Those built into WordPress itself, are based on a browser interface and while OK in FireFox are less than solid in Safari – my browser of choice. Maurice Belanger had mentioned that another acquaintance uses ecto – So I decided to give it a spin. Lets just say I have after a couple of hours I have paid the 17.95$ US that was requested.

It is not perfect but they are working through the version 3 beta and features are constantly being added. For those on a PC – commiseration first – but there is a version for that platform as well

I am very intrigued with the templates of WordPress and desperately want to explore how to modify them to produce the features that I want – As a designer and not a propellor-head, this will be a challenge, but there are a lot of templates available to work with..some are provided directly from Wordpress at: http://themes.wordpress.net/ but there are other sources as well.

A good one is:100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes They have developed one they call their own:Dilectio: A Smashing Wordpress Theme and the same people smashingmagazine have an article on the relatively new idea of ‘paid for’ premium themes, group of people building a new market on the backs of the work by this free community WordPress Themes: Are They Here To Stay ?

At this point I should say a few words about smashingmagazine. From the site at: http://www.smashingmagazine.com

Founded in September 2006, Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information for designers and web-developers. Our aim is to inform our readers about the latest trends and techniques in web-development – clearly, precisely and regularly. We don’t try to convince you with the quantity, but with the quality of the information we present. That’s what makes us different. In fact, we smash you with the information which will make your life easier. Really. Why Smashing Magazine? Well, why not? We smash our readers with information which might be useful for them, even although they haven’t realized it yet

At the moment I have some 30 bookmarks of site that I troll regularly to find interesting articles on design. SmashingMagazine is one of those. They spend a lot of time collecting links to interesting content and ideas – sometimes related to one theme, others more general in nature. From these I visit but a few and from those I try to keep track of those that I think are interesting or might be interesting to myself, and hopefully, you.

Other series of articles, also linked from SmashingMagazine, one on fonts.If ever there was a subject that mixes art, technology and human advancement it is the issue of fonts and methods of visible communication. It is a subject that on its own could keep a person busy for a very long time. Articles by Topic: Fonts … and one on sourcing images for you desktop

I spend a lot of my time on the net, doing design work for clients, exploring new programs, keeping up to date on current events and continuing to learn. Two of the services I have taken advantage of that deliver content to my electronic mail box are ‘A Word A Day‘ and ‘DelancyPlace‘.

The magic of words — that’s what A.Word.A.Day (AWAD) is about. We are a community of more than 600,000 linguaphiles in at least 200 countriesh

Delanceyplace is very simply a brief daily email with an excerpt or quote we view as interesting or noteworthy, offered with commentary to provide context. There is no theme, except that most excerpts will come from a non-fiction work, mainly works of history, and we hope will have a more universal relevance than simply the subject of the book from which they came

For an interesting article on the evolution of the Google logo, the following link shows the development of a modern day icons development explaining some of the reasoning behind the choices made. And another icon – those three stripes that we all recognise as Adidas

If you would rather read a whole bunch of articles from one source…

New Adobe Magazine availableVolume 2, Issue 1 of Adobe Magazine, the company’s quarterly design and technology mag, is available for download. The new issue features Photoshop being used for concept art, architectural illustration, and scientific imaging.

Maurice passed on this link, among many on tools for the creation of ‘greek text‘ – that imaginary content that we designers use to simulate the content that the client has yet to provide… You know – the stuff you forgot to remove before the web site goes live!

The one I use since the advent of widgets in the Mac OS is the Lorem Ipsum Widget available on the Apple widget site. There is also an Apple Service generator lipServiceX available, which provides one of the pop up or pull down services that are available is so many applications. Have not yet discover Apple Services and what they can do for you?

• Greeked Text
• Lorem Ipsum Widget
• lipServiceX
• Apple Services

I was interested in this new bottled water product – not for it thirst quenching abilities but for its unusual form factor

http://www.ywater.us/

As a seasoned traveller who always tries to just have carryon luggage, this article appealed too me. 7 Reasons To Travel With One Bag – a variety of authors around the web offering sage wisdom on why you should travel with one bag.

