PIXELogics

American Anthem

St.G — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:24:18 +0000

This year on Memorial Day, I was compelled to put this piece together in honor of all those lost in service and to inspire those who are still out there.

Royalty-Free Download: AudioJungle
Related: Vietnam Memorial Wall Print (on my other site)

Photo by: Jon Bergeron

Adobe CS5 Unfortunate Grand Opening

St.G — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:40:46 +0000

Adobe seems to have really positioned itself simultaneously as the victim and victor in its Creative Suite 5 Launch Event today. I really have to say bravo to the Adobe team for not changing its launch presentation videos to reflect the new Apple restrictions on developer software. For those who do not know, the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement states:

“3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).”

What this means is that some of the key new features in the CS5 suite that allow developers to create applications in Flash and export as an App Store-friendly product are no longer viable. I am sure that when Adobe produced these videos, their intent wasn’t to stir up negative emotions towards Apple, but it did. In fact, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if lawyers will be involved soon.

EDIT: Rumors suggest I’m right…

Wasn't while shooting, but this still works for disappointment.

Adobe’s suite of products provides me the ability to do my job effectively, and I love it. Broadly speaking, creative types love working on Macs. Broadly speaking, creative types also use Adobe products. How does it not make sense for Apple and Adobe to have a great working relationship? Is Adobe developing some kind of Photoshop… phonepad? I’m lost.

Without the prior week’s headlines, Adobe’s unveiling today would have been perfect. What Adobe has done in this presentation is show how far they have been willing to go (and how much to spend) to offer support for Apple products. Anybody following the news lately or the Twitter feed on that presentation page knows that Apple has virtually cut them off at the knees with the changes to the developer agreement. This, as far as anyone can tell, was deliberately targeted at Adobe. Not changing their very enthusiastic presentation painted Apple as a big bullish company headed by a megalomaniac. Recommended reading: iCon

At the same time, Adobe is NOT a victim. For all practical purposes, “everybody else” is on board with open development standards. Perfectly willing and able to get along fine without Apple. They are confident that creatives will create just as surely as water always eventually finds a way out. While the rest are still catching up to the App Store infrastructure, never forget that sooner or later they will.

Wow, there are a lot of not-Apple logos here.

The unfortunate part is mostly for Apple. It only makes sense to release iPhone on different carriers. Billions of dollars in revenue depend on it. Making iPhone exclusive to AT&T for the first few years created a demographic that is either happy with their service (vs. AT&T’s famous dropped call rate) but not their hardware or is stuck with their service provider. When iPhone breaks out to other carriers, phones and apps will be selling like beers at a Twins game. Apple will do just fine without Adobe.

It’s difficult to determine who gets hurt more in this situation between the two of them. However, it is clear that developers and creatives get hurt the most when big companies fight each other. The App Store is suddenly less accessible to me, and I didn’t do anything to provoke this.

Can’t we just use the new content-aware fill in CS5 to fix the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement?

NSRG “Jump the Shark” Video

St.G — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 07:05:15 +0000

I am on the TC Terrors men’s roller derby team, and we love to support our girls. The North Star Roller Girls had their Championship bout on April 10, 2010. Everybody had a great time at the derby and we had a few special guests including Tron Guy and Darth Vader…

Notes: I don’t work for NSRG. This is a fan video for personal use! Also, this was shot with a Kodak Playsport pocket HD camera!

iPad home screen icon size

St.G — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:18:48 +0000

Attention iWebpage developers: as you all know, iPhone home screen icons are 57×57 pixels. However, you may need to update your apple-touch-icon.png files with the release of the iPad. Now, these files need to be 72×72 pixels.

What is this all about?

When working on an iPhone OS device, in Safari you have the option to bookmark a web page on the home screen. If the developer doesn’t specify a home screen icon, the icon will be a shrunken version of the webpage. More often than not, this is not ideal. As a web developer, you will want to supply one of these files so there is a pretty icon on the user’s device.

To do this, all you have to do is:

Create a 72×72 pixel PNG file of your image. No transparency, rounded corners or gloss is necessary.
Save it as apple-touch-icon.png and upload it to the root directory of your web site.
When someone adds your webpage to their home screen, the device will look for this file. If they are on an iPhone, it will be resized automagically.

For more advanced options, or if you don’t have access to the root directory for some reason, you can add it using a meta tag:

To force the iDevice to not add a glossy coat to your icon, add this line instead:

The NEW PIXELogics.com

St.G — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:56:05 +0000

I am excited to announce that the new PIXELogics.com website is finally up! Long overdue, this site will house my business portfolio as well as blog posts with tips and tricks that I have picked up along the way. I will also be writing about user group meetings and other events having to do with the industry as they come.

Feel free to have a look around and enjoy!

Bionic Commando Remix

St.G — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:51:37 +0000

When I heard that two new versions of my favorite Nintendo game of ALL TIME were being made for the Xbox 360, I got really excited. Having been KIA’d a million times in that game I could remember every note of the overture, and I started to work it out. This is what it ended up sounding like.

Progressive Martial Arts

St.G — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:07:09 +0000

Progressive Martial Arts is in Duluth, MN. I met the client about 10 years ago when I worked for a small website company in Duluth called TwinPortsInfo.com (no longer around.) Since then I have been maintaining their web site for them. The site is due for a refresh again sometime very soon. It gets a lot of traffic from clients and prospects alike due to great local marketing and just the quality of their services.

They currently accept new participants for their Ultimate Bodyshaping Challenge (UBC) over their web site. They also have a gift certificate purchase program, and on-site staff can use the web site to redeem gift certificates as well.

Progressive Martial Arts has consistently come up #1 in Google searches when you search for martial arts duluth.

Progressive Martial Arts
4176 Thunderchief Lane, Duluth, MN 55811
(218) 727-5527

New site coming up!

St.G — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:11:11 +0000

Brand new PIXELOGICS site is on the way!

PPM 2011 Brochure Cover

St.G — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:51:16 +0000

PPM 2011 Brochure Cover

Praying Pelican Missions asked me to create a cover for their 2011 brochure. The last few years, their brochure covers have featured epic vistas. This year, they wanted something with a deep human connection. Also, this is the first year they will be going to Haiti, and focus on people seemed appropriate. The main photo was taken by an actual participant on one of their trips on 2009. The subject is of another participant and a local boy on site.

St.Germain Style

St.G — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:35:30 +0000

St.Germain Style is a salon and day spa located in Ramsey, MN. They contacted me for a web site and the whole process went pretty smoothly! The client didn’t want anything too complicated, so a business-card site seemed appropriate. Using jQuery libraries I added some effects to make it feel more interactive, along with some pop-in photographs. This site was launched on April 1, 2010.

St.Germain Style: http://stgermainstyle.com
14041 St. Francis Blvd, Ramsey, MN 55303
(763) 422-1506