Designer Notes by Reinier Meenhorst

l33t eye chart

Reinier — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:12:00 +0000

l33t eye chart
Originally uploaded by maumeedb8

Couldn't pass this one up - this is funny!

Paradox of choice: Great GTD applications coming up!

Reinier — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:57:00 +0000

After buying Omnifocus a couple of weeks ago, I finally found time to set it up and start using it. It is a great app which accomodates David Allen's Getting Things Done productivity techniques very well on your Mac. Omnifocus integrates with Mail and iCal and has a nice HUD quick entry pane, which is invoked by a shortcut. The remaining action status number in the dock is great, just like the growl reminders. Omnifocus is still beta but it looked sturdy and promising. It lives up to my expectations, but today I ran into a problem:

I received an invitation to start using the alpha of Things - you guessed it - another GTD application. I am a sucker for these kind of applications, so I downloaded Things right away. It comes close to Omnifocus in several ways, but seems to have more of an Apple "i-App" feel about it. It is a simpler tool, but that's not necessarily bad. The quickentry pane (yep! you read that before) is just as handy and has the looks of a winner. Or rather, looks that will win many Mac users over if you ask me. Things is invitation only at this time, but you can sign up through their website.

I am not going to compare the two tools here, as I am almost certainly also buying Things and hope to make up my mind later (Gimme Quicksilver integration guys n gals!). I can hardly claim to guide you to a good choice. However, there's a great comparison on Andy McIntosh's blog. I am sure that will help.

Wear a Blue Beanie for Web Standards

Reinier — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:23:00 +0000

Flickr: The bluebeanieday2007 Pool
Originally uploaded by Meenhorst

Today is Blue Beanie day, celebrating Web Standards. The blue beanie was inspired by the classic Designing with Web Standards' written by Jeffrey Zeldman. If you care about a better web, join in and show yourself wearing a blue beanie!

Have a laugh, check out the blue beanie flickr group!
More on Blue Beanie Day

A Childhood fascination

Reinier — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 12:08:00 +0000

Geoglyphs. As a kid I was overwhelmed by the implications of ancient people's abilities to create pictures in the earth's soil that were that large and stylish. When I saw this on Youtube, I was instantly in touch with my childhood fascination. Please, do take a look for yourself!

I can feel it

Reinier — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:22:00 +0000

Of course, virals are all the rage. This one however has impressed me a lot. Awesome concept and a wonderfully detailed production from Cadbury

Anyone care to sponsor a trip to Brighton, I'll blog for it!

Reinier — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:16:00 +0000

What's your favorite webtypography

Reinier — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:34:00 +0000

So this is what important messages look like?

Reinier — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 13:23:00 +0000

Most of the time I am very impressed with both Amazon's service and their website. But just a few minutes ago, I added something that was already on it. Amazon shows me a notification that states it is an important message. I think I would have designed it differently...

Safely try Google desktop for Mac

Reinier — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 20:55:00 +0000

John Gruber:

It seems safe to say you can try Google Desktop out, and if you don't like it, you can use the Google Updater to uninstall it, leaving no significant detritus or software behind.

You can read John's complete post here

Are you a true type-hero?

Reinier — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:03:00 +0000

Came across this thanks to Paul Boag, a really cool quiz for all you typeheads out there, by Derren Wilson:

Once there was a typeface called Helvetica.
It was extremely popular.
Later came a software company called Microsoft.
They borrowed Helvetica for their operating system and called it Arial.
This inferior typeface is now on millions of desktops all over the world.

Can you tell the difference between the original and the rip-off
in these ten examples?

There is no style like typographic style

Reinier — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:02:00 +0000

I never had much of a bad feeling about missing out on SXSW, until now. All day and all night the better-known SXSW attendees showered me with tweets about their whereabouts and adventures. These Twitter messages varied from interesting comments about the panels people attended to the more trivial experience of a tipsy Canadian web-accessability hero who couldn't gain access to his hotel room - because of a faulty keycard. All this and of course the Flickr shots of Jeremy Keith Tanteking were making me green with envy.

But what really got to me, being a lover of typography, was missing the presentation on web typography by Richard Rutter and the great Mark Boulton. If you aren not familiar with their work, please check out the awesome Web Typography project by Richard and the insightful blogposts that Mark gradually incorporates into a book.

