July 2010
1 post
Why QR codes aren't a clever idea for your...
Some people think QR codes make their campaign more digital, viral, or mobile - in short, more clever. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the topic.
QR (Quick Response) codes are industrial 2d [bar]codes designed to store reasonably complex data that can be encoded and decoded at high-speed by machines. They weren’t really intended for humans, or for simple URLs - unless a machine needed...
June 2010
1 post
February 2010
4 posts
December 2009
2 posts
Taking Control from Alberta Cross’s debut LP...
November 2009
1 post
September 2009
2 posts
August 2009
5 posts
June 2009
2 posts
May 2009
4 posts
Oasis - Falling Down (The Prodigy Version).
...
Microsoft's AppStore should be Windows Update
Imaging if Windows Update validated your copy of XP/Vista and allowed you to simply enter some credit card details to upgrade to Windows 7.
Cash money for MS, and super easy for the user. They could even promote it as a Windows Update (although I’m sure there would be complaints)…
April 2009
4 posts
September 2008
3 posts
Toaster prints on bread - Boing Boing →
Where’s Southgate’s royalty cheque?
“design is drawing conclusions”
– me
April 2008
1 post
Adaptive User Interfaces
Years ago, back in the days of Windows 95 and Mac OS 8 I had an interesting idea for providing a better user experience by utilising adaptive user interfaces.
Ten years later, after a rather surprising encounter with a particularly badly designed interface element in Vista, I am again reminded of the idea and thought I would mention it, because it appears that despite being discussed in academia...
March 2008
1 post
Enabling Cultural Protocols Online
Culturally, online information repositories such as Wikipedia are certainly more of a melting pot than a fruit salad. Each group’s particular and unique cultural considerations are typically absorbed and diluted by the overall conduct of the majority who don’t share the same beliefs.
It’s nice to think that we all understand this, and things are generally OK online. This is because we...
February 2008
1 post
Rebooting
Well, as a result of my attendance at Kiwi Foo again this year, and associated discussions with the likes of Chris Shiflett I’ve decided to resurface my blog and start discussing my thoughts online again. The reasons are not as obvious as the narcissism that can be leveled at bloggers in general nor as simple as the psychofancy that can surround the blogosphere (apologies for using that...
April 2007
1 post
NewZealand.com Webby nominee (again)
One key project that I work on here at Shift is Tourism New Zealand’s family of websites.
The consumer facing site newzealand.com/travel has been nominated for a Webby for the third year running.
We’ve been fortunate enough to actually win the award for the past 2 years! I wonder if we can make it a hat-trick? If you’d like to vote for the site via the Webby People’s...
February 2007
1 post
Graded browser support with Conditional Comments
The benefit of javascript libraries like prototype, and jquery are threefold:
Richer functions - The ability to use frequent functions you wish browsers would already have (getElementsByClass anyone?).
Cross-browser support - You don’t have to worry about how events bubble and viewports measure differently across browsers.
Backwards compatibility - An extension of supporting the...
How To Make Khao Soi
Nestled on a busy street by the Eastern Moat just outside the old walled city of Chiang Mai is Ratana’s Kitchen, home to what I regard as the most delicious meal on the planet. Khao Soi (or as it is also known Chiang Mai Noodle Soup) is a dish that manages to conjure up images of ancient Arabic spice traders, Chinese hill tribes, Golden Triangle jungles and flaming hot Southern Thailand...
January 2006
1 post
High Resolution CSS Printing
My A List Apart article entitled ‘High-Resolution Image Printing’ was my first foray into publishing and experimental CSS. The responses and feedback have allowed me develop this idea further. I will continue to update this technique on abitcloser.com as I discover more about it.
If you have any feedback about the article, please post your comments here.
October 2005
1 post
By Boat to Battambang
It feels like its been a while since I’ve written an update on our progress. Internet cafe’s are not the easiest to come by here, and when you do find them they tend to be dingy, but hot places where you tend to feel the ticking clock, so write quickly and then get out of there. I think last time I wrote we were still in Siem Reap, and were exploring the temples. Well I can verify that...
Overland to Cambodia
We have arrived in Siem Reap. The couple of days back from Koh Samet were pretty busy and stressful. Our plans for Chiang Mai and Laos were killed by flash flooding and landslides. I was up and dressed by 6am and we tidied up the room and got a cab to the Northern Bus terminal in Bangkok. We caught the 7:30 am bus, which got to the border at around 1 in the afternoon. Thai side was pretty...
September 2005
2 posts
And so it goes…
After a reasonably comfortable flight - considering that it was over 12 hours non-stop - we landed in a rainy Bangkok. Even though it was midnight and raining, the temperature was 28 degrees. The warm air smelt different to last time. This time it was earthy, dank like the smell of a drain and mud, but it wasn’t unpleasant. John had parked his car in the underground parking, which was even...
January 2005
1 post
Big Daze Out
Mark stood me up the night before, he was supposed to be at my house at around 1:30am after catching up with Steve and Stacey out east. At 2am I gave up, left the front door unlocked and went to bed. Four hours later I was woken by the alarm as Megan started getting ready for work.
Mark eventually turned up at 10:30, and we began to make our plans. We need to take a number of different things to...
November 2004
2 posts
Shifties Hit Taupo
We left on Thursday, in Taera’s little amazing Civic. I don’t think it had ever been revved over 3000rpm, but Andy and I managed to get Taera storming into the 4000rpm heady heights. The first night was just like a school camp, missions to the liquor store, infighting over who got the best beds (bad arses in the bunks - man I wanted some NWA) and merry drinking and first meetings.
...
Bachelor Escape 2004
I had been asked a question by Ross about the weekend. He wondered what the deal was these days with a Bachelor Escape concept. I must admit that it does seem a little contrived, considering we pretty much all have girlfriends (I don’t like the word partner). I guess it’s more of a theme than anything else. In any event, the concept is probably a tired one, and I don’t think...
October 2004
1 post
Shifted Awards
Being selected to present Shift’s Auckland Office entries at the TUANZ (e)-vision Awards was on one hand a generous offer, but also an onerous one. If the entries win, the work must have been good enough to speak for itself, lose and I must have really screwed up.
Fortunately, my lovely work mates wouldn’t dream of being anything but positive, no matter what the outcome. But that...
September 2004
2 posts
The ball is rolling
So I’ve finally begun styling some of the blog - man this is gonna take a while. I guess I hope that distant friends will read all my rubbish, so I better give greetz (as they used to say) to the likes of bugsy, matson and mannion that are in the UK and Cambodia respectively. I’ve added some more older photos I found whilst cleaning up the garage, a couple are portaits of friends and...
So here goes…
Am I of the opinion that blogs are for self indulgents who think that other people really give a toss about their musings of the world, pictures of their cat, and reviews of the latest apple product they’ve bought in order to gloat?
Perhaps…
Am I of the opinion that I am that very type of person?
I could be. Anyone who has had to endure any period of time with me is aware that I talk too much,...