End of the Year Links of the Week: December 31st
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
How Entrepreneurs Can Survive a Cash-Flow Crisis
BusinessWeek discusses ways for small business owners to deal with cash-flow difficulties from the current recession and credit crunch.
Outdated Security Threatens Web Commerce
Researchers have successfully faked the digital certificates that Web browsers use to verify a site’s authenticity, spotlighting the failure of some security firms to upgrade their technology (Bits Blog – NYTimes.com).
Adobe’s Flash and Apple’s Safari Fail a Privacy Test
In a test of the privacy protections in major Web browsers, Adobe’s Flash and Apple’s Safari performed poorly (Bits Blog – NYTimes.com).
Use Flickr to Find Images Free and Easy
A nice basic walk-through on different license restrictions for use of Flickr imagery in personal and/or commercial projects.
Google 2009: The Painful Details
Ian Lurie’s follow-up on the reasoning and methodology behind his “SEO 2009″ post.
SEO 2009: Adapt or Die
Portent Interactive’s Ian Lurie makes a great argument for the changing face of search engine optimization (SEO).
9 Year End Tax Tips | Dumb Little Man
Some good end-of-year advice for ways to save during the upcoming tax season.
Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA
(A List Apart): A great introduction to working with clients on understanding information architecture issues related to web design and development projects.
You can see all of our recommended links on del.icio.us »
Happy Holidays and Time for a Break
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
I just wanted to take a quick moment to wish all of our clients and happy and healthy holiday season. Thank you immensely for your business here in 2008 and we look forward to hopefully providing you with even more great design services in the coming year.
A quick note on holiday scheduling: The Bainbridge Studios office will be officially closed beginning Wednesday, December 24th for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. I’ll be checking email regularly and will be doing some minor work for a couple of ongoing projects (you know who you are), but won’t be maintaining regular office hours during that time. I will be back in the office as usual on Monday, January 5, 2009.
Happy Holidays!
Links of the Week: December 19th
Friday, December 19th, 2008
How To: Separate WordPress Comments and Trackbacks
A handy tutorial for editing WordPress blog comment structure.
WordPress “Art Direction” Plugin
This new WP plugin, currently in beta, allows you to individualized styles for each post (ala Jason Santa Maria’s redesign of his personal website).
Viewzi: Rich Interactive Search Results for WordPress
Derek Punsalan’s review of a new search plugin for WordPress.
Ajaxload – Loading GIF Generator
This is a handy little free web app to quickly crank out animated GIF loaders for websites.
45 Beautiful Free Fonts for Modern Design Trends
Six Revisions offers a nice round-up of free fonts available online.
Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA
A List Apart provides a great introduction to working with clients on understanding information architecture issues related to web design and development projects.
You can see all of our recommended links on del.icio.us »
Links of the Week: December 12th
Friday, December 12th, 2008
Mobile Awesomeness
This one is an excellent gallery website showcasing mobile website and web applications.
Amazing Myspace Pages
This is a good roundup of some really solid design work on custom MySpace pages.
20+ Great WordPress 2.7 Compatible Plugins
This is a handy reference from Mashable.com on some of the top plugins that are fully supported with the latest WordPress release (ver. 2.7).
Force Targeted Links into New Tabs in Safari
Make Safari open targeted links in new tabs instead of new windows.
For Web Designers – Website Design Resources
Hundreds of useful links for website designers and developers.
Local Development on Mac OS X
Setting Up a Killer, Local Web Development Environment on a Mac with MAMP and VirtualHostX.
You can see all of our recommended links on del.icio.us »
Ski Lodge is an Ideal Example of a Top Notch iPhone User Interface
Friday, December 12th, 2008
Since it’s introduction this past summer, the iTunes App Store has exploded with content, as thousands of applications across a range of categories vie for users’ attention and dollars. One of the toughest tasks for the consumer is separating the wheat from the chaff; identifying high quality mobile applications that provide value for their dollar.
There are different ways an application can stand out from the crowd. Word-of-mouth certainly plays a huge part. So to, for the lucky few recipients, does ending up as a featured app within iTunes or on the Apple website.
One other distinguishing characteristic is design. Specifically, user interface design. Currently, the App Store doesn’t allow for any means of demo or trial downloads of applications, so in many cases, one of the only pieces of information the user has is screenshots of the app in action (along with the much maligned user reviews).
The most recent iPhone app that’s really grabbed my attention, based solely on its UI, is David Watanabe’s new Ski Lodge. Ski Lodge is an app that gives you access to information and current conditions at hundreds of ski resorts throughout North America. And it does so with an absolutely beautiful user interface.
