Bart De Waele » NetlashCollegas

NetlashCollegas (100 unread)

Bram.us

Siri vs. Scotland

Posted: February 4th, 2012, 12:57pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Many in Scotland find that their voice-activated virtual assistant can’t understand them …

The iPhone’s Siri doesn’t seem so smart in Scotland →
Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film

Posted: February 3rd, 2012, 1:33pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

A short film about letterpress and one of the few remaining movable-type printing workshops in the UK, situated at Plymouth University, featuring Paul Collier.
Black

Posted: February 2nd, 2012, 12:15pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]
Dutch ISP XS4ALL was ordered to block several IP addresses and domain names (presumably) linked to The Pirate Bay (full list here). In response, they blacked out their homepage.

Roughly translated from Dutch:

For the first time in history a Dutch ISP was forced to revoke access to a foreign site. The Den Haag court ordered XS4ALL to block several IP addresses and domain names.

The judge ruled that the freedom of information — a European civil right — is less important than the interests of the entertainment industry. A wrong decision. So XS4ALL will appeal.

XS4ALL has three issues with the ruling:
- An IP block is way out of line (one of the blocked IPs only shows the word “yeah” when surfing to it).
- A block won’t solve anything
More on the XS4ALL Blog (Dutch) →
psd.js

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 10:03pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Impressive new addition to the list of javascript codec/file format implementations:

psd.js is a general purpose file parser for PSD files created in Photoshop. Given a PSD file, it can parse out information such as image size and color modes, image resources, layer info, image contents, etc.

Written in Coffeescript. Works in modern browsers and NodeJS.

psd.js →
psd.js source (github) →
Everything you need to know about Facebook’s IPO

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 9:26am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

(click to enlarge)

Rumor has it that the IPO filing will be tomorrow.
Facebook Timeline Movie Maker

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 11:58pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]
Here’s my resulting movie →

Cool concept, needs some technical/ux work though. Some quick quirks I noticed:
- Can’t change the loading background image. It now shows a photo of a friend of mine, instead of a photo of me
- Videos can’t be saved/embedded
- Loading of “saved” video is slow (most likely because they’re built on the fly?)
- Editing photos is not really fast: one. by. one.
- One can only edit after having watched the entire video
- No fast forwarding
- No way to adjust an already adjusted video by going to the link (if it’s your video)
Timeline Movie Maker →
Moonrise Kingdom

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 11:29pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, MOONRISE KINGDOM tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore — and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle. Bruce Willis plays the local sheriff. Edward Norton is a Khaki Scout troop leader. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand portray the young girl’s parents. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the boy and girl.

Next to an impressive line-up: Directed by Wes Anderson. Due late May 2012.
CSS calc() in Chromium/Chrome

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 11:17pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Three days ago this was committed:

This is the parsing stage of calc. The expressions are evaluated and expression trees are generated. CSS values are not created yet – that will happen in a subsequent commit.

Looking forward to the next commits, as this feature will make things — such as flexible columns with a little border in a responsive layout — easier.

Note: calc() already works in IE9+ and Firefox4+ (with -moz vendor prefix).

Chromium Changeset 106166 →

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Motorbeheersing || Centrum voor Motorbeheersing

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 11:13pm CET by dextro

Tags: [edit]

Motorbeheersing || Centrum voor Motorbeheersing

Wolf's Little Store

In search of the ultimate wireframing tool

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 7:13pm CET by Wolf

Tags: [edit]
Over the past year I’ve made a lot of wireframes. This post is about some tools I’ve used and my findings.

I realize I’m coming from a slightly odd perspective here: I know how to work fluently with the Adobe Creative Suite, as well as write HTML/CSS (and some basic JS) fluently, whereas most dedicated UX practitioners can’t do either.
Criteria
There are the things I find important in a wireframing tool:

Productivity: this is the #1 most important criteria: how productive does this tool make me? Does it have many shortcuts? It’s for this reason I don’t use any web-based software for wireframing. All of them have terrible shortcuts (bye bye Mockingbird and Mockflow!)

Handoff: if somebody else has to work on this wireframe, do they have an easy way to do it, what is the knowledge required? Your local project manager, client or dedicated UX practitioner might not be the Photoshop and CSS wizard you are and some projects require the wireframe to be editable by anyone. Some examples of easy-to-edit formats are Visio, Powerpoint and Google Docs drawings.

(It’s worth noting that if an app has a good “handoff score”, it probably doesn’t have a very good productivity score. E.g. a Google Docs drawing is great to hand off to someone with less specific tool skills, but sucks to be productive in)

Copy/paste ability: how easy is it to copy and paste text from the output file? Bonus points if the output file is the same file you need for the next “phase” (e.g. both wireframe and design are done in HTML and CSS).

