onto the Loop 202 freeway this morning during rush hour traffic. I watched her dash across six lanes of traffic, miraculously making it across unscathed. Nobody seemed to care that this dog was now stuck on the median and it was only a matter of time before it was killed. So I made my way across the highway and stopped a few yards ahead of her. She ran right up to me. I asked her what she was doing out on the highway, and since she didn't have any good answers, I threw her in my truck and drove to work.
She had a tag on her collar, so I called the number linked to her license, and the lady who answered said she did not have any dogs. Phone numbers get re-used (which I think is retarded, but that's another story) so it was possible that the owners had just not updated her license with their new number, and now someone else had the number. I tried again later to make sure, but it was the same lady.
At this point I wasn't sure what to do, so I brought her home and got her some food. Later I took her to our vet, to have her scanned for an ID chip. Unfortunately she does not have one, but the vet wanted to call the number again, and I figured it couldn't hurt. Whoever answered the phone that time identified the dog, and said she would come down to pick her up right away.
Weird. Maybe the lady I spoke with is a little senile. Or hates dogs. Who knows.
Anyways, I was thrilled to have tracked down her owner, and although I was very sad to let her go, I was glad to have resolved the whole situation.
UPDATE
12 Feb 2008 5:30PM
I just called the vet, to make sure everything went smoothly with the pick-up, and it turns out they haven't come yet. Supposedly they are going to pick her up tomorrow morning.
Now I'm pissed. First, you let your dog get out and run around on the highway. Then, you can't even take the time to come get her when you find out she's been rescued.
UPDATE
12 Feb 2008 5:45PM
I was wrong. I must not have been pissed earlier, because NOW I'm pissed. The vet called me back and told me that the older lady (the one I talked to multiple times this morning, who insisted she did not have a dog) had called back and said that they weren't going to be picking up the dog because they didn't want it anymore.
Oh. That's nice. So you decide to don't want your adorable, loving, doe-eyed little doggie, and instead of taking it to a shelter like a human would, you just kick it to the curb like an ignorant piece of shit would.
Well, Ivory is spending the night at the vet's office, who assured me that she is comfortable and has food and a chew toy. She will be coming back here in the morning.
UPDATE
13 Feb 2008 5:00PM
Genevieve picked Ivory up from the vet this morning. Luckily, she was able to work from home today, so could bring Ivory to our apartment and take care of her.
She seemed to be a little more stable today. She was sniffing around, actually did some business, and even barked some. She was acting like a happy, healthy dog.
Around 2:30 this afternoon the "owner" showed up at the vet's office. Long story shory: Ivory is their dog, so we had to return her. The fact that our intuitions told us not to let her near these people again doesn't really matter.
I did speak with the guy who came to pick her up, and he was apologetic, thanked me for saving her, and assured me she would staying in a safe place. He also told me that he would get her license updated. Whatever.
I hope she is back with people that care about her and that she stays safe. That is all we can do at this point.
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Robotlab : bios [bible] (2007) on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Interesting. A robot writing the Bible. Check out the sweet font its capable of creating. -
Things - task management on the Mac
Very sharp looking task management / GTD software from Cultured Code. Still in beta. Just what I need: One more layer of technology to seperate me from what I should actually be doing. -
Fluid - Free Site Specific Browser for Mac OS X Leopard
Fluid turns any website into a stand alone app on your Mac. So if you have a site that you constantly keep open, it can run in it's own little world outside of your browser. -
Yahoo! Design Pattern Library
Need some usability guidance for a web/interface project? Check out Yahoo's tried-and-true suggestions. -
Neatorama » Blog Archive » The Evolution of Tech Companies’ Logos
Follow the evolution of popular logos over time. I think "Kwanon" should have stuck with the original. -
aRILLO
I dig the sharp vector style here. Interface could use some work though. -
Pushing Paper Out the Door - New York Times
After filing a year and a half's worth of documents last weekend, going paperless sounds awfully appealing. The $400 price tag on the Fujitsu ScanSnap is, unfortunately, not quite as appealing.
