RSS MAD

Circtangles: A JavaScript art installation

" />

" />

The thought only just occurred to me that I'd never used the newly emerging technology for creating rounded corners in CSS -- border-radius. So to rectify this, I set about experimenting with abstract uses for rounded corner rectangles. This is the result:

Circtangles

border-radius is only available in Firefox Gecko and Safari Webkit, so don't bother trying Circtangles out in anything else.

There's a few tweakable options at hand for you to try out, but they all result in a rather nice looking piece of randomly generated art. To generate different random patterns you can hit the regenerate button at bottom centre.

A couple of notes about using border-radius in your CSS:

• Safari's rounded corners look so much better because they're anti-aliased.
• Safari's border-radius is also less buggy than Firefox's -- Firefox (v.2) will not let you specify a border-radius that is larger than half the height of the total element height.
• Safari (true to form) has much faster redraw when changing the display properties of large numbers of objects (so Firefox will be a bit slow on this experiment).
• If you're accessing Mozilla custom CSS attributes via the DOM, you should capitalise the "M" in "Moz". So, for example: -moz-border-radius becomes MozBorderRadius.

So, with those caveats, enjoy Circtangles. I can only wait for the day when rounded corners are native to every browser out there.

An abundance of Web Directions news

" />

" />

There's so much Web Directions news, I don't know what to do with it all. Well, I'll get the most exciting tidbit off my chest first:

I'm taking my Oscar-winning* workshops on the road around Australia†. I'll be guiding inquisitive programmers through the Frontiers of JavaScript at both Melbourne's Web Directions UX and also Canberra's Web Directions Gov: Revenge of the Sith. So if you're going to be in either city during May and you'd like to learn some of the more interesting things you can do with JavaScript, come along!

The second piece of Web Directions news is that my podcast from Web Directions North '08 has gone up. I posted the slides to The Future of Web Interfaces a while ago, but now that you can hear the words behind them they'll actually make sense. If you've got an application that can play MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 files, then download the audio here.

News part 3: early bird pricing for WD UX and WD Gov runs out on April 11, so if you want to grab a bargain you'll have to dive in quick.

And finally, Maxine did such an accurately biting expose of my character that I've signed her on to write the screenplay for my biopic.

* May not have won an actual oscar

† The version of Australia which just contains Melbourne‡ and Sydney

‡ I just wanted to be able to use a double dagger

Accidental Clicks

" />

" />

When you start trying to click on your Photoshop mockups, that's when you know you've got a good interface.

widgEditor 1.0.1

" />

" />

As with most of my output, I originally coded widgEditor to satisfy my own curiosity about WYSIWYG editors. Its actual uptake amongst users has -- and still -- takes me thoroughly by surprise. And that's the main reason why I'm feeling a bit guilty at letting it languish in non-maintenance limbo.

Although there's been silence for almost 3 years, the development of widgEditor has continued in private, and I've changed the code enough to be able to release a version 2 ... soon. But for the moment I'm issuing a point upgrade to the original; just enough to fix the most annoying bug: the inability to use widgEditor in Firefox 2+ when it starts with no content.

The bug is -- rather strangely -- caused by the way that the stylesheets are created inside the widgEditor iframe. Previously, I'd just write an entire HTML document into the iframe using document.write() (shudder), but it seems Firefox doesn't like this too much. Creating the stylesheets using standard DOM methods gets around this bug. Internet Explorer still needs the document.writed way, so there's a small code fork. Problem fixed.

As a minor bonus to the point release, the code for widgEditor is now hosted on code.google.com, so anyone who has bugs, feature requests, etc. can now post them using the tools there. Version 2 will be going up there as well, so stay tuned!

Download widgEditor 1.0.1

See widgEditor in action

Future of Web Interfaces Slides

" />

" />

Here are the slides (PDF, 69MB) for the presentation I gave at Web Directions South 2007, and updated to present at Web Directions North 2008, minus my dry wit (and stuttering, perplexed forgetfulness).

Actually, it's minus a fair bit. This presentation was chock full of video -- 1.7GB worth, to be exact. So you won't get any of that. But a PDF might do you some good, so here it is (PDF, 69MB).

The presentation itself is about where I see web design heading in the next couple of years. In a nutshell: designs will become even more flexible and users will get control of the interface.

Enjoy!

Update 07/04/2008: The podcast is available for download.

Anti-Santa

" />

" />

It's December 20, so you should be pretty sick of Christmas shopping by now. But don't let that acidic Chirstmas vitriol fester in your stomach until it explodes in a shower of turkey giblets on December 25. Let it out at Anti-Santa and save some rainbows for your relatives during this festive season.

My personal favourites include:

• http://an.tisanta.com/73-nickhodge/821
• http://an.tisanta.com/16-silkcharm/730
• http://an.tisanta.com/119-katherine/712
• http://an.tisanta.com/4-cameron/76
• http://an.tisanta.com/193

Brought to you by a 72 hour coding spree at the Nerf Palace.

Hands on gets a thumbs up

" />

" />

Last week I did some JavaScript workshops in Perth, and I have to say: it was the most fun I've ever had inside a classroom. (As a teacher or a student.)

