Currie Todd | Blog Worthy?

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-22T13:38:00.002+01:00

In light of the all the doom and gloom of the economic down turn, it's refreshing to think that humans haven't lost sight of the things that are truly important in life. So put on some boots and go for a walk, get your hands in dirt, plant a tree or just in enjoy the outdoors. Make a conscious effort to be a part of the solution, not the problem.

Happy Earth Day.

I pitty da Fool

2009-04-01T19:55:00.004+01:00

Cruise over to National Geographic and get a brief history lesson on the ever popular April Fool's Day.

October wallpaper calendar

2008-09-30T17:00:00.010+01:00

With my fascination with skulls (I doodle them on everything) its no wonder that Halloween is one of my favourite holidays. With that in mine, I made myself a new wallpaper calendar for the month of October. I drew it in Illustrator and set it up in Photoshop. I created multiple sizes to share with the peeps.

So if you would like one, you can download the zip file and select your desktop size.

Download Calendar

eco-geek

2008-09-29T15:41:00.002+01:00

Found this over at Engadget…A USB flash drive made from recycled newspaper. Coolness for the eco-geeks.

USB Flash Drive (recycled newspaper)

Happy Birthday Bro

2008-09-02T18:58:00.001+01:00

Shout out to my bro Ben.
Have a good one!

And One for my Homie

2008-09-01T12:00:00.002+01:00

R.I.P. DT.
We will always love you.

Transparent Gradient in Illustrator

2008-08-01T14:19:00.008+01:00

I recently completed some vector illustrations for an up-coming project. Upon review, a friend asked me how I made transparent gradients in Illustrator. Now compared to Photoshop which has opacity is built, this may seem quite difficult to achieve in Illustrator... but using these four steps make it easy.

Step 1.
Create a solid filled object.

Step 2.
Copy and paste the object in front (Control/Cmd + C, then Control/Cmd + F).

Step 3.
Select the solid object on top and make it a gradient from the gradient palette. (Window > Gradient)

Step 4.
Select both objects, now go to your transparency palette. (Window > Transparency)
Open the fly-out menu and click Make Opacity Mask.
Voilà!

16 ÷ 10 = easier

2008-07-26T14:48:00.006+01:00

I use mostly ems for my font sizes in web design. There are certain times when I use % or px, but mostly ems. I typically use a formula where I divide the font size I want in px by 16—which in most cases is the default browser size. Now I actually found this simple math and easy to implement. For example, if I wanted 13px for my font size I simply put 0.8125em.

However, as I was thinking about it, it would probably make more sense to start with 10s (tens) rather than 16s (sixteens). But I guess being American, and having most of my life revolving around 12s, 16s and yards and ounces I didn't think twice. However ~~struggling~~ having a respect for my new homeland in the UK, I figured there must be something behind all this metric stuff. And sure enough 10s are a lot easier!

So, back to the css. I figure if I declared a base font size in the body other than 16 or 1em based on 10 that life could be simpler. So using the same principles as above, I divided 10 by 16 and got 0.625. Which put in a percentage as my base size would allow me to simplify all other fonts sizes. So what use to be 0.8125em for 13px would now become 1.3em. Pretty handy eh!

example:


body {
 font-size: 62.5%;
 font-family: verdana;
}

Now thinking that I may have had a stroke of genius (which is unlikely), I thought I would further research this. Come to find out. . .most people new about this anyhow. So, if you are like me and sometimes slow to catch the bandwagon, I hope this helps.

wordle up!

2008-07-14T20:45:00.005+01:00

Wordle is a java applet that is simply fantastic. Its basic idea is to create/generate a "word cloud." You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and colours. Some of the fonts that have been contributed are from the like of Ray Larabie, and Barry Schwartz.

One thing to note is that the algorithm uses a system in which the more times a word appears the larger it will be. There is an example in the FAQ section that explain this further. With that in mind, I think this can lead to some some very inspiring work. Especially for an unsuspecting client.

Woah, My kid is turning 7

2008-07-09T23:58:00.001+01:00

Yep...My son will be seven this month. I'm starting to feel old. I knew I looked old with the grey hair and all, but jeez.

Quick Look Plugins

2008-07-05T16:47:00.002+01:00

I was searching the other day for quick look plugins. I found this site with some amazing plugins. In fact, there are some that I would have actually thought would have been included in the standard OS. . .but hey that me thinking huh!

Mactrickandtips.com

Happy 4th America

2008-07-04T13:51:00.000+01:00

Happy Independence Day America! Now go blow something up in celebratory fashion

Quick keys for search bar

2008-06-19T10:37:00.006+01:00

So, I may be the last person on the planet to discover this, but I thought I would share it anyway. (Incase I wasn't the last!). Anyhow, if you are like me you love to use key commands when you can. I tend to use Safari (Mac) for most of my browsing. And I have never put too much time into the shortcuts that I used for it, but there was one that I have used for years now that was... well just not right. It was how to get to the search bar quickly. My old method was CMD + L, then Tab. Simple enough, but as I said, not a right. Or at least not a "true" key command shortcut.

Well as a pure fluke, this morning I wanted to search a page for a particular keyword and accidently keyed CMD + Option + F. Voíla! Google search. It is quite obvious after the fact, but if you are like me, and didn't really put it together... now you know.

