Journal

Cloudinary is a very handy tool for image and video upload, storage, optimisation and CDN.

Store, transform, optimize, and deliver all your media assets with easy-to-use APIs, widgets, or user interface.

This was brought to my attention by Jason Grigsby at An Event Apart. We were discussing his article series on Responsive Images and I asked if he could recommend a tool which auto-generated all of the images you needed for your responsive image code, if you provide a single source image.

I’ve been trying Cloudinary out and so far, so good.

(via @grigs)

The original call-to-arms and manual for Design Systems.

Brad Frost explains why Design Systems are necessary, provides a methodology for Pattern Library creation, discusses Design System benefits and offers strategies for maintenance.

A handy tool for identifying colours – provided in numerous different CSS-ready formats – and creating a complimentary colour palette from an image you upload or provide as a URL.

No CMS, no installation, no server, no coding required.

Another quick and clever way of creating a website; this time by collecting a bunch of files (HTML, video, images, bookmarks) into a folder, connecting Dropbox and Small Victories to that, choosing a theme and Hey Presto, you have a website.

I could see this as maybe being useful for some sort of transient campaign idea that doesn’t need a CMS and that you want others to be able to collaborate on.

Note: to get a custom domain and host CSS and JS files, you need to sign up to a paid plan, but at $4/month or $36/year it’s pretty cheap.

These days when friends tell me they want a personal website, it’s often just a single-page profile that they’re really after rather than something pricier and more complicated.

In the past there were services like http://flavors.me/ but it seems to have fallen by the wayside. This looks like a decent option to point friends toward if they’re not looking for a blog or want to take baby steps toward that. Incidentally, I came across Carrd through Chris Ferdinandi’s Vanilla JS List which features organisations which favour Vanilla JavaScript over JS frameworks.

Great video (in German with subtitles) which shows and tells the most important elements of this serve, namely:

1. Brush the ball sideways extremely fast;
2. Swing your wrist about 90° extremely fast when touching the ball; and
3. The third bounce should be close to the side-edge of the table so that the opponent cannot easily attack and your spin has the strongest effect.

I’ve just read 1984 by George Orwell. I know, I know… I should have done this a long time ago. Anyway, here’s what I thought.

I remember a copy of 1984 being around the house when I was growing up but for some reason I never got around to reading it. I did, however, see the film when I was young – the “Room 101” scene in particular being unforgettable – and have always known the general plot.

On a recent work trip I realised while in the airport shop that I’d left a book at home so it seemed like as good a time as any to pick up a copy of 1984 and scratch this particular itch.

As a book about a dystopian future, I knew it would be dark, but it was even darker that I imagined. The constant sense of dread was really palpable.

I loved the concepts Orwell created – the Two Minutes Hate, doublethink, Thought Crime, Room 101 to name but a few.

I also loved the language in general and the appendix, The Principles of Newspeak.

And even though it was heart-wrenching and pretty harrowing, I loved the final descent into brainwashing (or “re-education”) and ultimately, betrayal.

This was an amazing book that I loved reading, while not necessarily always being ”enjoyable”.

When watching presentations recently I’ve noticed that a few speakers use this tool to generate animated images for their slides.

Gifox is a menu bar app that records your screen into animated GIFs – a great compromise between static images and full-size videos.

I was introduced to this smile-inducing website by Val Head’s An Event Apart Talk “Building more expressive projects”.

TunnelBear describes itself as “A more secure way to browse the web” and it does this by encrypting your internet connection to keep your online activity private on any network.

More interestingly to me, it succeeds at making a techy subject friendly by the use of illustrated and animated bears. And who doesn’t like bears?

I just made a first visit to Chicago. It was primarily to attend An Event Apart but I was lucky enough to have a little time to check out the city, too.

Firstly I want to thank all the friends who provided tips for things to do and see in The Windy City – Aleks, Susan, Jenny, Lucy, Alan and Karen, Collette etc – cheers!

Thanks also to Davie for jetting in from NYC to join me and Liam for a couple of days. I doff my cap to your knowledge of beautifully designed restaurants with really expensive menus 😉.

I also got the chance to catch up with old friend Nick Calingaert AKA Common Factor, a lovely guy and talented producer who DJed for me and my friends at a couple of our club nights back in the early 00s.

We only had a few days, but I felt we managed to cram in some good stuff. Here’s a summary of the highlights.

Eating out

• Swift & Sons
• Momataro
• Chicago Athletic Club (with its appropriately posh tag-line “Dine and Libate”…)

Bars

• Danny’s Bar
• Rainbo Bar

Record Shopping

• Gramaphone Records
• Dusty Groove
• Shuga Records, 1272 N. Milwaukee Ave
• Reckless Records

Cool Neighbourhoods

• Wicker Park area

Culture / History

• Architecture Boat Tour
• The Art Institute of Chicago

Things to do

• Millenium Park
• Cloud Gate (AKA The Bean)

And if we’d had more time…

• Go see the Cubs playing baseball at Wrigley Field
• Green Mill Jazz Club