As a testament to how important good copy/paste ability is: I once got a 10-page wireframe for a pretty well known Belgian usability expert that was an uneditable JPG, and was not able to get the source, so I ended up typing all of the text again. This happens all the time in business, and no, it’s not funny.)

Prettiness: I like to deliver a pretty product. Even if it’s a wireframe, I want it to be neat and clean. It should look like some thorough thinking went in it, not like someone slapped it together in 5 minutes (this is because, actually, some thorough thinking goes in my wireframes). Some software (e.g. Mockflow) makes it impossible to deliver a pretty products since their defaults are so bad (see: Powerpoint 2003).

Interactivity: how capable is the software of showing the interaction design in a good way? How easy is it (if possible) to make clickable wireframes?

Graphic tools: if the wireframing tool has vector drawing tools, that gives me a lot more freedom in drawing custom shapes. Using a tool that does not give you an easy way to draw any shape (e.g. HTML/CSS) is bound to lead you on to some very boxy designs.

Libraries: How many (good) libraries are available for this tool? Some tools like OmniGraffle and Axure have a lot of readily available templates and stencils (see: Graffletopia and Axure Widget Libraries page)
The wireframing tools I use: HTML and CSS aided by a little bit of JS and PHP
- Great for websites obviously; gets rid of a lot of “double work”
- Very productive, can easily require a file with PHP, change it, and the change will be applied everywhere
- Obviously links make it very easy to create a clickable wireframe
- Not very pretty: hard to do anything custom: bound to lead to boxy designs (you can fix this in the design phase but for me the wireframing phase is very much an idea phase too)
- Handoff: sucks, few people deciding over wireframes are fluent with HTML/CSS
- Easy to share: just send over a URL
- Good for: big websites, web apps, stuff with a lot of text, stuff with common interactivity (modal boxes, tooltips hovers)
- Bad for: projects with a lot of custom shapes; projects with a lot of custom interactivity; projects where it’s really clear what you’re going to build
OmniGraffle/OmniGraffle Pro
- Works best for anything with a “special” interface: e.g. wireframing for something like a GPS. The iPhone/iPad stencils from zurb are great.
- There’s a very easy way to draw arrows, so good to explain a lot of custom flows
- Performance is OK, gets bad sometimes with a really big wireframe
- Handoff is bad, nobobody seems to use this software, files are in proprietary .graffle format, you export to PDF to show to client
- I haven’t tried the Pro version yet.
- Good for: custom interfaces, native app interfaces, custom flows
- Bad for: websites, anything with a lot of text, interactive prototypes
Photoshop
- Big plus: the text you use for wireframing is already in the document when starting to design
- Warning: requires solid shortcut knowledge to be productive
- Easy to get lost in the tiny details when they’re not important while wireframing
- Harder to manage multiple documents than illustrator. When you have to make a global change you can go and apply it a lot of documents
- Harder to share multiple pages: you have to make a separate screenshot of every file
- Good for: small websites, promotional websites, simple projects (1 pagers)
- Bad for: anything bigger than a few files
Illustrator
- Used Illustrator to wireframe for the first time this week, works pretty well
- Since it’s a vector tool, easy to build a library of shapes and widgets
- The artboards are great for getting a good overview of what you’re doing
- Big minus: relatively unstable and crashes often with large documents
- Warning: requires solid shortcut knowledge to be productive
- Love that I can just open the pen tool and draw what I want, I think this will lead to more original design solutions
- Good for: most wireframes really, too bad it’s so unstable with large documents
The wireframing tools I don’t use:
Aside from the web-based tools, here’s some wireframing software I don’t use, and the reasons why:
Axure RP
- Expensive ($589 + $149 yearly) (yes, Photoshop is also expensive, I already own it though)
- I couldn’t find any good (i.e. not ugly looking and has extensive amount of relevant widgets) widget libraries out there…: guess you have to build your own
- Obviously a Java app: performance blows. Creating a new document greets you with 10+ seconds of beachballing. Ugh.
- The standard output is extremely ugly.
- Some positives though: you can employ some interactivity to your wireframes, and I bet it’s good for large projects with a lot of repetition (i.e. websites with tons of repeating functionality)
- The prototype output nets you files that are hard to copy/paste text from (because of all the absolute positioning involved). (To be fair this depends on who made the file and how clean he/she worked).
Balsamiq mockups
- The sketchy feel doesn’t do it for me
- Also, Adobe AIR based, found it slow to work with, might give it another chance to see what they’ve been up to
My conclusion
The answer to the ultimate wireframing tool question is a bit disappointing: “it depends”. There is no ideal wireframing tool, most tools suck, and some tools are better for some jobs than others.

Bram.us

The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 2:40pm CET by Bramus!

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Wow. Really … Wow!?

Also: Johnny Depp has a brother?
Game of Thrones, Season 2

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 2:34pm CET by Bramus!

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‎A very small man can cast a very large shadow.

