Also, I miss Kutner. R.I.P.

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• DC Cherry Blossom – Photos from the Cherry Blossom Festival. I love this time of the year in DC.
• Absolut Brand – I used to collect Absolut Ads until I bought the Absolut Book. It certainly is one of the greatest marketing campaigns.
• More Tips on XHTML – Couple more tips on XHTML validation. You can also read the first article I wrote on the subject.

From Elsewhere

• Dear Designer, You Suck – Khoi wonders if we’re truly offering honest criticism among our peers. I think we’re too nice sometimes. Of course, we can be nice and constructive at the same time.
• Good Web Design is often Invisible – I agree with Steven’s point here. As I pointed out in my previous article, a good design falls in the background, serves its content, otherwise we’d just be decorating.
• Why I Choose the Harder Route as a Designer – Sometimes, I find the biggest challenge I face as a designer is always a people problem. Anthony makes some good points in his article.
• #savejon – A cautionary tale. – You probably heard the story that’s been making waves lately among design community. Designer Jon Eagle was sued for $18k for people ripping off his own work. Admittedly, my knee-jerk reaction was to side with him. This article reveals a bit more. Long and interesting read.
• “UX Vision” – Nathan Bowers is a designer friend I enjoy twittering with. He launched his UX blog site recently. Check it out!
• You Are Only as Good as Your Content – A very good article by Aaron. Content is the timeless, gimmicks will fade away.
• AIGA Salary Survey – The 2008 designer survey results.

Random/Interesting Stuff

• Short Letterpress Documentary – I have great appreciation and respect for traditional printers. What they do is something no computers can replace.
• Time Travel Cheat Sheet – Print it out, just in case…
• Benford’s Law (via Youtube) – I’m a math geek. It’s in my blood. This is one of the most fascinating things I’ve seen in a while. I will try it with my blog traffic data later.
• Golden Ratio Doodle – To prove that I’m a math geek, here’s an old doodle of mine during a meeting.
• Photography of Shinichi Maruyama – I love the kinetic energy in his work. Very inspiring to me.

Vid of the Week

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  Little Red Riding Hood from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

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• My Job Ruins the Fun – Sometimes we ruin our own fun by being anal.

From Elsewhere

• Designing the Windows 7 Desktop Experience – Keynotes from Stephan Hoefnagels’s talk at MIX09, from Luke W’s blog. An interesting read.
• Cufón, a sIFR alternative for font embedding – Cameron writes a very detailed article on this new image replacement technique. He also includes a demo test page.
• Goodbye Google – Douglas Bowman leaves Google. This articles gives a good insight on the design culture within Google, and the challenges a designer faces.
• Type Neu – is a typography site I just discovered. There can never be too many typography sites.
• Design Bombs – Soh started a new CSS gallery site. Go check it out!

Random Cool Stuff

• Math Gems – The marth nerd in me really loves this.
• Sumo Paint – This Flash based image editing tool is quite impressive. Check out the shapes and brushes!
• Browser Ball -A really impressive experiment showcasing what Javascript can do. Try opening multiple windows.
• Your gender, based on your browser history – I’m way too concerned about my gender after this test.
• 10 Creative Bathroom Ads – Some of these just freak me out. Like the one in Japan won’t bode well with me since I’m scare of height, and I’m claustrophobic.

Vid of the Week

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  History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

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• Browser History – It bothers me when web sites clear my browser history.
• Microsoft 2019 – The new Microsoft video showcasing their vision for future computing is quite impressive. I feel the GUI should be adopted today.
• Bokeh Your Web – It’s important to make a distinction between decoration and design when it comes to building a web site.

From Elsewhere

• Review: WhatTheFont for iPhone – Sander wrote a detailed review of one of my favorite iPhone apps. Great for searching for a type.
• Dieter Rams 10 rules on design – Good rules by one of the most influential designers of our time.
• Aqua Interface – Oldie but a good read. Initial feedbacks on the Aqua interface.
• HTML 5: contentEditable – I’m glad HTML5 will be supporting this feature finally. IE has had it for a while.
• The H1 Debate – Honestly, I haven’t made up my mind.

