Flat is back

I say that flat is the new black; that 2D is the new avant-garde; that a surface doesn't have to be ashamed of being a surface. Technology users of the world, unite: you have nothing to lose but your bas-relief buttons. Let us march forwards together, spurning chrome, into a cleaner, lighter future.
More here

This will change your life

OK, maybe the headline might be a bit strong. Especially if you don't use InDesign everyday. But if you do, you need to get LayoutZone. And best of all it won't cost you a cent.

LayoutZone allows multiple InDesign users to work on different sections of the same page simultaneously and with more control. LayoutZone lets you quickly select several InDesign page elements or frames and automatically convert them to a Placed InDesign file (.indd) for editing outside the master document. Once external editing is complete, a seamless round trip workflow automatically converts the linked InDesign file back into native objects.

See it in action here.

FÜÇ#!∏G Software

3 days of work. Suddenly gone. WTF is this supposed to mean? Any idea what an Offending operator: '%%HiResBoundingBox: -1229.2598 -6416.8828 is?
//
UPDATE: With some blind re-coding of the Illustrator file I can sleep again. Thanks to the help of some people a lot more clever than I (that’s you Jason!). If you have the same problem follow this link, and most importantly, don’t panic.

There is no Coke.

In the Matrix there was no spoon. Now it looks like there really doesn't have to be. Augmention and Holograms are set to screw with our brains as advertising and product displays go 10 steps further.

48hr Mag

Here’s how it works: Issue Zero begins May 7th. We'll unveil a theme and you’ll have 24 hours to produce and submit your work. We'll take the next 24 to snip, mash and gild it. The end results will be a shiny website and a beautiful glossy paper magazine, delivered right to your old-fashioned mailbox. We promise it will be insane. Better yet, it might even work.

I think it’s a brilliant idea, so I’ve signed up. Mind you the timezones might be a problem as it is scheduled to start at 4am. Awesome. Find out more here.

Error

You’ve got to be kidding… Seems to me like you slipped a double space in there while no one was looking. And a prime instead of an apostrophe. Like I wouldn’t notice in my fury when you crashed my illustration.

Google Teleporter

With a big enough screen, and high enough resolution you almost feel as if you are there, just after a fleet of road-rollers has flattened every car in the city. Love it.

This is what our design sounds like

Groovy.

Vector in and Enhance godamit

Zooom.

The future of (interactive) magazines

Sports Illustrated has some very interesting ideas for the future of a magazine. I’ve been following/learning the development of interactivity of the pdf format (via inDesign and Acrobat) but this it something else. (watch at fullscreen for the real deal).



Via John Nack

Eric's head

Eric Testroete wins the award for best Halloween costume ever. Brilliant. Quite brilliant. And disturbing.

PhotoSketch, or ComputerShop™

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

Wow. This could do me out of a job. I have concerns about the legalities of the image selections but love the technology. Try it here. Via Creativebits.

In your Facebook

Something isn’t right here. I realise that Facebook has redefined what ‘friend’ can mean, but ‘like’? Get real. Get smarter. Do 4 people really ‘like’ this? I think not.

Google in an emergency

A handy use for Google Maps for planning an escape route to the impending Tsunami alert here in NZ.


View Tsunami Arrival Times in a larger map

10.6 glitches and fixes

It is been a couple of weeks with 10.6 and at I feel that my initial apprehension of upgrading blindly was largely unfounded. That said I did clone my HD before (as I do weekly anyway) and ran TimeMachine (as I do regularly). Justin Case. and here’s what I found.
1/ Freehand MX bombed. Completely. Bounced on the dock a couple of times then nothing. Nada. Zip. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my Adobe stuff, but sometimes FH is better. Much better. It is like my sketch pad before Illustrator, and a future without it was looking pretty bleak. Luckily after an hour or two hunting I found that the problem was because I only has a single user license and as we speak this is a big problem. The solution:
You reboot from a version of 10.5 you have as a backup. (I love you SuperDuper!) (System Preferences>Startup Disc) then open FH. Open FHMX, Help>Transfer Licence>Quit. Open FHMX again and enter a volume license. Let’s be clear; I paid good money for my software and expect it to work when I am. It’s just that the single user license isn’t supported and I have bills to pay and brief to meet. I am not supporting cracked apps at all but if you are in the same situation as me you will need a volume license like this WPD700-59309-14394-64786 to get back on your feet while Adobe sorts things out. Quit FH again and Reboot with your 10.6 Startup Disc. FH is back.
2/ Bold fonts in Firefox having upgraded to 10.6. While not a big problem it was annoying. And the fix for me was quite simple. I figured it was a Firefox issue, but as it happens all I needed to do was purge my font caches. I run Suitcase Fusion 2, so I quit the Core (System Preferences>Fusion Core>Stop). Opened Font Doctor X>Tools>Clear font Caches and restart.
Business as usual.

Where is the internet?

2 Degrees

At last some solid news about the long awaited third mobile carrier in NZ. NZ Communications or whatever they were have emerged as 2 Degrees. Hang onto your hats chaps. I think things are going to get interesting, and hopefully we can actually TALK about it, not just flamin’ text to one another. Here’s hoping.

Typealyzer tells it like it is

If you haven’t heard of Typealyzer I’ll fill you in: It’s an app that processes the content of a blog and spits out the personality of the author; thus:

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment and are highly skilled at seeing and fixing what needs to be fixed. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Sounds a lot like me. Hours of fun on a Friday (and a useful too to understand potential audiences).

DIY Amazon

If you didn’t know already you can create custom Amazon store (an astore) to sell Amazon’s stuff, and as far as I understand it you get a referral fee for each item bought through your link. A clever little way for the big A to get more product under your noses and as a way of getting other people to filter Amazon’s vast product range to a specific audience, making the experience more relevant.
Merlin Mann has pushed it a bit further, and I have to admit that I quite like it. (Be sure to visit his blog too, in case you weren’t quite sure of his angle).

Read this: Wikinomics

You might have heard a rumour that I have been hanging about in Malaysia for most of October. It wasn’t all white sandy beaches and cocktails at sunset, I also did some serious reading in between. One of the books I have been pushing on just about everyone I have met since is Wikinomics. If you haven’t heard of it read this. If you have heard of it buy it (although I prefer the UK cover, as it was orchestrated by my friends at We Made This). It is the first book on economics I have read. It could be the only one, but it is brilliant, and while they didn’t predict the current collapse of the stockmarket they are on the money for every other page.