Site
Change
RemainThe more you see, the less you know
The less you find out as you go
I knew much more then, than I do now
—Bono, City of Blinding Lights
Photon open sourced
The inner-workings for a clever little plugin named Photon that enables photo export from iPhoto directly to Movable Type and other publishing tools (to create photo galleries like this) are now available for anyone to explore and build upon. Jonathan Younger, who originally created the plugin, doesn’t have enough time to dedicate for updating and expanding the plugin. So he generously released Photon’s source code under the GNU Lesser General Public License so that others could continue evolving it.
link 28 Aug 2005 in MovableType, Site… 
Photo Gallery Templates available
Since describing and pointing to my photo galleries back in January this year, I received lots of positive feedback, requests for the templates, and questions asking when they’d be available. Since the galleries are a personal, non-paying hobby, they took a back seat to other more pressing projects. In my spare time for the past several months, I made lots of additions and tweaks to the gallery pages. Meanwhile, I also started generalizing the templates, keeping in mind that I might eventually make them publicly available some day. That day has finally come.
link 24 Aug 2005 in MovableType, Personal… 331 
Zoom layout
In a presentation for @media entitled, Zoom the Web, Joe Clark revealed and explained several possible options (a new trend, hopefully) for making sites more accessible and readable for low-vision users. In the continuing effort to make our sites accessible as possible, many have assumed accessibility best practices deal primarily with blind people who often use screen readers.Feedburning
I’ve grown tired of the need to choose which syndication formats I support (between Atom and multiple versions of RSS). I’m not about to join the debate over which format is better. I simply don’t care. I acknowledge that RSS/Atom syndication is an important technology that has changed the way we distribute and access information. But my decision to publish a feed shouldn’t be complicated by which format or how many of them I publish just to ensure I cover all possible bases.
link 20 Apr 2005 in Site, Technology… 20
The Flop
Prior to seeing The Flop, you make judgements as to how strong your hand could be based on two cards dealt to you, face-down. You peek at the cards, calculate the odds, then call, raise, or fold, knowing the flop is coming. Remember, the flop can change everything in an instant. Just don’t get too cocky, because a turn and a river are potentially just around the bend.Flavor Saver
With the return of the full-color, fixed-width design to this site over the weekend, Stopdesign received numerous messages and even a few comments regarding the switch back. Some of the messages and comments are in favor, heralding the welcome return. Others cry foul as their Bleach is stolen away.Liquid Bleach
Promised one week ago today, this is the next phase in a temporary exploration of page design and CSS layout for Stopdesign. Bleached turns liquid, making this Liquid Bleach. Liquid layouts are easy to create in theory, but can be difficult to implement effectively. Doubling margins, subtractive padding, nested percentages, and differing box models, oh my!Introducing Bleached
Ever wondered what your site would look like devoid of most of its color and imagery? Bleach the entire design, remove the saturation and leave behind the basic visual structure on a stark white background? Sure, some sites already use a white background for their design. But Stopdesign has been filled with deep colors and prominent header images since I launched this design a few months ago.Office Shopping
Next in the series of photos used for header images on Stopdesign is a candid photo I never would have expected to make use of in any kind of design, let alone Stopdesign’s Company pages. There’s nothing spectacular about this photo at first glance. Maybe even at second and third glances. In fact, any other designer probably would have passed it over. This… is Office Shopping.
Phil’s BBQ
Picking up where we left off a couple weeks ago, I direct your attention to the header for the Examples section. The original photo for this header image was taken during a recent trip to San Diego, where good friends, Jason and Megan, took me to one of the best barbecue spots in the country… Phil’s BBQ.
Café en Madrid
The second of a series, the header image from the Articles section originates from a photo that conjures up great memories with international friends. This is Café en Madrid…
Drive-By Shooting
In the first of a series, I present the original, undoctored photo used for one of the header images on Stopdesign. This one: the home page. This photo was taken while visiting Miami in November 2002 for the AIGA I|O: Interaction Only Conference. I dubbed it… The Drive-By.