Useful Online Tools

• Handwriting Fonts – Converts your handwriting to fonts.
• Color Scheme Designer – HTML/CSS based color picker. This one is quite impressive.

My Twitter Favorites

I’ve been using Twitter (@jzy) a lot more when I didn’t have time to blog. I’m slowly getting addicted. Here are some of my favorite people on Twitter.

• @badbanana – One of the funniest.
• @darthvader – Lord Vader often comes off as a grumpy IT manager, when he’s not Force Choking.
• @ajaoverflow – Aja’s design related links are as unique as her blog.
• @JamesDeAngelis – Every design link James posts is high quality.
• @Borat – fake or not, it’s very NIIIICE

Vid of the Week

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  Mardi Gras(in tilt-shift) from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

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• A New Day – My first photo journal. Despite getting up in the wee hours, the crazy traffic, the frigid weather, the $125 towing fee for my car, it was so worth it.

From elsewhere

• UI Scraps – A Tumblr blog I discovered this week. It’s where Jason Robb talks about UI related issues. Very interesting.
• A Better Pagination – A very nifty pagination implementation.
• Closing the Usability Age Gap – uxbooth.com is becoming one of my favorite UI blogs. In this article, Andrea shares some good insights on the gap between generations when it comes to the internet, and UI.
• Liquidation Sales Not Such a Bargain – (via youtube). With so many businesses going shutting down, beaware of the so called liquidation sales. A very informative video
• Cheap Camera, Interesting Shot – Some weird effect with iPhone camera.
• The Photographic Eye – A very interesting article on how the human eye compares to camera.

365 Projects

Two of my contacts on Flickr started an interesting project a while back. It’s called “365.” Basically taking one interesting photo everyday. You can see the main group here.

• Lisa Kimberly – She’s a very talented photographer. In her set you’ll find several themes. The “seduction” is truly captivating. Her “clones” are also very well done.
• One Teddy – by Doko. I feel Teddy has a soul. I’m wondering what he’s up to next.

Vid of the week

The score needs to be settled…

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  Mac vs. PC by Nick Greenlee from ARTimation 9 on Vimeo.

We adopted two three-month-old kittens from an animal shelter. They’re twin brothers, Pokey and Wilson. My wife and I wanted to name them House and Wilson, after our favorite show characters. However the kids already knew Pokey as his shelter name, so Pokey it is.

In a site related news, I’ve decided to move “Findings” series to Saturday instead of Friday.

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• Journey – We often aim towards a destination. But I find it’s the journey of getting there that’s the most rewarding. Inspired by Alan Watt’s Music and Life.
• The Big Table Issue – One challenge I face when it comes to web app UI design is the “Big Table” display. I have yet to find a viable solution to freeze columns using HTML. Of course, we have to take a step back and think if the grid view is the best way or not.

Blogs from Elsewhere

• Easy Image or Content Slider – Alen Grakalic runs CSS Globe, one of my favorite web resource sites. He created a great Jquery driven plugin for content sliding. Give it a try.
• Designing from the inside out: Part 2 – Semantic Markup – Nathan second article on design process. Very well written. Check out part 1 also.
• The Geeks Behind Obama’s Web Strategy – I remember how impressed I was when I first saw Obama’s web site. So much so that I wrote a review for his site, and subsequently McCain’s. This article from Boston.com reveals the creatives behind Obama’s web campaign team.
• Do You Have an IE6 Exit Strategy? – It’s been a while since I wrote my breakup letter to IE6. It seems IE6 is one of those psycho ex-girlfriends who keeps coming back to haunt me. Steven wrote a great article that I can relate to. Most gov/corporates still use IE6 to support legacy applications.
• Vignelli Associates – Design Canon (pdf) – An excellent read by Massimo Vignelli.
• Overnight Success: It Takes Years – I often cite Jeff in my blogs, for a good reason. He wrote this very inspiring article on achieving success. Or course, success has different meanings to people. For some it’s financial, for others it’s personal. Regardless, everyone can walk away with some good tips from this.