Can’t wait ’til April 1st. Guiding soundtrack reminds me of Kanye West’s Runaway (Let’s have a toast to the douchebags)
Archetype

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 2:03pm CET by Bramus!

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RL7 is an eight foot tall combat robot. Only problem is he’s starting to remember once being human. Now on the run from an all powerful corporation that will stop at nothing to destroy him RL7 desperately searches for the truth behind his mysterious memories before it’s too late.

Now this thing ain’t even a trailer, it’s a short movie, that had no budget, created by The Incredible Hulk and Green Lantern concept artist Aaron Sims. He also had something to do with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and The Thing so it seems.

By getting some buzz, his eventual goal is to have a full feature film made on this idea.
Open Your Eyes to the New Vimeo

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 1:23pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

We made zillions of improvements that cover the front end, the back end, and the parts in between to create a Vimeo that is bigger, faster, smarter, and more fun.

Opt-in at [vimeo.com]
Úlfur – Black Shore

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 1:17pm CET by Bramus!

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Lovely track (reminds me of Múm), great video.
Marina Bay Sands Skypark BASE Jump

Posted: January 30th, 2012, 11:17am CET by Bramus!

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(via teusje)
Every Presentation Ever: Communication FAIL

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 5:01pm CET by Bramus!

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Ever feel like your communication fails? Avoid this!

Reminds me of the (Belgian) De Wakkere Bakker commercials.
Acko.net Redesign

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 4:17pm CET by Bramus!

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The last design was meant to feel spacious, the new design is spacious, thanks to generous use of CSS 3D transforms.

Webkit-based browser required, video of the result embedded for those without Webkit.

Making love to Webkit →
Rickshaw

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 3:52pm CET by Bramus!

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Rickshaw is a JavaScript toolkit for creating interactive time series graphs

Rickshaw →
HTML5 Please

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 3:48pm CET by Bramus!

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Look up HTML5, CSS3, etc features, know if they are ready for use, and if so find out how you should use them – with polyfills, fallbacks or as they are.

Awesome resource, listing all newish stuff, along with the fallbacks/polyfills you’ll need to use.

HTML5 Please →

Also see When can I use and HTML5 readiness
Concept: Ubuntu’s HUD

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 3:38pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]
Say hello to the Head-Up Display, or HUD, which will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications. Here’s what we hope you’ll see in 12.04 when you invoke the HUD from any standard Ubuntu app that supports the global menu.

To me, this seems:
- good to keyboarders like me (I’m a fan of QuickSilver/Alfred, shortcuts, etc.)
- unusable to all other users
Problem is that you have to know the name of the action you want to invoke. Sometimes — especially when you’re new in a program — you’ll want to skim through the menu/options to get to know the app or to get to the action you want.

However, it does seem like a quick jump to voice control: instead of typing, just say what you want. An ideal situation would be to keep the menu as we know it, and provide the mechanics/features of the HUD via voice control.

Introducing the HUD. Say hello to the future of the menu. →
Dear Zinga

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 3:31pm CET by Bramus!

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Nimblebit, author of Tiny Tower, reaches out to Zynga, whom blatantly have copied/ripped off the entire Tiny Tower game aspect.

(click to enlarge)
Where the magic happens

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Bramus!

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Wat?

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 2:40pm CET by Bramus!

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Hilarious talk on Ruby/JavaScript funkyness, by Gary Bernhardt:
```
Array(16).join("wat" - 1) + " Batman!"
```
Via Lode. Original on destroyallsoftware.com
ACTA – Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

Posted: January 24th, 2012, 9:50am CET by Bramus!

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Renoveren & Restaureren

Renovatie: fase 3: het atelier

Posted: January 22nd, 2012, 4:27pm CET by Ilse Jansoone

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We zitten er volop in. In fase 3 van onze renovatie.Er is al heel veel gebeurd sinds september 2011 en nu. Even een overzicht:Een van de eerste vernieuwingen was het vervangen van het leien dak van het atelier en het afdak in de tuin. Een klus die relatief snel is geklaard. De installateurs, Verschueren-Devos uit Oudenaarde, zijn ervaren dakdekkers met kennis van zaken. De asbest leien werden op

Bram.us

Smoked by Windows Phone

Posted: January 22nd, 2012, 1:35pm CET by Bramus!

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I’ve got $100 that says your smartphone isn’t as fast as Windows Phone
Yosemite HD

Posted: January 22nd, 2012, 12:04pm CET by Bramus!

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(via michel)
Hello.

Posted: January 20th, 2012, 6:12pm CET by Bramus!

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Is it me you’re looking for?
So it begins.

Posted: January 20th, 2012, 1:48pm CET by Bramus!