For those of us who were not able to make it to San Francisco and the MacWorld in January 2008, the conference organisers have provided, on line, and free, some of the content. Not the same as being there, but a wonderful resource.

http://www.macworldencore.com/online/presentation.asp

And now I will end this posting with two entries on environmental issues. The first is a web site and movie on the Life Cycle of a product, its normal representation and some of the reality behind it. Having watched that you can move onto the second link, more description, and a calculator of costs.

Life Cycle Analysis Calculator From birth to imminent death,IDC’s free online LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) Calculator estimates a product’s carbon footprint.The web service was devised following the results of a survey of designers and engineers working in new product development by Industrial Design Consultancy (IDC), a multi-award winning product design agency based in Berkshire. The survey revealed some 50% of companies interviewed admitted that the environmental impact of a product was not currently a major design consideration for them. Yet, 82% believed it would be in the future. 61% were also aware of life cycle analysis (LCA) as a process to calculate a product’s carbon footprint, but only 29% believed their company had ever carried out an LCA during design stages. The interviewees were united in a resounding positive response to the possibility of a free LCA online service; all said they would use it and be willing to employ the simple changes that could make a great difference to a new product’s environmental impact.

That is it for today – well actually two days, it has taken me that long to steal the time to do this entry! – R

First I would like to thank those who have responded to the site so far and apologise to those who have tried to sign up and not been lucky. I have added a Login | Register link on the right hand menu as so far I have been unable to sort out the log-in link below. That was the start of my saga today.

Wordpress updated to version 2.3.2 yesterday and 2.3.3 today! In trying to update my initial site, that you may have visited last night, this new site ended up at a different address.

Hence today’s email! I also found out that the designer of the site template suggested that we use his newer version and that works in a different way as well. Then I discovered ‘plugins’ for Wordpress and tried to use them to make layout of this text easier. In doing that I messed up the new site and had to recreate it yet again.

I need to thank Darrell for suggesting alteration to my text on the About page. Words were never my strong point and I hope you will bear with my fractured grammar as I try to impart some thoughts. The one thing that does seem to work in the post page is the spell checker!

The first comment came from Neil – You may know him as the keeper of the site for MUGOO…

It said I needed to be logged in, so I pressed the “login” button. Then it got downright unfriendly and said:

Request Entity Too LargeThe requested resource/rjsladecom/wordpress/wp-login.phpdoes not allow request data with GET requests, or the amount of data provided in the request exceeds the capacity limit.Apache/1.3.37 Server at photoempt.com Port 80

Hey .. all I did was press a button!

My comment would have been about 3-D printers or reprap robots. See:http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome

I have been viewing the vodcasts at Make Magazine for quick info:http://www.makezine.com/http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/11/make_a_reprap_robot_part.html

Bre Pettis referenced a “hacker space” in Vienna which I plan to visit this Feb. It is right beside the Rathaus (townhall).http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/11/vienna_hacking.htmlhttp://metalab.at/wiki/English

The second comment was from my friend Suzanne, a fantastic graphic designer who works in Washington DC for MIGA – part of the World Bank. While Canadian, being based in DC it is hard not to get involved in US politics. Had she been able to she would have posted this:

From the New York Times:LINK BY LINK Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?By NOAM COHEN Published: February 4, 2008

The Mac may be the cooler computer, but aren’t there more PC users in the world?STYLES make fights — or so goes the boxing cliché. In 2008, they make presidential campaigns, too. This is especially true for the two remaining Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Reporters covering the candidates have already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices, manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally meet-and-greet online… the rest of the article…

and the third comment came from Ruth

Hi Ross, What an interesting life you are leading (in retirement??). I have been enjoying your galleries of photos from Umbria, and the medieval wedding slideshow. Beautiful! You have started a new career…..do you speak Italian?Five years ago I visited Tuscany with two of my daughters, staying at a winery/olive oil farm near Florence. We had a wonderful time visiting the hilltop towns nearby, and walking their narrow streets . It was a most special experience! Bill and I always think of you as our Mac Mentor… you saw us looking at computers years ago, and directed us to the Macs… and then to the Mac Club. Since then you also helped in the decision to upgrade a scanner, an Epson 3170 Photo, which is still serving us well.I’ve been contemplating a Slideshow application called “Fotomagico” by Boinx, and wonder what you use to make your slideshows? With best regards,

