Catching Zebra

Featured and over 1000 installs Thanks so much to all the people...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:48:06 PST

Featured and over 1000 installs

Thanks so much to all the people using my theme. And to the Tumblr staff for featuring it. A couple of days ago it jumped over the 1000 installs mark (excluding custom HTML). And this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had been featured.

Ok, I’ll stop posting milestones now.

State of the Internet by Jess3 Matthew Buchanan: A motion...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:37:00 PST

State of the Internet by Jess3

Matthew Buchanan:

A motion type presentation by the Jess3 agency of mostly mind-blowing statistics from the big social networks during 2009.

Facebook’s stats are the most mind blowing. Imagine how many people would use it if it were actually good.

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version by dascottjr

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:20:25 PST

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version by dascottjr

Live preview for Tumblr theming

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:35:00 PST

In response to my comment about a live preview for Tumblr theming, Max Wheeler said:

Hells yes. I await this bundle with bated breath. Though, as Andy mentions: “What I’d LOVE is to be able to see an example of what that is without copying and pasting the code into Tumblr”. The hassle of the copy-paste-preview workflow is one of the things that stop me building more themes for Tumblr.

Max — and anyone else designing themes for Tumblr — what is your process? I’ve only designed one. But I designed the whole thing as a static site with dummy content. Getting it as close to perfect as I possibly could. Then went through the process of adding in all the theme-tags (or whatever they’re called). But once you’ve done that you’ve committed to the copy-paste-preview workflow for refinement and any further updates.

I also did all the copy-paste-previewing on a blog I’d specifically setup with dummy content.

Type Tips—short, quick tips on all things web typography

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:38:55 PST

Type Tips—short, quick tips on all things web typography

ben: I’m working on a TextMate bundle for creating Tumblr...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:34:00 PST

ben:

I’m working on a TextMate bundle for creating Tumblr Themes. It shouldn’t take me too long. When it’s done I’ll probably put it on github for all to enjoy.

Sweet. I use Coda so I don’t really know what TextMate bundles are. I assume it will just insert the correct template code for you. You click on 128x128 Portrait URL and it inserts {PortraitURL-128}

What I’d LOVE is to be able to see an example of what that is without copying and pasting the code into Tumblr. So as you’re designing the preview in Coda looks like it would live. Not like this:

Don’t know if that’s possible, but man, it would be awesome!

RGB Light by Fabian Nehne and Martin Meier

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:06:21 PST

RGB Light by Fabian Nehne and Martin Meier

Jet ski + jet pack It looks dangerous and is, reportedly,...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:05:23 PST

Jet ski + jet pack

It looks dangerous and is, reportedly, incredibly expensive, but there is no denying the near-maximal awesome factor of the Jetlev Flyer. Power comes from a four-stroke engine in a small “boat” which drags in the water behind/below the flying harness, and to which it is tethered by a big yellow hose that supplies high-pressure water and prevents the operator from exceeding a safe altitude.

My birthday’s in May…

Alfred App Alfred is a new launcher app for OS X that’s...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:21:00 PST

Alfred App

Alfred is a new launcher app for OS X that’s competing with Quicksilver, Google Quick Search Box and Spotlight (I guess). But the difference here is that Alfred uses Spotlight’s index for files and applications. Making it crazy fast, with the addition of many Quicksilver-like features.

It does the launching incredibly well. I really like how it displays a list of up to 7 search results straight away, but seems to know which result it is you’re actually looking for.

It has really simplified the launch/search ‘thing’. Which I think Google QSB tried to do, maybe slightly unsuccessfully. The thing that is great about QSB is that it’ll always give you an option to Google something. As it stands, in Alfred, if I search for ‘Coda’ I’m presented with only one option, the app Coda. I’d really like to be able to always Google something.

Another, probably better example: If I type ‘book’ I’m given the results Address Book and FontBook. Now, I’m unlikely to want to google the word ‘book’. But if that option doesn’t come up then I can’t rely on using this to Google things instead of the Quicksilver Google Search thing I have setup.

