JasonSpeaking
The Online Home of Jason Cranford Teague
See me at WebVisions and get a Free Copy of CSS3 Visual Quickstart
There are only two days left until WebVisions an may afternoon long course on HTML5 + CSS3, but its not to late to go. There are a few slots left open, and if you register today or tomorrow, I’ll send you a free copy of my book CSS3 Visual Quickstart Guide. That’s right, register now [...]
Read more →What is an “Online Comic”?
It’s a little over a week until I’m at SxSW to talk about Online Comics with Richard Bruning (DC Comics), Ron Richards (iFanboy.com), and comic artist Rivkah. Richard is providing an industry perspective, Ron a reader’s perspective, Rivkah an artists perspective, and me? Besides moderating, I’ll be providing a technical perspective on what is possible [...]
Read more →Jason Reads from SiS at SXSW 09
At SXSW last week, I read Chapter 3, “The Myths of CSS”, from my forthcoming book Speaking In Styles, and then did a book signing for CSS, DHTML, & Ajax at the Barnes & Noble booth. It was an interesting session, where I talked to several nice people, and even signed copy of my book [...]
Read more →Trusted Filters at Voices That Matter
In a little over a week I’ll be heading cross-country to the City by the Bay for the Voices That Matter conference to talk about trust in design. The ideas I have researched and will discuss center around one central idea that I argue is the most important yet most over looked aspect of successful Web design: [...]
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Q&A with Jakob Nielsen and Kara Pernice
Few Web pundits stir-up as much debate as Jakob Nielsen. His theories on Web usability are sacrosanct to some and anathema to others. For my own part, I’ve at times had to strongly criticize his conclusions at one moment while vociferously defending his theories the next. Indeed, my first book on Web design, published in [...]
Read more →Meeting Bruce
I was watching Andrew Keen speak at SXSW Sunday. He’s the author of The Cult of the Amateur—a book that could be subtitled “everything Jason does is evil and destroying the fabric of American culture,” so I was not exactly an unbiased audience member. It was a surprisingly small room for someone as renowned as [...]
Read more →Sketchnotes for FWT
Thanks to Mike Rohde for making these great “sketchnotes” of my lecture at SXSW and the Web Typography dinner afterward at the Athenian Grill . For more of Mike’s great SXSW sketchnotes, visit his SXSW Interactive 2010 Flickr pages.
Read more →Shame on You Apple: A Musical Odyssey
Most of my friends think of me as an unabashed Apple fanboy who drools over Steve Jobs’ every word. Truth-to-tell—although I’m a great fan of Apple’s products and design philosophy—many of their policies leave me chilled or outraged. I was reminded of this recently while I stood watching the band Stricken City at the British [...]
Read more →DEVO Focus Group Testing the Future at SXSW
I was privileged to participated in the DEVO Live focus group at SXSW this year, where I learned a lot about the rigorous of user research testing. If you look closly, I’m at the edge of the frame when the camera pans all the way to the left, wearing my Yuri’s Night T-shirt and standing [...]
Read more →Heading to Berlin to Speak at Next10
I’m heading off to Berlin in mid-May to speak at Next10. The event includes over 100 high profile tech insiders speaking and is expected to draw over 1500 participants. The topic this year is “Game Changers,” and I have not one, but two, great game changers to talk about: Marriott.com 2.0: Building the Next Generation [...]
Read more →How I changed my mind about iPhone Dev
From time to time, I have been called on to design iPhone apps, both native and Web apps. If you don’t know the difference, it’s simple: native apps are written in a computer code called Objective C (hard) while Web apps are created using the core Web technologies of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML (easy). I’ve [...]
Read more →The Evolution of HTML & CSS
I’m hard at work on my new book, CSS3 Visual Quickstart Guide, and I’m looking to get some feedback from you, my viewing audience. As part of chapter 1, I’ll be quickly tracing the evolution of both CSS and HTML, and I put together this timeline to help to show their relative development over the [...]
Read more →One Week to Next10
Just a little less than a week until I’ll be in Berlin, spreading the good word about Web typography, and I’m finding I had to really rework my presentation for this audience. SXSW was full of techno and design geeks, who wanted to here the “how to’s.” I suspect the audience for Next10 are going [...]