Neat Web Services

• Animoto – A great slide show service. In fact it’s more than a slide show. You simply upload photos and pick a sound track, Animoto then converts it to a great animated video.
• Tiltshiftmaker – You don’t need expensive lenses or Photoshop to create tilt shift effects! Upload a photo, that’s all you have to do. (I wonder what if I upload a photo of a bunch Lego minifigs…

Vid of the Week

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  OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

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• Hirshhorn Museum – Photos from my trip to the Hirshhorn Modern Art Museum.

Blogs from Elsewhere

• Value Your Design – Some good design tips from Aaron.
• Mobile Web – Mark put together a list of the mobile version of the major sites. A very good reference if you make mobile web in the future.
• Avoiding The Uncanny Valley of User Interface – I like it when Jeff writes about UI. It’s always refreshing to hear from a programmer’s POV. While I agree with his point and analogies used, I think the problem lies within technology atm. I don’t think anyone is freaked out by Androids portrayed in sci-fi shows. Same goes for the web. I also think client app and web app are converging in terms of UI.
• The Interface of a Cheeseburger – I tend to stretch analogies a bit in my writings. This one beats me by far. A good read. McDonald doesn’t make you think, it just makes you fat.
• A Father’s Tribute – I first read about this boy visiting the Blizzard HQ a while back. Recently the unfortunate inevitable has happened. A very touching story.

Cool ‘n Funnys

• If Twilight Was 10 Times Shorter And 100 Times More Honest – I haven’t read the books but my wife has. Honey is this true??
• The Euphemism Generator – Perfect for Twitter, when you can’t think of something clever/funny to say.
• Video Game Design Between 1990-2008 – This really brings back memories! I wish they included some SNK classics. Where’s Samurai Shodown??
• Design Won’t Save the World – Harsh… but a good reminder of why you’re designing.
• The Year 2008 in Photography – I love boston.com’s big photos. This is an amazing serie. Check out Part 2 also.

Vid of the Week

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  lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo.

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• Michael Kenna – Michael Kenna’s photography has been my inspiration for simplicity and elegance for a long time. Recently he responded to my email.
• Pay the Designer! – Inspired by Harlan Ellison’s interview, I wrote about a similar phenomenon that happens in web design field as well.

Blogs from Elsewhere

• Obama logo ideas that weren’t chosen – and I’m glad. The “O” logo is my favorite.
• Beautiful and inspiring Designers Quotes – Sander has gathered a good collection of quotes by the creatives. Very inspiring.
• Why web designers often use PHP over ASP.NET? – From personal experience, ASP.NET has a much steeper learning curve. Also has to do with the blog(php based) community support too.
• How not to Sell Out – Do you feel there’s too much garbage in the blogsphere? Is metablogging really content? This article is an excellent read.
• Coffee – Great napkin illustrations on coffee, by Christoph Niemann
• Blogging: What I have learned – Bryan summarizes what he’s learned so far about blogging. I agree with his points. Ultimately, you have to write for yourself. If you’re into honest personal writings, read his past entries.

Cool Stuff

• 7 Wonders of the Modern World – A very clever diagram.
• Secret Mark Throwing Star Magnets – Ninja star fridge magnets. I’ll have to get one.
• Top 15 Most Amazing Houses in the World – Amazing indeed, and some are rather bizarre.
• Geeky T-Shirts – I love geek tshirts. These are probably some of the best designs I’ve seen. All done by one person, Glenn Jones.
• Nikon D700 Cake – A lucky woman receives D700 cake, then the real deal. I wonder what her husband got for doing it… anything he wants? :)
• Bacon Roll – I love bacon… even I won’t attempt this.

Vid of the Week

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  Remind Me from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

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• Victors’ History – Victors’ stories are inspirational. However we need to think objectively if their winning formulas suit our own paths, so we don’t blindly follow.

