Flatland Bike Check – Flatware Waltz

This post will be longer than you will care. But I’m putting it all in. I’ve built a new bike. My first bike change since 1999. Been riding flatland on a tank (Hoffman E.P) forever. I won’t give the impression that I’m some kind of pro, but even as an amateur I still want to share it. Part of the fun of Flatland is the equipment and the variety right?

I’ll get this out of the way quick…YES I ride back brakes. Nobody does anymore hardly but I like having them for all kinds of reasons. Sure they can get in the way and may even provide too much of a crutch, but right now, those don’t outweigh the positives (for me). I can understand the freedom of getting rid of brakes entirely, but I’m not quite done with them yet. I know I’m not alone but I’m in the minority in flatland certainly.

I realize now just how much I’ve been missing out on the lighter modern frames. Lighter is better. That’s one of the things I like about the Waltz. It’s definitely on the lighter side, even of the newer frames. The heavier bike you’re swinging around you’re definitely expending more energy per hour.  I can tell right now I can maneuver this thing in ways that would have been too strenuous on the other bike.  I have been able to recover mishaps easier. It’s nice to feel like I’m working on the combo more than just straining to hold the bike up. A heavy bike is demotivating. Flatland is all about repetition, so there you go.

So how does the new bike work out for me? I dig it BUT there’s room for improvement. Here’s my full photo gallery and then I’ll give a few more thoughts.

[Show as slideshow]

The Flatware Waltz frame designed by Odyssey and Terry Adams is constructed well. I like the tubing. I’ve gotten used to the new setup and geometry in just one session. A couple more I will have tried nearly all the stuff I normally do. It’s all so smooth.

I made the right choice going with the taller and wider Flatware Chase Gouin bars. The shape and design is so right. Wider for me means more leverage in maneuvering. Too narrow and your balance can get thrown off (my opinion). I know my comfort zone and with longer arms, it makes sense.

Problems with my choices?

I’m glad you asked. The Flatware Waltz is right on the edge of being too short for my height.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m keeping it and I’ll enjoy it to the max, but I’d bet adding a half inch to the front and then to the back would work well.  I’m 5’10″ and I’d argue anyone my height with a shoe size 10 or over should get a longer bike.

I’ll be looking at a something between 19 and 19.2 next time. You’re going to want to go with 165 cranks for this setup, unless you like your heels hitting the back pegs. If you like longer cranks, this is gonna be a noticeable thing for you.  I jam up back there and my pegs aren’t even that fat.  That tells me the back or the entire bike is too short (at least for somebody with size 11 shoes. Let me make the only other strong criticism. The dropouts on this thing are done wrong. They are notched for grinding for larger axels but once grinded are way too thinned out. Best to just have the larger axel

I’m giving the Waltz a rating of 7.5 / 10.  If it also came in a longer size like 19.2 with proper dropouts it would easily be a 9.5 / 10

I learned a lot from shopping, making a couple mistakes not knowing what to get. I’m better prepared now. Expensive lessons though.

After reading a lot of bike checks, I knew I wanted to show my full parts sheet and prices in the table below. That way you know what’s up. Plus EVERY time kids see me ride they ALWAYS ask,  “How much was your bike?” Now I can tell them to go here and see how ridiculous we all are for loving this expensive sport. I thought about including links to online stores but I don’t want to recommend one retailer over another (unless somebody wants to give me a gift card kickback for promoting them!) Prices should be pretty similar online everywhere.

April 6, 2011 at 5:01 pm | bikes, design, general | 1 comment

The Apple iPad revealed. What now?

I was wrong on plenty of things regarding this tablet computer. Some of the things are disappointing, but I’m happy I’ve taken some time to digest it a bit, to listen to some arguments. I think Apple’s iPad is pretty darn cool. It *might* be something I’d buy, but I can’t say for sure just yet.

I’m going to start with this statement. I’m relieved that I now know what this is. The build-up was just ridiculous.  But I think that the suspense was valuable because people put forth so many ideas, they may have even encouraged innovation by other organizations to meet needs.

I think the iPad will be a good computer for people of every age to read and learn. I think most media companies will like it because it encourages the consuming of their information, books, films, and audio. And it’s created to be hyper-convenient to purchase those materials via this mainstream channel.

People were hoping for more than the iPhone of course. And the lack of camera surprised some.  I think I don’t mind it not having an onboard camera as long as a durable one can be connected. I think it might be better as a peripheral actually, then it could be pivoted to see the subject best for whatever use case, chatting or games.

