Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.
Blog Archives
[A thoughtful, in-depth, guide to the most powerful web development tool in any browser today.][link]
If you aren’t developing in a Webkit-based browser (Chrome, Safari) you’re probably wasting a lot of time.
[link]: http://jtaby.com/2012/04/23/modern-web-development-part-1.html “Modern Web Development”
[Darius Kazemi used the newest version of GameMaker to port the game to HTML5/Javascript][link]. No sound yet, but totally playable and pretty cool. I’ll have to revisit GameMaker myself soon.
[link]: http://tinysubversions.com/2012/07/spelunky-html5/ “Spelunky HTML5”
Kevin,
You recently declared “[consumers want rectangles][con].” and I’m glad you finally figured out that [Round Rects Are Everywhere][folk], only 31 years after Apple did.
It’s good that your knockoff hardware designs are based on more recent stuff, like the iPhone. Maybe if you browse [Folklore.org][lore] a little, you’ll find some more insights that you can shamelessly pretend are your own.
xo,
Phil
[con]: http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/30/3204611/samsung-apple-patent-trial-rectangle-design-kevin-packingham “Samsung product development chief on Apple patent trial: ‘consumers want rectangles’”
[folk]: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt “Round Rects are Everywhere”
[lore]: http://folklore.org “Folklore”
[There are important thoughts and rumination, here, I think. A few choice pull-quotes:][link]
>comics at its worst adopts a consumer’s myopia where everything is colored by whether or not one’s own appetites are being met, and how, and to what extent.
and
>The central dilemma of writing about something like San Diego Con is that you want to make strong choices in terms of what it all means, but doing so is ridiculous. It’s not blind men describing an elephant by touching an isolated part of its body; it’s blind men discussing the quality of being enjoyed by an elephant after touching an isolated part of its body.
I went this year, on Saturday, and I’m still somewhat decompressing.
[link]: http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/comic_con_international_2012_a_cr_report/ “The Comics Reporter”
[Had me shaking my head in agreement on every single point.][link] Bad / inefficient CSS selectors written by people who don’t know any better are the bane of my very existence right now. Education can only help everyone.
[link]: http://csswizardry.com/2012/07/shoot-to-kill-css-selector-intent/ “Shoot to kill; CSS selector intent — CSS Wizardry—CSS, Web Standards, Typography, and Grids by Harry Roberts”
[A font made up of symbols and glyphs useful for desktop or mobile web development.][link] Symbolset gives you access to lots of commonly-used symbols which would normally be images, decreasing the page load time and number of requests needed to display your page.
[link]: http://symbolset.com/ “Symbolset”
[Raising a pretty impressive (approx) $1k per minute right now, getting close to 1/4 of their $950,000 goal with 29 days left to go][link]. That the console is Android-based gives me pause, because… Android, but at the same time, something needs to shake up the home console scene and this might be it.
[link]: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console “OUYA: A New Kind of Video Game Console by OUYA — Kickstarter”
Looks like a really neat little guide for getting started making a Roguelike game. Lua’s a very efficient scripting engine and interfaces with C, so it’s well-known and well-used in the video games industry.
[Fast Company][link]:
>The process allows Fusaro to take 3-D scans of a runner’s foot, use digital tools to cater the stiffness of the soles to the athlete’s physical abilities, then print the shoes out of nylon polyamide powder, a material that is “one of the strongest in the range of additive manufacturing,” Fusaro says
Uses 3d printing. How long before we can make our own shoes on our MakerBots?
[link]: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670231/could-the-world-s-fastest-shoe-really-have-come-from-a-printer “Could The World’s Fastest Shoe Really Have Come From A Printer? | Co.Design: business + innovation + design”
[Design Observer has this crazy photo gallery of soldiers personalized Zippo lighters][link] from Vietnam. Chilling, funny, and sad.
[link]: http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/accidental-mysteries-062412/34848/ “Accidental Mysteries: 06.24.12: Vietnam Zippo Lighters: Observatory: Design Observer”