The normal procedure for workshops (including mine) is that the "lecturer" stands up in front of the "class" and delivers 7 to 8 hours of content. That's you (the student) listening to me (the teacher) for 7 to 8 hours. Sure, I might get you to raise your hand a few times, force you into thinking about getElementById for a few minutes, and maybe even spur you into writing a few things down. But at the end of the day you leave with a pocketful of slides and a head full of DOM jargon. I have no idea whether it was helpful to you, or whether I was just drying my throat out.

Last week was a revelation though. Because it was on-site training, I could rely on everyone having access to a computer, so I decided to pack the workshop full of practical exercises -- exercises where the people I was talking to got to put the code into practice.

I have no idea why I didn't do this before.

Once someone jumps in front of a computer and starts trying out what you've told them, that's the only way you can find out whether they get it. And if they don't? Well, then you make sure they do -- you can take a look at their code, see what they're doing wrong, explain some of the points that matter to them and make sure that they're confident enough to code up something by themselves.

So from here on in I'm stating a new mission objective for workshops: get everyone in front of a computer and don't let them leave until they can code. :D

My next JavaScript workshop is going to be in Vancouver, Canada of all places, at Web Directions North 08. We're going to be skipping all the boring junk so we can dive straight into the fun bits, so if you'd like to join in register at the website and REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR LAPTOP!

Jelly in Sydney

" />

" />

Last Friday we held the first Jelly in Sydney, and it was a great success!

"But what's Jelly!?" I hear you cry. Jelly is a (semi-)regular co-working event that anyone can run, so we decided to try one in Sydney. The first one was held in New York, and now there's a whole bunch of them being organised around the world. They're an ideal way for self-employed people who live like hermits to get out in the piercing light of day and meet other abnormal workers, but really anyone is welcome. We even had a couple of full-timers turn up at our Jelly.

After thinking solitary thoughts in your basement for a few weeks, one day a fortnight it's nice to be able to sit on a chair/couch/beanbag and throw ideas around with other creative people, head out for a nice lunch, or even do some real work with a bit of background buzz going on. You can get a glimpse of what it's like by looking at some photos from our last Jelly.

The next JellyInSydney is scheduled for Friday November 9. They're held at the Nerf Palace so if you'd like to come along take a look at the website and then let us know that you're coming!

(Stay tuned to nerfpalace.org for a site refresh and thence regular co-working events in Sydney.)

Web Directions South '07

" />

" />

Two weeks. I reckon that's enough time to make this the tardiest wrap-up post about Web Directions South '07.

Boy, what a conference.

I had fears after last year that Web Directions had hit its peak, that it would be consumed by an increasing number of managerial/process/fluff talks, that everyone would be ever so slightly more jaded about networking (in the physical, not the social or ethernet sense). I'm lucky I was wrong.

John and Maxine had really learnt from attending South by South West. They knew what got people buzzing, what hit the buttons of the conference crowd, and they tailored the content to suit. The change in venue had a lot to do with it as well. I could feel myself being transported back to those corridors in Austin -- animated conversations everywhere, people sitting on floors, the clatter of keyboards fuelled by inspiration, the hustle and bustle of geeks enjoying themselves.

There were some amazingly inspirational speakers. From Andy Clarke (who I had to miss, but who garnered much praise) and John Allsopp, to Scott Berkun and Mark Pesce -- two people who kept me absolutely enthralled; hanging on their every word. Mark's talk/performance/vision was a perfect study in message and delivery. An insightful and eye-opening message delivered with flawless precision, timing and showmanship. It was Bruce Sterling with a tangible call to action.

And amongst all that greatness, I was glad to play my small part in it all.

I don't think I ever want to be in the main room. Being able to walk up on stage and not see the back wall was dumbfounding, but somehow it made me dig even deeper. Past my nerves (always with the nerves), past six hours of sleep in three days, and past slide preparation an hour before. So, I thank everyone who showed so much faith in me and turned up to hear me speak. And I thank everyone who stood when they couldn't sit. And I thank everyone who peered through the door when they couldn't fit in the room. I hope it was worth it. I certainly felt like it was one of my best presentations ever. But that could be the lack of sleep talking. Hopefully I can pull it all off again at Web Directions North 08.

On with the list!

Ten things you mightn't have known before Web Directions 07

• People still go crazy for MC Hammer, even in Derek Featherstone's absence
• Andy Clarke and George Clooney are never in the same room together. Hmmmm ...
• Bert Bos and Charlie Chaplin are never in the same century together ...
• 300 people can fit in a room designed for 200
• Tim Lucas gives very ... ummm ... succinct speaker introductions
• Twitter goes up and down like a yo-yo. OK, you knew that, but it was made even more apparent this time around
• It's really hard to give Microsoft crap stuff away
• It's possible to get decent wi-fi at a conference ... nah, just kidding
• Web conferences aren't just white, 3-dimensional boys clubs
• Lisa Herrod will wake you up. When she's on stage. And she's mic'ed up. And she's being podcast.