design

Some people are never satisfied

Nested comments. You may have noticed WordPress added them a while back. I was excited about it at first, but it has several shortcomings for backwater blogs like this one. I don’t get enough visitors and discussion, with people addressing one another, to really take advantage of nested comments. I do keep the feature turned … Continue reading »

What constitutes originality?

Doh! I’m so last century. In February I wrote a little piece about the Associated Press suing artist Shepard Fairey for copyright infringement. They say he based his Obama “Hope” poster on an AP photograph. I came down strongly on Fairey’s side. Somehow, in my Twentieth Century brain, I had envisioned Fairey sticking the photo … Continue reading »

Make that theme-of-the-day

I know, I know. They don’t make ‘em more fickle than I am. I missed this theme so much, I’m back already.

Rearranging the furniture … again

Yes, this is becoming the theme-of-the-week blog. I can’t help it, really. I think it must be that infamous female urge to periodically rearrange the furniture. That and the fact that every WordPress theme has its limitations. None is perfect; I’ve had gripes with all of them, some more than others. The one I was … Continue reading »

AP cries copyright infringement over poster

AP is at it again, trying to make iffy cases about copyright infringement. This time they are claiming that the ubiquitous red-and-blue Obama poster we all know from the 2008 campaign was based on one of their photos and therefore they are entitled to a share of the profits. Los Angeles street artist Shepard Fairey … Continue reading »

WordPress and PollDaddy make sweet music

This is a test of WordPress’s incorporation of PollDaddy polls today: Oh, that’s so cool. It was a lot of work designing and integrating those same polls a couple of months ago. Now it’s so simple a caveman can do it.

Beijing architecture is its own spectator sport

I kept this picture of Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium in my header for as long as I could stand it. There is some stunning architecture in Beijing, but the Bird’s Nest is not one of those “wow” structures for me. It ranks more as a “hmm” or a “weird.” Then there was the day I … Continue reading »

My career-in-a-box

I go on Wordle binges, playing with word clouds for sometimes hours at a time. It’s probably of no interest to anyone else, but I decided I’d try to sum up my 35 or so working years in a Wordle. This is what I came up with — my career-in-a-box: Click the pic to see a … Continue reading »

Can you identify this word cloud? – #3

No hints on this one, but you shouldn’t need any. Thanks to wordle.net for making this word cloud possible.

I solved my Creative Commons widget problem

Finally!! I’ve wrestled off and on for several weeks to get my Creative Commons license set up in my sidebar and today I succeeded. I had it working once before, then either I broke it or the WordPress folks did. Along the way I’ve been able to get the image to show, but without a … Continue reading »

Can you identify this word cloud? – #2

This word cloud is from a well-known song, and is probably easier to guess than the last one we posted.

Some assembly required …

Can you identify this word cloud?

Tag clouds, category clouds … and now … word clouds. Trying to inject a little more levity and color into a too-staid blog, and starting off easy. The little “duh” words like a, and, the, etc., have been removed from this well-known bit of text. Can you identify it? 

Peace symbol, 50 yrs old today, once represented B-52

It’s hard to believe the widely recognized peace symbol is 50 years old today, but downright scary to think that the Vietnam war protests were 40 years ago. I was the right age to march in one of those protests, although our march emphasized support for the troops and the nation (“Color us red, white, … Continue reading »

Webcam links added to Pied Type blogroll

Links to some of my favorite webcams north and northwest of Denver, Colorado, can now be found in the Pied Type blogroll. The Boulder camera has two live views of the University of Colorado campus and city of Boulder, looking west toward the mountains.

We interrupt this program, again

Sure enough, in the course of trying out new templates and features, I succeeded in deleting my last post, “We interrupt this program,” in which I warned that I’d be trying out new templates and features and might therefore be doing such things for a while. As I recall, I also said something about being … Continue reading »

Possible new Rapids logo appears

I’ve been chatting online today with my favorite Colorado Rapids soccer fan (my son), and he tells me that a new team logo is in the works. The unofficial official new look is basically maroon. I was reminded immediately of the Colorado Avalanche hockey team colors, and apparently that’s the intent. Same owner, or something … Continue reading »

About blog design

Why choose one blog template over another? One good reason: This one is readable. So many of those offered use very wide columns for the entries, or a color combination that’s hard on the eyes, or reverse type, or worst of all, ALL of the above. As a semi-retired publications designer, I give most of … Continue reading »

Editorial curiosity

Lands’ End. Hmm. Was in the “reading room” last night and noticed something for the first time: Lands’ End catalog. Why do they punctuate it that way? Shouldn’t it be Land’s End? Is it a bunch of people named Land? More than one land, or country, coming to an end? Sure, graphically, it’s nice to … Continue reading »