Cameron Moll's Blog, page 40

Design Swap: Phil Coffman vs. Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain

Design Swap: Phil Coffman vs. Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain:

A sort of Layer Tennis-like collaboration on a design (this one appropriately titled "Butterfly Invasion"), as well as exchanging each other's Twitter accounts for a day.

Minor correction: The image featured on the Design Swap page was done by the Design Swap crew. Phil and Jesse executed the two designs (featured in the image collage) on each other's Twitter accounts.

Which Video DSLR to Buy?

Which Video DSLR to Buy?:

Nobody does video DSLR reviews like Philip Bloom. Always extensive, and always with extraordinary sample videos. (Related, I'm hoping to join Philip for a full-day workshop next March in Miami.)

Helvetica vs. Arial App

Helvetica vs. Arial App:

Hint: The tail on the 'a' is a dead giveaway, every time.

24 ways: Golden Spirals

24 ways: Golden Spirals:

While the tutorial has no real practical application, the closing paragraph sums up why you should give it a read nonetheless:

[This] has been a good excuse to play with proportions, positioning and the immediate child selector, as well as new CSS3 features such as border-radius and RGBA colours. If you are not already designing with golden proportions, then perhaps this will inspire you to begin.

Back Online

Back Online:

Mark Wyner's frank but optimistic remarks on yesterday's major Tumblr outage:

This was related to a colossal database-cluster failure with Tumblr, the publishing system I use to publish my posts. The rest of my site, outside the Tumblr network, was in good order. But it sucked all the same.

I forgive Tumblr, though. They're in their infancy and are still building a network which is capable of handling the increasing volumes of traffic they receive. Hopefully they got the kinks worked out so I can continue to oblige my addiction.

My site, on the other hand, is fully dependent on Tumblr. I suppose I should be more cautious about being at the mercy of a free service. Then again, Twitter is a free service, and if it were down for 24+ hours, not just individuals but businesses, too, would be up in arms.

While we don't pay services such as Tumblr and Twitter in monetary means, we do pay them in usage, not to mention attention given to any revenue-generating services (i.e. ads or sponsored items). This usage and attention is what attracts the huge sums of investment dollars these kinds of companies acquire. In the end, if our attention and usage cannot be "paid" to these free services, it's likely we'll pay them elsewhere.

I've been pretty forgiving of Tumblr's downtime and will probably continue to forgive for a little while. But if it keeps up, I'll have to spend my imaginary (or actual) pennies on another service.

GOOD: Holiday Gift Guide 2010

GOOD: Holiday Gift Guide 2010:

This list is probably unlike most others you'll see this year. Instead of tech gadgets and such, GOOD asked a number of notable people what they recommend for gift giving. Here's Corby Kummer, food writer for the Atlantic:

The greatest gift is to give someone three hours and help them throw out junk they don't need, find out who locally takes what, and buy file folders. But really making people give out and throw away excess stuff is the real gift, and takes an objective and lovingly ruthless friend to get it done.

Peter Smith:

I think sardines are a great gift that no one gives any more.

And Corby Kummer, once again:

More time and general forgiveness for late replies to emails.

Yes, please.

TweetMag Screenshots

TweetMag Screenshots:

I use Flipboard almost daily to flip through content posted by those I follow on Twitter. It's a fantastic app. Now, the team at Teehan+Lax have been developing a similar app, and it looks to be even more fantastic than Flipboard. It has the typography and design you'd expecting from the discerning eye of Geoff Teehan, Jon Lax, and the rest of their crew.

For a demo video, check out Alexander Vaughn's "First Look At TweetMag – The Flipboard Killer." (And for the record, I think the latter half of that article's title is unnecessary — I think Flipboard and TweetMag can co-exist just fine.)

Handpicked Job Openings

What a marvelous time of the year. Frank Sinatra, Philadelphia Brass Ensemble, and other classics are in full rotation.

If things aren't quite as jolly for you, or if you're wishing they were a bit more merry and work is to blame, I've thumbed through the listings on Authentic Jobs. Featured below are some of these.