I haven’t skied in more than a decade (though we’ve got some great runs within an hour’s drive of Seattle), but I’ve downloaded the app anyway. Why? Because gorgeous, functional apps like Ski Lodge are exactly what the iPhone platform is all about. Sure, there are a probably other ski information applications available for mobile phones, but Ski Lodge gets it right. It’s not just about the information; it’s about presenting the information in a novel, fun, engaging way that feels like a natural part of the whole iPhone experience.
Ski Lodge Website | iTunes Link
Please Pardon the Mess as We Dust This Off
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Welcome back (or welcome, if this is your first time here) to Anything+Everything, the Bainbridge Studios blog. This blog has seen it’s share of fits and starts over the past two years and today’s post is the beginning of a significant revamping I’m undertaking to get the blog relaunched, along with an expanded, completely redesigned Bainbridge Studios company site (the current single page format will make way for a new website coming in January).
In the meantime, the return of A+E is one of the first steps in a larger marketing plan for 2009. As new posts go up here over the next few weeks, you may well see noticeable differences in the site’s design. Considering it the Internet equivalent of living in your house during a renovation.
That said, I’m really excited about where this blog (and the site as a whole) is headed in the coming year. I want A+E to provide a unique perspective on the small business experience, alongside design happenings, updates on our latest work, and more. I hope you’ll find what we’ll be offering of value.
Cheers,
Tom Carmony
Principal/Lead Designer
You’ve Got Something Stuck Between Your Teeth…
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Well, this is certainly an attention-getter. Saatchi & Saatchi New York created this unique guerilla marketing piece for Glide dental floss in New York City. The exact metaphor isn’t clear, but it must be playing off the notion of having something (a piece of ham, in this case?) stuck in your teeth.
Image courtesy Commercial Archive
(via Coudal)
Exceptional Student Design
Friday, June 27th, 2008
Penguin has posted its list of 2008 Design Award winners (for book cover design) and there’s some amazing work to be seen. My personal favorite is Jez Burrows‘ On The Road cover concept (pictured at right), but I think the typewriter seatbelt buckle is a bit of a clichete. Nonetheless, it’s great work.
Check out the full set of winners here.
(via Coudal)
Links of the Week: May 30th
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Good Products Don’t Make Up for Bad Service … But They Help
Skinnycorp’s Jeffrey Kalmikoff discusses ways to truly make amends with a disappointed customer by going the extra mile.
Life, Death and Twitter on the African Savannah
Masai tribesman Joseph Kimojino is using Twitter as one way of raising awareness for the Mara Triangle wildlife park.
Tool Kit
Paul B. Brown’s New York Times small business column.
Facebook in Real Life
A humorous look at how social networking behavior might play out in the real world.
You can see all of our recommended links on del.icio.us »
Revision3 Servers Brought Down By MediaDefender DoS Attack
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
This is a bit outside our typical topical content here on A+E, but I wanted to highlight it anyway, as it’s a disturbing example of an attack on a legit new media company.
Over the recent Memorial Day weekend, Revision3, a company specializing in producing ad-supported video podcasts (including the immensely popular Diggnation, of which we are big fans), fell victim to a denial of service (DoS) attack that knocked their website, RSS feeds, email and much of their content distribution offline for most of the weekend. These type of malicious attacks are not uncommon, particularly against well-known companies.
What makes the story particularly disturbing is that, according to Revision3’s CEO Jim Louderback, the DoS attack was launched by MediaDefender, an anti-piracy group employed in the past by the RIAA, MPAA and other old media companies. The DoS attack was apparently targeted at Rev3’s BitTorrent servers (BitTorrent is a popular peer-to-peer content distribution protocol, often utilized to disseminate copyrighted material such as music, movies, etc.). Revision3, however, only distributed their own content over the BT protocol, so there was no clear reason why MediaDefender would choose to target them (BTW, such vigilante DoS attacks are illegal).
The story gets murkier as Rev3 has investigated and apparently the FBI is looking into the matter as well. Clearly, Revision3 has done nothing but distribute their own content over a perfectly legitimate content distribution network, so they should in no way have to fear being targeted by such old-media industry “watchdogs”. MediaDefender has clearly overstepped their bounds, targeting a legit small business venture, and one can only hope that they pay a price for that. FBI involvement in the matter is certainly a good first step.
Get the full story direct from Revision3’s CEO Jim Louderback here.
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