Note: I realise I can type google at the start of the search to make it search Google. The same way you can type wiki for Wikipedia or images for Google Images. This is probably something I just need to get used to. Or maybe it could be a preferences thing to ‘Always show Google as a search result’.

It hooks in with your bookmarks which is brilliant. But it appears to be pulling my Safari bookmarks, not Chrome which I’m currently using. Also, I almost exclusively use Delicious for my bookmarks. And I use Quicksilver to search them. It would be brilliant if Alfred could pull results from Delicious.

There are many other stranger things that I bet people are holding onto Quicksilver because of. For example, I use it to directly email files to people. I use this many, many times a day and I was kind of hoping that Google QSB would do some of these stranger things. Especially considering it’s developed by the same guy that developed Quicksilver. I really don’t expect an app like Alfred, which is pitched as a launcher to do things like that. I guess Quicksilver’s just starting to feel a bit old and un-loved and it would be nice to see something new come along and replace it.

It has options for your location to be America, Canada, France, UK, Italy etc. so that your Google results are localised. Can we have Australia please?

It’s important to remember that Alfred is still in beta and is already an incredibly good launcher. So, if you’re after one, check it out.

The Bridge by Arman-h

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:42:12 PST

The Bridge by Arman-h

Thanks for all your hard work on the great theme! How can I get the body text font that is used on Catching Zebra?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:31:20 PST

At the moment I’m using a service called TypeKit. But I’m almost certain the license doesn’t extend to having the fonts used on a thousand different sites. So unfortunately the options are to pay for TypeKit or stick with Helvetica.

By Lukasz Biederman

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:59:19 PST

By Lukasz Biederman

By Sam Javanrouh

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:40:27 PST

By Sam Javanrouh

Better Links & Question/Answer Posts Link posts were always...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:45:20 PST

Better Links & Question/Answer Posts

Link posts were always the worst in the theme. So I updated them over the weekend to be a bit more interesting. The link is also set to display:block. So the whole area at the top of a link post is the link, rather than just the text.

Also, people started asking me questions on Tumblr. So I thought it would be appropriate to style answer posts as well.

The update has been submitted to the Tumblr Staff. It should automagically update for people without Custom HTML soon.

I like your theme but it is a little wonky. Right now, previews with embedded flash players don't work. also tags are rendered weird as well. Finally, how do you add links on the sidebar that look like the big menu items?

here is were it all goes to hell:

http://joshmobley.tumblr.com/

that being said, a very elegant design bro.

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:45:00 PST

Hi,

To add links to the navigation you can either do it through Appearance or Pages. Appearance will add links at the bottom of the navigation, Pages will make pages links under the Home link. These can be redirects so they can act as links, or you can make individual pages.

As for everything looking a bit wonky. I really have no idea. It is clearly the flash you’re embedding. But why it’s pushing down the description into the tags, I don’t know.

Maybe try putting you’re audio players into text posts instead. And change the embed code width to 460px wide. So it sits inside a text post.

‘Best campaigns’ a departure from traditional ad ideas, say...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:53:55 PST

‘Best campaigns’ a departure from traditional ad ideas, say industry leaders

The key to winning the [US presidential] election were convincing voters in the state of Florida. And the key to winning Florida was swinging the elderly Jewish vote.

The agency [Droga5] created an online grassroots movement to get Jewish grandchildren to educate their grandparents in Florida about Obama. The idea was driven by a viral film hosted by comedian Sarah Silverman, TheGreatSchlep.com website, a Great Schlep Facebook group and Great Schlep-branded merchandise.

Funny, clever and effective.

Gorillaz - Stylo Bruce Willis is going to get you little...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:07:12 PST

Gorillaz - Stylo

Bruce Willis is going to get you little animated fuckers.

Pink Terror with Steven Hawking by Mike Barz

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:06:03 PST

Pink Terror with Steven Hawking by Mike Barz

by Noah Kalina

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:08:00 PST

by Noah Kalina

The Postal Service - Such Great Heights

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:27:42 PST