Read more →Arriving in Europe
One thing I was dreading about this trip was the Jet lag. In my past visits to Europe, one of the most agonizing miseries I remember all three times was the unbearable fatigue I felt the first few days as my body got used to the lack of sleep. This generally followed a sleepless 8 [...]
Read more →What Kind of Conductor are You?
I’m back from my whilrwind tour of Berlin and London, and still trying to process the great big bolus of knowledge I aquired during my travels. My own sessions went well, and I’ll be sharing more about those later. For now, you can view some of the photos I took , including more panoramic shots [...]
Read more →LIVE(ish) – Fluid Web Typography at SXSWi 2010
I was poking around the SXSW site, and realized that the recording of my session on Web typography is finally available. I had to pick through the code a bit, but finally found the file I needed to embed. For reference, I’m also embedding the slide share version of the presentation slides. It’ll almost be [...]
Read more →Join Me At Voices That Matter
I’m approaching the half way mark for my new CSS3 book, but I’m getting psyched up to amongst some heavy hitters in the Web industry at the upcoming Voices that Matter: Web Design Conference in San Francisco. It’s just a little over a week until I’ll be presenting a retooled and updated version of my [...]
Read more →Win a ticket to the CSS Summit!
•••THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED••• It’s been a crazy busy few weeks for me as I finish up my new book CSS3 Visual Quickstart for Peachpit, but I’m really excited that in just over a week I’ll be presenting at the online event of the year for CSS: The CSS Summit. The summit is an online [...]
Read more →Vote For Me to Speak @SxSW
SXSW Panel Picker I want to spread the good word of Web typography again to the fine folks attending South By South West (SxSW) at the 2011 event, but I need your help. The first round of selection is (literarily) a popularity contest based on a thumbs up or down by the public at large. [...]
Read more →Headed to Web Directions USA
The Web typography road show is heading to the southern USofA for the Web Directions USA Conference. Oddly enough, the conference was originally to be called Web Directions North, as a follow up to Web Directions in South, which is held in Australia. Someone must have pointed out to the organizers that any event with [...]
Read more →Beyond Biff, Bam, Pow: 10 Graphic Novels To Enjoy With Kids of Every Age
Comic books, graphic novels, sequential art or manga; whatever you call them, illustrated books are a great way to tell a story. I’ve been reading comics for most of life, except for a brief period from age 12 to 16 when I thought I was too old for them. Boy was I wrong. I’ve been [...]
Read more →10 Geeky Web Tricks with HTML5 and CSS3
It’s a glorious time to be a web geek! Did you see the cool effect the folks at Google added to their logo the day before they made their big announcement about changes to the perennial search engine? It’s gone now, but for a brief period when you moused over the logo, it flew apart [...]
Read more →Blast From the Past: Me at SXSW2009
I was Googling myself today to see what images there are out there of me, and came across this video interview I did at SxSW 2009 for Austin Lifestyles. Wow! What a difference two years makes! This was taken shortly after I left AOL, so I was not working at the time. I still haven’t seen the [...]
Read more →Get my new book on CSS3 for $9.99 (cheap!)
Buy the eBook version of CSS3:VQS this week for $9.99» After months of research, coding and writing, my latest book—CSS3: Visual Quickstart Guide—is finally in shops and available for purchase online. This book covers everything you can do with Cascading Style Sheets today, including the latest advances in design and interactivity. This is a particularly exciting [...]
Read more →The World’s Greatest Super-Hero Blues
Sometimes it’s hard to be a super-hero. It takes a lot of effort to save the world from an endless stream of egomaniacal geniuses and swarms of planet marauding alien armadas! But what about the daily problems of human existence—hunger, disease, poverty, and equality? Shouldn’t super-heroes put some effort into confronting these problems as well? It’s [...]
Read more →Web Designers VS Web Developers
Some one sent me this insanely funny info graphic on Web Designers VS Web Developers. It reminds me of the series of articles I did for Webdesigner Depot: 5 Pet Peeves Designers Have With Developers (and How to Avoid Them … and the sequel 5 Pet Peeves Developers Have With Designers (and How to Avoid Them … Web Designers [...]
Read more →Whatever Happened to Doctor Who’s Sarah Jane Smith?
The Sarah Jane Adventures wrapped its fourth season last Tuesday night (10/15) … at least it did in the UK. Alas, for we poor souls in the Colonies there is no firm date for us to enjoy the exploits of the plucky investigative journalist and her brave band of teenage sidekicks as they repel a [...]