One area that does bother me right now, but I hope for resolution is the lack of a dedicated drawing program. I thought for sure that one of the most important ways to justify the existence of a device like this is to throw down with designers. In a way, I think Apple owes the design community something like that because the design community supports them.  People were mentioning they were surprised about a lack of stylus. I kind of agree, but I want it known that a stylus does exist that can work with these capacitive screens. How the device will handle a sharp input, I don’t know. And that’s too bad, because it’s a niche opportunity.  But I think it’s something Apple probably wants other companies to handle, Adobe of course and smaller companies.

Sounds good right? Well yes but still I go back to this intended as a consuming device.

What else is missing?  Well I said in my earlier posting that I expected the device to have a real operating system, not just the iPhone OS. Well I was wrong. And that means it doesn’t really have the ability to support programs and utilities outside approved app store apps. Will this matter to most people who can find useful programs in the 150,000 large app store?  Nope, they’ll be fine.  And in fact, for every lost hobbyist, there will be hundreds or thousands of users who are given more than they need at prices they don’t mind, in a closed platform they don’t mind.

The good news is, plenty of other devices predating and developed concurrently are going to work for hobbyists. And these will gain a lot from the iPad. The envelope must be pushed. And it’s happening in price, weight, battery life, user experience and more.

What’s hot?  As much of a bugger it is for me to say, the app store is really hot. Because it is a market where a lot of people can get involved. Sure it’s closed off, but it’s not 150,000 strong by keeping people out. It’s quite open too. And somehow non-public apps will be made as this device and platform evolves if certain businesses want to take advantage.

What else is missing? I think a lot about the possibilities of a really strong voice recognition to complement a handwriting recognition where one could produce text to share these ideas almost as quickly as with a keyboard.

So after seeing the real thing, will I get it?  I’m torn, I mean the price points certainly make it more fun, but given that the potential for the Android devices, the battery life potential of Pixel Qi screen tablets and Ebook Readers and it’s hard to part with the money if I don’t have a killer drawing program. And I want the   It’s a good idea if one were to skip this device that they might keep an eye on the app store still. Because that’s where one might find exactly what they’re looking for.

It’s very exciting.  A few years ago, there were plenty of devices that would fail and never return.  One might think this wasn’t something people wanted and would go away before it reached a potential.  You get the feeling now though that we are definitely inching towards the right version for most people in this form factor.  It’s happening now and just like all other technologies, it will keep getting better. It will get to the point where you will see too many reasons to buy one.  They present many opportunities for in-home control over networked devices, energy settings  or other monitors and smart features.

February 5, 2010 at 7:07 am | computers, design, mac | No comment

On the eve of the Apple Tablet

Some would tell you that tomorrow the world will change.  I’ve loved all the coverage, I eat it up. As an ultra enthusiast of portables, this is a big year. And tomorrow is a significant day in the material world. Big player, massive expectation. Great potential no doubt.

Intrigue surrounds this thing, not just because it’s Apple. Not because of controlled leaks. People are looking for something. They want to do new things, or do old things better. Will this thing help people do things, or is it just a device for consuming?

Many of us have realistic expecations for this. Writing and drawing, taking notes, good battery life, durability, responsive UI, games, specialized programs, photo and video viewing, reading books.  A netbook or high end notebook isn’t enough for some.  They want to interact more naturally. Some, like me want to be able to create higher quality designs using their refined motor skills and talent, not just push a mouse around.

These gadgets are personal man, they spark all kinds of debate. For some of us, they seem to run our lives, they own us as Tyler Durden would say.  But they let us work in special ways, to share, to communicate. We scupt them through the programs we use, the shortcuts we deploy and what we throw out entirely.

I was disappointed with some writers covering or commenting on these devices, who insist that they know what people want, or more often what they don’t need. Stupid.  There are enough people in the world in all niches that you could make any kind of tablet product fly if you targeted it properly.  Medical, education, logistics,  and more.  And don’t forget the technique many use to market wares to people who don’t know about them. Create the need by introducing a problem, one that people didn’t know they had.  A 9-year-old understands this brand of persuasion.  It’s a mixture of What-if? and Don’t-You-Hate personal inquiries that lead to great answers.