With their presentation Web Typography Sucks the two Britons put their finger on the trouble with online typography. In print for instance, even the papers with the worst content use correct typographical styling, whereas on the web the greatest thinkers end up being quoted between inches or feet. Luckily, there is hope: several examples and resources were shown. And the best is, you can go and download the presentation slides.
Go and improve your typography!

I want my personal swanky stalking flying bot

Reinier — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:32:00 +0000

MS Research wants to warm you up to a career in Computer Science...

Reign over me = must see

Reinier — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:12:00 +0000

reign_over_me_adam_sandler
Originally uploaded by Meenhorst.

I came across the trailer for 'Reign over me' and I am definitely adding this one to my 'must see' list. Two former roommates meet in the streets of New York city. One of them (Sandler) has lost his whole family in a plane crash and seems in a permanent state of isolation and PTS. The rejuvination of their friendship very much shakes up the other guy's stable life. While viewing the trailer I was overwhelmed by the emotional charge in this portrait of the special friendshop of two men.

Check out the trailer: http://tinyurl.com/2luats

Quoting Jeremy Keith

Reinier — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 21:52:00 +0000

Java is to Javascript
what Car is to Carpet

- Jeremy Keith on the confusing naming of Javascript

Good artists copy, great artists steal

Reinier — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 09:17:00 +0000

The above quote of the great thief.. ehrm, painter, Picasso applies to this nice piece about the thin lines between inspiration, a homage and plagiarism in (hip hop) album covers. Great post, even you're only going to look at the covers.

Hitchcock in my pocket

Reinier — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 20:21:00 +0000

"How do you create a sense of cinema in MySpace-generation kids who wouldn't know Godard from Hitchcock?" he asks. "The answer's in their pockets. The iPod made listening to music sexy again. It's turned music back into a communal experience, because it allows you to walk around with your record collection and share it with other people. And that's going to happen with film.

Gavin Collinson, film & television executive ITV UK, (via Guardian Unlimited)
on the lack of classic (arthouse) cinema on British television.

Full screen picture slideshow in Safari

Reinier — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:15:00 +0000

PicLens
Originally uploaded by Meenhorst.

Yesterday I discovered PicLens. This is a plugin for Apple's browser safari, that enables you to switch to a full screen imageviewer, without leaving safari. Piclens doesn't work on every site that has photographs on it, but the Web's favorites like Flickr, Google, Yahoo and Facebook are supported.

The implementation of the plugin is very neat. It offers an unobtrusive pictureframe icon in pictures on a site. When clicked, Safari switches to the full screen environment of PicLens. PicLens is styled to (somewehat) blend with the current designs of Aperture, Lightroom and several Web 2.0 designs. Apple remote is supported too.

Check it out - it's a great experience.

Information overload

Reinier — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:29:00 +0000

Norco gets hip with decals

Reinier — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:57:00 +0000

125_B
Originally uploaded by Meenhorst.

Bikebrand Norco has gone all trendy with their decals. Nice.

I am telling you, I am a bagaddict!

Reinier — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:34:00 +0000

My friend Tanja is looking for a bag that will fit her MacBookPro 15" *and* all her stuff. This made me realize once again that I am a unsavable bag addict. I own a Dakine Apex, an Ortlieb messenger bag, a small Timbuk2 for city use (fits the 13" MacBook barely), a Crumpler bag for my 17" PB, a be.ez for my MacBook with all its stuff and still, yet still, I crave several othe bags.
The latest temptation is the Python XM bianco from BooqBag. Drool.

My movies for 2007

Reinier — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:51:00 +0000

As I was creating a list of movies I'd want to see this year, I figured it would do well on my blog. Here goes:

The Bourne Ultimatum Casino Royale put Bond back on the map for me, but my guess is that Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) will stay and own this genre.

Dennis P. (Pieter Kuijpers)
After 'Van God Los' comes Kuijpers' thriller about a guy who steals diamonds in a microwave box. Dutch crime doesn't come finer than this I suspect.

Fast Food Nation
'Supersize me' resurrected in a drama, wonder if it works.

