Jon Hicks has been ‘fiddling’ with his site; his words not mine. If you take a visit over there you might notice some good looking heading tags. Or you might not. Why is that? Jon has decided to target specific fonts in the CSS. Normally when declaring fonts in a tag you would go some thing along the lines of a couple of system fonts and then a font family: body { font-family: “Arial Black”, “Helvectica Bold”, sans-serif } But Jon has broken the mold (again) and selected some fonts that are not present on your standard OS installation. Have a look (sorry Jon I’ve just copied your code)

body { font-family: "P22 Underground Pro", "P22 Johnston Underground", "P22 Underground", "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", GillSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }

I spent my lunch hour reading through Mike’s brilliantly well written article about the differences between the proposals for both html 5 and xhtml 2.0. Normally something like this would not have engaged my full attention but recently I have really been trying to touch up on my standards; for reasons that will get explained later. But reading through this I found myself already seeing the code and putting ideas into place. I’m not going to re-trace the points; your better off reading the original. Whilst some of the ideas are stunning and a complete piece of ‘why was that that not thought of earlier’ such as nl list’s for navigation. I can not see it being a mass migration to new methods. Lets be honest even now we can not get all browsers to play friendly and support the elements we have got. Add some more new clever bits in there and I can only see a mess of broken sites; I’m looking at you Internet Explorer! That said there is definitely some interesting times ahead and they will both have their set purpose on and in the interwebs. The development of these two standards is something to keep an eye on.

Veerle started a competition last week with the goal to sum up what you thought graphic design is all about. I started off enjoying looking through the Flickr pool for the submissions until at the week end whilst sitting with young Oscar I had a quick idea, the result was not really graphic design per say but it was creative.

Then sitting there the other evening I thought more about what I thought graphic design is all about. Graphic design can take on a lot of elements from typography to colour schemes, but because I do not know my kern from my glyph I had to think deeper. To which got me to thinking about the graphic in graphic design. But what does make a good design? When it suddenly hit, the best designs are the ones that are instantly recognizable, designs that can work across countries and break language barriers without any need for an explanation or description. To which in my view graphic design is the ability to create something that lasts longer than the initial viewing, a design that can speak without saying and is understood by all viewing it.

For the last couple of evenings when I have been out running round Sudbury I have noticed an abundance of other runners and joggers out there. On one run I actually saw the same person twice! Once within the first 2 minutes and then on the last leg. You could say that there are still plenty of people out there taking up their New Years resolutions and keeping fit. Personally I like to think that Apple/Nike have done their thing and promoted more people to get out there and run; they all have iPods (the ‘mug me’ white cables say so) and so they might all be Nike+ users. Hell they might even have seen my ‘round the block’ route and been trying it out. If you are a runner or jogger from the Sudbury area drop me a line, would be good to see how many there are out there.

Let’s be honest, since its launch back in March 2007 it has not exactly been as big as can be expected. Yet I have always had a little flame for the media box that is AppleTV and often found myself stopping by the Apple store with my mouse hovering over the ‘Add To Basket’ button. Earlier this month Uncle Steve decided to have another go at the AppleTV market with Take Two. A software update to the AppleTV that would allow better streaming (no PC required) improved online photo’s with the addition of Flickr but also the ability to take advantage of iTunes new movie rental service. All of this with a reduced price ticket. With my current media setup I have all my music stored on my main machine; a G5 up in an office space in the loft. But when I want to chill out with some music I stream it down to my Mac Notebook that can be plugged into the household stereo. But what about those time when I want to listen to some music and still surf from the comfort of my sofa, well I end up with the head phones on and being anti-social. So having an AppleTV that I can stream too whilst keeping my laptop free would be awesome. Yet not awesome enough for me to swallow the £199 price tag; so that mouse kept on moving past the buy it now button. But now they have thrown in Flickr integration and a cheaper price I’m 99% sold. So I make my way back only to find no price reduction. Now I know the dollar is not doing great to the pound but if you compare it, US priced AppleTV: £115 after the promised price reduction. In the UK it is still £199 with no price reduction in sight. Of course us UK residents are quite used to not getting all the services from the off. The movie downloads will not be here until ‘later this year’ which is just before ‘around that time’ if your curious. But this is all down to that DRM bug that makes every one sweat and panic. Yet this is a price reduction, not a service, not something that needs an infrastructure to prepare. So come on, just knock £50 off the price, be done with it and wait for some orders. I for one would purchase it.

You have read that right, I am without iPhone. My beloved little gadget; the third arm I have learnt to live with; the grail of all Apple products has broken. It all started with a bike ride. The phone was in my pocket, as I do nearly every day, yet this time when I went to retrieve my phone I noticed it was turned off. I hit the ‘home’ button to check and sure enough nothing. So I tried the power button, still nothing. Did I not charge it? Was it flat? Not convinced by this I connected it too my G5 to check. For once I was not greeted by the little two-tone connection noise, instead I got more of the same; nothing! No idea what has happened, the phone was not knocked, dropped or abused in any other way. There are no visible signs of damage or malfunction, just a dead phone. So back to Apple we go. The only problem I have now is learning to live without it. I can manage a lack of text messages and phone calls but I miss the extra bits the most. Checking my emails on the fly, updating my Twitter status on the move, checking my feeds on the toilet. How will I cope!

Step back about 4 years and that is when I first purchased my Marin Wolf Ridge. Since then it has been my ‘knobbly’ tired bike and the bike of choice for commuting and general use. In that time it has clocked up several thousand miles and only causing one little problem. Yet on Friday when I went to the shed to remove my steed I noticed the handle bars were loose. Not just loose, the header plate on the stem had totally snapped. The bike was totally un-ridable and I was left to use the car. Now I’m sitting here looking through stem and trying to decide the best option; cheap, reliable and of course desirable.