Senior Web Application Engineer
SlideShowPro
Anywhere in the U.S.
"You would be joining a small, highly motivated software development team where you'll have significant input in our development process and overall product direction. We're not just looking for a great coder, but someone who's passionate about product development and design and can serve as a high-level participant in taking SlideShowPro forward."

Designer for an Automotive Marketing Company
Showroom Logic
Anywhere
"We are starting out looking for a couple freelancers and then will be offering a full-time position for those designers who have 'it'. We don't need your resume. Could care less about your education. We will be able to see if you rock based on the designs you send in. We are well-funded so our budget isn't tight. Willing to pay top dollar for a top designer."

UI Designer
Senior Theme Developer / Front-End Developer
New York, NY
"We're looking for a talented Front-End Developer (Drupal Theme Developer) to join our growing team. Position is in-house at the Sony Music office in midtown Manhattan, but qualified out-of-town applicants who are willing to relocate are encouraged to apply."

Front End Web Developer
frog design
New York
"These are the words of the hiring manager, unadulterated by passing through HR/Recruiting: 'I know I'm probably asking for a lot, but the gist of it is that I want someone who almost considers themselves more of a designer or creative than a developer and I want them to really care about the quality of work that they produce. Someone with a bit of ambition, who can analyze designs and can efficiently communicate their work.'"

User Experience Designer
Naviance
Washington, DC or Oakland, CA
"Naviance combines the resources of a multi-billion dollar global corporation with the soul of a start-up. We're looking for energetic, creative, and ambitious professionals who are seeking exciting opportunities for extraordinary growth. Our ideal candidate will be an excellent communicator with a mix of left and right brain skills."

WordPress-loving Developer
Chicago Tribune
Chicago, Illinois
"Gear you'll get: One shiny, new MacBook Pro. One CDM (Cheap Dell Monitor). One comfy Aeron chair, all at a desk somewhere in the Tribune newsroom, where you'll be surrounded by reporters arguing with the cops, yelling about the ball game, telling crazy stories, and otherwise practicing their trade."

Community Manager
Milkshake
Austin, TX
"Monitor the online community daily, reading as many discussions/threads and profiles as possible, interacting where appropriate. This position is part time, 10-15 hours a week."

Creative Designer
Hotels.com
London
"If you're familiar with our site, you'll definitely be interested to hear we're growing our visual design team as part of an effort to re-think and re-execute the visual design of Hotels.com."

Chief Architect
Bazaarvoice
Austin, TX
"The Chief Architect will report directly to the CTO and will be responsible for leading a small team to research new technologies, tools, and processes to drive rapid innovation across Bazaarvoice's extensive product and technology spectrum."

Digital (Web/Mobile/Tablet) Designer
USA Today
McLean, Virginia
"USA TODAY offer great health benefits, a state-of-the-art gym and training staff, an amazing building, and beautiful grounds that include a track, volleyball court, basketball and tennis courts and a full size softball field complete with bleachers."

Gowalla 3.0 Adds Foursquare, Facebook Places Integration

Gowalla 3.0 Adds Foursquare, Facebook Places Integration:

Founder Josh Williams:

Gowalla is now the easiest and best way to keep up with your friends across services with a combined activity tab that merges the whereabouts of your Gowalla, Facebook and Foursquare friends. Additionally, Gowalla now supports checking in on both Facebook Places and Foursquare in addition to sharing with both Twitter and Tumblr.

I'd say this was a gutsy move by the Gowalla team, but that wouldn't be true — rest assured this was a very calculated move.

From what I can tell, none of the three leading services (Gowalla, Foursquare, Facebook Places) have hit critical mass yet, so they're all vying for attention from — and leadership among — users. It's not unlike the early days of Twitter when Pownce was a solid competitor. It didn't take long for Twitter to hit critical mass, and Pownce didn't last long after that. But I don't think we'll see the same happen (at least not as swiftly) with location check-ins, which means Gowalla, Foursquare, and Facebook Places will probably co-exist for the foreseeable future.

Nice move, Gowalla.

Valio Con 2011

Valio Con 2011:

I like the sales pitch: "Featuring talks from the 'un-sung' heroes in the industry on a variety of topics to get you inspired." With catering by In-N-Out and a bonfire on the beach to kick things off, this California kid is tempted to book a flight for next May. (Early bird special ends December 10.)