Entries Tagged as 'Technology'
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 only event lasting from 9am–5pm Central Time (10am–6pm EST) brining together some of the best minds writing about CSS today to give you the inside scoop on Web design.
In addition to my own teachings on fluid web typography, you can hear:
- The wonderful Stephanie (Sullivan) Rewis teaching the gospel of CSS and progressive enhancement.
- My buddy David McFarland talking about CSS Animations.
- The energetic Zoe Gillenwater helping you get effective and efficient design with CSS.
- My sister from another mother, Desnise Jacobs helping you troubleshoot your CSS.
All of this for the low, low price of $149, and, if you act now, you can get a 10% (~$15) discount using the code CSSCRANFORDTEAGUE. You can also use the discount to get a meeting room ticket, getting 10% off the $449 price (~$45).
Wanna’ go? Of course you do, and I have two tickets to give away to two lucky readers.
How to Enter to Win Tickets
There are three ways to enter to win one of the two tickets.
- Follow @jasonspeaking on twitter and then tweet “I want to go to the #CSSsummit to hear @jasonspeaking» http://ow.ly/2cxRd” .
- Follow @fluidwebtype on twitter and then tweet “I want to go to the #CSSsummit to learn @fluidwebtype» http://ow.ly/2cxRd” .
- Add a comment at the bottom of this post with a link to a Web site that is using Webfonts (not using Flash or images) to create particularly inspiring typography.
Three ways to enter, and yes, you can enter all three ways once a day to improve your chances to win. The more you enter, the better your chances.
RULES: The contest starts at 12:00 PM EST, Friday, July 16th and runs through 12:00 PM EST, Tuesday July 20th. Winners will be announced later that same day. You have to be following @jasonspeaking or @fluidwebtype when the winners are announced OR have left a comment. This is the only way I will have to contact you. Only one entry per channel per day will be accepted. The judges decisions (mine) are final.
GOOD LUCK!
Join Me At Voices That Matter
Join Me!
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 session on Fluid Web Typography. If you want to get the latest on branding your sites through typography, be there.
The post-conference seminar with Tantek Çelik talking about HTML5 is already sold-out, but two days with Jesse James Garrett, Dan Cederholm, Steve Krug, and other luminaries is still yours for the taking.
If you are going to be there, let me know.
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 like being there!
View more presentations from Jason CranfordTeague.
One Week to Next10
Next10 in Berlin next week
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 to care a lot more about the “why’s and what for’s.” So, I’m skipping all of the code and just including an overview of what’s possible now in Web typography—web safe fonts and web font bureaus—then concentrating on what the different services offer, why Web typography is important for brand differentiation, and what to look for in good fonts.
This has been a great exercise, as it’s gotten me to think about Web fonts from a less technical and more tactical point of view, focusing on how to choose the best fonts. Also, since I only have 45 minutes to present, so had to radically cut down on my material, which I hope will have the overall effect of making this a much leaner and more focused presentation. This is even more important since I just found out I only have 30 minutes to present at Voices That Matter in June (more on that later).
In addition to Web typography, I’m also going to be giving a brief presentation about Marriott.com, the work we did to create a “Game Changer” (the theme of next 10) for Hotel Web sites. I’ve been struggling a bit to find my focus and value add for this session. It may only be 10 minutes long, but that means I have to stay even more focused. I think I had a break through today, though. I’ll see if I still feel the same way tomorrow morning.
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 last 20 years (wow, has it really been that long). The bars in this timeline are based partially on the publication of each of the standards, but also on their relative effect on the Web. For example, although CSS1 was published in 1997, it took several years to catch on. Also, obviously, as one version of a standard grew in popularity, it’s predecessor would decline, but not always evenly.
This is not to meant to be an empirically exact chart, but to give viewers a general overview of when each of the standards was in it’s prime.
To help me out, either post a comment below or send me a message and let me know what you might add, subtract, change or improve, and thanks in advance for any help.
The Evolution of HTML & CSS Since 1991
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 always assumed that if you really wanted to do something cool with your iPhone apps, the best solution was native apps because, although they are harder to create, they have a lot more power.
I saw both of these presentations at SXSW, and they literally changed the way I was thinkning about developing apps for iPhones and other mobile devices. The first helped me better understand the User Interface principles particular to the iPhone (remember: 44px). The second convinced me that, contrary to what I thought coming into the room, iPhone Web apps are not only easier to create, but can be just as powerful.
Heading to Berlin to Speak at Next10
Next10 Conference
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 Online Hotel Lobby
In August 2009 I took over as the Interactive Design Manager at Marriott.com. My first assignment was to launch Marriott’s new Web 2.0 face of Marriott; a game changer in the way that hotels present their front door to the world. When I started, the design was already finished and development was well under way. All I had to do was make sure it launched on time in November. However, what I found was a product that would not work as designed. In this session, I will walk through the issues I encountered and how I worked with the designers and developers to solve them, showing how a few minor design tweaks not only allowed the site to be deployed on time, but also made it faster and more versatile.
2010: The Year of Web Typography
Fresh on the heels of my successful Web typography presentation in March at SXSW, I’m updating and expanding that work to help the thinkers at Next10. In this hour long session, I will not only show how modern Web typography works from a technical standpoint, but emphasize how businesses can use the new capabilities to help differentiate their online brand.
Use my promotional code to get a 20% discount on tickets: SpeakersFriends2010.
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 next to my buddy Phil Djwa.
They also showed us this little movie explaing what DEVO is up to with it’s re-branding:
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 Music Embassy that was a part of the SXSW festivities. I was really digging the band, who had shades of Siouxsie and The Banshees and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. As they started into their last song of the set, the lead singer gave out the obligatory URL and told the crowd that they could download this next song for free from their Web site.
You can't download music files directly from a Web site to your iPhone. Why not?
Great, I’m thinking as I pull out my iPhone and navigate to the correct URL with my
“revolutionary Internet device.” I click the link to download the album, and an alert pops up telling me that due to restrictions by Apple, I cannot download the song with my iPhone. I will need to go to a computer if I want it for free or use the iTunes store to purchase it. I later choose the free option, sending the band a contribution for it’s hard work, but was miffed that I cold not grab the song and go.
There are no good technical, security, or legal reasons why I can’t download this freely available music file to my iPhone. The only possible reason for this “feature” of the iPhone is that Apple wants to be the single gateway for all information in and out of their devices. I can sympathize with this to a certain point. Apple wants to keep a quality and consistent experience for their customers. But not allowing me to download a music file and have it install in iTunes is going too far. This not only stifles competition, it also stifles innovation.
Take one of the most important apps on the iPhone: Mail. Mail has not undergone a significant improvement since it was first released with early model iPhones. It gets the job done, but there are some very basic and obvious features missing, most notably the ability to flag a particular message and view multiple accounts in a single list. Yet Apple obviously will not permit any competing products for this service. Yes, you can get some Web app based mail programs, but that’s not what I need.
I still think my iPhone is the best device I’ve ever owned, bringing me the promise of 40 years of sci-fi tech into my palm. But I would rather Apple not take page from the Microsoft playbook and establish itself as a monopoly.
Come on Apple, open up a little: you can still make the best products, gobs of cash, and keep that whole “Think Different” philosphy alive.