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Megaupload Taken Down On Piracy Allegations →
Anonymous Attacks Justice Dept as FBI Shuts Down File-Sharing Site →

Worth noting: the takedown of MegaUpload is not the result of SOPA (which is back off the shelf), as SOPA hasn’t been approved yet (and hopefully never will — which could be the case as supporters of the bill are dropping out). The takedown however is a fine example of what SOPA could do.
iBooks Author

Posted: January 19th, 2012, 5:42pm CET by Bramus!

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Create and publish amazing Multi-Touch books for iPad.

Just announced at Apple’s January 19 Education Event.

UPDATE 2012.01.20: Be sure to read teusje’s comment in the comments below. Not everything is love, peace and happiness.
Teenager lays eyes on a record (LP) for the first time

Posted: January 19th, 2012, 5:34pm CET by Bramus!

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This is… This is… What? What?! This is huge! This is like ten CDs in one. How many songs does it have on it?

(via kottke)

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How-To: Automated incremental daily backups to Amazon S3 using Duplicity | cenolan.com

Posted: January 19th, 2012, 11:09am CET by dextro

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How-To: Automated incremental daily backups to Amazon S3 using Duplicity | cenolan.com

Bram.us

MacBook Air

Posted: January 18th, 2012, 11:14am CET by Bramus!

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From an intriguing but impractical high-end niche to the industry standard in just four years.

— John Gruber (★)

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Bug 63288 – Email alias used as organizer in iCal

Posted: January 17th, 2012, 4:37pm CET by dextro

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Bug 63288 – Email alias used as organizer in iCal

Bram.us

Homemade Synthesizer

Posted: January 16th, 2012, 11:09pm CET by Bramus!

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(via joren)
Recursive Google Image Search

Posted: January 16th, 2012, 11:04pm CET by Bramus!

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Feed Google Image Search one transparent .png and then rewire the result as input for a new search. You’d get this:

That’s 2951 images.

NSFW warning: Obligatory flashing boob (it’s the internet, right?), screengrabbed from Spartacus: Blood and Sand (recommended TV show!), at around the minute mark.
SOPA shelved until ‘consensus’ is found

Posted: January 16th, 2012, 10:57pm CET by Bramus!

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After the Obama Administration publicly opposed against the act, SOPA has been shelved:

Though the administration did not issue a formal veto threat, the White House’s opposition signaled the end of these bills, at least in their current form.

A few hours later, Congress shelved SOPA, putting off action on the bill indefinitely.

Putting SOPA on a shelf →
Controversial online piracy bill shelved until ‘consensus’ is found →
Heimat

Posted: January 16th, 2012, 2:56pm CET by Bramus!

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(via teusje)
Don’t be Evil (TM)

Posted: January 15th, 2012, 8:07pm CET by Bramus!

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Mocality, Kenya’s largest business directory, received some confusing calls by customers in the directory. A bit of analysis led to Google, who was doing anything but not being evil:

Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted.

Google, what where you thinking? →
Play your world with Google Maps

Posted: January 12th, 2012, 11:56am CET by Bramus!

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Coming to Google+ in February. WebGL powered.

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Mac OS X Server 10.5: LDAP ACLs | Krypted.com

Posted: January 12th, 2012, 9:32am CET by dextro

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Mac OS X Server 10.5: LDAP ACLs | Krypted.com

Bram.us

HTML5 Sectioning Element Flowchart

Posted: January 11th, 2012, 9:25pm CET by Bramus!

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An easy-to-understand HTML5 sectioning element flowchart to help you get to grips with some of the new elements in HTML5.

HTML5Doctor Sectioning Element Flowchart (PDF) →
The future belongs to the Curious

Posted: January 11th, 2012, 12:44pm CET by Bramus!

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Promotional video for Skillshare.

Skillshare is a community marketplace to learn anything from anyone. We believe that everyone has something they want to learn and something they can teach to others.
Startup lessons from a crime boss

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 2:07pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Interesting things happen when we cut out the middleman. In addition to reducing cost, we often end up creating an internal byproduct that can be productized and sold to a completely new customer. (Amazon Web Services is an example of this.) Sometimes the middleman’s market is so huge, that a freaking enormous business can be built simply by providing their customers a lower cost and more efficient option.

Everything I need to know about startups, I learned from a crime boss →

(via kottke)
getUserMedia Moustache

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 1:24pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

This demo uses getUserMedia (formerly known as HTML5 <device>) to get data from a device camera, then copies it into HTML5 <canvas> in order to analyse the pixel data. It then peforms facial recognition in order to superimpose a marvellous magical moustache.

Special Opera Developer Build required.

