(this box built with CSS)
As Greg has mentioned in a previous post, using Google’s Font API you’re are no longer limited to “web-safe” fonts! We all love Arial and Times, but there are thousands of other really cool fonts to play with too. Here I’ll compare some options for using custom fonts on the web.
(more…)
While building apps that utilize ajax calls, one of the last steps that I do is finding a little loading graphic that will work with the site’s color pallet. This is the little spinning circle, or blinking dots, or moving bar that looks neat while the content is loading. Sometimes it’s hard to find the perfect one that doesn’t have a bunch of gif noise (all that anti-aliasing edge color) and they end up looking cheap or gross. Well, yesterday I found an awesome tool.
Ajaxload.info is a site where you can choose a loading graphic, enter your sites background color (or choose transparent) the loader foreground color, and press generate. This site will take those parameters, and spit out an animated gif with the correct colors and animation. AMAZING! The images that the site generates are totally free to use, however and wherever, and are compressed well to be web-friendly. This is a great tool that saves a ton of time, as animating gifs is one of the most tedious things in web development.
Thanks Ajaxload.info!
Last week I came across the new Google Font API and Google Font Directory. They are both in beta but that is nothing unusual for something from Google. The Google Font Directory provides high-quality web fonts that you can include in your pages using the Google Font API. Web fonts, enabled by the CSS3 @font-face standard, are hosted in the cloud and sent to browsers as needed. A total of 18 royalty free fonts were released. Woo Hoo! More web fonts!
What is “The Semantic Web”? W3C starts off with a great outline:
The Semantic Web is a web of data. There is lots of data we all use every day, and it is not part of the web. I can see my bank statements on the web, and my photographs, and I can see my appointments in a calendar. But can I see my photos in a calendar to see what I was doing when I took them? Can I see bank statement lines in a calendar?
Why not? Because we don’t have a web of data. Because data is controlled by applications, and each application keeps it to itself.
The Semantic Web is about two things. It is about common formats for integration and combination of data drawn from diverse sources, where on the original Web mainly concentrated on the interchange of documents. It is also about language for recording how the data relates to real world objects. That allows a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected not by wires but by being about the same thing.
In my earlier posts, I’ve writen about writing a Chumby widget, writing a configuration widget, and accessing the accelerometer. Now we’ll look at accessing a database from a Chumby widget.
First, you’ll need to set up a database. I’ll assume you have access to a web server and know how to create a database, tables, and code to access it. I use MySQL and PHP.
You’ll also need a Chumby widget.
And to connect the two, you’ll need a crossdomain.xml file.
(more…)
This has been a hot button for a little while now, but if you still haven’t heard, here is a synopses of the prototype iPhone shenanigan…
Click through to read my response and watch John Stewart’s reaction as well.
(more…)
We here at Zoom Creates love giving people the option to maintain their own websites once we are done building them. One of our favorite CMS platforms is MODx. It’s based on PHP, is open source, and is extremely flexible. Today I’m going to talk to you about the basics of building a HTML based template.
In a phenomenon bringing both the craft brewing and geek world together (once again), Portland, Oregon’s own Hopworks Brewery has released a special seasonal beer called Gigabit IPA. This, in an effort to help the City of Portland convince Google to select our city for one of the rollout locations for their upcoming gigabit fiber network. Go Portland!
The description of the beer, according to Hopworks, “This fresh & edgy IPA honors Portland’s new gigabit network project to pioneer a connected future with Google fiber-to-the-home. Embrace the bandwidth with a massive NW hop aroma, with rich citrus and pine accents aggressively balanced with clear malt caramel flavor, and a deep, clean, satisfying finish.”
Google will announce their target communities by the end of 2010. The gigabit plans will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections.
Personally, I have been eagerly awaiting the possible arrival of gigabit fiber from Google in Portland, but now we can all quench our thirst in anticipation with this delicious craft brew from Hopworks. End result: WIN.
Portland Hearts Google – read more & keep updated
Let’s take a look at the Chumby accelerometer. It’s the thing inside Chumby that tells it if it’s looking up or down, sideways, or up-side-down. It also detects sudden changes in acceleration. It’s basically an electronic inner ear. So if you shake Chumby, knock him on the side of the head, or drop him on the floor, the accelerometer will detect this and report how hard and in what direction the jolt happened. Disclaimer: I do not recommend or endorse violent behavior to Chumby, including hitting, shaking, throwing, or dropping.
If you’re familiar with Actionscript, you know that it’s pretty easy to find the position of the mouse cursor on the stage. Well, it’s also easy to get data from the accelerometer. The trick, however, is making use of it. Let’s take a look.
(more…)
Here’s a little thing that I wrote a while ago while learning the Flash particle system. It just makes little light blurbs generate from your mouse pointer. It’s pretty neat, and if you don’t know how to generate particle effects in Action Script 3, the code might help you out. Check it out if you want to.
If you find it helpful or fun, let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading! Code when you click through…
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
Categories |
Contact |
Interact |
Archive |
Zoom Creates Blogs is proudly powered by WordPress, Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).
|
 |
||