Read more →Adding Transparencies and Gradients With CSS
The way you handle color in your web designs is about to change. Perhaps you’ve been playing around with hexadecimal color values since you were a wee web-babe; if you were, get ready to to grow up fast. CSS3 has arrived, and your palette is about to get a whole lot bigger. Compared to what’s coming, [...]
Read more →Dream Jobs You’ve Never Heard Of: Parabolic Flight Crew
In Douglas Adam’s book Life, The Universe, and Everything, he shares the secret of flying: it’s the art of learning how to “throw yourself at the ground and miss.” Tim Bailey teaches people how to do just that: throw themselves at the ground (in an airplane) and miss in order to fly. Professionally speaking, Tim wears [...]
Read more →Celebrate 50 Years of Human Space Flight on Yuri’s Night
Yuri’s Night 50th Anniversary This April will see the 50th anniversary of the most important event in all of human history: the first time any of us left the planet. On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin pierced Earth’s thin shell of atmosphere to (literally) boldly go where no one had gone before. Yuri orbited [...]
Read more →Just What the Doctor Ordered
© All rights reserved by bob canada The next season of Doctor Who is still a few months away, but there’s no time like the present to catch up on the good Doctor and his time traveling adventures with this handy-dandy Doctor Who infographic by noted illustrator Bob Canada. He did the layout and the [...]
Read more →Top 10 Things Science Fiction Promised Us That Didn’t Happen in 2010
Image © Warner Bros. Animation Science fiction makes a lot of predictions about the future — that’s really the point, isn’t it? The best science fiction looks at the future, trying to see where we are headed and what it will be like when we get there. Some authors are so good at this it [...]
Read more →Top 10 Things Science Fiction Promised Us That DID Happen in 2010
Total Recall Earlier this week I published a list of top 10 things science fiction promised us that didn’t happen in 2010. So, lest you think I’m completely negative, let’s take a look at a few things that did happen in 2010 that were predicted in science fiction. The funny thing about progress is that [...]
Read more →20 Tips for Surviving and Thriving SXSWi
South By Southwest (SXSW) is a little less than a week away, so time to get packing. SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) is the “techy” portion of SXSW—the others are Film and Music—and is one of the geekiest popular culture events this side of San Diego Comic-con. While there isn’t any cosplay and no one is likely [...]
Read more →Envision Yourself at WebVisions
If you’ve ever wanted an in-depth crash course in web typography, here’s your chance. I’ll be presenting a half day marathon workshop at WebVisions in Portland this May to help you understand the NEW Web Typography. My workshop covers recent advances in technology and focuses on case studies that that provide a framework and techniques for [...]
Read more →The Doctor Can Travel Through Space and Time, But What About in America?
Doctor Who will be returning to our screens in a little less than a week (23 April) with the season 6 premiere “The Impossible Astronaut”, and it’s clear that while the Doctor may be chasing aliens, the BBC is chasing the Colonies. Although the less than lustrous Doctor Who: The Movie was set in the [...]
Read more →Doctor Who Recap: “The Impossible Astronaut”
Originally Published in GeekDad» Doctor Who ©BBC The sixth season of the new Doctor Who Series premiered Saturday night in both the UK and the USA, with only a few hours difference to take account of the time zones. This was a first in the show’s 50-year history, meaning that American fans only had to [...]
Read more →David Edwards Is Out of the Lab to Find Art in Science: The GeekDad Interview
Originally published in Wire GeekDad» David Edwards, Author of The Lab There is a lot of lip-service given these days to the importance of innovation in our society. You often hear that we live in an “innovation economy,” or that we can innovate our way out of a crisis— implying that innovation is something that [...]
Read more →Next post 50 Years of Americans in Space: Remembering Alan Shepard
Originally published in GeekDad» Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7 before launch Alan Shepard, was close, so, close — he ventured into space 50 years ago today, the first American in space, but a little less than a month too late to be the first human being in space. That honor went to the Russian Cosmonaut [...]
Read more →Doctor Who Recap: “The Day of the Moon”
Originally published in Wired’s GeekDad» Doctor Who: "The Day of the Moon" Spoiler alert: While we will discuss what happened in last Saturday’s episode, we’ll avoid talking about any future plot details. Despite giving us a good-old fashioned cliff hanger at the end of “The Impossible Astronaut” — Amy taking a shot at the little [...]