When you immerse yourself if the world of HTML, CSS, PHP, etc., its easy to forget that there is another half of the universe that deals almost exclusively with Flash. Web standards and accessibility advocates argue that Flash sites are not good "web citizens", due to the proprietary nature of the software used to create and view them, their inability to be indexed by search engines, and their dodgy, often non-existent support for assistive devices, such as screen readers.
In an article at A List Apart, Dan Mall wrote:
There’s a belief within the web standards community that Flash is part of a different world. While all approaches have limitations and drawbacks, Flash has been scorned to the point that many refuse to acknowledge its benefits. Ultimately, this has led to the creation of a virtual separation among web designers; those who use Flash use it exclusively (leading to a saturation of full-screen, “Skip Intro”-rich Flash sites on the web) and those who don’t ever give it a second thought.
I believe this to be true, and while I used to enjoy working with Flash, I have to admit that I've fallen into the latter category recently.
That is, until this evening, when I viewed the WHITEvoid website. The interface is really intuitive, responsive, and fun to use. Environments like this simply can't be created with traditional web technologies.
You really should go have a look yourself. For those who care, the site is using Papervision3D, which is an open source 3D engine for Flash.
Mint is a web analytics service that I have really been wanting to try for a while but haven't been able to bring myself to. Although I think the price tag ($30 per site) is very reasonable, I can't quite justify spending money to find out that the only people who visited my site in the past month are my mother and my brother, and even then, only because I set my URL as their home page.
Regardless, Mint seems to be a great service, and I have heard nothing but rave reviews of it. Shaun Inman, the man behind the cool, flavorful service, recently posted an image on Flickr describing the logic residing just beneath the surface of the Mint logo:
Beautifully Euclidean
Sean Sperte just a launched a new site for a conference at his church and I think he did an amazing job. Instead of rehashing my reaction to the design, here is my original comment from his post:
Fine work, Sean. I think you really nailed this one, and I believe it has a lot to do with organization. The navigation does not just feel like a way to split up the content, but rather a way to instantly get what you need.
Granted, with the ease of use, everyone who visits the site will visit every “panel” at least once (probably more, simply to enjoy the animation) but you really get the feeling that all of the information is right there at your finger tips.
Oddly, I like the “Register” button least of the entire design. I feel it’s a little kitschy and overbearing in the context of such a well laid out site. Also, although I’m sure you are not responsible for it, the result of pushing that massive button is certainly not a reward, at least on for the eyes.
Congratulations on a job well done.
'Cloud' is a sculpture created for a British Airways terminal by the London art and design studio Troika. You really have to take a look at it to fully appreciate it, but I think the concept alone is pretty novel:
...we created ‘Cloud’, a five meter long digital sculpture whose surface is covered with 4638 flip-dots that can be individually addressed by a computer to animate the entire skin of the sculpture. Flip-dots were conventionally used in the 70s and 80s to create signs in train-stations and airports. We were fascinated by their materiality, by the way they physically flip from one side to the other. The sound they generate is also instantly reminiscent of travel, and we therefore decided to explore their aesthetic potential in ‘Cloud’.
I love that they took the "Flip-dots", something simple and mechanical, that has been around for quite a while, and turned them into a work of art that is so high-tech.
- Shawn Blanc writes a stellar review of MarsEdit
- Money begins burning a hole in my pocket
This is a great little web utility that I think I will be getting a lot of use out of. Basically it is a bookmarking service, but it is super easy to set up and use. To sign up, all you need to do is provide a user name. You don't even have to give them your email address. If you are scared that people might find your page and think you are weird for having bookmarked 23 pages regarding the migratory patterns of small rodents, then you can set a password, but that too is not required.
The magic happens with a little javascript bookmarklet that you drag to your bookmarks bar, and whenever you see a page that you want to save for later you just click on it and it adds it to your list, like so:
What's great is that, as opposed to actual bookmarks saved in your browser, you can access them from anywhere, and create them from anywhere. So say you are up late reading articles online and decide to call it a night, you can just add all of your tabs to Instapaper and finish reading them the next day at work. If, you know, you were into that sort of thing.
Instapaper is written and hosted by Marco Arment and you can get it here.
