Redesign 2006
May 5th, 2006
This week you may already have noticed the newly launched version of Design Meme. It’s more of an evolution from the previous design, rather than a completely new direction. The overall darker design is something I had intended to do since switching from Movable Type to Wordpress and moving to the new hosting company. I also wanted to move away from the standard 2-column blog format a bit, and get a bit more creative with colours and typography.
...continue readingSarah Silverman’s New Show
April 22nd, 2006
It seems someone got a hold of the pilot for Sarah Silverman’s new TV Show and posted a clip on You Tube . I have to admit when I first heard Rob Schrab was working on “Sarah’s Pilot” I thought it was something for Channel 101, and even when I later heard the “Silverman” part it took a visit to her Internet Movie Database entry to figure out where I’d heard her name before. Once I saw her picture I immediately recognized her from Seinfeld and School of Rock. Brian Posehn, who’s been in everything including “Just Shoot Me” is also in the pilot.
...continue readingLive Comment Preview - Wordpress and Dreamhost
April 19th, 2006
Many of the interesting techniques I’ve been seeing on other blogs, like AJAX comment submission, and live comment preview, are default features of the new K2 Beta theme. Unfortunately, when I switched to the new template the comment preview didn’t seem to be working. I tried downloading the files again, de-installing, re-installing, but the comment preview still wouldn’t work. I spent a while looking at support blogs, forums, and even the PHP code for the plugins themselves before I realized what was going wrong. I’m hoping that posting a brief explanation of the problem, and how to fix it, will be helpful for anyone else who runs into this issue…
...continue readingTokyo Art Journal
April 18th, 2006
Dirk Schwieger is a German artist living in Tokyo. Each week people from around the world send him social assignments to complete, such as meeting a local DJ, riding a rooftop roller-coaster, or talking about gender in Japan. Dirk illustrates his efforts to complete these tasks and posts the results for everyone to see.
Last week two different people asked Dirk to go out and try Sushi and Natto, which he describes as having a ‘mouldy smell and gooey texture’. At least he liked the Sushi. This might explain why you can buy Sushi at the local supermarket here in Canada, but Natto is something I’ve never even heard of.
I have a few friends who’ve spent time in Japan, and I’ll have to ask them for some suggestions for places Dirk should visit and illustrate in his journal.
Top 5 Posts at Design Meme
April 16th, 2006
Happy Easter!
I thought today would be a good time to look back at some of the more popular posts from the past year. It’s both great inspiration to get the momentum going in posting new entries, as well as helping new readers get caught up with some of the more interesting entries in the archive.
Here are the 5 most popular posts from the last year.
- New Firefox Extension: X-Ray — My first extension has already been downloaded over 90,000 times!
- Top 5 Firefox Extensions for Web Designers — I’m always looking at these sorts of list on other people’s sites.
- Lowdown Plugin for Movable Type — A quiet and unassuming little plugin, still popular with visitors.
- 11 Essential Wordpress Plugins — I’ve since found quite a few more that I’d add to the list.
- 13 Spooktacular Free Movies — I’m really happy people are enjoying these films.
I should also mention that all the feedback I’ve received on these articles (and software) has been really great. In particular, I’m really happy to see so many people from outside Canada and North America visiting. I only wish I could read all the languages on the sites that are linking here!
Blog Kick Start
April 15th, 2006
This weekend we drove up north to visit my wife’s family for Easter. It was nice seeing everyone, but the drive was very long. On the bright side, that gave Catherine and I a chance to talk about all sorts of things—her Scrap-booking party, renovations we’d like to make on our house, the new baby we’re expecting, and even the fact I haven’t updated my blog for a while.
It’s one of those things that I keep stopping and starting. I’ll post frequently for a few weeks, only to let things slide for a while and drift into “radio silence” for a bit. The more time goes by and I haven’t made a new post, the more I feel like I need something significant to write about before I can get started again. That’s something I really need to change.
So—here we are! Resuming our regular broadcast schedule. For real. Honest.
