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Infrequent Links of Intrigue and/or Interest

Seems like lots of work recently has been revolving around web development recently. Below are a few things I came across this week That I found immediately useful.

4096 Color Wheel - there are literally hundreds of color tools online, but this one is handy for looking for that perfect shade quickly. No clicks involved - hovering over a color immediately reveals its hex value.

As Button Generator - An easy tool for making buttons for your site with quite a few customizable features.

Ajax Edit Comments - A WordPress plugin that allows commenters to edit their comments for a limited amount of time after they have been submitted.

Candy Apple Pie - This really has nothing to do with web development - directly. It would be great to have on as an excuse to take a break from work, though. mmmm…

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Infrequent Links of Intrigue and/or Interest

The Infrequent Links are going to take the place of what had been the “Super Happy Fun Time Friday” links I used to do. I’m just not reliable enough to post that regularly. The sad thing is that I’ve had some of these links saved in FF tabs so I wouldn’t forget to post them, athough some have been lost along the way. Today I’m cleaning house:

• hCard Creator - Build your contact info in hCard format the lazy way with this handy tool.
• Google Map Maker - is a service that allows you add or edit features, such as roads, businesses, parks, schools and more. Using Google Map Maker tools (see below), you can visually mark locations and add detailed information about these locations. Once you have submitted content, this information may be edited by other users or moderators. At a later time, this content may be published in Google Maps for others to see and use. Shares many features as Google Maps.
• The Ultimate Collection of Photoshop Actions - One of Smashing magazines “Ultimate” list series. Actions aren’t only great for saving time, but also for learning more about how to achieve different effects. Stepping through actions can be very enlightening.
• Lumens - Great lighting collections for your home

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Super Happy Fun Time Friday

Stephane Tartelin’s portfolio - I don’t think I’ve ever seen gesture drawings exude so much attitude.

Twiddla - An quick online white board app with chat and a few extra surprising features.

Honibe - One teaspoon-sized serving of dried honey per lozenge. Who knew it was possible to dry honey?

YETII - Yet Another Tab Interface Implementation. If you need tabs on your web page this is quick and easy to customize and has a few extra features.

UCSD Podcasts - Recorded lectures from UC San Diego. I’m exploring the cognitive science-related ones now.

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Super Happy Fun Time Friday

There is a lot of cool stuff I came across this week, but no backstory. The University took the day off today for spring break, which meant I didn’t have to go to work. I did go, however, because like a genius I forgot to bring the power cord for my laptop home with me when I left work Thursday. Fortunately, I set off the office security alarm and had to call the campus police - otherwise no one would have ever known I showed up on a day off (a Friday no less). On with the links:

• Logitech diNovo Keyboard - They must have know I’ve been looking desperately for a thumbpad for the PS3 to surf the internet from my couch.
• Phun - and it is! This little program adds some physics to your drawings. Sodaplay is somewhat similar space for creative experimentation and is a little more social.
• Plates from Owen Jones’ book The Grammar of Ornament can be viewed as a set on Flickr. EricGjerde, who posted the set, has a few other (sets) that are equally as interesting. [via]
• I also picked up a copy of the latest release by [dj] Cheb i Sabbah titled Devotion (his website - warning, it is Flash and frustrating). Yes, I did it because I heard that piece on NPR. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for the tabla.

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Super Happy Fun Time Friday

A couple years ago my parents came up for a visit to Alaska. Part of the trip involved some campground “camping”. The kind with those giant bath houses that have concrete floors and many shower stalls. One night while I was in there brushing my teeth, mom walks in and asked what I was doing. Of course, I immediately flashed back to childhood and tried quickly to think what I was doing that could possibly be out of the ordinary. She asked why I was running the water while I was brushing my teeth - like I don’t pay for it at home. At that moment I realized I had - for all my years, been running water down the drain the entire time I brushed my teeth. I had never even stopped to think about it to that point. This video illustrates the potential impact my simple act of changing that one aspect of my routine could make.

• Beautiful posters at ISO 50 - particularly this one
• Charis Tsevis’ “small pieces” mosaic illustrations. Amazing attention to detail.
• PicLens - yes, it is cool. Magical? I wouldn’t go quite that far
• Hacking Flickr - Add refferer information to comments you make on Flickr with this GreaseMonkey script. There is also a Flickr Hacks group I never thought to look for

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Super Happy Fun Time Friday

Actually on a Friday this time. Hell just might freeze over today.

• Piwik - Weird to say, but cool in concept. This is a web statistics tracking project aimed to develop a open source competitor to Google Analytics.
• jQuery Tutorial - Think jQuery can do cool things, but don’t think you’re up to par? This tutorial is a good place to get started if haven’t yet gotten the hang of it (like me).
• Custom laser engraved stuff from moleskines to laptops. The laptops are particularly beautiful. Too bad these Flickr photos aren’t organized into a set of all this guys engraving or I would link directly to it. [via Brian Faust - who also has an awesome Friday list]
• The wiki dictionary of Obsolete Skills
• GlassBox - Vista-style api with translucent borders and fade transitions. Released under the MIT license. Might try this for presentations.

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Super Happy Funtime Friday

I’m seriously thinking about changing the Funtime Friday post to Super Silly Saturdays seeing as how I have rarely managed to actually make a Funtime Friday post on a Friday. On the other hand, Fridays are becoming fun again now that we’ve made it through the really busy season at work. Maybe I’ll give it a little more time.

60+ Places for Design Inspiration - a great collection of sites, magazines, and books. While there are many things on this list that I already read regularly, I some new sites and book recommendations that are great.

Superuse - A site dedicated to reuse and recycling. [via]

If you’re into reuse design you may also enjoy Emotionally Durable Design (isbn: 1844071812) - my best read yet this year.

The Serif - A design inspiration blog that is heavy on typography.

I’ve often wondered if the characters on those futuristic shows like StarTrek ever enjoyed Fridays or if they simply didn’t follow the convention of the traditional “Earth” calendar. I’m not much of a fan, but it seems I can’t really recall them ever making reference to weekly events, and why would they need to with star dates and all that? So, do they just relegate themselves to living at work and committing their lives dutifully to some remote federation light years from their duty stations? Are their crew quarrels over those who hog the holodeck schedule? Maybe I’m just not idealistic enough for intergalactic space exploration yet.

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Super Happy Fun Time Friday

del.icio.us Network Explorer - A visualization tool written in Processing that allows you to explore common connections among you, your network , and networks of others on del.icio.us.

Macro.scopia - Another Pipes-like webapp tha allows you to mash data together by using “blocks”. There is also a developers wiki available.

Abstract Background Tutorial - I’m not as up on all of the Illustrator tools as I should be and this tutorial outlines how to use the Blend Tool to create what I poorly describe as a warped ribbon effect. I’ve actually wanted to create something like this before.

Becoming an Evil Overlord - Things to consider before undertaking your transformation to evil overlord… or the good guy… or auxiliary evil characters.

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Super Happy Fun Time Friday

Links that should have been posted 23 Mar:

Sphelar: A spherical solar cell with the ability to utilize indirect light

Koral Content Collaboration: Share documents with a group and manage versions. [via]

Infrastructures and Their Discontents: Implications for Ubicomp: A research paper (PDF)

Moleskin Reloaded: Resurrect your sketchbook with this comprehensive tutorial on (re)binding a book by hand

Japanese Papercraft Box: a tutorial for making decorative boxes [via]

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Mad Descent

Heidi sent me a link to a video of a snowboarder who is absolutely mad. The video is of his decent on Peak 7601 here in Alaska. Major intestinal fortitude.

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