Faruk Ates just asked on Twitter about:

“You know, wouldn’t it make more sense if Twitter made geo-coordinates as the Location field a hyperlink to Google Maps?” - @KuraFire

And he’s right. Most twitter clients for mobile devices (including Twitterific for the iPhone, my Twitter client of choice) set your location to your current coordinates, because that’s what the API for the internal GPS returns. But it’s hardly helpful. I’m currently at 47.270721, 11.409668 but without the Google Maps link noone would know where those coordinates are.

Since I’ve been working a lot with JavaScript lately, I figured I could just write a simple Greasemonkey userscript that remedies that problem. So, without much further ado, I give you the Twitter Google Maps Link Greasemonkey script!

You need the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox or another browser with userscript support (Opera 8+, IE, …). There’s a Greasemonkey extension for almost every browser but I’ll just refer you to the Greasemonkey Wikipedia Article.

Just install my script

• either from the userscripts.org page
• or download from here

and browse to your favourite twitter user pages (for example @aetherworld ;) It also works for non-coordinate locations like on @KuraFire’s twitter page. Enjoy!

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: extension, free, greasemonkey, software, tools, twitter, userscript

About 8 months ago, I happened across Throwboy. They had come up with the idea of making OS X dock icons as hand sewn soft furnishings! Back then I was in the process of moving into my new flat and the last thing I was worrying about were couch pillows. But the idea sounded so cool it kept nagging at the back of my mind. So, in November, I decided to order two of their dock pillows.

I know, this is why Mac users get the “cultist” label but I still think these Apple icon pillows are adorable. You can choose from Finder, Dashboard, iTunes, iChat, iPhoto and Photo Booth. Each one is hand-made with fleece and filled with polyester fiber. They are $29 each or $149 for the whole set. And even though I missed out on the set price, I’ll still get the rest of the pillows, they are just too cute.

They are shipping internationally and really, really care about their customers. Thank you Roberto and the rest of the Throwboy team.

Throwboy rocks!

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

This May, Adobe released limited Beta editions of the forthcoming 4th edition of their Creative Suite. I had the fortune to try out Dreamweaver CS4 and Fireworks CS4. Those who had access to the Beta versions gained some insight regarding the stage of development, but Adobe remained guarded over the planned features of the other CS applications.

Now, Adobe is officially announcing the 4th version of the Creative Suite on September 23rd. Before you all get the wrong idea, this is NOT the release date but rather the official unveiling of the release date along with the feature set and a lot more details about the applications. You can register to view a special web broadcast that will take place on the 23rd.

Photoshop CS4 (codenamed Stonehenge) will apparently support 64-bit systems (at the moment only for Windows). It will also offer a palette of Flash-tools and support the import of 3D wireframe models.

Once I know more, you can read all about it here!

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, adobe, cs4, release, software

This is a no-brainer but….

I know that some of my readers (shame on them) don’t know about A List Apart or the annual Web Design Survey, so I feel obliged to tell you about it.

The web design industry exists for more than a dozen years, yet there is a strange absence of data about our profession. A List Apart is trying to change that. With their second annual survey for people who make websites, you can help them collecting more statistical data. If you’re a web designer of any description, you should fill it out – it only took me a few minutes to do so.

The 2008 survey corrects many of last year’s mistakes, giving more detailed questions for freelance contractors and owners of small web businesses. There are also better international categories (good for me), and many other improvements recommended by those who took the survey last year.

If you, too, are from Europe, here is the current exchange rate: 1 € = 1,54 US $. Remember that you might get 13 or 14 annual salaries.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, a list apart, survey, webdesign

Axel Peemoeller designed this great way-finding-system for the Eureka Tower Carpark in Melbourne, Australia. It consists of giant words that only snap into focus when you drive in the right direction, providing strong orientational cues.

I always loved anamorphic images and this is a both brilliant and useful implementation. The project won several international design awards.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anamorphic, architecture, axel peemoeller, design, eureka tower carpark, melbourne

At work, I often have to deal with hidden files - or dot-files - in the OS X Finder. I usually have a TextMate project for every client website where I can open all files from the convenient project drawer but often I just have to quickly edit a line in a .htaccess or .htpasswd file and don’t feel like opening the whole TextMate project. On the other hand, I dont’t always want to see all hidden files in all folders. My home folder is littered with .ssh, .gpg, .DS_Store, .localized, .bashrc, .Trash etc. files which I don’t need to see most of the time.

Since it’s apparently impossible to modify the Finder so that it only shows hidden files in certain directories or it only shows hidden files matching certain criteria, I looked for another solution. Using defaults write in the Terminal, you can change the Finders settings and persuade it to display the hidden files on the filesystem, but I can also just use ls -al or mate ~/Projects/myproject/.htaccess to fire up TextMate directly with the .htaccess file opened, when I’m in the Terminal.

