SKETCHEE

Some upcoming cover options for camp guide 2009. Its about summer camps for kids.

Google Chrome, a new web browser has been released in Beta. So far in my testing, it seems pretty fast although understandably unstable at times. It’s based on Webkit, the open source rendering engine that Apple uses in it’s Safari browser with some code adapted from the open source Firefox project. I love that there is a great amount of competition and innovation in the browser space.

Remember the old days, when web pages were basic text layouts? They were book-like. The infrastructure behind most modern browsers was designed to deal with the old web 1.0. In the era of the web 2.0 buzzword, we more often think of the web as an environment rich in applications. Google says that Chrome was built with that in mind

Features of the browser

The url bar and search bar are combined similar to the Firefox 3 “Awesome Bar”. Google calls this the Omnibar. They also have a new tab page that appears to guess what you might want to look at next.

Another nice feature is that you can drag tabs out of the browser and make a new window. All of the tabs are separate processes, meaning that if a tab crashes you won’t loose everything you have open in other tabs. Closing a tab frees up memory and even surfing to a new page releases the previous pages memory use. An internal task manager allows you to see what plugins and tabs are using the most of your computers energy. There is an “incognito mode” that allows you to prevent sites including Google from viewing your information. Pretty nifty.

Design

The design interface is minimalist. Especially when you maximize the window as the tabs will touch right against the top of your screen. It’s a very nice way to see just the webpage and forget the interface you’re seeing through. As it’s based on webkit, the rendering engine is quite pretty. It takes a bit of getting used to, like most new programs, but I find the interface fairly intuitive and pleasant. It’s all about viewing what’s on the web (aka the cloud) and not the application, which is pretty much in Google’s best interests of course. One good tip is that putting a question mark (?) in the omnibar before typing ensures a search. You can get the question mark to appear from anywhere by hitting ctrl-K.

Update September 6, 2008. I’ve seen many users complain about the lack of a home page button with the other navigation buttons. This is the default, but did you know you can just change this in the Google Chrome Options dialog? Just click the wrench icon for a menu, go to Options and in the Basics tab that opens check off the “Show homepage button in the toolbar” box. Simple!

Ever see a youtube video and want to put it on your iPod or just keep it on your computer? Keepvid is a website that lets you do just that without installing anything. It converts the youtube videos into .flv or mp4 format.

If you’re a Windows user and want more options, you can download the Free YouTube to iPod and PSP Converter by DVDVideoSoft.

Episode 20 of Sketcheebook: The Creativity & Productivity Podcast is out. It’s filled to the brim with listener feedback. If you need help listening and don’t have iTunes or an iPod, make sure to check out the article How to listen to podcasts without iTunes or an iPod

Subscribe in a reader.
Subscribe in iTunes.

Also, check out the shownotes.

Why should graphic designers care about the world of fashion design? Innovation in graphic design can’t come from the bubble of self reference. While we can still get a few new and fresh ideas from looking at other graphic designers, we really have to look elsewhere for inspiration. While other arts like photography and painting have a special place in our hearts dating back to our college days, fashion is a major area of design that most graphic designers didn’t get any play with in art school.

photo credit: sheilaellen

The world of fashion design is one of the most innovative, colorful and accessible design professions. Everyone wears clothes. An understanding of fashion and following the fast moving trends of clothing really can help a graphic designer appeal to it’s audience. If I want to reach people in Baltimore, looking at what colors and styles are happening in fashion there could give a huge edge in understanding.

If you want to get to the top headlines from the Washington Post, the New York Times or CNET’s tech coverage you might turn to podcasts: free online video and audio entertainment.

The problem is that most people don’t even know what a podcast is. It has something to do with the iPod right?. In fact, it is not just for iPod users. It’s just the internet’s most versatile form of free radio or tv that can be delivered in whatever way you the user chooses. That’s the power of podcasts, they are made to be delivered to the user in whatever way he or she finds most convenient. They can even be listened to right from your browser! Did I mention that podcasts are absolutely free free free? (echo echo echo)

What is a podcast?

Wikipedia defines a podcast as “a series of digital-media files, which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.”

Just like you subscribe to the newspaper, or set a TIVO to download your favorite shows, you can get podcasts delivered to you or in the case of some services set them up for streaming. They’re just common video or audio formats like avi or mp3 but they are wrapped in a “feed”. This is like a webpage that delivers text information, but instead it contains broadcast information to get it to the program you listen from. That’s the link that often ends with .RSS (but not necessarily) or is commonly associated with this symbol: . Read more about this symbol, check out http://www.feedicons.com.

What kind of content can be found in podcasts?

Podcasts can be professional quality audio and video from brands you know such as NPR, BBC, the Guardian. The power of podcasts, however, is the targeted and niche content. Interested in comic books, science fiction, science? There are podcasts that target your specific interests made by people like you. It’s not the same mainstream content as you might find in television or radio. So you can form your own channel of content that just feeds you the things you love and know about.

So how do I listen or watch?

PodcatcherMatrix provides an interface to help you compare various ways of receiving podcasts.

PodNova is a website made just for situations like this. The web-based PodNova player lets you subscribe to podcasts and has a very nice online application for doing this. It has an iTunes feel, but much simpler and no installations necessary.