Read more →Thanks for a Great Time at WebVisions 2011!
I want to thank everyone who came to see me speak at WebVisions 2011 last week. I had a great time teaching the intricacies of web typography to the 35 people at my Wednesday session and talking about the ins and out of selling progressive enhancement to the around 200 people at my Thursday session. [...]
Read more →Doctor Who Recap: The Almost People
When last we left The Doctor, he had just discovered that he had a Flesh dopplegänger, or gänger. Let’s call him DoctorG, to try and avoid confusion, because the only other way anyone has of telling them apart is by their shoes. The DoctorG has original shoes, while The Doctor has a pair of barrowed [...]
Read more →Springbrook High School Web Design Students
Just found this video of me speaking to a class of budding web design students at Spring Brook High School.
Read more →The Doctor Looks Great in Anime
The Doctor is no stranger to animation. Even before the current reboot, for the 40th anniversary of the show the BBC released a six part animated series in 2003 called Scream of the Shelka, using a Ninth Doctor who is not a part of the official continuity. More recently, the Tenth Doctor has appeared in his own animated episodes — although the CGI animation is a bit stiff. There are also some fan attempts to animate all of the missing episodes of Doctor Who that were destroyed by the BBC.
Read more →Top 10 Fictional Geek Dads
I think we can all agree: The best dads are geek dads. After all, we are far more likely to want to play a game of D&D with our kids on a Saturday morning than, say, go play a round of golf with “the guys.”
Read more →Your Kid Can Still Dream of Being an Astronaut!
“My kid said he wanted to be an astronaut — there goes that dream!” space evangelist Tim Bailey overheard that statement while standing in line to pick up tickets for a planned (but canceled) space shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center earlier this year.
Read more →Vote for me to talk about “Web Design for Fun and Non-profits” at NTEN
The Nonprofit Technologies conference isn’t until next April, but they are taking votes right now for who will be speaking. Like SXSW, this only makes up a ⅓ of the sessions that will end up in the conference, it’s the first round, so it would be nice to be picked here. So, please take a [...]
Read more →What are Webfonts?
Webfonts are a recent development in Web design, allowing designers a potentially unlimited palette of fonts to choose from.
Read more →Doctor Who Recap: “Closing Time” from GeekDad
SPOILER ALERT! Sophie is leaving Craig on his own, and she is worried. Remember Craig and Sophie from last season’s episode “The Lodger?” OK, quick recap: While trying to save Amy from a timey-wimey mishap, The Doctor temporarily finds lodging with Craig who, unbeknownst to him, has an alien living in the flat [...]
Read more →Design is trust — 9 Principles for Interactive Credibility
Design serves one purpose and one purpose only: to gain the trust of its intended audience. Whether the need is for clarity or to obscure information, design is a tool we use not to convey information, but to present that information in a way that the viewer will perceive as confident and competent. Once that [...]
Read more →Padawan Menace Is a Chip Off the Ol’ (Lego) Block
Last August, Cartoon Network broadcast the first (and so far only) Lego Star Wars animated cartoon. I haven’t laughed so hard at a cartoon since the Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends finale. It reverently poked fun at the Star Wars franchise, with the same off-the-wall slapstick style we know from the Lego Star Wars [...]
Read more →Get Your Font on With Just My Type
Type is everywhere we look. We are constantly bombarded with text set in a variety of fonts, screaming at us, whispering at us, seducing us. But, just like the quality of the text it’s displaying, the quality of the typography can vary greatly. Typography is the voice that we give to text, and looking at [...]
Read more →Where the Deep Ones Are Is a Fun Halloween Read, But May Not Be for the Little Ones.
I love a good mash-up, where two different things are combined to create something completely new, and generally unexpected. Whether it’s a song like The Time Lords Doctorn’ The TARDIS or candy like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, it’s always a joy when you find two great taste that taste great together. Where the [...]
Read more →The NEW Web Typography
2010 was the year of web typography—the year new technologies came online that will forever change the way information appears online. As the dust settles from the advances of web fonts and CSS3, a new style of web typography is emerging, one that reflects print origins, but is also experimenting with the unique strengths of [...]
