existdissolve.com
the singularity of being and nothingness
Google Analytics Comes to the Desktop
May 20th
If you don't use Google Analytics for your site analytics solution, then either you have something that you're paying for (which is okay if it's not actually YOU paying for it), or you're using something else that's not very good.
I like Analytics because it is super easy to install, very fast, and provides some seriously robust statistics for free–tough to beat that.
Well, today I ran across a really cool application that is being developed to bring Analytics to the desktop.
Currently, this application is only in beta, but it has a lot of promise. Even with the limited suite of services being offered in the current version, Google Analytics for AIR delivers strongly.
One of the really nice features of this application is that it is super-fast, which is more than can be said for the web interface. Additionally, everything is laid out very intuitively, so there is not really any adjustment needed to transition from the web interface.
The only criticism I would have at this stage is that the interface itself is really BLUE. This is a minor criticism, of course, but I would like to see more white rather than blue. Picky, huh?
Anyway, if you use Analytics, check this out–I More >
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Deconstructed Star
May 19th
So over the last year, I've become quite good at playing nursery rhymes on my guitar–it's one of the easist ways to be able to actually play guitar while concomitantly appeasing the attentions of my two-year old daughter. On my favorites (because it's easy) is the old-standby, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
Well, this last Saturday night, I did not sleep a wink. Therefore, all Sunday was somewhat of a daze. However, somewhere in the midst of it, I was playing this song and was struck by the question posed throughout: "How I wonder what you are." Indeed, I thought, how we do wonder what stars are.
Of course, science tells us that they are giant balls of coalesced stellar gases. Pa-shaw. Here's my philosophical analysis.
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are
Are you really just a ball of gas, as the hegenomy of science says?
Why should I believe that, when no one's ever seen it, and no one's ever touched it
I know I've never tasted it; I've never had a side of star with turkey on rye
Maybe it's an More >
My Life in Six Words…
May 15th
Despite rumors to the contrary , my "theological blog" is not dead, at least not quite. In fact, I've got a post regarding the doctrine of atonement in I Peter that will be coming quite soon (I hope!), so watch for that.
The reason for my recent absence is that I've been ridiculously busy the last several weeks (likely excuse, right?), so this kind of thinking has had to take a back-seat to more pragmatic concerns…like watching Battlestar Galactica [reimagined]…
So Mofast Manna tagged me to participate in a meme wherein I am supposed to tell my life story in six words of undefined length.
Okay…Here goes!
The singularity of being and nothingness
Share this: Google Reader Shiny-ness, Part II
May 13th
About a week ago, I mentioned my love of Google Reader, and how it contributes significantly to my web design process.
Well, it got just a bit better for me today. While using Google Reader to follow one of my favorite blogs, I ran across a brand-spanking new AIR-based application that brings the functionality of Google Reader to the desktop.
This new application is ReadAir. It is really nothing more than HTML and JavaScript, but it is shiny. And the functionality–on the whole–is pretty good. At this stage, it is still a bit buggy. Unread feed counts do not update when an article is viewed, and it is also a bit slow. However, the project is open-source, so hopefully others will come along and expand upon it to make it better.
So if you like Google Reader, take a look at ReadAir. Oh, and be sure to let me know what you think about it!!
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On Becoming a Better Web Designer, Part Third
May 12th
As I dive deeper into web design, the more I realize how critically important it is to learn from others. By this, I'm not simply talking about using others' advice for coding best practices, nor even about–gasp!–stealing code.
What I mean by "learning from others" is to begin to develop a perspective of others' work that truly values and prizes their talents.
After all, let's be serious: web designers are a conceited bunch. We like to roll out designs and have others laud us with praises about how cool the site looks, how well it functions, whatever. But what do we do when we look at others' work?
I know my first reaction is to critique. "Well," I think to myself, "if I had designed this site (imagine me puffing a giant pipe while wearing a hideously ostentatious robe), I would have done this…" Or, "This site could be SO much better if only they had done that ['that' being understood as what I would have done, obviously]." Am I right? I know I am, because I am one of the most self-deprecating web designers out there, and I do it constantly.
However, this is a tremendously difficult way to function. Not only it More >
Quick Link: Flex Skin Design Extensions for CS3
May 12th
Honestly, I haven't done anything in Flex for a while (and I loathe that fact daily). Nonetheless, I ran across a pretty cool thing today. Flex 3 now has skin design extensions for CS3. This allows designers to create skins in Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks (yawn) and Flash, and then import them straight into Flex 3 using the skin import tool.