Magical getUserMedia moustache →
Opera getUserMedia Labs Build →
getUserMedia: accessing the camera and privacy UI (how to) →
iOS Multitasking in Detail

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 1:13pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]
Interesting video on how memory is done while “multitasking” on the iPad:
There are five sections to this video demonstrating:
- An app going from active to background to suspended
- Instacast HD requesting extra background time to finish a podcast download
- TomTom running indefinitely in the background
- Batman Arkham City Lockdown and Real Racing 2 HD competing for big chunks of device memory
- Batman Arkham City Lockdown forcing several smaller apps out of memory

PxLoader, A JavaScript Preloader for HTML5 Apps

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 11:38am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

PxLoader is a Javascript library that helps you download images, sound files or anything else you need before you take a specific action on your site (like showing a user interface or starting a game). You can use it to create a preloader for HTML5 games and websites.

As used in Cut The Rope. Resulting code when used looks like:

// Create the loader and queue our 3 images. Images will not
// begin downloading until we tell the loader to start.
var loader = new PxLoader(),
    backgroundImg = loader.addImage('images/headerbg.jpg'),
    treesImg = loader.addImage('images/trees.png'),
    ufoImg = loader.addImage('images/ufo.png');
// callback that will be run once images are ready
loader.addCompletionListener(function() {
    var canvas = document.getElementById('sample1-canvas'),
        ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
    ctx.drawImage(backgroundImg, 0, 0);
    ctx.drawImage(treesImg, 0, 104);
    ctx.drawImage(ufoImg, 360, 50);
});
// begin downloading images
loader.start();

PxLoader →

Cut The Rope, now in your browser too

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 11:35am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Cut The Rope, originally on iOS, has been ported to HTML5, and is serving as a promo for IE10

In bringing Cut the Rope to a new platform, we wanted to ensure we preserved the unique physics, motion, and personality of the experience. So early on we decided to approach this game as a “port” from the native iOS version (rather than a rewrite).

Cut The Rope HTML5 →
Cut The Rope HTML5: Behind the scenes →
Cut The Rope for iOS →
reveal.js

Posted: January 9th, 2012, 7:59pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

reveal.js is an easy to use, HTML based, presentation tool. You’ll need a modern browser with support for CSS 3D transforms to see it in its full glory.

Really nice. Considering converting my course presentations to this.

reveal.js →
jQuery.suggest

Posted: January 9th, 2012, 7:54pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

jQuery.suggest is a simple inline autosuggest jQuery plugin. It takes an array of terms as haystack and suggests the user the first item that matches what has been typed to this point. The suggestion is updated with every keystroke. Tab or Enter will accept the suggestion and update the input field accordingly.

jQuery.suggest →

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Bistro Boshuis

Posted: January 7th, 2012, 6:46pm CET by dextro

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Gezellig tafelen in Hertsberge op een boogscheut van Brugge

Bram.us

Scrollorama

Posted: January 7th, 2012, 5:50pm CET by Bramus!

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The jQuery plugin for doing cool scrolly stuff

Really cool scrolly stuff that is.

Scrollorama →
Instagram | Flickr

Posted: January 7th, 2012, 1:51pm CET by Bramus!

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Dan Catt, who fell in love with Instagram just a little bit, and out of love with Flickr, just a little bit over the holidays:

Christmas morning was almost magical.

The previous year on Flickr was almost as magical, once people had a chance to sort through the 100s of photos they’d taken with their dSLR, pick out the best ones, run them through lightroom and then get a chance to upload them. It was nice to look back on the Christmas mornings that people had, rather than having.

In his follow-up post he notes:

Flickr is for the story I want to remember, Instagram is for the story I want to tell now.

My first Instagram Christmas, a nervous step away from Flickr →
Instagram and Flickr, the one where I refine my argument →
Modern Parenting

Posted: January 7th, 2012, 12:02pm CET by Bramus!

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Achievement unlocked: keep a baby alive for a week.

— Tim Van Damme

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TRIM Enabler for Lion

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 11:14pm CET by dextro

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TRIM Enabler for Lion

Bram.us

Andrew Lions

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 8:25pm CET by Bramus!

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Wonderful illustrations.

Andrew Lions →
Web Typography for the Lonely

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 2:43pm CET by Bramus!

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Web Typography for the Lonely is an ongoing collection of experiments and writings on web typography and the possibilities of standards-based web design. It aims to inspire the web community by pushing the boundries of what is both possible and practical in web standards in a manner that is compelling and exciting to the visually-minded creative.

Web Typography for the Lonely →
Out of the box – book

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 12:49pm CET by Bramus!

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Most phones come with flimsy manuals with complicated language and jargon. These books, which can live on a bookshelf actually contain the phone. Each page reveals the elements of the phone in the right order, helping the user to set up the sim card, the battery and even slide the case onto the phone.
Better Instagram-Facebook Integration

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 11:42am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

A thing I’ve been missing in Instagram — ever since I noticed that Path did it right — is that Instagram photos shared on Facebook were only an entry/story on your wall/timeline; The actual photo remained on Instagram and wasn’t actually uploaded to Facebook (*).

Behold, today:

Starting today, when you choose to share Instagram photos to Facebook, your images will automatically be added to an “Instagram Photos” Facebook album visible to your Facebook friends!