Read more →This Devilish Bag Can Carry Your Candy and More (GeekDad)
I do a lot of traveling to conferences and for business, and often need to carry multiple laptops, iPads, and books. A strong, rugged bag is a necessity for me when I travel, and if I can find one that is both professional looking and stylish, that’s all the better. But most of the bags [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2012-01-27
Having a Kate Schechter morning—delays with cab, passport, now security—I wonder which Norse god has it in for me? http://t.co/p0J4F4KC # Hackery, Math & Design — http://t.co/X1NR1s7t http://t.co/TvcSkA1U #HTML5 #css3 # The Jason Speaking Daily is out! http://t.co/vk6FtMUm ▸ Top stories today via @dcwomenkicknass @darylelockhart @doctorwhoviews # Are you ready? Tablet ownership nearly doubled during [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2012-01-20
@Nadkie thanks! # A Designer's Take on DC Comics/Entertainment's New Logo | GeekDad | http://t.co/vTzoyT5m http://t.co/kjTsQU7B #creative # 7-inch iPad for schools? Apple’s War On Amazon Starts Thursday http://t.co/X2bImadj #apple # White House Blasts Internet Blacklisting Bills | Threat Level | http://t.co/vTzoyT5m http://t.co/cvyXQ0lM # It’s NOT All About the UX. Except It’s ALL About the [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2012-01-13
My New post on GeekDad: Follow The Doctor's Adventures With This Nifty Timeline http://t.co/enjHfVaX #doctowho #scifi # @katebydesign thanks for the RT! # #FF #Creative @WV2011 @webvisions @katebydesign @SWdesignz # #FF #SciFi @dcwomenkicknass @2000AD @TheNerdyBird @fitzwillie # Louis C.K.’s lesson for marketers: Honesty is the best strategy http://t.co/rH6vQcrS via @zite # Happy Birthday Mr. Addams» [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2012-01-06
January Releases in Science Fiction from TOR: http://t.co/GJQaaMJ9 # Heading home from holiday vacation listening to Craig Charles Funk & Soul on @bbc6music using Spark Radio. I love the Internet. # Heading home from holiday vacation listening to Craig Charles Funk & Soul on #bbc6music # using Spark Radio. I love the Internet. # Geez, [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2011-12-30
Seven things print designers need to know about web and ebook typography http://t.co/yo9hspSw # Seven things print designers need to know about web and ebook typography from @webink. http://t.co/yo9hspSw # The Jason Speaking Daily is out! http://t.co/vk6FtMUm # I'm at Starbucks (2969 Battleground Ave., Greensboro) http://t.co/QGUlLWce # I love the WebVisions pillow Jocelyn made for [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2011-12-23
DING DONG, IE6 IS DEAD! http://t.co/Uhb30rwV # This quickly clears up a lot of my confusion . Thanks @AaronGustafson» On Adaptive vs. Responsive Web Design http://t.co/1HcjJEXP # The Dictator Trailer 1 | JoesDaily http://t.co/U2zcRDtI # @gilescolborne yes and no, but not necessarily in that order. @webvisions # @piasgermany giving @jonathancoulton a run for his money [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2011-12-16
Read my Review of the iMainGo 2 & iMainGo X on GeekDad and maybe win an X! http://t.co/3imRpF8b # Welcome to the Age of Overparenting http://t.co/qSuOBa0B # http://t.co/5zo5Ukrv # According to Klout, my True Reach is 666. Is it a sign http://t.co/Ss9xqncm # Bane Lets It Rip in Dark Knight Rises’ Menacing Prologue | Underwire [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2011-12-09
@fantasai @robinberjon I'm honored (a tear come to my eye # @josephgruber not seeing the issue. eMail me using the form on JasonSpeaking.com # “@denisejacobs: Great resource: Improving Code Readability With CSS Styleguides – Smashing Coding http://t.co/LHr5g7Oz” # Web Design/UX/Tech Summit at The Hudson in NYC» http://t.co/Q0EfHCmb #WVnyc # The Jason Speaking Daily is out! [...]
Read more →Thus Spoke Jason for the Week of 2011-12-02
Congratulations! NASA launches super-size Mars rover to red planet. http://t.co/SGkIBZrZ # At my childhood playground watching Dashiel play. @ Lindley Park http://t.co/4Gv7zZVC # Photo: At my childhood playground watching Dashiel play. (Taken with Instagram at Lindley Park) http://t.co/IUcdflK6 # The Jason Speaking Daily is out! http://t.co/vk6FtMUm ▸ Top stories today via @sn0flke @xeni # enjoying [...]
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