The must frustrating statements made to me have been things like:

• Nobody wants to lug a tablet around when they have a smaller phone
• The device won’t be any good for true serious gamers
• Smudging issues (are we still hearing people say this?)
• No one wants to stare into a backlit screen to read a book
• This won’t appeal to anyone but graphic designers
• You won’t be able to do any real work on it
• No one wants to obscure what they’re doing while touching
• No one can do anything productive without a keyboard
• If Apple makes it, I will preorder it site unseen
• Apple will succeed where others have failed
• Apple will fail where others have failed

As obsessed as I get with wanting to strike back at these with my own strong feelings about the potential for the device here. I’d feel just as energized if Apple didn’t announce a tablet tomorrow. The ball is already in play buddy. Somebody is going to take hold and run with these ideas. We all know after the media storm what many people are after.   So it’s exciting, and it feels like anyone’s game to win.

Now for my speculative remarks.

God knows I’ve listened to everyone else on these matters.   I don’t care of Apple does any of this, it’s just a fun exercise.  But I do have some personal certainties here. Take it or leave it.

1. I don’t see how it could possibly be called “Tablet”, “iTab” or iSlate or iPad”  Not that the name matters at all to me, but it’s going to play off the graffiti theme or will have a cool name like “Moses” just like the “Newton” was used for their first tablet, something strong. If Steve Jobs did say this is his most important work ever, why wouldn’t he break the standard and  give it a name with real pwnage.
2. I think the screen will be different in materials than anything else we’ve seen.  Or if we have seen it, we’ve forgotten about it. It won’t be like the iPhone and it won’t be OLED and won’t be Pixel Qi either(unfortunately), I think it will be something else that’s been overlooked by everyone. I’m betting a 3rd party company has been developing the substrate quietly for a long time, and it’s a key selling feature that Apple would NOT allow a controlled leak on. It won’t be unbreakable, but durable.  It will be something that works for reading and writing in daylight better than we’re used to. The screen will perform well, but don’t get your hopes too high, too many compromises are in play.
3. Lack of ports will bother me. Focus will be on wireless connectivity and against my wishes, there will be a lack of ports, thereby making the device less useful to hobbyists. Apple always does this to me, so I don’t see this changing. If there are more than 2 ports, I’m betting they will be non-standard and annoying to connect to. I’m very curious if it will have an SD slot. I’m thinking not, tragically.
4. Apple will allow docking in vertical position for pairing with a keyboard easily, and will probably have a good docking station for it (look at logitech’s dinovo keyboard charger dock for example of what you’ll get with this.
5. Screen will be 10 inches. That’s my guess. One size, 10 inches.
6. In order for this event not to end too quickly, there will be a massive amount of use cases and software revealed where all sorts of problems are “solved” in the demo. The use cases will take up a large portion of the time. Videos and testimonials in areas like design, home entertainment, commercial use and media creation (photo / video / audio).  Education will get some time, but not enough, because Steve trimmed that part for the sake of brevity.  Those items ARE most important for the device to succeed though. They’ll be more evident when the microsite goes live.
7. A few years ago, Apple changed iMovie so you could drag your mouse across clip thumbnails and it would shuttle through the video. That was killer and you will see nice UI features like that for plenty of oohs and ahhs. These things WILL get people thinking and it will drive more innovation.
8. Some kind of iPod goodies will be part of the announcements to hold interest, the 2 devices will fuel each others’ progress.
9. Special Mac software will be what sells this thing which is also where the other “failed” tablets and multi-touch didn’t grab the mass market.  Designers will get graphic software, students WILL get office. Learning software will be apart of this. This device will do more than just App Store stuff. It will allow for custom builds.  Because it has to appeal to commercial users who want to create their own lock-in for their company.
10. Price will be $899 or higher. Look at Apple’s current offerings across the board. How could it be cheaper if they stick to their pricing as usual?
11. 3G will be available, but not locked to a vendor like AT&T.  That will too easily hurt sales.  No contracts required.
12. There will be exclusive partnerships which are made to sound cool, but really are just annoying. Something about these tablets and portables that brings out the old-world corporations and their attempt to control the future by creating a false scarcity on things. Extreme content and intellectual property fascism wrapped in the guise of the simple and convenient purchase and exclusivity.

Wrapping up, It won’t be for this guy =(

I’ve been disappointed before and probably will this time too. I’m doubting the Apple Tablet will be my choice of tablet in the long run. There’s a lot out there now, with the Entourage eDGe, HP’s offerings, and I’m really hopeful for Notion Ink’s Android tablet with the pretty Pixel Qi screen.  A lot of devices are using Wacom technology for pen recognition. I think I’ll be paying for the most flexible choice.  Apple doesn’t have that reputation of being flexible or open.  But I bet it will do a few things I’ll be jealous of when I see it in the field.

