Big Bad Code » Design Spotlights

_why the lucky stiff is awesome.

jbloom — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:25:48 +0000

Yet more proof of his awesomeness.

http://hackety.org/2008/05/05/sneakingRubyThroughGoogleAppEngine.html

Basically he’s shown a proof of converting Ruby bytecode into Python bytecode, enabling ruby to run in python only places, like Google app-engine. Quite cool.

Additionally he’s been creating hackety-hack which is an environment for anyone (children) to learn programming. _why’s built it out of ruby and gecko and his own shoes framework, it looks great so far.

Check out the first bylaw of hackety-hack:

Beginners should be greeted to Hackety Hack by a cartoon character. (For the sake of argument, let’s call this character: Hacky Mouse.)

Check it out:

Frog Design Blog

jbloom — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:42:48 +0000

I’m posting an OPML file here of all the frogblog feeds.
This would have come in handy when I wanted to subscribe to each of their feeds.

Download it here.

frog design is a great multi disciplinary design firm responsible for many iconic designs. As a student of Industrial Design and a long time digital technologist I love seeing what these guys create, and their feeds give me a great view into their culture and thoughts.

It’s great to see companies opening up their cultures and thoughts for everyone to learn from. I hope to see more of this from other companies.

If you’re looking for Icons for development use.

jbloom — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:37:09 +0000

I suggest you sign up with Icon Buffet. They have a great selection of Icons and lllustrations for purchase, but better than that if you sign up you get monthly icon sets to use as you like (besides reselling).

Here’s a peek at the quality. Use em for Desktop Apps or Web or whatever else you can think of.

Now I’m just looking for an application idea where I can use some these great icons. Also once your signed up you can trade the free sets with other users so let me know if you need Durango Research or Oslo Atmosphere, since I’ve got em.

The New Nalgene Bottle

jbloom — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:52:47 +0000

This is the first in a continuing series of ‘Design Spotlights’ where I review a product I am using that displays excellent design.

Starting this series is the Nalgene N-Gen Bottle

I have 2 of these bottles, I keep one at work and the other one I have dubbed the traveler. The mouth size on this bottle is perfect, you can tilt your head back and consume a lot of liquid quickly when your really thirsty. But its not too big like the older generation Nalgene’s which would spill all over you. If you do have one of the older Nalgene’s you should get one of their easy sipper inserts.

In the mornings at work I fill it with hot water and brew a nice cup of tea. In the afternoons I’ll give it a quick rinse and refill with cold water. No left over tea taste at all! Pretty impressive.

The bottle fits perfectly in my hand and has a pleasing shape that tapers smaller as it reaches the top. The top of the bottle has a convenient loop for finger holding or attaching a carabiner, and has a great rubber feel to it that aids in gripping when wet.

All in all I’m going to give this bottle a 10 out of 10 on my newly created design goodness scale.

All this and you can just throw it in the dishwasher when it gets really dirty.