Bruce Giovando » Journal

Bookmarklets

Bruce Giovando — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:38:08 +0000

A bookmarklet is a snippet of code (usually javascript) stored as bookmark or hyperlink that’s executed in a browsers address bar (URI field). They add one click functionality.

Below are a two of my favourite bookmarklets that I use in my day to day tasks. To install these bookmarklets just drag them to your address bar.

Facebook Select All Friends – This bookmarklet eliminates the tedious task of having to click all of your friends individually when inviting them to an event, page etc.

Video Popout – This bookmarklet scans the current page for a flash video and opens it in an external window. Perfect for multitasking. My inspiration for this came from the awesome popout script in Google Reader.

The Buried Life on Oprah

Bruce Giovando — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:10:03 +0000

The Buried Life are going to be on Oprah! I’ve done an artists rendition of what I expect will happen. There will be a big announcement so make sure you tune in at 4PM

The iPad is just a big iPod Touch but…

Bruce Giovando — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:58:00 +0000

VNC Client

No matter how you look at it the iPad is really just a larger version of an iPod Touch. Despite lacking many features of netbooks half it’s price (multi-tasking being the most obvious) there is one killer app – an iPad optimized VNC client.

I’m hoping the 802.11n will entail a VNC experience so smooth you won’t be able to tell you’re not actually interacting with the hardware in front of you. The 1024×768 should be more than enough to play around in photoshop, illustrator and other programs that are likely to benefit from a handheld touch screen and in conjunction with the pogo sketch I think the iPad really has some potential for artists and designers. It won’t replace my Wacom but I still want one.

E-Reader
I think the majority of people dislike reading on a device with a backlit display. It’s extremely straining on your eyes, doesn’t work in sunlight and it’s glossy (glare). In other words – there’s a reason why the kindle uses e-ink and with advantages in transreflective lcd tech I don’t see the ibook app being killer until it adopts a something similar. The kindle is cheaper, lighter and focuses on doing one task really well which is arguably why the original ipod saw so much success. The iPads attempt at ereader functionality is half assed.

My Workspace

Bruce Giovando — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:53:14 +0000

This my friends, is where the magic happens. This is my workspace on a typical day. There’s some Shark Energy Drink in the recycle bin. Various pieces of camera equipment strewn about, a Pantone book, some Sony headphones, Wacom tablet, iPhone and my trusty MacBook Pro.

The Buried Life

Bruce Giovando — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:57:47 +0000

Three years ago I got a call from The Buried Life inquiring about a website redesign so we setup a meeting. Jonnie, Ben, Dave and Duncan were not at all what I was expecting. They’re young, business savvy and fearless in their pursuit of what they want out of life. It is after all life and it’s finiteness which has them crossing off the things they want to do before they die. They have a list 100 items long and are on a mission to cross off everything and help and encourage others to do the same. Apathy is their greatest enemy.

‘Starting a TV show’, one of the more recent items, was just crossed off. The Buried Life TV Series starts Jan 18th on MTV. To go from meeting in their parents garage to a series on MTV in three years is pretty darn impressive.

I’m currently working on the 3rd incarnation of theburiedlife.com so keep your eyes out.

Check them out on facebook and twitter.

Zooey Deschanel

Bruce Giovando — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:24:10 +0000

If someone told me the Galactic Empire™ was beat by a bunch of hairy dwarfed forest people wielding wooden spears I’d spit in their face. My Zooey Deschanel celebrity crush seems equally as unlikely to happen as the Ewoks™ beating the Empire but if I’ve learned anything from their struggle it’s that suits made from old ibooks can’t withstand the slightest blow from a rock or wood stick. Well that, and one must endure against all odds. I won’t condone throwing sticks and rocks at celebrities, shiny white plastic shell or not. But the “enduring against all odds” approach seems sufficient, not withstanding restraining orders, law enforcement agencies and people whose compi (plural for compasses) bear towards socially acceptable behaviour.

Luckily the internet is like CERNs ATLAS electromagnet to moral compi everywhere. It allows us to reach a level of social acceptability comparable to living as a beatnik circa 1960. It is then, okay, under the shroud of internet anonymity, to embrace fan pages, Photoshoped nudes and gossip so juicy it’d make the hawaiian punch guy comb his hair and get a 9-5.

PS – Merry nondenominational consumerism holiday season to you all!

Downgrade

Bruce Giovando — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:27:10 +0000

A few months ago I did a website for an English manners school in Taiwan. The businesses needs were straight forward – a brochure website with a bit of dynamic content. Nothing a few static pages and some google services couldn’t handle. Unfortunately there were some snags during the development process. I won’t go into detail but it came down to communication and the client not supplying me with the necessary information. I was eventually able to finish the site but my “unprofessionalism and unresponsiveness” led the client to hire a new web developer before I had even finished.

I was glad to be done with the project and pretty interested to see how the new developer would improve upon my work. I’ve been checking the URL periodically for the past few months and until today it’s been a web server splash screen – he must have really hated my work to consider it a better alternative.

The new website by kayo-web is actually just a free template with a few tweaked CSS values and some images and content plugged in. Funnily enough it’s being used for the web firms site as well. I checked the license – Creative Commons 2.5 – so it’s okay for commercial use… but the web developer has removed the original copyright notice and attribution, breaking the license and copyright law in the process.

Scroll over my version of the site below to see the new ‘updated’ design.

Beyond the circa 1993 aesthetic the main page is a whopping 2.476MB and took 23 seconds to load on my 15Mbps connection. To give a little perspective my version of the entire website (all pages, images and javascript) rang in at 606kb (0.59MB) or just under a 1/4 the size of the redesigned home page. So why is the new version so large? There’s a photorealistic banner slideshow saved as a gif weighing in at 2.4MB. That’s larger than most flash sites. Not knowing when to use JPGs over GIFs and vice versa only leads me to believe that this web firm is a joke – an image map being used as the main menu on the contact page only seems to confirm my suspicion.

I kind of regret not doing what the new web firm did: using a free template with about an hours work. But as much as I like getting money for nothing, I take a pride in my work and I’ll be damned if I ever sell a free template to exploit a client for a quick buck.

I should note that my version of the site was standards compliant xhtml and css. The performance comparison was done as objectively as possible. Browser caches were turned off and because server optimization is part of the job I tested the sites in the most real world environment possible.

Outdoor Graduation Released!

Bruce Giovando — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:58:19 +0000

Well, it’s been a long time coming but it’s finally here. Outdoor Graduation is online and free to stream and/or download at your leisure. Now when I say ‘free’ I mean that in the truest sense of the word – please download, burn, pirate, share, copy, ration, reproduce, replicate, & counterfeit this video as much as possible.

The video can be watched here or if you sign into Vimeo you can download the movie in all its 1280×720, 963.63MB glory.