Category: technology

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Podcast 5by5: David Sleight

In Big Web Show Episode No. 66, Jeffrey Zeldman interviews veteran web designer and publishing creative director David Sleight about how traditional publishers can transition to creating successful digital experiences, and the (mostly conceptual) obstacles they will have to overcome to do so.

Topics discussed in this episode include: why publishers alternately blame technology and treat it as a savior; the downside for magazine publishers of Apple’s new retina display; why content thieves may be your best customers in waiting; content-focused responsive design versus printed page emulation; and much more.

Around half way through the episode there is some interesting comments about the need for ‘digital and interactive experiences rather than simply porting the existing model to digital’.

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Strong interest for ebooks

3 computers to support the session

Today’s online surgery/webinar on ‘Getting started with ebooks‘ attracted 150 registrations and around 100 folk turned up at the top of the hour.

The turnout confirms that there is much interest on this topic and I hope to carry this energy into at least 1 project this year.

See my ‘notes on ebooks‘ for a collection of links from the past year or so that I continue to add to.

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JISC elevator

JISC elevator is a new way to find and fund innovative ways to use technology to improve universities and colleges. Anyone employed in UK higher or further education can submit an idea. If your idea proves popular then JISC will consider it for funding. The elevator is for small, practical projects with up to £10,000 available for successful ideas.

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Bathcamp #29

Bathcamp stage

It’s all design.

Curated by Alan Colville with speakers:

Richard Caddick of cxpartners: The Value Of Imagination

Joe Leach of cxpartners: Form Design

Jon Waring of 3Sixty: Designing measureable and meaningful websites

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Screencast

A screencast is a video that shows a recording of anything shown on-screen and normally makes use of a voice-over, typically explaining what is happening on screen.
A screencast can have additional supporting materials such as overlaid video (often the speaker), graphics, images and sound effects.
The creator of the screencast uses screencast software to record the on-screen activity and then uses either the same software to edit and prepare the  final video, or will import the screencast recording into third-party editing software for further work.

Because screencasts can have many different uses, they are quite popular and the basics can be learned in minutes.

Example uses include:

  • Demonstrating how-to do an activity on a computer
  • Providing student feedback
  • Introducing a software or web product for marketing purposes

Learn More

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Alistapart 342: A Pixel Identity Crisis

A Pixel Identity Crisis: Now that hardware is changing and pixel densities are growing, pixels are struggling to find relevance as the stable unit they once were. Browser zooming is one thing and has been covered on QuirksMode. But what is a pixel on high resolution devices today? Why does the 640px × 960px iPhone 4 claim to be 320px × 480px in the browser? The truth is that there are two different definitions of pixels: they can be the smallest unit a screen can support (a hardware pixel) or a pixel can be based on an optically consistent unit called a “reference pixel.”

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Notes on ebooks

I have been collecting links across the web about every aspect of ebooks and thought I may as well share it here as it grows. Feel free to comment/email with any useful resources.

Last updated 13 May 2012 and listed with my latest finds at the top

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Everyone on the board thought they did what I did

From Dave Winer:

I remember shortly after we sold our company to Symantec in the 80s, one of the board members wanted a feature in our product, and the team didn’t understand what he was asking for. I didn’t either, but by then I had already been sidelined. Everyone on the board thought they did what I did. I didn’t fight them because I was tired.

The bosses do everything better, Dave Winer