Today I was looking through some fonts for a project and came across some familiar ones. Just for a giggle I wondered what they would look like if things had worked out a little different.
Archive for the ‘Fun’ category
If things were a little different
January 31st, 2010Mr Duck’s Amazing Web Site
January 15th, 2010
So, at long last Mr Duck has his web site. I have been taking pictures for Duck 365 for the last year, and stupidly have agreed to continue by popular demand. What I never quite got round to was making a web site for it. Eventually I managed to find some time by using the good old excuse of it being a learning exercise.
The site is a little tong in cheek fitting in with the Mr Duck back story. It is the web site that a small yellow plastic duck would have asked for. :-) It has a lot of new CSS layout in it that I have used as an experiment, but it does degrade gracefully. The thing that most amazed me is that the CSS font-face actually works, although there are bugs that I needed to work around. Also I accidentally I created a new simple templating system using an error document to catch the requests and build the web page. I shall probably build on this for other projects.
I have also found a new way to work on IE computability. It appears that IE6 and IE7 have very close layout problems. The markup for IE6 also fixes the problems for IE7. So what I have done is built the site using Chrome and Firefox, and then fixed the layout in IE6 for IE7 and below in a separate conditional CSS file. Then all I needed to do was work around the PNG transparency issues for IE6 and below in a second conditional CSS file. Everything else just works then, and I only needed one version of IE installed for development.
The best thing about the site from my point of view is that it should be zero maintenance. It automatically pulls the pictures from flickr and even uses flicker to manage the comments. I decided not to display the comments on the site at the tims as there a security implications of allowing users to add content to your site, but I do display a comment count and link back to flickr. I even dynamically generate the site map and RSS feed.
There are a few more things I would like to do. I plan to add some slow cloud animation, improve navigation, and intermittently add a few more random Mr Duck images to the background. For now though I will leave it or I will just not get anything else done.
So please check out “Mr Duck’s Amazing Web Site”, and you can also follow his antics on Twitter. Also please let me know if it works well or not on your browser and if there is anything else you would like to see.
(dot)goodidea
December 19th, 2009Last month I came up with the idea of Chocify, a tong in cheek web service taking the community aspect of Spotify and applying it to chocolate. In another of my fits of madness I decided I could come up with an idea every day and put it on the Internet like an advent calender.
Naturally I did not tell anyone because at the time I did not know if I could keep it up or if it would be any good. I also wanted to get a bit of design work done for it. As it turns out it’s completely rubbish, but I am still going so you might want to have a read anyway. You can follow these winning ideas on the blog, or on Twitter. Naturally I never got round to designing anything.
Chocify, it’s the future
November 23rd, 2009
Today I came up with a cracking idea for a web service called “Chocify”.
People have been using Spotify to jointly build up playlists for the day, the season, or events. Why can this not be extended to chocolate? For example I like the idea of starting off with a KitKat Chunky, followed by a slightly more sticky Twix, and throw caushion and commen sence to the wind and top those off with a Double Decker.
Now, someone could see my mistake, that being the lack of a Crunchie bar, and insert it in to the eat list for me. I can also share this list with anyone I am visiting who needs to get supplies, or anyone who shares my taste in chocolate.
I know what you are thinking, but there is a revenue stream here. Yes people can take the lists and head down the sweet shop, but just imaging the convenience of a “buy it now” button, and within two or three months the postman (or woman, we don’t want to be sexist at Chocify) will deliver them to your door.
The domain name is still available but won’t be for long with such a great idea. It’s a winner. Anyone want to invest?
So, the Duck….
July 30th, 2009
As some of you may know I have been carrying a yellow plastic duck with me recently and taking pictures of it. At first this might seem the actions of a mad man, but I can explain.
In 2008 I attended BathCamp, a BarCamp unconference in Bath. There was a bath at BathCamp that contained ice, cans of beer, and lots and lots of plastic ducks. At then end of the event we were given the ducks and asked to take pictures of them in cool places. There is a competition, but I don’t know if there is a prize, or if it is still happening.
Now to 2009. As you may know I like to take the odd picture with a digital camera and many friends who are in to photography. I was persuaded to give Project 365 a go. This is when you take a picture every day and upload it to the Internet.
As I often had the duck with me just in case of a cool photo opportunity I decided it would be fun to do an additional Project 365 for the duck. I called this Duck 365.
Now with that almost making sense I should perhaps stop explaining, but I will instead continue. When you upload a Project 365 photo you tend to write a bit of text about the shot. With the duck photos I decided to do the write-up from the duck’s perspective, and inadvertently gave the duck a personality.
The duck has slowly been gathering a back story. He just kind of came in to existence so sees what is happening but does not understand it all. In many ways he has the brain of an adult with the understanding of a toddler. He is aware that he is a plastic/rubber duck, but he also thinks he is a real duck, and at times a human. He is also rather cantankerous at times and blames me for most things that do not go the way he expects.
Originally I was pointing out that the duck did not really exist, but people seemed to get rather upset by this, so I will go along with him being real for now. People now call him Mr Duck, bring there ducks to meet him, and even given him his own conference badges.
You can follow Mr Duck on his page here, through his flickr set, on his Facebook page, or his Twitter stream. Quite a few people seems to do so and I hope it is because of the humour I try an inject.
Geek Steam BBQ
July 21st, 2009A few months ago I had the idea of holding a geek event at the NLSME’s model railway track. A few weeks ago I got round to doing something about it, and today the event has been published. Of you fancy a day out playing with trains, or just socialising with fellow geeks, then why not read more about it…
Fail Blog
July 30th, 2008I have not blogged web site recommendation here for a while. Instead I have been using my tumblelog but as Tumblr has a great Firefox button to assist with this. That being said I am seriously considering using del.icio.us and ma.gnolia.com.
Also I hate reading blog entries that are just extracts from a bookmarking site. If I wanted to read then then I wold have subscribed to that feed. Okay, moan over.
Anyway, this blog is so funny I decided it was truly worthy of a blog posting all of it’s own. It is the Fail Blog. Enjoy.
New York to London
April 18th, 2007
Have you used Google Maps to travel across continents? Someone suggested I have a go at planning a trip from New York to London. It worked well, although 3,462 mile swim across the Atlantic ocean in instruction 37 may take most of the predicted 29 days and 10 hours journey.
You can check this on Google Maps if you don’t believe me.
The unicycling is going well
March 12th, 2007I was out this weekend and took an hour out to practice my unicycling. This was after 30 minutes practice after not unicycling for over 15 years.
Street art – Sponsored by BT
March 3rd, 2007
Now you may not know this, but I am an expert when it comes to art. Yes, show we something and after a short ponder I will be able to tell you if it is art, or just a thing. Some say that I am talking gibberish, but that are heathens who do not appreciate art, or do not appreciate not art, whatever it is or was. :-)
Anyway, I digresses. My mother knowing that I like a bit of street art decided to send me this article about the phone box at the end of the road. Please have a read.
For reference the phone box was not art until the sign went up, then it was. It is not something I can explain, it just is okay. ;-) I will now be producing signs for things around Tyneside to identify if they are are or not, so keep a look out for them.
Hello and welcome to my blog. Here you will find postings about things that have happened to or are of interest to me. Hopefully it will be of interest to you if you are in any way like minded. 