Archive: Miscellany

Using SVG

I’ve dabbled with the SVG image format over the years, but a serious flow has rarely stuck for a lot of my core work projects. Whenever I need a refresher, this guide by CSS Trick’s Chris Coyier is where I often end up. The “one stop” guide is both fairly exhaustive on both how to generate SVGs and how to implement on the web.

Christopher Nolan’s most-debated shot

Andrew Deyoung on Inception’s well debated ending (mild, oblique spoilers for that film below):

Lost in these either/or debates (which I find to be pretty dull, see also: The Sopranos) is what I’ve always found to be a far more interesting possibility: that this final shot functions less in the world of the story than it does on the meta-level of the film itself—the shared dream-world created by Nolan and his filmmaking crew and occupied, for a time, by the audience, a dream world that comes to an abrupt end with the cut to credits that immediately follows the wobbling of the top.

In other words, I don’t think that is Dom’s totem. I think it’s ours.

SassDoc

Nice auto documentation tool I learned about during a talk at Sass Summit. As the introduction says, SassDoc is to Sass what JSDoc is to JavaScript. Basically, write some smart comments around your Sass functions and mixins, and with a simple call (fully Grunt and Gulp friendly) you can generate a nice looking, fully styled HTML documentation set.

The basic Brockmann Sass grid

Designer Jay Freestone’s argument behind this very simple set of Sass mixins to generate a grid set:

Because you’re using Libsass, which (at the time of writing) rules out the two well established SASS based grid systems, Susy and Neat. Brockmann is designed to be super lightweight and incredibly easy to understand. It’s not a comprehensive system. It’s a set of transparent and reusable mixins that let you built out a pre-conceived grid quickly.

Color highlighter

One of those Sublime Text packages that I should have installed a long time ago but never did. The package underlines or fills a CSS color with the actual represented color; no more reloading a web page unnecessarily or whipping out Photoshop to insert a hex value.

Solebon Solitaire

iOS gaming generally isn’t for me. I prefer deeper gameplay on the PS4 and on the go, between Pocket, Twitter and Reddit, I’m almost always preoccupied with reading material on my iPhone. But I have a few game standbys that serve me well, especially when I’m in San Francisco on business. Solebon for iOS is a perfect example. It blows away the hundreds of poor solitaire apps I see elsewhere. You get solid graphics, animation and gameplay, 50 solitaire varieties, full rulebooks, deck customization and more. Best of all, it’s updated for iOS 8 and the iPhone 6 display, the rare case of a game publisher sticking with a title for years. It’s well worth the $2 entry fee.

The very, very large black bars of The Evil Within

Giant Bomb’s Patrick Klepek writes a fascinating post on the intersection between gaming and film with regard to a game’s aspect ratio:

For the sake of argument, let’s say that’s not true, and Mikami chose 2.35:1 because it’s part of his vision. Given he’s deployed similar aesthetic choices in the past, it’s not unreasonable. The man enjoys blending Hollywood and games. If Mikami wants The Evil Within to be played with this aspect ratio, which frames the game through a particular lens, perhaps players should show that decision respect, despite other options.

Or maybe not! By being interactive, perhaps games invite players to subvert the designer’s will and aspect ratios are merely an act of interpretation. World builders can set up an experience a certain way, but the free will of a player means the creator gives up the right to be upset over what they do with the game, even when it comes to tinkering with technical specifications.

The truth, of course, is probably somewhere in-between.

How I use iA Writer Pro Syntax Control

I’ve been trying to practice my writing more frequently, mostly in the form of longer blog posts on this site. It can occasionally be a struggle, but I’m seeing a slow improvement that’s impacting my communication and thought process elsewhere. iA Writer Pro is my main writing app, and this informative post by Sayz Lim helped me use Syntax Control, one of Writer Pros most compelling features, to write stronger essays.

Cutting-edge CSS features you can use today

Guil Hernandez at Treehouse talks about some pretty awesome visual tricks you can pull with CSS on the latest modern browsers (usual candidates: Chrome, Safari). I’ve used the background blend mode as a simple trick to desaturate a CMS image to black and white.

Every reference in The Cabin in the Woods

Nine minutes of packed references from Josh Whedon’s 2012 deconstructed horror film. Horror is admittedly a film genre I tend to avoid, but I had a wonderful time watching this movie years ago in the theater. Available on Netflix now.

(Yes, this post would have been more apt a few days ago, but I stumbled on it over the weekend.)