Blogs from Elsewhere

• 10 Different Types of Clients – Funny because it’s true. Sad, also because it’s true. I’m sure we all can relate.
• Working for International Web Standards – Steven writes a very good article on the awareness when designing for international audience. His article was prompted by Henny Swan’s. The example he used happens to be on China, a country I’m quite familiar with.
• Top 10 Web Dev Blunders of 2008 – I almost forgot about Cuil… I feel this list is missing some other blunders, but I can’t think of any atm.
• Can We Avoid Redesign Backlash? – Cennydd Bowles makes some good observations about what to watch for when it comes to web site redesign.
• What They Forgot to Mention During Economics 101 – It’s tempting to BUY, and buy more with all the marketing these days. I suspect smart people only buy what they need, instead of want. Some good points made in this article, despite the tone.
• New Typography Poster – by Cameron Moll. It’s an impressive piece of work. I love the details.

My Favorite Tumblr Blogs

For those of you who don’t know what Tumblr is, it’s a mini blog platform, for short, mixed media type of blogs. Today I’d like to share my favorite T blogs, all two of them.

• anyways.us – by talented designer Aja West. Some of the weekly findings I’ve posted in the past were found on her tumblelog. She posts about design, humor, photography, writing, and many other interesting things in life. Basically, a much more glorified and more entertaining stuff than what I post here every Friday.
• Help, I’ve tumbld and I can’t get up. – by another designer, Jared Christensen. Jared’s posting is very similar to Aja’s. A lot of neat stuff you don’t find in typical design blogs. Such is the beauty of Tumblr, it allows short and rapid postings for sharing.

Video of the Week

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  JCDC Versus LEGO from Four H on Vimeo.

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• Master of My Domain – Looking back at my personal site, I’m no longer the master of my domain. The question remains, is there a point of personal site anymore?
• Sigma 70-300mm – Some test photos from my new macro lens. I’m addicted to Craigslist for cheap goods.

Blogs from Elsewhere

• Maxing Out Your Triangle – Jeff Cheng recently quit his job to pursue something he loves. In this article, he illustrates the aspects of growth, stability and excitement. I think it’s a wonderful thing to pursue one’s passion. However, it all depends on where you are in life, doesn’t apply to all.
• The “O” in Obama – Sol Sender is the designer who created the Obama campaign logo. In this interview with the NY Times, he gives a lot of behind the scene details. Good read.
• Don’t Follow Trends: Set Them! -The article Dmitry wrote for Smashing Magazine echos what I’ve felt for a long time. It’s interesting to read the comment section where people get offended about “web design is not art.”
• Dumbing Down the Cloud -Rand’s take on cloud computing
• It is like I made it myself! – Paul Smith steals Robert Hodgin’s bird print. It happens quite often in design industry. What I find amazing is Robert’s handling of it, or none of.

Funny Stuff

• 25 Motivational Posters – Yes we all have seen the fake ones. These are funny still.
• Photo Mistakes – similar to the “Accidental Photos” I posted last week. This one is a video compilation.
• Ninja Cat – I honestly can’t tell if this is funny or just creepy.

Vid of the Week

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  Chris Britt – Cartoonist from Justin Fowler on Vimeo.

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• Retrostalgia – Gmail has new themes. One of them took me back to highschool.
• Six Thinking Hats – Applying Edward de Bono’s thinking method helps with creative process.
• Overly Inspired – I feel I’ve spent too much time being inspired, instead of DOING.

Blogs from Elsewhere

• Blogs With Great Content and No Readers – Chuck Westerbrook is starting a new project, to help unknown bloggers to get some exposure. So far the two bloggers featured as very interesting.
• Running the Numbers – Statistics with photography
• Lord Likely – “Lord Likely” is a… uhh.., hmm… You know what, why don’t you just go there and find out for yourself?
• The Girl Who Cried Webmaster – I don’t know how I ever missed this blog, it’s becoming my favorite. Joey deVilla documents life with an incredible story telling skill. This particular entry was published in 2003. It’s hilarious.
• Tabbloid – Not a blog, but a VERY COOL tool. Simply enter your favorite RSS feeds(s) then this site generates the content in newspaper like format, and delivery it to you as a PDF. Perfect if you want that old school feel with reading blogs.

Fun Stuff

• Big Ass Pinatas – Need I say more?
• Accidental Photos – And some are not too accidental. But regardless, they’re really cool and creative.
• The Brokers with Hands on Their Faces – You know the economy is bad when such blog exists.

Cool Vid

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  Circular Painting from Fly on the Wall on Vimeo.