The photos will appear full-sized in the News Feed along with the caption that you’ve added to the Instagram photo, and a link to the image’s public URL. This change will also display your Instagram photos beautifully in your timeline.

Share Bigger Photos to Your Facebook Album →

(*) Yes, I know that could be achieved by using ifttt
Fireplace

Posted: January 6th, 2012, 10:16am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

I really wanted a big-pixeled fireplace to keep in my bedroom and thought other people might like it, too. Type words to interact with Fireplace or just sit back and enjoy. The logs burn down to ashes in about 30 minutes each.

For both Windows and Mac

Fireplace →
Fishing under ice

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 5:40pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Mind boggling.
Toronto

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 5:23pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Photographer Michael Chrisman used a pinhole camera fitted with photosensitive paper to make a 365-day exposure of the Toronto skyline from Jan. 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2011.

Year-long exposure of Toronto skyline produces ‘dreamy’ image →
3D Nyan Cat

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 5:20pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

3D Nyan Cat →

(via creativejs)
Streetview Stereographic

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 5:17pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

WebGL + Shader Toy + Google Maps + Panoramic Explorer = StreetView Stereographic

Streetview Stereographic →
My house on Streetview Stereographic→
Color

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 5:11pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Color enables you to share “photos, videos and conversations” with a group of people who are at the same location as you. The ideal use case for Color, is for events with large groups of people – like a concert or conference. Color ostensibly allows you to share your experience with that group; as well as augment your experience by giving you alternate views and allow you to see things that you’d otherwise have missed.

Color →
Why Color May Be The Next Twitter →
Spoon Template Component

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 5:04pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

The authors of Spoon, the PHP5 of my choice, have released a standalone version (née Component) of their powerful template engine.

This is the first version of the standalone template component. This is a complete rewrite of the previous version. There are no dependencies with other parts of the 1.3 version of Spoon.

Spoon Template Component →
Basic Documentation →
Prometheus

Posted: January 5th, 2012, 4:56pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

del.icio.us/dextro

Firebox.com - cool gifts, gadgets and gift ideas

Posted: January 1st, 2012, 10:13pm CET by dextro

Tags: [edit]

Firebox.com - cool gifts, gadgets and gift ideas
Lootjestrekken.nl

Posted: January 1st, 2012, 10:12pm CET by dextro

Tags: [edit]

Lootjestrekken.nl
aTV Flash (black) | FireCore

Posted: January 1st, 2012, 9:54pm CET by dextro

Tags: [edit]

aTV Flash (black) | FireCore

Wolf's Little Store

Lumia

Posted: January 1st, 2012, 12:51pm CET by Wolf

Tags: [edit]

Here’s a shot of the Nokia Lumia 800 I’m testing. I’ve written an extensive review of it that will be published when I feel I’ve used the device enough to form a definite opinion. Overall I’m very impressed by it, but it also has major faults.
New year

Posted: January 1st, 2012, 12:44pm CET by Wolf

Tags: [edit]

So, the first day of the new year is here. Happy new year everyone.

So much happened last year. I went freelance January 1st, and completed 60 varied projects so far. Some full websites, some website designs; helping small companies set up shop; sometimes working for a startup, digging deep into the HTML & CSS and iterating on features.

The most interesting project to me is one with national impact, which I hope I’ll be able to tell people about at some point in 2012. I’m striving for this year to be even busier than 2011 so if you need design work, get in touch.

I got my driver’s license. I moved to Antwerp. I re-visited New York for 2 weeks. I went to the Dutch Fronteers ’11 conference, and travelled to Ireland for Build. I organized two designer meetups: one informal get-together and one typographically themed evening with a professional speaker (Yves Peeters). I gave a talk called Design for Developers. I took up a big interest in photography.

I don’t have too many New Year’s resolutions, other than to keep doing what I love. 2012, onwards!
Android Catch-22

Posted: January 1st, 2012, 12:33pm CET by Wolf

Tags: [edit]
I bought an Android phone 4 months ago because I thought I was going to sell an Android project and wanted to research the UI. I set up the phone, I hated it, and never really used it again.

Said Android project never landed and now the phone is gathering dust on my shelves. I only ever use it to test websites in the Android browser (and only when doing — extensive — browser testing, it’s not part of my standard testing procedure).

Sometimes I think: maybe I didn’t give it enough of a chance. I tried to use it. I tried to love it. But I couldn’t.

My intention is not to anger Android fans. I don’t hate Android. I love the concept of an open platform that people can tinker with and use to create whatever they want. Apple’s walled garden is flawed in a lot of ways (no demos, censorship, no fair competition if Apple already created [your app functionality]).

But if I look at Android as a designer I see a lot of faults. It’s UI is inconsistent: there’s HTC’s UI stacked on top of Android’s default UI, then whatever developers came up with in their apps.

