Ok, this just had to be shared. A friend sent an instant message over Adium containing the characters “:{)” today signifying a stache. So promptly I said, that has to be set to a Tom Sellek pic. And so it was done. However, the fun did not stop there. There is also another hidden gem in there. Exclude the “)” to make “:{” the cover stache, and voila. Wilford Brimley surprise.
Simply download, extract the zip and double click to add it to your Adium experience.
I have become a huge fan of the 960 grid theme and continue to use it on my new project & designs. I based this blog on the 960 grid concept, but never really thought about extending it and making it available for others to use. This morning I ran across a post on Smashing Magazine about someone doing just that!
The WordPress Theme Development Frameworks post featured many other options for extending themes for WordPress, but the 960 grid theme really excited me. I have been using WordPress for a while, but probably not to the extend that I should be. The extensibility of this free blogging format is amazing! Not to mention it’s free.
Thematic is a free, open-source, highly extensible, search-engine optimized WordPress Theme Framework featuring 13 widget-ready areas, grid-based layout samples, styling for popular plugins, and a whole community behind it. It’s perfect for beginner bloggers and WordPress development professionals.
The interesting concept behind this theme is the ability to add child themes to the design. Allowing you to keep the 960 grid format, but giving you the ability to change the overall look and feel of the design with out deviating from the main structure. It also boasts that the structure is search-engine optimized to provide great indexing opportunities for your site. Soon I will have a use for this system and will integrate an upcoming design with it. Potentially for Corvus Design.
Where’s IndyGo? has launched and is in BETA status.
This project is a free online resource for finding bus route information and receiving sms alert notifications for IndyGo’s Indianapolis, IN based bus system. You can browse all routes, stops and time tables without having to create an account. The site also offers pdf downloads for all routes (provided free to the public by IndyGo.net) and fare information as well.
The true power behind the site is the mobile integration. All of these features can be accomplished on a rich web browser capable mobile phone. You can create an account, log in and start saving your favorite stops to start receiving text notifications when you chosen stop time is approximately 15 minutes away. 
The login system uses Clickpass to help make logging in and creating accounts easy. Already have a Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, or OpenID account? Where’s IndyGo? makes it a cinch to get started and log in. Or if you are just looking for any bus route information, just simply browse or search the routes to find the information you are looking for.
You can also find out up to date fare information to see home much your trip is going to cost.
This morning I read a post sent via Creattica (Daily version) about some free iphone icons.
Glyphish – Icons and resources for iPhone developers are the creators of these wonderful icons, and I have to spread the love. here is a screen shot of the icons with a link to the source. Thanks Glyphish.
Although I have only had one quicky, I have decided to rename them to “Rails quickies” (previously known as code quicky). Just had to let you know.
Again I don’t consider myself a developer by nature so the quickies are not well served for you pros out there but any feedback would be much appreciated.
For loops in rails are pretty simple and
Self explanatory. Just call you array definition and “do” something for each item in that array.
<% @array_of_items.each do |item| %>
<% item%>
<% end %>
Now let’s get a for loop going and grab the index position of that item in the given array.
<% @array_of_items.each_with_index do |item,index| %> <%= item %><%= index %> <% end %>
Voilà . Simply using the “each_with_index” method will take care of the repetition and include the index of each item within your array.
Amazon.com recently released version 2 of their tablet book reader “Kindle 2″. Along with simple design changes, they have extended the battery life and extended their library. If I were still a student and had more of a necessity for such a device, I would be seriously interested. However, I don’t need another device to carry around. So how about reading Kindle Books on your iPhone. Uh huh. Knowing this was going to be a huge demand for mobile junkies, Amazon.com diligently worked on a iPhone app to do just this.
Getting past the fact you have to view an entire book on a 320×480 screen, at first glance this is such a great app. The concept of minimizing utilities and personal components keeps moving forward and this is another great example of having less, is greater.
First of all I was uncertain on how to obtain a Kindle Book and how I was going to get it on my iPhone. Ok, here is the short list of steps it takes to get started.
Voilà . The next time you fire up Kindle on you iPhone, Amazon’s service “Whispersync” will take care of sycronizing your recently purchased books from Amazon to your iPhone.
Overall the app is pretty slick. The feature set is well equips for the usage of reading a book on a mobile device.
The home page lists all of you purchased books and gives you the ability to sort them by recently downloaded, by title and by author. Also here Kindle gives you a “Get books” link, but this is merely a display page on where to get books outside of your mobile device. I am certain this feature will eventually make it mobile, but for now “Whispersync” makes it very east to sync. Of course this means you have to add another step, but hey, what can you do? (for now)
This interface has about everything you need for digitaly viewing book content except the ability to view horizontally and search the books content. You have the ability to change the font size to 4 diiferent scales, jump to a page via a slider or even crease the corner to get to a quick view later via the “Go To” menu page.