This is the traditional ‘first’ post of the year, you know the ones where we all discuss our plans for the coming year.

Looking back at 2007

On a personal level 2007 has been a bit of a mixed up year, full of ups and downs with the odd twist. The highlight of the year without doubt had to be tv birth of by neice Francessa but that did not happen until July so lets back track a bit. January started with a bang, Lucy’s mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer and so we spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals and chemo sessions. On a personal side I picked up a Nike+ setup and started running; joining the Binary Bonsai Zero2hero group. Lucy’s job had also changed and she was drafted off to North Carolina for the end of January and the beginning of February and if it was not for Ant turning 30 and my dad turning 60 it would have just been a cold month. It was my brother’s birthday in March and he got the present of a life time. Whilst he was painting a nursery pink I was signing up for a cycling epic; the UK eTape, not every day the Tour De France comes to the UK. Some how I also managed to upgrade my aging 300D with a 30D (should I have waited for the 40D?) By the time April came around Lucy was back in the states and I was playing with a new product from Panic. Yet the thought of the UK eTape meant I was spending quite a bit of time in the saddle and getting some miles under my belt. Lucy had set the challenge of learning to drive in 2007 and when she returned from America she went head long into it. In June when she finally passed she started using the car more. This left me vehicle-less so I decided to learn to ride a motorbike. Not being some one to sit around and twiddle my thumbs I sat my CBT, my theory test and started my DAS all in the space of a few weeks. This took me head long into July and so far the weather for the summer was some what lacking; in fact the worse I can remember for quite a while. But hey I’m not fussed I had my number for the eTape and took part, the real Tour was on (well almost off), we had a new member of the family and Dave and I planned on cycling the length of the UK again. Which I guess brings us back round to where we started; Francesca. So lets continue our walk down the dusty road of 2007. During August I passed my full bike license which meant I could start shopping for some big boy’s toys. It did not really take long for me to settle on a Yamaha FZ6. So in September I picked up a new ‘57’ plate machine. Also out in September was Halo 3, which could be argued was a big deal, but my radar was blurred by the fact that there would be no end2end cycling this year. To say I was gutted was a bit of an understatement. October was a big month; I turned 30. Yep this year marked me turning of age and finally staring down the barrel of life, it was not as scary as I thought it would be but still a turning point. Steve Jobs managed to bring me back down to earth with the release date for Leopard; my life must be so empty to get excited about an Operating System! The weather was closing in and the nights were dark. I needed something to get my teeth into so during a committee meeting for the Sudbury Cycle Club I put myself forward as chairman. Not sure if that was a good move but in a year’s time I can let you know! After November is December which should be happy time with Christmas but unfortunately Lucy and I did not really have the best of times, so it is now time to look forward…

Looking into 2008

There are things I wanted to do in 2007. Some just failed because of things out of my control, things can fail at the hands of others but some never got off the ground because I failed myself. To which if there is anything I can learn from the last 12 months that is to make the most of things when you have the opportunity. Add to that my turning 30 and you realise that life does not wait for you, if you want to be in a certain place then you had better get your head down and make tracks. So what have I got planned for the next 12 months?

Motorbike

For starters now that I have my full bike ticket and my bike I have decided that a track day is the only option. Of course Mark said he would help out, that is if he gets a bike sorted.

Cycling

On the cycling front I’ve obviously got the CCS to look after, but on from that I would like to get out and about more. There was talk of another epic ride, it might be better to try and increase that to a confirmed date than just a rumor. Keeping with the fitness side of things I still have my Nike+ shoes so it would be good to clock up a few more miles. Last year I let it slip during the summer, so this year I’m going to hit more challenges and goals.

Reading

Checking off some of my bookshelf. That is another thing I would really like to do this year. I’m forever buying new reference books; be it on photography or internet related goodies. But I never get round to reading them, they sit there, they collect dust, I never benefit.

Photography

Having read some of my photography books it might be time to make the best of my Canon. I’ve had the 30D and a couple of decent lens for quite a while yet I’m not pushing the limits by a long stretch. Time to dust off my creative side and get out there and put some time in behind the viewfinder.

shibbyonline.co.uk

Believe it or not I do actually spend quite a bit of time and effort on this site, yet it is very difficult to see the fruits of my labour. So 2008 will be an effort to make the work a bit more visible. Either that or at least I will expand my knowledge of blogs and blogging, there are some great sites out there with some truly remarkable content. I’m not trying to compare myself to these people but I would at least like to be able to put my mark on my corner of the internet.

Will it work

So there you are, quite a bit on my plate for 2008, but then this is the time of year when you plan on making these resolutions and do your best at keeping them. I think the best idea will be to tackle one thing at a time and just take it one month at a time. Of course I’ll keep you posted as to how I get on.

A good way to start the year. Reached my first Nike+ milestone (maybe I would have reached it sooner had I not stopped running during the summer)

Rather than getting a white Christmas Lucy and I ended up with a washed out Christmas. It all started just after the turkey feast on Christmas day, Lucy was feeling a bit strange and so when to lie down. Two hours later she had a temperature and the shivers. Two hours after that I went down. We ended up cutting the family plans early and retreating home. To which the next four days were spent in a complete mess having been struck with one hell of a flu bug. We completely missed all the celebrations and only just managed to venture outside again to see in the New Year. Now that I’m back at work it is best foot forward and can only presume it was a sign. I hope 2008 is going to be a bit better.