Paper CD cases
If you’re one of those people that buys CDs and DVDs in spindle form, finding cases for people can be tough. I’ve wrapped them in paper before, but it usually looks pretty lame. Here are a variety of techniques for creating a paper cd case. If you’re in the market for real cases, make sure you check out Jewelboxing.
Richard Scarry’s changes with the times
What a difference 30 years will make. A side-by-side comparison of the 1963 and 1991 versions of Richard Scarry’s The Best Word Book Ever. I borrowed these books so many times from the library when I was a kid. They had to have been the earlier versions, judging from the amount of tape on them.
Decorate vs. Communicate
Cameron Moll is soliciting comments to form the bulk of an upcoming article based on the idea that good designers decorate, while great designers communicate. His eight things I wish I’d known when I started are required reading. I’m still moving out of the decoration phase, but I’d say less is more and whitespace is your friend are good rules to live by.
5Q with Dave Shea
Here’s the eighth 5Q interview for Seal Club (and the second in my blue and orange series), featuring Dave Shea of mezzoblue.
So long Bastard
Changes are afoot at eightface, I can’t help it. This week, we bid farewell to Bastard, the white grungy/erasure theme that landed the site on DesignShack and CSS Beauty. In all honesty, it was just supposed to be a place-holder design while I dug around inside the WordPress guts. The new layout is called Tool (feedreaders, this would be your cue to launch that rusty browser). It’s based on the Bastard, so there may be odd remenants kicking around for a little while.
Most of the template is in place, the only major thing left is the footer, right now it looks kind of flat and ugly. Parts of the design were heavily influenced by Matt Brett’s current layout; mostly the nav-bar and some of the CSS hover stuff (you could say the grunge, but that’s my territory too). The nav-bar is all one image, that’s uses some clever positioning via styling.
The template started on a whim yesterday afternoon, but there have been a few other major changes over the last week. I’ve introduced a portfolio page, mostly to figure out what I’ve actually produced. I experimented with the live archives plugin, but find that it chugs a bit. The other major change was replacing Jerome’s keyword plugin with Ultimate Tag Warrior. It has a lot of nice-friendly options built-in.
WordPress plugin roundup
A couple of interesting WordPress plugins that I’ve come across in the last day or two: LightPress is a front-end for WordPress that activates as a plugin and aims to speed up database queries and make a clearer distinction between program logic and layout. Edit Comments allows you to give a short-window to allow commenters to changes to typos, etc.
Ironical Bush?
Is it just me or is South Korea the wrong place for Bush to be announcing that the US will withdraw troops from Iraq, when the country is ready to fend for itself?
Galactica renewed for third season
The Mathematical Magic of the Fibonacci Numbers
The Mathematical Magic of the Fibonacci Numbers. A solid introduction to one of math’s cooler patterns. If the Intelligent Design folk were smart, they’d go after the patterns in nature. Unfortunately, intelligence isn’t one of their strong suits.
Hello Goodbye: The forgotten wallpaper
It’s been about a month since the last desktop change, so I was itching for something new. I’ve been combing through some of my old stuff, trying to put together a portfolio page and found this wallpaper that I never finished. Made it in March of 2004, seems fine to me. Also had the presence of mind to make it at a nice big resolution, so there are a few different size options.
Download: Hello Goodbye
Glorious 1600×1200
Oddly-shaped 1280×1024
Wonderful 1280×960
Middling 1024×768
I would also like to point out that I seem to have some bizarre stuffed animal fetish for wallpaper. Also, this one has Optimus Prime in it.
Dumbass Counterfeiters
What should you do when you’re counterfeiting currency and your printer jams? Buy a new one with all your cash? No, you send the printer off to be repaired.