As a user I can’t help but notice that Android is extremely slow, not only in rendering UI and switching screens but also in browsing. Why sell a phone that runs an OS it can’t handle a 100%? The Desire S is certainly not on the lower end of Android phones.

By almost any measure my iPhone is a better phone: the only thing I like more about Android is the notification system and being able to make your dashboard/home screen useful (iOS is particularly bad). But mostly it looks like somebody tried to rebuild iOS but failed at a lot of points.

The only reason I’m keeping it is to be able to test Android apps for clients and/or test new apps that are Android exclusive¹.

The nice thing about software is that it can improve. However, as a customer I’m locked out of Android improvements.

According to my twittering Android friends HTC is not likely to issue an update.

If I want Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) on my phone I have to install a custom ROM, made by hobbyist coders, probably not very stable, which in turn voids my warranty. And if I do that, my device is not representative of the general population’s Android phone anymore, making it a bad testing device. Catch 22.

Maybe Android is a cool OS now – but if I want to see that apparently I have to buy a new €600 device. I just want to plug the phone into the computer and update it. This device is six months old. Why can’t I do this?

If you bought an iPhone 3GS 2,5 years ago you can still have iOS 5. Some features have been disabled, but you get most of the goodies.
1. To my knowledge there are no super sweet “Android only” apps out there: if it’s a good app, it has an iPhone equivalent.↩
Google vs. Bing

Posted: January 1st, 2012, 12:26pm CET by Wolf

Tags: [edit]

Last night my car didn’t start anymore. I was testing the Windows Phone I got, which defaults to Bing search. I searched for “VAB” which is the organization to call when your car breaks down in Belgium.

Bing found a Wikipedia article on Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) as the first result. The next 20-or-so results were not what I wanted. In fact, looking through all of the search results the VAB site (url is at www.vab.be) was nowhere to be found.

Tried Google then: VAB is the first result. Because I use Google every day I lost appreciation of how terribly good it actually is.

Now how can I remap the hardware search button to Google?
Most read articles 2011

Posted: December 27th, 2011, 6:48pm CET by Wolf

Tags: [edit]
Karl posted his 5 most read articles of 2011 (Dutch). Inspired by this I dug into Google Analytics to find out which pieces of content I created this year were popular. Seemingly the big hitters are the ones that teach things or reflect on craftsmanship and/or design in general. That’s not a real measurement of success (see: 9gag), but hey, it’s the easiest metric. In order:
1. My presentation on Design for Developers gathered a whopping 77K views so far, making it the most popular piece of content I have ever created (a study on pagination from 2008 is the second most popular one). I am currently working on a new presentation about usability in general with lots of examples.
2. The Conversation We Keep Having, a reply to a genius blog post by a very anonymous person called “designdare”. About beauty and function and balancing the two. About making things that work.
3. The Magic Designer – an article about expectations: what a designer can and can’t do. Hint: it’s not magic. But talking helps.
Hopefully everyone is enjoying some time off these days. Happy holidays!

del.icio.us/dextro

Robot Cloud

Posted: December 25th, 2011, 10:51pm CET by dextro

Tags: [edit]

Automated Mac & iOS Management in the Cloud
Casper Suite

Posted: December 25th, 2011, 10:46pm CET by dextro

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The Casper Suite simplifies the life of system administrators with a comprehensive platform to manage Mac OS X computers and iOS mobile devices.
Etsy

Posted: December 25th, 2011, 8:42pm CET by dextro

Tags: [edit]

Your place to buy and sell all things handmade, vintage, and supplies

Bram.us

Hitler reacts to SOPA

Posted: December 23rd, 2011, 6:10pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

One of the finer Hitler reacts to … edits, and the text is spot in.
The Messy Art Of UX Sketching

Posted: December 23rd, 2011, 5:31pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Although starting a prototype on a computer is sometimes easier, it’s not the best way to visually problem-solve. When you need to ideate website layouts or mobile applications or to storyboard workflows and context scenarios, sketching is much more efficient. It keeps you from getting caught up in the technology, and instead focuses you on the best possible solution, freeing you to take risks that you might not otherwise take.

The Messy Art Of UX Sketching →
Google Street View + WebGL powered Christmas Card

Posted: December 23rd, 2011, 12:14pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Now this is effin’ awesome: enter you address and get an interative WebGL powered Christmas card showing your house using Google Street View data. Here’s my house for example:

A Holiday Message →
My house on “A Holiday Message” →
SOPA already made its first victim …

Posted: December 22nd, 2011, 11:55am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

The SOPA vote, which was supposed to be yesterday, has been postponed until after the winter recess. Nonetheless, it has already made its first victim: a firefox addon named DeSopa to bypass SOPA DNS Blocking has already been removed from the Firefox Addons Website.