I think this is a very important development–Flex is awesome, but difficult to skin out of the box. These extensions should help make an already killer development framework infinitely more sexy, which is really all that matters (of course!).
So enough of this. Grab the extensions, and also check out Flex 3 if you haven't already.
Share this: Google Reader: An Essential Tool for the Web Designer
May 6th
I wish I could express how critical Google Reader is to my web design process. How does an RSS feed reader aid my web design, you ask?
I'll tell you!
There are approximately 13.25 billion CSS design galleries currently on the world-wide interblog. In my experience, each gallery updates their gallery with approximately 5-8 new designs every 3 days. So, in the course of 3 days there are 60+ billion websites featured on design galleries, give or take a handful.
Obviously, I kid, but the truth is not far off. There are a lot of CSS design galleries out there, and they are constantly adding new sites every day. Morever, there are hundreds of really talented designers out there that have incredibly creative ideas about good web design.
Now let's be honest: creative web design is never done is isolation. I personally find a lot of great inspiration from others, and attempt to distill the best of what I see into my own designs.
So where does Google Reader fit into this? Well, imagine trying to follow each of these sites (I currently follow over 108 galleries, and design-related blogs). Live bookmarks is unthinkable. Visiting each site would be an absolute nightmare. So I need More >
Cool Ways to Extend Twitter
May 5th
Okay, so I've been getting into Twitter quite a bit lately. I like being able to just post random stuff for people to read that does not require the length of a blog nor the time investment of an IM.
During my experience with Twitter, I've come across some pretty cool ways to extend it that make it easier and a lot more interesting to use.
The first, and most important, is Snitter. Snitter is a desktop client for Twitter that allows you to do pretty much everything you'd do in Twitter, but from the convenience of your desktop. Currently, it has a cap of a certain number of actions per day, but I think that will change as they upgrade their servers and web services. Definitely worth checking out.
The second is Twitty Tunes. This plugin for Firefox and FoxyTunes (you are using Firefox, right???) lets you post any song that is being played straight to Twitter. Additionally, you can use it to post web pages that you are browsing.
Finally, a new site has launched–twistori–which is a pretty interesting experiment with Twitter keywords. This application simply scrapes Twitter for all posts that contain certain keywords (like 'love, hate, believe, etc.') and displays More >
Yet Another Way to Waste My Time…!
May 4th
A while back (probably 3 months, or so), I ran across moshimonsters.com through an online design gallery. At that time, the site was nothing but a landing page, so I paid little attention–other than appreciating the shiny-ness of the design.
Today, this site popped up again on another design gallery, but this time the full application was live. Needless to say, I neglected other responsibilities and dove right in.
Moshi Monsters is an online "monster pet" game. Each person gets to create their own monster, name it, decorate the monster's house, etc. Pretty standard stuff. Oh, and there's the obligatory "games" that help you earn points towards buying food, furniture, and booze for your Moshi Monster.
I've done a million of these before, and have quickly lost interest. What is unique about MM, however, is that it has brought the "digital pet" genre into the Web 2.0 world. Not only can you network with your friends that have their own Moshi's, but the game also integrates nicely with Facebook (and other social networking applications) to extend the experience beyond the confines of the moshimonsters.com site. Plus, the site itself is very enjoyable as it is very professionally animated, and contains alot of fun easter-eggish More >
First Crack at WordPress
May 3rd
So normally I REALLLY prefer custom development to canned solutions. Sure, the pre-built software peices are nice in that they provide out-of-the-box solutions: but the problem is that the solution is not always very useful. End soap-box.
Today I began my first-ever implementation of a site design to WordPress. I've used WordPress for blogging before, but I've never really messed with it from a design standpoint.
My initial impression is that it's okay. Just as with Blogger and other similar services, the plugging in of functionality is sensible enough (although Blogger's tag-based version seems a bit more intuitive…). There are fifteen-billion functions available for getting dates, user scopes, etc. So that's all fine and good.
I guess my biggest objection–and this is true of all software like this–is that styling the default WordPress widgets is a PAIN. There's a lot of un-classed generated code that one has to wade through to get down to very mundane–yet extremely design-important elements like <a> tags. What's more is that these default plugins appear to live outside of the "themes" that one can build. So if one is not interested in traversing several levels of inheritance just to apply a different color to a "Most Recent More >
