Month: January 2007

Categories
Flash Flash experiments FlashBox

Flash experiments: Flashbox – part 1

Update: I am not keeping files for historical purposes, so the Flashbox directory will be update. (This means: when you view the progress, explained in this post, there is a possibility that the files are already evolved some… and the description here won’t fit what you see )
Check for more recent post about FlashBox.

Introduction to Flash experiment: Flashbox

In “Flatpack toys other then ReadyMech” I started to experimented with Lightbox JS v2.0 to show images without using a popup or leave the page. I used wp-lightbox2.
And I was impressed! It uses prototype.js which is a JavaScript Framework. Until I saw that wp-lightbox2 plugin (lightbox.js, prototype.js, effects.js, images, css and php file) is a total of 86,6kB….

So I looked for a alternative, and found thickbox which was smaller (total 31kB) and more versatile (not only images and galleries but also inline content, iframes and AJAX content). Thickbox uses jQuery which is a JavaScript Library.
I used the wp-thickbox plugin (20,8 kB) and don’t forget wp-jQuery (19.5kB). So to get thickbox working on WordPress it will add up to 40.3kB total (less then half of lightbox).

And here comes the trouble:
A couple of days ago there was an update of WordPress: WordPress 2.1 Ella and this version of WordPress uses prototype.
And prototype and jQuery can live together but can cause problem.
Which it did in my case: Thickbox didn’t work any more, and a theme I was working on (using jQuery) stop working too.

Update: Not functioning of Thickbox had nothing to do with WordPress 2.1 or with the wp-plugin. I was to hasty with my conclusion. Read the comments

So I changed this blog (not update to wp2.1 yet) back to Lightbox again, because of the prototype/jQuery issues and future updates of my blog.

Continue reading “Flash experiments: Flashbox – part 1”
Categories
Urban papercraft

Urban papercraft: Speakerdog

Update: Ben added five new designs of Speakerdog, check it out in this little gallery
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

Ben (the illustrator) is obsessed with Speakerdog. It started as a one-off canvas but the little chap got under his skin.

Ben made a papermodel of Speakerdog and shared it with us.

You can download them here:
Speakerdog originalSpeakerdog original

Speakerdog SantaSpeakerdog Santa
And for the really creative there is also a blank version:
Speakerdog BlankSpeakerdog Blank

Categories
Design Improvement

WordPress Sociable plugin

A while back I started writing this article but never finished it.
So today I did…

I like using opensource, and try to give something back to the people who make them.
So if I see bugs I report them, and if I see improvements I’ll send a massage or a sketch of the improvement.

And so I did with Sociable by Peter Harkins.

Update: Peter started working on Sociable 2.0 (at the time of writing: beta 4) and a lot of improvements are made.

What is Sociable? The best description is from Peter himself:

Social bookmarking sites allow websurfers to save, catalog, and share interesting pages they find online. The Sociable plugin appends links for your readers to use those sites to the end of each of your blog’s posts, increasing your potential audience.

This is the email I send to Peter with improvements and some sketches I made.

Hi Peter,

First I wanted to thank you for creating the “Sociable” wp plug in.
It is exactly what I was looking for.

But this is not the reason I am sending this email
First the facts:
I downloaded “Download Sociable 1.2 (released 2006-03-26)”

and in this version you say that technorati is included
I couldn’t find it so I added it:

    'StumbleUpon' => Array(
        'favicon' => 'stumbleupon.png',
        'url' => 'http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=PERMALINK&title=TITLE',
    ),

    'Technorati' => Array(
        'favicon' => 'technorati.png',
        'url' => 'http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?url=PERMALINK&title=TITLE',
    ),

and my favorite StumbleUpon wasn’t included, so I added it to (StumbleUpon is one of the recommended addons from Firefox)

and I added the images….

no problem there.. probably something that was forgotten.

But because of this I found a bug:
I’ll just walk you through the steps:

  1. uploaded and installed the wp plug in
  2. selected some social bookmarking sites
  3. couldn’t find technorati
  4. so I wanted to edit the sociable.php from within wp and couldn’t (this is not a bug)
  5. so I edit the sociable.php and uploaded it again (see above for the additions to the file)
  6. checked if the sociable.php was changed (plug in >> plug in editor) and it was
  7. options >> sociable and no Technorati or StumbleUpon
  8. the only thing that seem to work was the button “Restore Built-in Defaults”

Extra / new features:

  1. Add and edit sites via admin page (but it is already on potential future additions)
  2. alert on “Restore Built-in Defaults” [view image]
  3. position of the “Restore Built-in Defaults” not directly under the “Save Changes” button especially without an alert on it >> perhaps move it to the left side. [view image]
  4. “Change the text displayed in front of the icons below” is a nice feature, but I can’t use it because I don’t like the hover on it (“these icon link….”). So for now I don’t put anything in there, but perhaps you can control this feature better [view image]:
    1. keep it as it is
    2. add a check box for the hover
    3. add a text field for the text in the hover box
  5. default is everything selected.. perhaps it would be nicer to start of with:
    1. default set of popular social bookmark (my list would be: Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Furl, Newsvine ) source “Social Bookmarking (aka Going Viral)”
    2. one (digg) and let the user make a conscious decision
    3. none, and let the user make a conscious decision

so thx for your attentions, good luck with the further development of this plug in

Categories
Urban papercraft

Urban papercraft: Fwis Readymech series 002

I know: it took me a time to post this (busy busy)

I’ve told you about Readymech, and it seems that they started on Readymech series 002.

There is not much to tell you about this project, so I’ll show you some:
tentaclopse
thunder_eater
headhunter
jules_pink

So don’t stand there, start cutting.

No? oke view some images from readymech server with lightbox:
1 t/m 20
20 t/m 40
40 t/m 52
52

Categories
Urban papercraft

Shin Tanaka – Spiky baby [series 5] is out

You need to be quick… the SPIKE BABY series from Shin Tanaka is starting with SPIKE BABY[SERIES 05] and before you know it, it’s gone and series 06 is there.

Dark horse

This time with :ad:86 , addfueltothefire , Angello , ANO , DARK HORSE , LACKO , PHONETICONTROL , PLAY HARD , Triclops

View all
Shin Tanaka papertoy series are only active for a short time and you missed it 🙁

And the total download list is here:
box
AD86
addfueltothefuture
Angello
ANO
Dark horse
LACKO
PC
PLAY HARD
TRICLOPS
S
P
I
K
Y
S 2
P 2
I 2
K 2
Y 2
box

Categories
Urban papercraft

Urban papercraft: Cut Cut Cut

A nice little project to make the word a better place…. or just give you the possibility to make your own Van.

You can download your Van van the Cut Cut Cut-site

The competition has ended, but perhaps the site will continue? Who will know.

I’ll show you the top 5 winning Vans:

This is the almighty prototype of the BSC Stretch Limousine. Rather than producing this poser car, BSC is donating it to Cut cut cut for charity
A bombed out Lints wagon...
Minimal graphic, maximal action...
This is my interpretation of an english police van.

Categories
Urban papercraft

Urban papercraft: definition of Urban papercraft

I have written about Urban papercraft, but what is it? and when do I consider it “Urban papercraft”?

Lets look for the definition of Urban papercraft at the Wikipedia definition of Urban Vinyl.

Which can be used to define Urban papercraft:

  1. The design of the toys is mainly done by graffiti artists, musicians, DJs, illustrators, and comic-book artists
  2. Examples of the toy are designed by the creating artist
  3. And examples from other designers
  4. There is always a blank version so another artist can paint it
  5. But the most important one is: free/opensource. The projects should let you print without charge the originals and the guest designs