January 27, 2010 at 1:30 am | design, gadgets, mac, media | 1 comment

Snowflakes have rules too

I’ve created dozens of snowflake designs over the past few years, many using this fine Make-A-Flake snowflake generator tool.  I never once thought of any kind of rules that water molecules and crystalline structures obey for making real snowflakes.

This story from NPR was really cool.

What’s Wrong With This Snowflake?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121827582

This is one of the many examples of why it’s interesting to be a designer and observant of other disciplines you briefly work around.  I’ve cheated in a million ways to create digital imagery but some things can’t just be passable, they must be done properly. And there’s something very comforting about that even though it means more time.

December 24, 2009 at 2:51 am | design | No comment

Interesting possibilities in Photoshop CS5

I remember getting pretty excited the first time I saw the Seam Carving technology from a SIGGRAPH demonstration, which eventually made it’s way into Photoshop, The GIMP and Xara Xtreme.  That seemed to happen quickly, and I’m certain because the code was made open to a certain extent. A custom app was built, a plugin for the Gimp was great.  Xara and Photoshop integrated Seam carving really well. And it works. It’s actually one of my best new tools I can make use of probably once for every web project I do.

Now things are evolving even more with what may be upcoming features that will help with fixing and doctoring photos.  I don’t find doctoring photos that enjoyable really.  I love helping customers, but I wish most of this wasn’t necessary.  That being the case, if you have to doctor a photo, it might as well be pretty easy to do.

Here is a video of Improved Seam Carving and PatchMatch, both of which were part of an Adobe/Princeton/University of Washington project.  To my knowledge, nobody said explicitly this WILL be in Photoshop CS5. But it is shown operating in the Photoshop interface and take from it what you will. As an aside, I like this website I discovered.  CS5.org. Despite it’s authoritative look, it appears not to be an Adobe site. Granted I could be wrong, but it’s showing Youtube Videos rather than using an Adobe player, and it’s showing a white paper using Scribd rather than an Acrobat-esque flash paper embedded PDF viewer.  Still that doesn’t mean it’s not all great information.

Adobe does have a video from a few members of their user experience UX design team re-published on the CS5.org website.  It features some discussion and examples of multi-touch and how they can leverage it for their graphics creation tools.

October 4, 2009 at 5:10 am | computers, design, graphics, media | No comment

Dropbox – the perfect computer utility

Ever get tired of sending attachments to people? You write the email, click “add attachment”, browse, find, upload, wait, AND, send. Blah, that’s annoying just to think about.  I got tired of it a long time ago. That’s why I’ve been using this service called Dropbox for probably two years now, as soon as I heard of it. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it in this blog before, but anyway, you want to check it out and get it. It’s truly one of the best online services ever created. And it’s in both free and pay premium versions.

Simple instructions here, visit getdropbox.com and download their utility.  It works on Windows, Mac and Linux. Install and it makes a networked folder in your computer that will sync up with the Dropbox server. Files dropped in there are automatically archived on the internet for you. Dropbox let’s you share 2 Gigabytes of files free, and you can pay a small fee for even more storage.

To share a file, move or copy it into your Dropbox public folder (create subfolders inside if you like) right-click and choose to Copy public link. Paste this link URL into your email and you can share the file with somebody without having to attach anything, (and without them needing to detach it.)  Here’s an example of the public link you’d be pasting into your email:

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/000000/foldername/filename.jpg

As a designer, it’s been a great tool to use because I can quickly update a file on my desktop and it re-synchronizes and my client can just revisit the original email I sent for the link. They will always be downloading the most recent file.  Just remember if files are big you’ll watch them sync with the server, the little icon next to the file will indicate when it’s done synchronizing.

Dropbox also archives versions of files and let’s you revert to them. It’s not infinite versioning, but it’s an added bonus that can help you in case of an accident.  If your PC goes down, you can also install dropbox on the new or refreshed pc and it will sync it back for you. Those files will only delete if you actually delete them from your folder.  I also use it to share files between my PC and Mac, so no worries if I’m on or off my home network.

