//nedward.org is the personal weblog of John Niedermeyer, a Brooklyn-based Interactive Designer.
Cupcakes! – Photo by Villafranca.
This week, the nytimes.com Design group says farewell to two really talented colleagues – Sean Villafranca and Louise Ma. Sean is leaving to become Design Director at time.com, and Louise is going to freelance, full-time.
I’m still new around these parts, but Sean and Louise made me feel at home. We’re going to miss you guys! (But, we are hiring…)
I’m a big fan of the new Wordpress admin interface, especially the new media buttons that lets you quickly add photos, videos, and audio to your posts.
But what if you use Flickr for your photos? Well, there is a great plugin called Wordpress Media Flickr, written by yu-ji. It adds a little Flickr media button, and makes adding a photo from your Flickr photostream a piece of cake.
His site is in Japanese, but he has a great screencast showing the plugin at work.
Continue reading ‘Adding Flickr to Wordpress 2.5’s Media Bar’
Can a typeface truly represent a presidential candidate? Yesterday on the Times’ Campaign Stops blog, Steven Heller invited several designers and critics to comment on John McCain’s use of Optima for campaign collateral.
Is it dated? Classic? Does it convey strength? Or, quirkiness? The replies run the gamut; many of them funny or tongue-in-cheek. Michael Beirut notes the font’s resemblance to the one used to carve the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and Matthew Carter muses about how the typeface will hold up with the addition of a running mate this summer. But, my favorite judgement comes at the end, from Rudy VanderLans:
What does Optima say about Senator McCain? Nothing. It probably says more about the designer than anything else. Who, except designers, would judge a candidate by the typeface?
Oh, and earlier this month, Heller did a similar discussion with branding expert Brian Collins, on Obama’s Gotham-heavy design scheme.
Google Earth now has 3D-buildings, and it’s really fun to play with. Here is the Times Building, where I work:
If you have Google Earth installed, see it for yourself. Or, try landing on the deck of the Golden Gate Bridge, (just zoom in).
There seems to be data for a lot of cities, including my home town of Buffalo, and former home of Boston.
Despite recent criticism, I use and love del.icio.us almost every day. Frequently, I’ll quickly bookmark a page that I want write a longer post about later, when I have the time. (A little shortcut tool helps to streamline this.)
Del.icio.us provides a few ways to expedite the bookmarking process – there are extensions, buttons, and bookmarklets – but, I prefer Justin Miller’s Pukka, a native OS X app that greatly speeds up the posting of bookmarks.
With Pukka, you don’t have to wait for anything to load – just highlight some text on a page, and click its bookmarklet. Up pops the application with the URL and highlighted text already inserted. Type a few tags (auto-completes from existing tags), hit return, and you’re done. Pukka recedes to the background to do its thing, and you’re back in your browser, and on your way.
A lot of geeks are going to be parked in front of the TV tonight, (even more than usual on a Friday night), for the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. Go ahead and laugh, but over the course of its 3-plus seasons, BSG has become one of the more culturally important shows on TV:
…Battlestar Galactica is one of the more beguiling series on television, an action-adventure drama that travels through time and space to explore morality, politics and metaphysics.
Yesterday, the Times took a look at a few new entrants into the East Coast discount bus travel business:
“For travelers who want to get from New York to Boston for less than it would cost for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, two emerging bus lines may have the answer.”
We’re frequent riders on the discount Chinatown bus lines, despite their tendency toward breakdowns and shenanigans. And, a while back I was excited about Vamoose Bus, which was supposed to begin NYC–Boston service with free wi-fi and a guaranteed seat. This seems to have fallen through, as there is now no mention of Boston on the their web site.
But it’s interesting to note the emergence of BoltBus and MegaBus – because both are owned by traditional bussing companies, not scrappy Chinatown startups. Greyhound owns Boltbus, and Megabus is run by Coach USA, parent of Gray Line sightseeing bus line.
Both are taking a “Southwest Airlines” approach by offering cheaper fares to those who book early, but last-minute bookings will cost about as much as Greyhound. $1 fares are nice, but I’m most interested in the free wi-fi, power outlets, and entertainment options. Those features are worth paying a little extra.
//nedward.org is the personal weblog of John Niedermeyer, an Editorial Designer at NYTimes.com, living in Brooklyn.
