Just having some fun. National Comic Sans day.

No, I haven’t lost my mind. If you are visiting this site wondering, “What the font???!!!!”, well, yeah… This is in Comic Sans. October 1st has been declared National Comic Sans Day!

Read about it on John Wilker’s blog.

Oh, and if you want to learn about the origin of the world’s most hated typeface, read up on it here.

Uncle Grandpa

This. Is. Awesome.

My MAX Wishlist

So, I’m not going to MAX this year… The economy has made a lot of extra spending go away and conferences are no exception to this rule. I do plan on virtually attending the webcasts and keynotes this year, though, so I definitely am staying in the loop.

I’m not putting together a prediction list, but rather a wishlist… Will any of these happen? I dunno, but I do know they would make my life in the Adobe universe better and more productive.

1. AIR on iPhone – It’s unlikely that I am going to be learning Objective C anytime soon. And while I would love to take a stab at creating an app on the iPhone, this is really about the only way to do it. If I could compile an AIR app for the iPhone, this would help bridge that gap.
2. A release date for Flash Builder 4 and Flash Catalyst – Believe it or not, I’ve been using these tools for some time on real work. Flash Builder a bit more, but I have been able to get some nice stuff out of Catalyst from time to time. I’d like a formalized release schedule and a price so I can put it in my budget ASAP and get it on my team’s desktops for real.
3. Some word on what the Omniture buyout means for Flash platform analytics – Is it going to be a LiveCycle product? A Flash Platform SaaS? What? How can I get integrating this into my experiences and RIAs?
4. A bit more concrete info on AIR 2.0’s deeper features – FOTB leaked that C++ and other API integration was coming, but what about Google Earth? Open GL? BYOAPI (Bring your own API)
5. More Hardware acceleration control and/or better threading/CPU support. – Building 1080P+ experiences on Flash sucks. There I said it. I’ve been burned enough over the last couple of years to know this. At The Iona Group we often build large HD resolution kiosks, presentations, installations etc. We prefer using Flash for our rich media development. These two things collide in unpleasant ways more often than they should. In many ways, Director is still more capable at performing in world class fashion at high high resolution. Processing is too. This could be for Flash Player 11, AIR 2.0 or whatever… Just the sooner, the better. Grant Skinner has made pleas to Adobe to improve CPU usage and performance, so maybe that will be enough.

So there you have it… not sure if any of these will happen, but it sure would be grand if they did. What are you putting on your MAX Wishlist?

Upcoming Event: HOW TO THROW THE DIGITAL LARIAT WHILE HERDING CATS

Please join myself and my coworkers from The Iona Group at our upcoming Peoria Ad Club event. You can sign up here.

From the link:

The Iona Group engages with a wide variety of clients using the latest communication strategies and technologies. Join us for a discussion of trends in digital advertising, audience engagement, and online strategy. Iona Group will share recent work and research and development; including killer wireless robots, eye bulging video installations, incredibly sticky phone applications, and websites that will make you scratch your head and wonder, “HOW?”.

We’ll be covering our latest work, sharing some stories and drinking a couple cocktails. Come talk shop with us and raise a glass.

links for 2009-10-10

• flixel
  flixel is a completely free collection of Actionscript 3 files that helps organize, automate, and optimize Flash games; an object-oriented framework that lets anyone create original and complex games with thousands of objects on screen in just a few hours
  (tags: flash actionscript as3 framework)

Powers of Ten: The Users Experience

I have been thinking a lot about web design and user interfaces lately and so I found this article about perception, time and user experience really fascinating.

0.1 second is the response time limit if you want users to feel like their actions are directly causing something to happen on the screen. For example, if you click on an expandable menu and see the expanded version in less than 0.1 seconds, then it feels as if you made the menu open up. If it takes longer than 0.1 seconds for the revised state to appear, then the response doesn’t feel “instantaneous” — instead, it feels as if the computer is doing something to make the menu open.

via: webcomics.com

Myself and my coworkers will be speaking at a Peoria Ad Club event. Here is a brief description with the location and time.

The Iona Group engages with a wide variety of clients using the latest communication strategies and technologies. Join us for a discussion of trends in digital advertising, audience engagement, and online strategy. The Iona Group will share their recent work and research and development; including killer wireless robots, eye bulging video installations, incredibly sticky phone applications, and websites that will make you scratch your head and wonder, how?

Date: October 14, 2009

Time: 11:3oam

Location: The Waterhouse at 619 SW Water St., Suite B in Peoria

http://www.peoriaadclub.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=55

links for 2009-10-12

• || Dummy Text Generator | Lorem ipsum for webdesigners ||
  Why settle for Lorem Ipsum? Get some better greek text already.
  (tags: greek lorem webdesign typography)

links for 2009-10-13

• How to use custom fonts in your html | Digital Garde
  Custom fonts for you and me. It is the dawn of a new age… make your type look better.
  (tags: @font-face font-face typography)
• Two great ways to embed a font in your website | Cre8ive Commando
  Fonts have been lacking on the web for so long… now with a recent resugence in interest, the technology is finally catching up.
  (tags: @font-face fonts typography)
• Font Squirrel | Download Hundreds of Free @font-face Fonts
  fonts galore. for free
  (tags: font font-face @font-face free)
• High Performance Web Sites :: @font-face and performance
  You have heard of FOUC, now get ready for FOUT… performance tips for using @font-face
  (tags: @font-face css typography fonts performance)
• { visibility: inherit; } 100% Height, Sticky Footer, Centered Layout!
  Sticky footers, activate!
  (tags: css footer sticky)

My URL Shorteners updated… Woot!

About a month ago I got two URL shortening services up and running. I launched http://fnla.me and http://fnaweso.me, learn more about the launch here. Now, I’ve updated them. I’ve added some new features, stats, for one. Additionally, you can now add the shortened link to your clipboard with a single click. Keep in mind, I still have the bookmarklets and an API available to you if you want!

To see how many users have clicked on a link you create in either service, simply add a “~” after the URL in your browser. Your link will be displayed along with the number of clicks you’ve received since it was created. Cool, eh?

The services are available in the AIR app, Shrinkadoo, so give that app a shot. If you maintain a Twitter app or would want to add the services to another website or service, let me know, I’d love to be included.