What I was looking for was a simple button in the Finder’s menu bar, that allowed me to toggle between hiding and showing those files. What I came up with is a small application that does just that. It doesn’t ask you whether you really want to toggle showing the hidden files, it doesn’t give you any options, you just click the button and can see all of your hidden files. And when you don’t need to see them anymore, they’re gone - at another click of the button. Convenient, isn’t it?

Here is how you use it:

1. Download FinderToggleHiddenFiles.dmg and mount it
2. Copy the ‘Toggle Hidden Files’ application to your Applications folder
3. Go to your Applications folder and find the ‘Toggle Hidden Files‘ application
4. Drag the ‘Toggle Hidden Files’ application to the free space on your Finder’s menu bar

Note: When dragging, hold it for a while until you see the green + icon next to your cursor.

This works on Tiger (10.4) and Leopard (10.5) on both PPC and Intel.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2008. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: app, dot-files, finder, hidden, leopard, os x, toggle

For a project I’m currently working on, I needed to pick a good font. Now the target audience of this project is very different from the audience of the projects I was involved with so far: It’s going to a be a website for children.

Children are just in the process of learning to read and how written words relate to sounds and spoken words. The efforts of young readers need to be supported by making sure the texts are not only easy to understand but also are set in inviting, easy-to-read typefaces.

Ilene Strizver’s article on Typography for Children on fonts.com helped me a great deal in picking the right font. And in case you’re interested, I went with Gill Sans Schoolbook (the Open Type version is called Gill Sans Infant).

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children, fonts, gill sans, opentype, projects, typography

I just stumbled across a really innovative design idea for wine labels via Noisy Decent Graphics.

If you’re at a friends place for dinner and you have a really, really nice bottle of wine, how often do you remember its name when you’re shopping for wine again? Most of us have better things to remember, anyway. Or maybe you’re a bit tipsy and won’t even remember whether it was a bottle of red or a bottle of white. Anyway, this is one of the ideas that makes you smack your head and ask yourself why you didn’t think of this

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: design, labels, packaging, products, wine

Finally, an answer to that almost biblical question.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: browsers, design, websites

Alberto Seveso is a freelance graphics designer living in Rome. I knew his old site but somehow forgot about it. Today I stumbled across his new portfolio via agenturblog. Alberto has a few phantastic works on his page, almost all of them surreal photomontages.

In his shop you can buy great prints or even just the digital version as a PDF, where you have to organize the printing yourself. A neat idea.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: albertoseveso, design, photography, photomontage

Since the last rebranding of Adobe’s design suite has been nine months ago (remember the Periodic Table o’ Elements?), apparently it’s time for another new logo, this time for the Photoshop “family” of applications.

Opinions? Well, apparenty it represents a P. At least according to John Nack, who also has more details on the whole rebranding thing. It’s a speech bubble. Yes, another one. Welcome to the bandwagon! And it’s in 3D with glossy finish, practically screaming “photoshop filters!”. Where’s the lens flare?

Anyway, while the logo might not please everybody (judging from a lot of not so nice comments on John’s post), at least it seems Adobe has finally rediscovered Photoshop as a valuable brand.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: adobe, brandname, cs3, design, logos, marketing, photoshop

I just stumbled over this roundup of web2.0 logos all featuring a speech bubble. I didn’t realize it was that prevalent.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: design, logos, marketing, web2.0

Joen of Noscope has just suggested, what I’ve been trying to tell people for nearly a year. With the advent of pages commonly referred to as “Web 2.0” sites, the styling of inline or AJAX links became an issue. Usually links have to be indicated to the user, since clicking them slowly loads a whole different page and the user is unable to interact with the current page. The common indicator we use for links is the hand cursor.

AJAX or JavaScript links, however, immediately change a part of the page you’re looking at, without reloading the whole page and without disturbing the user experience. The user can still interact with the page. For example on Pageflakes - the personalized start page I’m using - you can find both types of links: normal ones that take you to another page and AJAX links that allow you to edit settings or reload embedded RSS feeds. The cursor for both types of links is the same, a hand. For the Web-savvy, this might not pose much of a problem, we intuitively know most of the time what type of link we deal with but for other users, this can be increasingly difficult to discern.

The solution Joen proposes, and what I have previously used in these cases, is simply not changing the cursor at all. In reality, it’s not a link, it’s more of a pushbutton that looks different, so why not use the same cursor we use for buttons?

The implementation is rather easy as it only requires a simple cursor: default; rule. To allow for fallback (if the user has no JavaScript, the AJAX link becomes a normal link), I just embedd the stylesheet with JavaScript so I get a hand cursor for people without JavaScript, where the link actually reloads the page and a default cursor (pointer) for people where the link only affects the current page.