The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
I can only hope that this won't be too much of a new age pic, but Aronofsky has yet to disappoint me. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
As Harry Potter is slowly fading away, this might be the next great thing in children's lit crossover.
Miss Potter
Ever since my sister lives around the corner of Beatrix Potter's former residence, I've been intrigued strangely enough, by the life of the creator of Peter Rabbit.

The Good German (Steven Soderbergh)
Soderbergh takes a shot at the 'film noir', starring George Clooney. Can this fail?

Goya's Ghosts (Milos Forman)
Makes you wonder if this movie with Natalie Portman will be Forman's next Amadeus?

Arthur and the Minimoys (Luc Besson)
Besson takes his story to the big screen, can't wait to go and see this one together with my son.

Hot Fuzz
British comedy, period.

Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix (David Yates)
Yep.

Notes on a scandal
Interesting angle on a dark triangle of love, treason and deception between a pupil, his teacher and one of her senior co-workers.

Pan's Labyrinth
Horrifying fairytale for adults, count me in.

Spiderman 3
That black suit ought to be reason enough!

Ratatouille
The trailer alone makes me confident that The Incredibles and Cars will stand in this movie's shadow. Perhaps Pixar will reach their Monsters Inc. height once more?

The Prestige (Chris Nolan)
I am not really that fond of illusionists and that kind of entertainment. Nolan's reputation, cinematography and the historical setting makes me want to see this one though.

Unknown
Five men locked up in a warehouse, without any memory of the events that led to their present situation. Slowly they start wondering who's the bad guy... Resevoir Dogs meets Memento meets the Usual Suspect?

Zodiac (David Fincher)
One of my favorite directors is at it again: will this be the next Se7en?

The best reason to keep my Mac free of Windows

Reinier — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:33:00 +0000

As I write this post, one of my partners in DJUST is installing Windows XP on his brandnew iMac 24", with Bootcamp. Although my MacBook is specced and capable to do the same, I am still reluctant. Of course, for testing purposes I need a version of Windows, but need it be on my Mac?

Now I have a really good reason not to install Windows on my blackbook, as OQO has just released their Model 2. This is a tiny, but fully equipped PC. Quite unbelievable - it sports a 60 GB HD, 1 GB of RAM and up to 1.5 GHz CPU. It comes with XP, but is Vista ready.

Dutch webapps in DJUST's Link5

Reinier — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:58:00 +0000

The second installment of the Link5 series on our DJUST blog is here. This time round it is a selection of nominees for the Dutch Web 2.0 Awards.

It's great to see this iniative brought to life, since I think Holland and Europe need to put themselves on the map for webapps.

There's a really cheeky variation on the dating site, which directs its matchmaking to people snacking fastfood together instead of the cliché, dinner in a restaurant.
Furthemore there's a Del.ico.us clone that tries to bring more to the table than their inspiration - we see expert ratings based on posts about certain subjects and the implementation of opinions (comments) about other people's posts. Another site brings us a tool for interior planning, which is quite nice.

Then there's Mailmydisc, a really good concept: it's a trading spot for unwanted CD's and DVD's. Last but not least is a slick variant on the theme of consumer comparison. Start12 lets you compare anything from politicians to electronics in 3 clicks.

Check it out at the DJUST blog's link5

Link5, weekly links on DJUST blog

Reinier — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 16:59:00 +0000

Yesterday at www.djust.nl I introduced a weekly set of five pleasant links: DJUST Link5
It wil feature themed links, but also stuff we gathered during our strolls around the web.

Subjects will vary from webdesign to art, marketing, usability, interface design and every now and then some amusing nonsense

Check the first installment at the DJUST blog

Gaming skills pay off

Reinier — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:28:00 +0000

One of my webdesign heroes of all time, Jeffrey Veen - currently deploying his knowledge for Google - recently blogged about the text-adventure-games from 'back in the day'. While this was a welcom trip to memory lane (ah - thinking of my trusty C-64) - I was really digging one of his final thoughts:

Today, people still write and explore interactive fiction, though I pretty much gave it up when I hit high school. These days, I solve tricky problems by typing into an email client rather than a green-screen game. The skills, however, are pretty much the same...

On a more serious note: parents better not worry about their kids' gaming habits too much, perhaps one day these skills will be their advantage as well. ;-)