Blogging and all that Malarkey

I can’t quite believe that it’s been six years since Drew MacLellan first published 24 ways. Now ably assisted by a talented team of volunteers, Drew’s made his magazine a web designer’s stable read. I’ve had the honour of writing a little something for it every year. My contribution, There’s No Formula for Great Designs is out today. Andy Clarke re-examines the formula used to convert static to fluid grids, and describes how he adapts it within his own custom grids to maintain connectedness in designs across devices. Like great design, there’s a perfect Christmas out there somewhere, but there’s no formula for it. Every year, I agonise over what I write for 24 ways, because the overall quality of articles just keeps on getting better. My top pick of this year has to be Front-end Style Guides by Anna Debenham. 24 ways is a shining example of people volunteering their knowledge and time, giving back to our industry to help others. I’m proud to have contributed again. (I’ve gathered links to all my articles, including past writing for 24 ways, onto one new page.)

Mantis Stand for iPad and iPad 2 “What have you bought this time?” she asked, handing me the heavy box that the courier had just handed her. I’m sure I looked surprised because, for once, I hadn’t ordered anything.

What did you think about …?

I’ve just come off stage at An Event Apart San Francisco where I delivered ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’, my talk about CSS3 animations, for the last time. The talk uses a a mad, mad, mad, mad manimation as vehicle to explain CSS3 animations and encourage people to use them (and other emerging CSS properties) for more than for cool, edge case demonstrations. For everyone not at An Event Apart this year, I’ve uploaded my slides on Speaker Deck.

Five Simple Steps are holding a Christmas sale, with 30% of all their books in all formats. There’s plenty of gifts for all the family, but you know what everyone wants, don’t you? That’s right. Hardboiled Web Design. The Hardboiled Web Design Digital Edition (PDF, ePub & mobi) is only £12:00, but there’s nothing quite like the smell of print on Christmas morning. So get the one you love the Paperback & Digital Edition for only £29:00. Ho, ho, ho.

This year’s been one of my busiest for speaking, teaching and designing for clients. You might not be able to tell that though, because when I deconstructed this site a few months ago, my portfolio was one of the things that didn’t find its way back. I’ll rectify that in the new year, but in the meantime I wanted to share some of the projects I’ve been working on, starting with this — a redesign for ISO, the International Organization for Standardization.

Some quotes from the HP MacBook Pro Envy’s design video (Hat tip to Matt Legend Gemmell ):

Bruce Lawson asked: If I buy a Galaxy Tab 10.1 today, do I get a *timely* over-the-air upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich for free? Samsung UK replied: This is not guaranteed. Honeycomb was made specifically for the 10.1, so there are no plans for release at present. I guess that I just expected, when I bought my Galaxy Tab 10.1 this summer, that I’d get software updates from Samsung the same way I get them for my iOS devices. Sure enough I did get one — one that replaced stock Honeycomb with Samsung’s own TouchWiz variant — an update I didn’t want but was told that if I didn’t update, I wouldn’t get any upgrades in future. Now it looks like my Galaxy Tab 10.1 — already the most expensive shaving mirror I’ve ever bought — is going to stay stuck in 2011. Does the same go for Tabs still on the shelves of your favourite big box retailer? What about the 10.1N variant I saw in Germany two weeks ago? Samsung doesn’t get software.

I doubt it’ll come as much of a surprise to learn that I love my iPhone 4S. It was a major upgrade from the 3G I swapped my original iPhone for last September, but I’ve been less impressed with its battery life. Now I think I’ve found the culprit. Foursquare

I’ve turned into a country music nut. What a started as downloading Dolly albums for a road trip has turned into real enthusiasm. Although I look terrible in a cowboy hat and don’t know the difference between a’coon dog and a corn dog, lately I’ve listened to little else. We could disagree about what classes as real country — Cough. Taylor Swift — but all I really care about is music I like.