Adding a stylesheet via Javascript is rather easy too:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--//--><![CDATA[//><!--
 	if( document.getElementById && document.createElementNS && document.getElementsByTagName ) {
		var javacss = document.createElementNS( "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml", "link" );
		if( javacss ) {
			javacss.setAttribute( "rel", "stylesheet" );
			javacss.setAttribute( "type", "text/css" );
			javacss.setAttribute( "href", "/_css/java.css" );
			javacss.setAttribute( "media", "all" );
			document.getElementsByTagName( "head" )[0].appendChild( javacss );
		}
	} else {	

		document.write( '<link rel="stylesheet" href="/_css/java.css" type="text/css" media="all" />' );
	}

//--><!]]>

</script>

So, what do you think?

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: accessibility, ajax, css, design, usability, userinterface, web2.0, webdesign

The latest viral marketing campaign by Nokia is again beautifully done, consisting of a website complete with videos, victim reports and posters warning of jealous computers attacking their owners when they buy or use a Nokia N95. As a nice twist, users can upload their own videos, pictures or stories of attacks and receive a specially designed T-Shirt.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ads, advertising, design, marketing, nokia, viral, website

Digitally manipulated images of people kissing themselves. “Sort of disturbingly erotic, in an erotically disturbing way.”, as Kottke said.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: design, kissing, photography, photoshop

The Spanish advertising agency minnim made a great ad for 5 segons, a campaign of the Banc de Sang i Teixits, a Spanish public company that manages and administers the donation, transfusion and analysis of blood and blood plasma.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ads, advertising, design, flash, minnim

Have a look at New York-based conceptual photographer Phillip Toledano’s portfolio for some really nice and inspirational photographic work. Some limited edition prints can be purchased online at Gild.

Mr. Toledano (by the way, I just love the entrance page (archive.org link) thinks, that every photograph should be like an unfinished sentence or part of a story and in pursuit of this, he has amassed a dazzling portfolio of original photography. The stories the photographs tell are so thought through and engrossing, it’s definitely worth a look.

Phillip Toledano, a lover of photography since he was eleven, was born in London and currently resides and works in New York.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: photography, website

Three days ago, I posted about the imminent release of the Optimus Maximus Keyboard by the russian design studio Art. Lebedev. Now, the countdown on their website finally reached zero and we get to see the details of the 1500$ keyboard:

• Keyboard Dimensions: 53.7cm x 17.3cm x 3.8cm
• Key Dimensions: 2.02cm x 2.02cm
• Visible OLED area: 1.01cm
• Resolution of each key: 48px x 48px
• Frame Rate: min. 10 frames per second
• Color: 65536
• Viewing Angle: 160°
• Connection: USB2.0
• OS: Windows XP / Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher

To enhance the life of the OLED displays and the ribbon cables used to control them, Art Lebedev Studios decided to make every button a module consisting of a chip, the OLED display and a moving, transparent cap. Since only the plastic cap is moving, the displays have a much higher lifespan.

Preorders can be placed now. The price is US$ 1564 or approximately € 1257.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: keyboard, maximus, optimus, patent, review, russia, usability

I just noticed an interesting article on color blindness over at Pixelgraphix. Color Oracle helps webdesigners to view in real time, what a website would look like for people suffering from one of the various color blindnesses. The filter is applied to the whole screen so it’s completely independent from the browser and even works with images in Photoshop.

Color Oracle is free and available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: accessibility, color, colorblindness, colororacle, design, review, software, tools, usability, webdesign

We often see massively hyped products which then fail to emerge as their release date is postponed time and time again. The correct term for these products is Vaporware.

The Optimus Maximus Keyboard of Art. Lebedev Studio could fit this description. First announced in 2005, the release was postponed twice. To be more cost-effective, the technical specification of the keyboard changed and after another postponed release were changed back to the original.

Especially at an estimated price tag of $1500 for a keyboard, noone would be interested in the product anymore. But the much-hyped and long-awaited Optimus Maximus keyboard is different. Behind each of its 113 keys, a small 48x48 pixel OLED display works its magic, allowing the user to change the picture on each key. Custom keyboard layouts or shortcuts can be switched easily on a per-application basis.

Today, Art. Lebedev Studio announced via a countdown on their website that they will apparently start taking pre-orders from computer owners with more money than sense in roughly 3 days. Only 800 keyboards will be shipped until end of January 2008, ensuring that the price is kept high.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: design, keyboard, maximus, optimus, russia

About three years ago a new NYC subway map design by Eddie Jabbour, graphic designer for Kick Design, started to find its way to the internet. It had issues but it was much better than the current MTA design in that it tried to focus on stations instead of trains. People using the subway want to get from point A to point B in the shortest possible time so they look for stations close to those points, not for specific trains.