And knowing is half the battle. You can also find more at Apple

MarsEdit demo test

2008-06-10T12:12:00.002+01:00

I downloaded MarsEdit demo to try for this blog. Seems simple enough (intuitive). Also it beats having to login and post. I can do that all at the comfort of my own tiny window in this app.

I'll post more comments about MarsEdit in the future, as I discover more about it and its use in my workflow.

In Plainview

2008-06-08T10:01:00.001+01:00

There are few times that browsers or browser apps get me excited. Mainly because as a whole, they [browsers] aren't that exciting. Especially when you design and develop websites and apps for them on a daily basis and have to deal more with their short comings rather than their strengths.

Now that said, I have come across a few plug-ins worth mentioning, such as firebug or safaristand. However, recently I downloaded a full-screen web browser called Plainview. Though not that much different from the Safari plug-in saft, Plainview offers full-screen kiosk mode as default in a self-contained app.

This native Cocoa app (built on Webkit), is excellent for the proverbial "dog & pony" show for clients. It even works nicely with Quicktime and Flash. For me this is an awesome piece of software. Mainly because... well it's full-screen! And to be honest, I build things in Flash and XHTML, which is great to show interactivity to clients, but when ran in typical browser is a bit lack lustre with the default "chrome." Nor do I really want to mess with Powerpoint!

In my humble opinion this should definitely be in your application arsenal.

Thou Shalt Always Kill

2008-05-06T20:35:00.005+01:00

Just started to think about this song. Its good but I'm not sure if Dan Le Sac isn't just pontificating. I feel like it doesn't matter what part of the song you hear, it seems somehow to be directed towards the listener in a negative way.

But then again, I buy Nestlé, and think that guns, bitches and bling are apart of the four basic elements.

Reboot in effect

2008-05-01T16:25:00.002+01:00

May1st Reboot is in effect. Voting is for one week, starting on—you guessed it, May 1st.

If you would like to vote for me you can visit my profile and click on the vote "thumb" at the top.

Thanks.

Don't forget Moustache May

2008-05-01T16:12:00.003+01:00

Its here. May that is. And it is the official kick off of "Moustache May," or for those south of the border "Mustachio de Mayo." (Thank god for 8th grade spanish)

So, lads be sure to join in. I will be attempting my on own tache.

May 1st Reboot

2008-04-24T01:16:00.001+01:00

Well I officially pulled down the old site for May 1st Reboot. It will be down for one week whilst I get the "new" site together. See ya on the 1st.

Luscious Laptop Deux

2008-04-23T19:01:00.004+01:00

Yeah, so a few weeks ago I mention that there was a company (urbanretro.co.uk) that had stickers for your laptop. Well they were nice, but I couldn't justify them on something as nice a Macbook pro. Somehow think they sort of cheapen the look of the machine.

However, today I stumbled upon this bad boy! A fully laser engraved laptop. Now in my opinion, this in no way detracts from the original look and feel of the laptop. In fact, I think it is pretty damn nice.

Anyhow you can view more on the flickr site or visit engraveyourtech.com

Sexy Boy...

2008-04-23T11:36:00.005+01:00

Holy crap time flies! Air Moon Safari is being re-released for its 10th anniversary.

Some people are just born to trade.

2008-04-20T10:53:00.002+01:00

Though cliché, and one of the oldest tricks in the game (the talking baby), the E*trade baby ad from the Superbowl super commercial time, is probably one of the funniest ads I've seen. I think it has to do with the VO more than anything else. His voice is just "real" to me. Being originally from America, I feel like I know that guy.

Geo mapping

2008-04-13T10:29:00.003+01:00

A few years back I worked as a graphic designer/exhibit designer for a natural history museum. During that time a gain a fascination with maps and geo-topo art. And being a fan of google earth and maps.google.com, it was pleasant surprise when I stumbled across this site yesterday. Mygeoposition has several tools available. Including:

Geocoding of worldwide addresses
Finetuning of the position using a drap & drop marker
Automated creation of geo-metatags for websites and weblogs
Automated creation of geotags for websites, weblogs and images
and much much more....

If you are into geo-positioning or need to have specific map content for a client, it is definitely worth checking out.

Luscious Laptop or not.

2008-03-28T10:15:00.002Z

Though the art work is fabulous, I'm not sure that I could justify it on a $2500 Macbook Pro. That said, I highly suggest giving a peek at these GELASKINS over at www.urbanretro.co.uk. They bring back memories of my school days with drawings and band cover art on all my textbook covers. You know, the brown paper covers that weren't cool unless you have the latest rock band photo plastered to it.

Also noted is the artwork of artist Audrey Kawasaki. Her work is some of the coolest I've seen in recent date. So, that said, if I were to sticker up my laptop it would probably be with one of her's.

Malakai.. er Lakai fully flared

2008-02-06T00:33:00.009Z

Was working late and spent some time surfing to break from the monotony and found this awesome intro video for Lakai footwear by Spike Jonze (yeah the skinny guy in Three Kings). I doubt it will be out on the web for long before Lakai pull the copyright card... but here it is for now.