Who can ever have enough CSS and Javascript? Today I’ve got some libraries that you might find interesting.
Bootstrap - Quicker, Cleaner UI:
Everyone knows how hard it is to get your initial CSS template set up for a a site and the difficultly is only compounded by trying to ensure that your design is clean, that you have a solid grid system, that the CSS is cross browser compatible, and it looks appealing. One designer over at Twitter (@mdo) realized this and he has released Bootstrap which is a great starting point for the design of any site. It comes with it’s own built in grid system, it’s cross browser compatible, and probably most important it looks stunning. If you’re in need of a good starting point for your next project why not take a look at it.
Turn.js - Page turning in Javascript:
A coder in Cincinnati named Emmanuel Garcia has made an pretty nice API for replicating the page turning effects from iBooks in HTML5 and javascript. It’s cross browser compliant and works on most mobile devices, the only exception I’ve found so far is the Nook’s browser. Here’s a link to his project Turn.js it’s also available on Github.
Impress.js - Simple Presentations with Javascript:
While it may not be a Powerpoint killer just yet you can’t help but feel you’re looking at the future when you look a presentation done with Impress.js. Everything from the transitions to the 3D effects are very well done. If you can get your browser into full screen it may be a viable alternative to Powerpoint it will even allow you to embed other sites directly in the slides via an iFrame for a real time demo of a feature or flaw. It may be limited in uses right now but in the future I can see it being big.
CoNNECT in the news:
Now for a bit of news. As many of you may or may no know I’m currently working at Oak Ridge National Labs(ORNL) on a project called CoNNECT (Citizen Engagement for Energy Efficient Communities). This is an application that uses javascript to help a person visualize their power usage and compare their usage with their peers, with the hope that this will show the power company customers how efficient they could be by showing them how efficient other people are. This week the project was featured on the Knoxville news-station WATE. Here’s the link to their report: WATE Report. Featured in the video is Dr. Budhendra the GIS division head and the researcher I currently work under Dr. Omitaomu.
Every so often I run out of original content to write or show this is one of those times so I’d like to direct you to some projects or people who I think are doing really amazing work.
For the techie:
DuoLingo:
First I’d like to show off DuoLingo the brain child of Luis Von Ahn from Carnegie Mellon University. DuoLingo is a free services that seeks to help you learn a new language from scratch instead of buying software such as Rosetta Stone. The way they do this is they give you sentences to translate to and from one language to another. The really amazing part is that you’re doing actual work: the material that you translating while learning is actual content from somewhere on the web that is getting translated by you and several other users. Check out his presentation at TedX CMU.
Looks like BlackBerry has finally met it’s match hackers xpvqus, neuralgic, and cmwdotme have gained root access to the RIM’s Playbook. This is particularly interesting to me, RIM’s hardware is pretty nice but their operating system seems clunky and unwieldy. Maybe just maybe someone will take it upon themselves to port a newer Android OS to this device.
I’m not sure why I’m recommending this link. On one hand it’s really interesting to see what people are doing with the Siri proxy, but on the other hand it’s terribly entertaining. This gentleman appears to have linked Siri with his X10 home automation system. This allows him to give Siri voice commands to control the things that he has linked to his X10; in this case his fireplace and his lights.
For the artist:
The 45 most powerful photos of 2011:
Enough said. The two that are the most moving to me are #25 and #30 they will always be stuck in my mind.
I recently discovered this website. It’s basically an online storefront for graphic designers but there’s some really inspired work on there it’s definitely worth a look and maybe even purchasing.
As you all may know I am part of the media department at Gate City United Pentecostal Church. Every year in February we have a Revival/Rally that is our single biggest event of the year. Every year we attempt to push the envelope to be just a little more creative and a little ahead of everyone else. Our usual method of operation is to choose a theme, and then design a visual experience around that theme, however this year our process happened backwards. My friend Jon Bradley (from jonbradleyphotography.com) had produced some pictures of light writing which I thought were really unique and stunning. I hadn’t seen anyone use anything like this before on a flyer so I asked Jon if could make something for us and he agreed, but he asked the all important question: “What is this thing going to be called?”. I didn’t realized that we hadn’t picked a theme yet so we had to think of something. The committee wanted something new, simple, easy to remember, reusable, and that had a evangelistic feel; no small order. So after thinking about it for a while I arrived at “Shine”. We presented it to the committee and it was an instant hit it had all of the qualities that everyone was looking for. So with that we went to work. We wanted to make something very minimal so that the theme would have it’s full impact. So I present to you “Shine” for Gate City Youth revival 2012:
You see, a good team works by inspiring each member inspiring the other members to do their best; each person relying on the next. I would be nothing without my team of creative minds to keep me constantly learning, absorbing, and seeing new things. I’d like to give thanks to: Jon Bradley for the amazing job he did with the photography, Evan Grizzle for helping us thrash out the details, Shane McCracken for supporting our idea, and the Gate City UPC Youth committee for giving us the degree of freedom that they did. Thank you all this will be an amazing year for all of us.
