I’m Jason Long from Black Ant Media and these are some of the things I’m finding interesting from the world of web development, design, UI concepts, and anything else. Contact Me jason@blackantmedia.com Tumblr (3.0; @strake)http://thestrake.com/Ever since reaching an age where I was attuned to such things, listening to my grandparents’ generation talk about “colored folks” has made me cringe with equal parts confusion, fear, amusement, and embarrassment. With <a href="http://www.thetoyzone.com/10-of-the-most-racist-toys-ever-made/">toys like this</a>, it’s no wonder their racist beliefs were so common.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/343903844" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/43307039http://thestrake.com/post/43307039Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:23:55 -0400<p>Maybe this is common knowledge, but I just learned that you can tweak blurry, anti-aliased underlined text in Photoshop with this trick (from Doug Bowman in a comment in <a href="http://www.catchdesign.co.nz/news/photoshop%E2%80%94underlines-from-hell">this post</a>):</p> <blockquote> <p>Set your type, underline it. Then, if the underline isn’t crisp, invoke the Free Transform tool (under the Edit menu or Command-T on a Mac). If you zoom in a bit (400 or 500%), you can use the up/down arrow keys to nudge the text by sub-pixel values. You’ll usually be able to nudge it just enough to make the underline go crisp.</p> <p>Doesn’t work for all sizes or fonts. But works for the primary web families (Verdana, Arial, Georgia, Lucida Grande…) at fairly small sizes like 11 through 15px.</p> </blockquote> <p>It’s working for me so far. Hopefully Adobe addresses this one of these decades.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/343686265" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/43280482http://thestrake.com/post/43280482Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:49:07 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDbqj23g1ngh9vExV_500.png"/><br/><br/><a href="http://advancedbeauty.org/blog/">Advanced Beauty</a> project looks very interesting. See the <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/advancedbeauty.html">HD trailer</a> for the upcoming DVD.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/342904272" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/43170776http://thestrake.com/post/43170776Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:46:22 -0400<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rxbzE_JAs3A&ap=%2526fmt%3D18"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rxbzE_JAs3A&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br/><br/>Developing Typefaces for the Xbox 360 and Other Devices<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/338970796" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/42705079http://thestrake.com/post/42705079Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:40:14 -0400Rands has an interesting post on superstitions and strange, unexplainable behaviors that people do. At the end of the post is <a href="http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2008/07/18/the_quirkbook.html">a list of things other people contributed</a> and I’m somewhat disturbed by how many I totally agree with (but definitely not the putting pants on both legs at the same time one!).<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/338970797" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/42703706http://thestrake.com/post/42703706Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:25:25 -0400“Of course it’s real, it’s on YouTube.”<br/><br/> - <em>My seven year old son to his five year old sister.</em><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/338970798" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/42703178http://thestrake.com/post/42703178Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:18:00 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDbhfrnf71WYkAe40_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><a href="http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/wall_e/news/1741321/15/exclusive_inside_pixar_a_photo_tour">Rotten Tomatoes Pixar Photo Tour</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/337018823" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/42447558http://thestrake.com/post/42447558Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:04:43 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDbesbu4sjmlNsCEX_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><a href="http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/">Radiohead’s House of Cards on Google Code</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/335199529" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/42212947http://thestrake.com/post/42212947Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:32:58 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDb5f5ver6Y8JMmgD_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>Very clever solution to the “what size should I order” problem.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/329415649" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/41396965http://thestrake.com/post/41396965Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:14:43 -0400<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="300" data="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1286064&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF"><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="scale" value="showAll" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1286064&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF" /><embed src="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1286064&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br/><br/>Interesting interview with Phil Clevenger, the Adobe Lightroom UI designer (and former designer of the crazy Kai/MetaCreations tools).<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/328954721" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/41328800http://thestrake.com/post/41328800Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:14:09 -0400<a href="http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/">Pencil Project</a>: A Gecko-powered, open source, cross-platform GUI prototyping tool. Not quite an OmniGraffle killer, but it looks like it could be decent for quick sketches.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/328129862" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/41199328http://thestrake.com/post/41199328Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:49:06 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDaz9m9sj6zPmOcBR_500.png"/><br/><br/>I haven’t kept up with the <a href="http://blender.org">Blender</a> community for a while, but wow have they been busy. Check out the new short film, <a href="http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/">Big Buck Bunny</a> which led to tons of <a href="http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/">huge advances</a> in the latest rev.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/326023218" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/40867965http://thestrake.com/post/40867965Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:53:12 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDaz84cewKWPDMxFS_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>Damn those unused icons!<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/325991590" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/40863387http://thestrake.com/post/40863387Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:11:00 -0400<a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200807020002">Fox "News" loves it some Photoshop</a>: Classy.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/325886674" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/40845560http://thestrake.com/post/40845560Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:39:07 -0400“Why is the Kindle promo on the Amazon.com front page an image designed to look like browser-rendered copy?”<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/325062872" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/40716701http://thestrake.com/post/40716701Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:32:42 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDaw4ocgzOkCujDHJ_500.png"/><br/><br/><a href="http://zoomii.com">zoomii</a> has a built a slick Delicious Library-esque UI for browsing thousands of Amazon’s books.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/324096041" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/40554475http://thestrake.com/post/40554475Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:11:28 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDaqh7rpcnI6G9sgw_500.jpg"/><br/><br/>I can’t stop gawking at all of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soxiam/sets/224126/">soxiam’s sketches and other Vimeo design work</a>.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/321392964" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/40064986http://thestrake.com/post/40064986Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:16:00 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDaqcucv6F5jvoFf2_500.png"/><br/><br/>Anatomy of a Scene: Wall-E<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/321318175" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/40052384http://thestrake.com/post/40052384Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:13:43 -0400<a href="http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821.asp">Bill Gates doesn't like his dogfood</a>: I actually have more respect for Bill after reading the emails being released recently with him bitching about the nightmare of using Microsoft software. At least he realizes there are huge disasters out there. Tightening up the quality in a company that big must be like herding cats.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/320524883" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/39919056http://thestrake.com/post/39919056Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:23:16 -0400<img src="http://media.tumblr.com/6LlUUNKXDao9blebmLRXvjMF_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><a href="http://chosetec.darkclan.net/origami/wall_e/">Origami Wall-E</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheStrake/~4/320158088" height="1" width="1"/>http://thestrake.com/post/39860247http://thestrake.com/post/39860247Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:59:00 -0400