The images referred to are on rjslade.com and PHOTOempt – links are provided on the right. The latter I am finalising a second overhaul in the last 3 months. From a previous 2500 images we have culled and chopped – now just 1500 or so. But a lot better! The web site and image sorting is all done using Apple Aperture, about which I will write something in the next few days…The rjslade.com site is done using Adobe GoLive (yes they still do market it!) and PhotoShop, two of my favourite tools. The web sites there are either the flash export using PhotoShop’s include web gallery or the freely available SimpleViewer plugin. Magic.

The Boinx product I have yet to look at – has anybody else out there – or seen a review? ( I found three: MacWorld, MacNN and the UK MacUser )

As far as my language skills – Italian is progressing – slowly. I understand most of it and can make myself understood. This country is wonderful and I sure do not miss the snow! For those who do not know, Umbria is between the airport and Tuscany – where most of the tourists go.

That is it for tonight. I will post this and send out an email with the revised address

Every two or three months I receive a free newsletter from the people at Trendwatching.com. To me it is very interesting, looking forward to what might be of interest in promotion of products and services, but also as a tool to educate individuals in new ways of looking at an event – changing one’s ‘point of view’. From the newsletter regarding trends in 2008, I found the following particularly interesting but a visit to Trendwatching site will provide you access to the whole article, the archive of other articles and the opportunity to sign yourself up if you want.

How many times have the young people in your life answered – ‘WHATEVER’Anything and Whatever A Singapore beverage company Out of the Box caters to consumers who respond to “What would you like to drink?” with a non-committal “anything” or “whatever”. The company has launched two complementary brands: Anything is fizzy and comes in six flavors (Cola with Lemon, Apple, Fizz Up, Cloudy Lemon and Root Beer), while Whatever is non-carbonated (Ice Lemon Tea, Peach Tea, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape Tea, Apple Tea, Chrysanthemum Tea). The surprise part? Consumers don ‘t know which flavor they’re getting until they take a sip. Cans are simply labeled Anything and Whatever, and the list of ingredients is limited to generic wording. Judging from the buzz on Singapore forums, teens immediately got the concept and are loving it.

I knew this was now no longer science fiction but at this sort of cost it is no longer only in the realm of the well heeled corporation. Order yours now!

Desktop Factory: 3D Printers The Desktop Factory 3D printer builds durable, functional models from the bottom up, one layer at a time. The Desktop Factory 3D printer has a build speed comparable to existing 3D printing technologies, and produces robust parts that are strong enough to be thrown across a conference room table! Desktop Factory proprietary software imports STL files and other industry standard 3D printer formats, automatically slices and orients the part for optimal build performance and creates any required support structures. The Desktop Factory 3D printer measures about 25 x 20 x 20 inches and weighs less than 90 lbs. The maximum build volume of the initial product will be 5 x 5 x 5 inches. The thickness of each layer is 0.010 inch.

If you thought the transition from mayline and drafting table to the computer screen and software was a learning curve i can just imagine what the results of this transition could be…

Sketchfurniture Is it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space? The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialize free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined. Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialized through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.

Here is a site that will price and manufacture an object for you from a sheet material of your choice. If you have an idea they provide the infrastructure…

Ponoko is the world’s first personal 2D manufacturing platform. It’s the online space for a community of creators and consumers to use a global network of digital manufacturing hardware to co-create, make and trade individualized product ideas on demand. The Ponoko.com marketplace connects creators, consumers, digital manufacturing hardware and service providers to promote, make and trade products on Ponoko and social networking websites.

So that is it for this post. Hope you find in useful. I have a lot of other subjects to cover so will be adding to the ‘blog’ frequently in the next few days. Enjoy it and hoping to hear from you – R

]]> http://photoempt.com/wordpress/2008/02/06/hello-world/feed/ 0