Encouraged by the positive feedback, Eddie contacted the MTA but was quickly put off:

… when he showed up at the agency’s Midtown offices with copies of his work, they were quick to find fault with it. According to Christopher Boylan, the transportation authority’s executive director of corporate and community affairs, who recalled the meeting, the main criticism was that Mr. Jabbour’s map, like Mr. Vignelli’s, was artistic but geographically inaccurate. “He’s a good designer and it’s an interesting map,” Mr. Boylan said. “The design is important, but the thing we’re concerned with is the best directional guidance. We design a map for use, not solely to look good, and we think it looks good.”

Original map on the left, the Kickmap on the right.

But Eddie Jabbour is not a man easily deterred. He works on his maps on weekends and nights with the feedback of his 17-year old daughter.

Criticism that Eddie’s map is geographically inaccurate is inappropriate as most people use road maps or street signs for that type of information. As previously mentioned, the usability should focus on the key features of subway lines - something the Kickmap gets right.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cities, design, eddiejabbour, kickmap, map, newyork, service, subway, usability

What started as a side project for Dan Benjamin and Dan Cederholm on a Mac Mini in a collocation facility has grown to be one of the largest online communities for wine tasting. In about one year the site amassed about 20.000 users. A lovely design paired with a big community got the site quite far.

This week, the creators of Cork’d announced the sale of the site to Gary Vaynerchuk, the host of WLTV. A really nice outcome for everyone, especially since Gary seems to be a guy who understands the values of good design and a community. If you haven’t seen him before, watch this little summary - it’s worth it.

Congratulations to they guys from the iceberg!

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: corkd, danbenjamin, dancederholm, garyvaynerchuk, hivelogic, simplebits, tundro, webdesign, website, wine, wltv

Rain Noe wrote an article on Apple’s new Touchscreen patent:

Touchscreens have one single but, as of yet, unadressed design flaw: your finger on the screen is obscuring the very elements you’re interacting with. This has several implications for the user interface, for example buttons need to be quite large so you can still see them.

Never fear though, the clever designers from Cupertino have come up with a solution for this particular dilemma. It’s still only a patent and I would be very surprised if this ever made it into a real product but it’s nevertheless a cool and unique idea.

Basically it’s an iPod or (i)Phone with a screen covering the whole front of the device. A transparent control layout on the screen allows interaction. The difference is, you’re not touching the screen, you touch the back, the opposite side of the controls. A cursor is shown to give you visual feedback on the position of your fingers and if you press harder, the device registers it as a click.

Since your fingers end up on the back of the iPod anyway, simply by virtue of holding the thing, it sounds like a pretty good idea. The whole thing, especially the cursor and “press harder to click” function might take a bit of getting used to but I’m sure Apple’s designers and engineers could come up with something.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: apple, design, feedback, patent, touchscreen, userinterface

The stars finally seem to be in a good constellation for web designers this month. Adobe shipped Creative Suite 3, CSS Edit was upgraded to 2.5 and we are seeing the first Alphas of Firefox 3. Iwas even more excited, when Steven F. commented on Panic’s 10 Year Anniversary:

“It is by a more or less random coincidence that on the day after our company’s tenth birthday, we will be conducting by far our biggest, most ambitious new software launch of all time. I hope you’ll come by to check it out, especially if you make web sites.”

What Panic released a few days later reminded me once again why a Mac is the best platform for developing websites: Coda is just the application I’ve been waiting for all my life. I’m not merely enthused, I’m seriously stunned.

Coda is a single, tiny application which handles all your webdesign needs. Editing (X)HTML and CSS, previewing, FTP (of course), Terminal access and a great reference book, all in one. The Panic team introduces Coda with the words:

“So, we code web sites by hand. And one day, it hit us: our web workflow was wonky. We’d have our text editor open, with Transmit open to save files to the server. We’d be previewing in Safari, running queries in Terminal, using a CSS editor, and reading references on the web. ‘This could be easier,’ we realized. ‘And much cooler.’”

You can read more by Panic co-founders Steven Frank and Cabel Sasser. And John Gruber also has a nice review of Coda on his web site.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: allinone, coda, css, design, html, online, panic, review, software, webdesign, xhtml

Web 2.0 in style? Now it’s Web 2.5 in style! Macrabbit has released version 2.5 of their great CSS editor. And best of all, it’s a free upgrade for owners of the previous version.

© Alex for aetherworld.org, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: css, cssedit, design, free, macrabbit, software, tools, update, web2.0, webdesign