Google Reader is one way to do it. Just plug the podcast url into the add subscription box and the reader should discover the RSS feed for you. The advantage of Reader, in my opinion, is the way it displays the notes from the podcast and the player all on one convenient window. It makes it really easy to follow along with shows that have web links. The Google custom homepage also accepts podcast feeds.

My Yahoo can also support podcast feeds and play them in your browser. Other online “podcatchers” include Newsgator, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Odeo

Juice is an open source free download to help organize your listening if you’d prefer a dedicated program for podcasts instead of your browser. Doppler is another such program. Even if you don’t have an iPod, you can still use Apple iTunes for free.

Looking for podcasts to listen to? Just do a Google search for any topic you might want to know about plus the word podcast and chances are you can get the content you’re looking for. Check out the links page. Better yet, listen to my podcast: The SketcheeBook Podcast featuring quick tips for illustrators, designers and other visual arts. If you have a favorite podcast feel free to post it in the comments.

Radiohead had a great show at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ just across the river from Philadelphia on August 12. This was my second time seeing Radiohead after seeing them at the Nissan Post Pavilion during some pretty rained out conditions. This time the weather was much more cooperative.

Here’s the setlist via MTV News whose correspondent referred to it as “the second-best show I’ve ever attended”:

“15 Step”
“There There”
“Morning Bell”
“All I Need”
“The National Anthem”
“Videotape”
“Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”
“The Gloaming”
“Where I End and You Begin”
“Faust Arp”
“No Surprises”
“Jigsaw Falling Into Place”
“The Bends”
“Idioteque”
“Climbing Up the Walls”
“Nude”
“Bodysnatchers”

First Encore:
“House of Cards”
“Lucky”
“Go Slowly”
“Just, Street Spirit”

Second Encore:
“Reckoner”
“Planet Telex”
“Everything in its Right Place”

In a followup to the Nissan Post Pavilion story, I’m happy to report that the I had a much greener experience more inline with the bands ecological message. They encouraged carpooling before the event and every car I saw had 2-4 people in it. Getting in was a bit delayed which seemed to caused by directing people to each spot individually, but leaving we had no problem and zipped right out of the parking lot.

You might also want to check out what some others in the blogosphere:

Radiohead: August 12th 2008 (Camden, NJ) (”Last night’s Radiohead setlist included none of their major radio hits; no High and Dry, no Karma Police, no Paranoid Android, no Creep. But then again, if you’re just a casual radio fan, you have no place at a Radiohead concert.”)

YOU BOTH LOOK INCREDIBLY HEALTHY - Radiohead Live, August 9th and 12th (”The National Anthem was great as always. I still can’t get over how amazing the light show for that song is. That awesome candy apple red lighting with the red scribbles on the screen that dance and jump around like hairs stuck on the projector lens.”)

Radiohead Comes Like A Comet In Camden (”The set list I expected to see was turned completely upside down. Radiohead weaved through a performance that showed no mercy and kept the crowd standing and dancing all night long.”)

Radiohead Shares Meaning of Life with Camden Crowd (”And while I was taking a piss, they supposedly shared the meaning of life with the couple thousand fans in attendance.”) No idea what he’s talking about.

What it means to be Alive (”The set list itself was immaculately constructed and while personal highlights are too numerous to number my most vivid memory was their performance of No Surprises. Ironically enough, a song about ending your life in a carbon monoxide filled garage, by a band that specializes in feelings of alienation and depression, brings about a greater understanding of what it means to be alive.”)

Twitter can easily be embedded into almost any site including Wordpress blogs, Typepad, Moveable Type and any site allowing for liberal handcoded html or flash (ie for MySpace). For those of you don’t know, Twitter is a “microblogging” service; it accepts only small 140 character posts for quick dispersement of information. You can update your phone through text message if you are in a supported country allowing you to have another sticky element of your site.

The easiest way to embed Twitter in a website is to use any of the official Twitter Badges. The most flexible of these is the HTML/JavaScript widget which can be customized using CSS. This is the one I use here. It matches the look of my site seamlessly on the Wordpress sidebar. Make sure you put the script tag at the bottom of your website right above the body tag to prevent Twitter outages from stalling out your site.

If you prefer, you can use any RSS compatible plugin, such as Feedlist for Wordpress to display the Twitter RSS feed.

There is also a Twitter for Wordpress plugin. I haven’t tried it since it seems like the cut and paste code is so simple to implement, but it’s another option available.

If you encounter the “Tweet My Blog” plugin in your search for Twitter integration, avoid it. There is word that it is adware. Not great for SEO.

In other Wordpress news, Wordpress version 2.6.1 has been released. This is a bugfix release without much in the way features. If you or your users have experienced any of the problems mentioned, install it as soon as possible

Uploaded my lastest designs, this time they’re of the Back to School publication. It’s a newspaper insert to several Maryland newspapers in association with Maryland Family which is produced by the same company and department as where I work, Patuxent Publishing. There were several original illustrations created as well as stock and submitted photos. The final designs were done in InDesign CS.

Cover to back to school

Original illustrations I did for Back to School