Just get it, and start taking advantage of this perfect utility’s exquisite convenience. Oh and if you had the idea that you might be able to share files over the internet with a second person, you can definitely do that, you could share your login with a person, (which works but might not be what Dropbox intended) or add users within the service as documented.  The free service is great, the pay service is worth it.

getdropbox.com

September 29, 2009 at 11:19 pm | computers, design, gadgets, mac, tools | No comment

Xara Xtreme Pro 5.1 graphics software

If you’re into the digital graphics for a hobby or work, you’ve been told that Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are the industry standard. This is certainly true, but the “standard” doesn’t mean better in all aspects. Xara Xtreme is one of the few lesser-known alternatives that in some areas measurably outperforms Adobe’s offerings. I’ve been using it for several years. I fell in love when I saw the speed and clean interface of the program. Multiple updates over the past couple years have made it even more flexible. I always enjoy telling people about it because it’s simplicity and performance is surprising.

Some notable favorite features for me including some new ones out with the latest 5.1 version:

• Much easier learning curve than Illustrator for drawing and manipulating vector path objects
• Great interface, cleaner menus and simple tool panels, not overcrowded, with easy access to everything for a faster workflow.
• Can handle more intricately detailed vector drawings faster, (Zooms to an insane 25,000%)
• Dead-simple live gradient editing
• Multi-page documents (5.1 now has master page objects too!)
• Beautiful gradient transparency, now multi-stage
• Can utilize Photoshop filters as plugins and has it’s own library for many effects
• Cleaner pathfinder style tools such as cut and combine (Illustrator is simply harder to learn in this area, with little reward)
• Exports and Imports dozens of formats including vector and bitmap. Notably, layered PSDs, EPS, PNG, TIFF, HTML, PDF and more.
• 3D extrusion tools
• Creates Exports Flash Animations
• Complete Web design and creation tools included.
• A variety of bitmap image controls (cropping, feather, built-in filters)
• New Seam-carving / content-aware image resizing. (you need to see this feature to believe it, also in Photoshop CS4 and GIMP as a plugin)
• Reasonably complete PDF print export options

There are limits to Xara’s superiority. Looking at Illustrator, you can tell it has a great deal more features, just look at Illustrator’s Effect menu. But if I had Xara when I was learning vector graphics instead of Illustrator or Freehand, I think I would have enjoyed the process much more. I also believe if Adobe Flash had Xara’s tools for vector drawing it would also be a better program by far. I’ve often composed in Xara just to export to Flash in order to bypass some of Flash’s clumsiness. In short, I want Adobe to be more like Xara, just as much as I’d like a few things in Xara that Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and even the new and free Inkscape has. I have other “underdog” programs that I swear by, but this is the big one that I happily pay for.

Downsides of Xara, first it’s only on Windows. Linux users can use an older open source free version of Xtreme, but is hasn’t been feature-developed since 2007. This free version is fast and certainly good, but it’s missing some terrific features that Windows has. Mac has no Xara and I wish it did.  Also there are some file import issues I’ve found. Fore example, sharing SVG and EPS files has given me plenty of frowns. Sure it’s not a big deal when you control everything, but when you need to collaborate with others, or send files to print, you need reliability. Also despite the type features having massive improvements over the past few years, you will find InDesign a little better for you for composing most longer documents. I could think of a few more issues, but I could dig for more in any software.

Xara Xtreme has become over the years a must-have tool. Adobe users have become converts plenty of times, after being hypnotized by its beauty.  Even though I really love most of Adobe’s collection, Xara does certain tasks better and faster. You’ll use it for full graphic and page creation, enjoy it’s speed for mockups and maybe as a thinking tool before you’d open anything else. I love working with objects, breaking them apart, modifying shapes. The projects I’ve been able to do solely in Xara such as illustrations and diagrams, I’ve nearly always completed more efficiently than I could with other tools, and with a lot of enjoyment.

www.xara.com

June 11, 2009 at 4:23 am | 3D, design, graphics, publishing, tools, webdev | No comment

Does GM deserve help from you and me?

During this sad hour of automaker bailouts let us reflect on how they have squandered their opportunities to create a new world and instead caused their own doom by failing to respond to the people and instead doing business as usual. Very sad. We could be so much further than we are if it weren’t for several units of corruption within the auto companies, interest groups lobbyists and the oil industry.  And now, citizens will be paying for it.