This is probably the coolest feature for this app and the Kindle service. When reading a book the app takes notice of the furthest page you have read and gives you the ability to jump directly to that page. Now I only own one Kindle device, but this is a feature take all of your devices into consideration. So up matter what Kindle will insure that you are on the right page next time you open up your mobile text.
Very cool app. Again I don’t have patience for another device to carry nor do I think it is a necessity. So an app like this is great for my usage, but a full features Kindle would be my device of choice if this service would be something I would use on a regular basis. That being said, besides it’s very few short comings this Kindle for the iPhone will get used by this guy.
Apple has recently released a beta version of their Safari web browser application, “The world’s fastest browser.” I made sure to jump out and grab the version early and see what it’s all about.
This new version seems to be under some scrutiny from some of the users of this browser. With the new release Safari has moved their tabs to the top of the browser as apposed to being under the toolbar.
The new tab interface does not seem to bother me nor does it seem had any UI issues that you might expect with pairing drag/drop functionality with tab selection. Granted I have only been rocking the new version for a few days but I am actually starting to prefer the tab positioning. The real estate dedicated to the toolbar seems to be much less leaving more room for the browser content. The more important content rather than the options that I know are there and I don’t use very much.
The newly organized searching mechanism is great. The long list of suggestions, recent searches and the “Search for [inserted text] in this page” have all proven to be a time saver this guy.
Not only are these functionalities wonderful, but they are wicked fast too!
Not sure if I am being an optimist here or just excited about the version but there does seem to be quite a speed performance boost in this version. Apple was boasting that this browser is 30x faster than Internet Explorer and 4x faster than Firefox. I have not quite put these numbers to test, but as I said before there does seem to be a significant speed boost here.
The list if new options in the development tools seems to be pretty extensive. The most notable improvement is the inspector.
Web inspector
This tool is very comparable to the highly acclaimed Firebug extension for Firefox, but on initial pass it looks even better! They have also added some pieces that are not included into Firebug such as “Databases”. A local database management tool that allows you to view tables and databases and even execute SQL queries. The only browser to contain such a tool. I have not used this feature yet, but I would be interested to hear what people’s experience with this is.
Overall the design aspects of the development tools are great and the UI is nice. It was a bit difficult to discern which button needed to be pressed to enter console mode, but this difficulty could simply be my unfamiliarity with the app. One of my favorite features in the console tool is the autocomplete feature. Simply start typing and Safari starts suggesting completions for the task you are attempting to complete.
Auto complete
Overall (so far) I am excited about this browser update. I had recently moved away from Safari to Camino for my general browsing and speedy web performance. So far this update has truly given me a reason to switch back.
For all you naysayers on Apple’s choice to move the tabs to the title bar, give it some time. I personally have not found any flaws in the behavior of the tabs or window selection or dragging and dropping for that matter. Typically the title bar space is over kill, unused space and inefficient. Even though their idea us not unique, I think this is a great use of this dead space. Let it simmer. I think you might be pleased.
Denny’s hit a real “Grand Slam” (pun intended) with their free breakfast giveaway ad during this year’s Superbowl, when Nannerpus entered our heads. The addictive jingle that accompanied this video has swept through our office and has forced me to create an iPhone ring tone for your ear hole. If you are anything like my fellow friends and coworkers, this is a must have. The jingle still has not left my head. “It’s Naaaaanerpuuuuuus!!!”
Previously I created a blog post featuring 4 great iPhone CSS designs. There are very few resources that I have found for such inspiration, matter of fact I have only found one that is truly a good source of inspiration and I neglected to give credit where credit was due in the previous post.
This is, by far, the best resource that I ahve come accross when it comes to am iPhone CSS gallery. The workflow of the galley listings is a simple and effective. Fill out a short form consisiting of basic submitted info and the URL to the iPhone web address. Voilà ! Within a short amount of time (took my submission a week or so) your submission should be displayed in the gallery. So far, my submissions have been 1 for 1, so I am not sure what the rate of denial or process might be. If anyone has some insight on this that would be great to know.
If anyone has any other good resource for iPhone CSS design galleries, I would be interested to see those as well.
Creating mobile application designs has become more of necessity now. More and more mobile phones are coming with great rich web browsing experiences. This requires developimg separate templates and CSS files for the mobile viewing experience.
Currently Corcus Conceptions is not supporting the mobile framework completely (only on the blog), but that will be changing soon. So recently I have been on the search for some nice iPhone CSS designs for some inspiration.
Here is a short list of some nice designs created specifically for the iPhone format. I am sure these sites look wonderful in other mobile browsers but I have not yet taken a look at these sites in any other mobile browser other than Safari.