Stopdesign, Reloaded
Welcome to Phase II of the new Stopdesign. Baby’s got new shoes. As if I weren’t busy enough as it is with current projects. For some reason, two weeks ago, I decided to start a full-blown redesign by yanking my own style sheets, encouraging me to do something sooner, rather than wait for a lighter workload. For those that count, this would be design version 3 (not counting the short-lived lightly styled version this one replaces). The most obvious change is the much more confident use of photography in the header, followed by a significant re-org of the home page.The Cost of Page Rank
The subject is covered frequently in the blogosphere. It’s nothing new for many of you. I’ve been bitten by Stopdesign’s Google page rank for specific search queries several times. I just noticed the most recent instance. What happens when Google gives a particular page too high a page rank?
link 28 May 2004 in Site, Technology 43
Starting Over
Ever wanted to ditch what you’ve got and start over? I sure have. I’ve been wanting to completely wipe the style sheets clean for this site and start over with a blank slate. Finally jumped off the cliff. Wonder if anyone saw me do it. And if they did, will they understand why?The Return
I’m sure Dave will write from his own perspective, but I thought I’d offer up some answers, information, and details about yesterday’s mischief.Time for Change
Feeling inspiration from others who’ve been redesigning, I finally decided it’s time to take this site’s design in a slightly new direction. I’ve been working on this one in the background for a while, whenever I’ve had spare time. The colors were inspired by a photo I took of the Brockton Point Lighthouse in Stanley Park while visiting Vancouver last year for the AIGA National Design Conference.Even the Swedes Like It
I’ve seen some approximations that are different enough to write off as pure coincidence. The Stopdesign logo is strong and bold. But I will freely admit it’s a simple concept that is as old as Chinese Taoist philosophy and the Yin Yang symbol they use to represent harmony and equilibrium in the universe.You Could Be Next
Only a couple days left for the current Blogstakes contests. Win a three-book collection from The Onion or a hard-shell CD case. It couldn’t be easier to get entered if you already have a blog — just add a link to one or both of the contests somewhere on your site where others will find it. Nothing else is required from you.On Fixed vs. Liquid Design
Apparently, there’s been some huff and commotion out there about SimpleBits and Stopdesign dropping liquid layouts in favor of fixed-width designs. This probably wouldn’t have been as big an issue if we both hadn’t changed (by chance) the very same week.Making the Absolute, Relative
A reader wrote to question the use of positioning for the Adaptive Path navigation. Certain positioning requirements can be met by wrapping one positioned element with another.See Also
I’ve decided to make my collection of Links, Sites, and Books a public one, create a list of references I’ve used, and group it all under a new section for Stopdesign appropriately dubbed See Also.Rebuilding a Portfolio
Matt Haughey provides great insight into how he’s taken advantage of MT’s flexibility to manage his sites in Beyond the Blog. Here’s how I did the same for my new portfolio relaunched last week.
link 16 Jul 2003 in MovableType, Site… 16
Redirection Complete
While I can change and control internal links pointing to my own content, lots of external links exist on other sites which point to files on stopdesign. I wanted to make sure as many of those links as possible still pointed to appropriate places on this site.
link 1 Jul 2003 in Site, Technology 10
Mid-Process
The conversion to Movable Type is going smoothly so far. I’m continually amazed at the application’s flexibility, power, and speed. The ability to expand its functionality with the plugin architecture gives MT endless possibilities for small-scale sites like this one. The Log Archive pages are mostly complete. They now…
link 30 Jun 2003 in MovableType, Site… 1
Changing Wings on the Plane, Mid-flight
I’ve been talking about it for what seems like forever. Over the past week, I finally started to make the jump. If you’re reading this entry, the DNS changes have propagated to your neck of the woods, which means you’re getting the new version of this site. The title…
link 24 Jun 2003 in MovableType, Personal… 23
In the Year of Our Lord
Based on recent experience with an indexing robot, I discovered a critical architecture flaw in the way I set up my calendar for viewing Log Entries by Day. Due to a bit of laziness, as well as intrigue of the cool-factor in going to any possible date between 1000…
link 18 Feb 2003 in Site, Technology
Blogger Highs and Woes
Thanks to the recent news and hype of Google’s Pyra acquisition, it seems Blogger has been quite bogged down recently. Lots of transfer errors. Connection problems. Most likely due to every Blogger user trying to post about the story. Unfortunately, for the past few days, on each post attempt,…
link 17 Feb 2003 in Site, Technology
Lingering Evidence
It didn’t take long for the person (or group) behind the website I mentioned on Friday to pull down or move the site to another address. Perhaps they were too embarrassed, or never intended the site to be seen — at least by my eyes. Since the site appeared…We’ve Been Here Before
Not sure how long this will be up once I link to it. Not sure of the intentions. Not sure if it will ever be publicly linked or promoted. Not sure who’s responsible. Not sure if it just happens to be the work-in-progress of someone who learns by deconstructing…They Say Imitation…
is flattery. But I’m not sure what I think about this recently discovered copy. It’s obviously a work-in-progress. Remnants of my content still poke through in places. I don’t know how long it will stay up, but I’ve taken a screenshot [.gif, 43 KB] or two [.gif, 27 KB]…Categories
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