You think we’ll be paid back?  We won’t unless we require that if we’re not paid back that all assets and patents belong to the public domain if the money isn’t paid back within a specific amount of time.  Who the heck would approve a loan without specific requirements, a co-signer and sufficient collateral?  Stupid congress in both parties that’s who. Do yourself a favor this holiday season and watch this movie.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Once you see the film in it’s entirety I believe you’ll realize how wrong the industry is, and how very wrong it is to let them keep on truckin’.  Companies are not working for the people, neither is the government. Face it, we’ve been burned so bad. And we come back for more.

Here is the film’s wikipedia article. If you like, start there and move onto the references cited.

December 9, 2008 at 3:00 am | conspiracy, design, politics, rants | No comment

My Free software tools list

It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally created my ultimate free software tools list.  Before it was a pathetic page, always a ghost of what it could be.  Now, since I’ve recently upgraded my computer setup, I’ve had a lot of time to refine a perfect setup.

Check out my Free Software Tools page. 

March 12, 2008 at 9:27 pm | computers, design, graphics | No comment

Here’s how you write an online book

Here’s how online books usually go. A book is published online, or happens to be in the Public Domain and resides as a text file (.txt) or a collection of HTML files loosely coupled with a table of contents. If you are me, you find the book, but are immediately depressed because of the dreadful way the page is built, the annoyance of reading on a computer monitor, or somehow the book design is offensive to your tastes.

Most books published do NOT have an online counterpart. It is believed that doing so will hurt sales. Plus it’s doubling effort if you do it incorrectly. Both of these reasons may be true for certain books and bad methods. But you still will find some writers and publishers that have made the jump and offered both. Some even offer the online version for free and still make plenty of cash for the printed version. Books are tactile, they are fun to own.

Just today, I encountered a book that in my opinion is the best possible form of online release. This book is about a website development framework called Django. But you know what, that’s not important. What’s important is the way their online book has been made.

Here’s where they got it so so right:

1. The web address was made just for the book. Djangobook.com
2. It’s designed with a darkened background and a content reading area that looks like a page.
3. Released under a free license that allows copying. I can share it, I will brag about it, everybody wins
4. Simple ‘About’ page, explains the reasoning, who wrote it, why it matters etc. I like this better than a regular book because after reading hundreds of “Acknowledgement” pages I’m ready to skip them. (side note, if you ever write your own book, do us a favor and dump the “acknowledgements” to the back of the book, unless it’s just a one line ‘For Tracey’ or something.) I’ll mention their Eratta page too, which identifies corrections from the dead tree version.
5. Each chapter points to a single HTML page. You don’t enter a chapter and then have to jump through 20 sub pages. It gets to be overwhelming having subpages in online books because you’re not able to grasp the whole, like you can a paper copy. You’re worried how long it will take to get through this thing and how you’ll remember where you left off.
6. The best comments feature ever conceived by man or machine. There is a thin sidebar next to the content area. When you hover over it, there are bubble popups that will either let you leave a contextual comment yourself, OR read comments from others. A reader can express a clarification which will help a later book version, or maybe offer a related example to go with the text. These would be great to use while the book was in earlier writing stages to get opinions and make edits. Comments in blogs are one thing, but if they can line up with the text?! Bitchin dude.
7. Simple “Buy” link at the top. Shows you how to buy the book on Amazon, because they know some of us will get fed up with the screen version. We want the printed book to mark up, to fold over, to give away to somebody. Some of us even do it to support people financially we appreciate. So take THAT economists!
8. Very tasteful and appropriate content layout. They have many code examples in this book. In a lovely way, they share them in a special code box that has a proper font. I’m actually pretty happy they didn’t do syntax highlighting either. There’s really no need. If you wanted to go overboard you could offer a hover – highlight for the panel. I’d also like to express my love for their note boxes. Lovely icon identifier. These changes or breaks within the text help with reading enjoyment. They give you momentum in a way. Help remind you that you are cranking away making progress. Black on white text files do NOT offer this. Real books are already motivating because you can see how many pages you have traversed.
9. Beautiful diagrams that match the side. Really love this
10. Faded navigation. In small ways they keep things not hidden, but subtle until you roll over them. They used nice clean “next” links at the bottom right for navigating through chapters. Perhaps I wouldn’t be so excited over this if I haven’t seen so many hideous arrow navigation for LEFT, RIGHT and confusingly DOWN.

Oops, I guess I have created a top-ten list. I swear it was unintentional. Please forgive me there. And give those Django book guys some compliments if you agree with me. I’m hoping that I can borrow this method somehow if I have a book of my own to post online.

December 17, 2007 at 4:46 am | books, design | No comment

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