When installed, users can click a single button to resolve a blocked domain via foreign DNS servers, bypassing all domestic DNS blockades and allowing the user to browse the site though the bare IP-address (if supported).

Most likely the plugin was removed because if SOPA comes through, the entire Firefox website (hosting the plugin) can be categorized as illegal … a fine and very sad example of what SOPA can do if approved.

✟ DeSopa Firefox Addon →
DeSopa source (GitHub) →
Editing WordPress’s Visual Editor (TinyMCE)

Posted: December 22nd, 2011, 11:44am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Handy when you need it; If you ever need it.
The Hobbit

Posted: December 21st, 2011, 12:20pm CET by Bramus!

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December 14, 2012.
Inspiring Facebook Timline Covers

Posted: December 20th, 2011, 5:34pm CET by Bramus!

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Looks like the Timeline Cover is the new creative outlet

Get Started : Most Innovative Facebook Timeline Covers →
The Mozilla Story

Posted: December 20th, 2011, 3:47pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]
PROTECT IP / SOPA

Posted: December 20th, 2011, 3:46pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

The SOPA vote is tomorrow …

Why SOPA will cripple the Internet →
The PROTECT IP ACT And The STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT (SOPA): New Solutions To Stop Online Infringement And Piracy→
Stop American Censorship →
Mufasa’s Alive!?

Posted: December 19th, 2011, 4:41pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Mufasa’s Alive!? — Nope! Chuck Testa!
Dubstep

Posted: December 18th, 2011, 4:24pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

That wobwobwobwob brostep didn’t exist back when dubstep originated. The stuff today is nearly a different genre.

— A user named Apclear on Burial’s Untrue

Wolf's Little Store

Office now in Antwerp

Posted: December 16th, 2011, 5:56pm CET by Wolf

Tags: [edit]

Yes, it’s true: I left beautiful Ghent behind. Wolf’s Little Store is now based in Antwerp, Belgium. Since Belgium is so small I’m pretty sure this won’t be an issue. Please update your records: the new address information is on the contact page.

Bram.us

Sample Application using jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap

Posted: December 15th, 2011, 7:44pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Here is a simple application I built using jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap. Even though the application is simple, it covers some common requirements of mobile applications: database access through JSON services, multi-level master-detail views, parameter passing between views, etc.

Sample Application using jQuery Mobile and PhoneGap →
Speed Tracer

Posted: December 15th, 2011, 12:17pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Speed Tracer is a tool to help you identify and fix performance problems in your web applications. It visualizes metrics that are taken from low level instrumentation points inside of the browser and analyzes them as your application runs. Speed Tracer is available as a Chrome extension and works on all platforms where extensions are currently supported (Windows and Linux).

Google Web Toolkit: Speed Tracer →
Men In Black 3 Trailer

Posted: December 15th, 2011, 11:07am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Grew up with MiB 1 and 2, thus expecting a lot from this (and the trailer looks quite promising I must say).
Lovely Charts for iPad

Posted: December 15th, 2011, 11:00am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Not only looks great, but also looks usable.

Lovely Charts for iPad →
La Mer de Pianos

Posted: December 15th, 2011, 10:54am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Set in the oldest Piano shop in France, it shows the story of a repairman who breathes life back into pianos, by harvesting parts from older pianos, or making them himself.

(via FormFiftyFive)
I Know What You Downloaded on BitTorrent …

Posted: December 15th, 2011, 10:09am CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Imagine you’d write a crawler that connects to many torrent trackers for many torrents and then log all IP addresses that are also connected. Now, that’s exactly what You Have Downloaded does: it aggregates all public data and then exposes it.

We came up with the idea of building a crawler like this and keeping the maintenance price under $300 a month. There was only one way to prove our theory worked — to implement it in practice. So we did. Now, we find ourselves with a big crawler.

Although the site doesn’t track all traffic (and thus doesn’t have a list of all IP addresses — I for one have downloaded nothing according to the site … could swear I just pulled in a new Linux distro) it works rather well. The results aren’t surprising either. Typing in a IP address from one of the trolling commenters here on bram.us gives me …

Ouch!

You Have Downloaded →
Google Maps: from: The shire to: Mordor

Posted: December 14th, 2011, 9:38pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Use caution – One does not simply walk into Mordor.

from: The shire to: Mordor →
On the Tab Labels in the New Twitter App for iPhone

Posted: December 14th, 2011, 1:53pm CET by Bramus!

Tags: [edit]

Nobody wants to connect or discover. People want to talk, send email, chat, share, post to Facebook, tweet, and so on. They want to find old friends; they want to find new friends; they want to see if their brother went skiing on the weekend so they can remember to ask about it on Christmas.

Also cleverly remarked:

Why Find instead of Search? Because Find implies success, while Search is an action that may fail.

On the Tab Labels in the New Twitter App for iPhone →

(via ★)