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Jan 04

This is on Dribbble.

*Planets* on Pinterest

Jan 03

[video]

Dec 30

[video]

Dec 22

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.

Tom Waits.

Nov 26

Sound system UI, freshly baked.

Nov 24

[video]

Nov 23

Social sharing button set.

Nov 19

Nov 17

Most languages only have two verbs for “to give” and “to receive”, or a variety or interchangeable words.

Not Japanese. There are seven different verbs to express the concepts of giving and receiving and you should carefully think of which one you’re about to use. The different options, indeed, convey the idea of hierarchy, as well as in-group / out-group relationship. To complicate things, the group varies according to the context (family, coworkers, etc.). Also note that the speaker can decide to address an equal interlocutor as if he were a superior, in order to sound more respectful. Good luck.

The seven verbs are:

• もらう / morau: the speaker or someone the speaker empathizes with (group) receives something from an equal.
  I received a present from my friend. 
  私は友人からプレゼントをもらいました。

• いただく / itadaku: the speaker or someone the speaker empathizes with (group) receives something from a superior.
  My friend Emily received a book from the teacher.
  エミリさんは先生から本をいただきました。

• やる / yaru: The speaker or someone else give(s) to an inferior.
  He gave a banana to the monkey.
  彼はさるにバナナをやりました。

• あげる / ageru: The speaker or someone else give(s) to an equal.
  Eve gave an apple to Adam.
  イブはアダムにりんごをあげました。

• さしあげる / sashiageru: The speaker or someone else gives to a superior. 
  Mr. Ichiro gave a pen to the section manager. 
  市呂さんはかちょうにペンをさしあげました。

• くれる / kureru:  An equal gives to the speaker or to someone the speaker empathizes with (group). 
  My coworker gave me a notebook.
  どうりょうは私にノートブックをくれました。

• くださる / kudasaru: A superior gives something to the speaker or to someone the speaker empathizes with (group). 
  You have given me many.
  そんなにたくさんくださいました。

I built the chart above to try and organize the different options. I estimate that it is accurate in 95% of the scenarios… Japanese is possibly more complex than that.

Feel free to message me if you have feedback!

Nov 11

Sprite Image Rollovers in CSS

The stegosaurus below is an example of image rollover. When you roll your mouse over the dinosaur, it changes color. There is no after-effect involved here; just a switch from one image to another in a sprite. And it’s instant. In this turorial, I’ll explain what sprites are, and how you can use them to create image rollovers in CSS.

A sprite is an image file, usually a png, that combines several images. Grouping several images on a sprite allows the page to load faster because the browser only needs to make a single request to the server to load the images, instead of a request for each image. 

The two stegosaurus below are on the same 375 x 400 sprite. The first dinosaur occupies the top 200px and the second one occupies the bottom 200px.

So how do we create image rollover effects using sprites?

Read More

Nov 09

[video]

Nov 08

[video]

[video]

Nov 06

Great electoral map, by the Huffington Post.

Screenshot above reflects estimates as of November 6 2012, 3:41PM PST.