The time has come to VOTE Komodo Media for the coolest blog competition. What happens if I win? I’m givin’ it all away. You heard me right - I don’t get a penny. All non-cash prizes will get given away in a drawing and cash will be given to a charity once the winner is announced by WP Web Host someday following December 1^st, 2008.

So what can you do? Vote for Komodo Media! Oh, and if you are thinking that this is waaayyyy to much to sacrifice, keep in mind I have been working on a WordPress plugin to give away for free. So there.

Update: As of this writing, I’m getting spanked.

Update 10/20/08: I’ve got a ton of great and supportive votes. Thank you! I just got one from the man himself, Jonathan Snook as well as Dave Morin of Facebook and Apple (Originally from Helena,MT!) Still behind by 50 votes, but I have confidence!.

Update 10/20/08: Mad props go out to Graham Smith and Calvin Lee who are helping to spread the word!

Update 10/21/08: A big thanks go out to Maximilian Schöning and Chris Harrison who have tried to get the word out. Thanks boys.

• Digitally Imported Electronic Internet Radio

  Rather, refound, I used to listen to Digitally Imported internet radio all the time in my college years. I recently rediscovered my love for it while telling a friend about it. In case you didn’t know, I <3 all music electronica.

• TiltViewer Flash Image Viewer

  The first time I saw this viewer, it was over at Signal Noise and I thought it was pretty cool. I used to love flash and flash image galleries, but since, my love for flash has faded. Nevertheless, this is still a rockin’-cool looking flash image viewer.

• Buero Ink

  Markus Shaefer’s logo work is stunning as well as his minimalist site. Even though my work doesn’t reflect it, I love minimalism and simple, monotone forms.

• display:inline-block;

  During my day job at Dealerspan as a UI designer, our target broswer is Firefox 3+. This means I get to use display:inline-block; all day long and it is such a time saver. No more floating!

• :hover:focus

  If you ever want to simulate an “onpress” selector in CSS, this is handy. Use a:hover:focus.

• “Star Wars” - an a capella tribute to John Williams

  This a capella video is amazing. From Star Wars to Jaws to Jurassic Park, I nerded out!

  I suggest a new strategy: let the Wookie win…

• Wilson Miner’s Website

  I love Wilson Miner’s minimalist site. Wait…he did the redesign for Apple.com? No wonder I like his style.

• Apple Keyboard

  After asking a ton of people on twitter, I broke down and bought the new apple keyboard. I love it. It so totally rocks compared to the plastic breadbox I was using before.

• Cold Calling Monetizing for n00bs

  A legit way to monetize your blog or vlog. Just call the company and ask them!

• Coda updated to 1.6 Plugins Available

  Of the myriads of updates and new feautres that Panic packs into every update, one feature stands out from the crowd: Plugins. That’s right - you can develop your own plugins for Coda. That’s freaktastically rad.

That’s it for today peeps. Let me know if you like this and want me to keep it up. Cheers!

Being the first of it’s kind on my blog, I have to truly feel this iPhone/iPod app deserves it — and Weightbot does. I’ve been a fan of Mark Jardine’s work for quite some time now and this app is no exception. From it’s uber cute robotic theme to radtastic design to the pixel level, this is one of the few iPhone apps that makes me want to buy an iPhone in Montana even if I couldn’t use it as a phone. Then again, I could always fork out some dough for an iPod touch, even though I’d probably only use it for Weightbot.

If I were to pick two favorite features about the screens that I’ve seen in Weightbot, the first one would be the intro screen with the glowing robot and the second would be the icon. I am a sucker for that icon. It’s hot.

I think that both Mark Jardine (designer) and Paul Haddad (developer) did an amazing job, but only one can truly tell by using the app, which I haven’t yet. I encourage you to first, check out the Weightbot photo set on flickr, next check out the app on iTunes, and last, buy it for your iPhone or iPod touch to keep good designers/developers alive. C’mon…it’s $1.99.

The kind folks over at WP WebHost have invited me to participate in the “Wordpress Coolest Blog Competition.” [link to competition and prizes] Prizes range from $500-$125 cash to free themes from Zidalgo to a WooThemes subscription to a lifetime Wordpress Hosting sponsorship!. Cool competition methinks.

So why would I want all this stuff? Am I just a money-grubber looking for handouts from all my readers? I hope you are thinking no. If I win, I’m givin’ it all away . After all, this competition is about the coolest blog and cool blogs give stuff away. Straight up.

So, here’s the deal. Leave a comment here and you will be entered into a random drawing. If I am chosen for the coolest blog, two things will happen:

1. All cash winnings get given to a charity.
2. All non-cash prizes are given to a person who comments on this blog entry by random drawing.

That’s it! All you have to do is comment! I suggest leaving a memorable comment, such as a favorite memory, or the best scene or quote from your favorite movie. Why not?

I haven’t been this inspired in a year, or around a year. Well, heck I don’t know how long its been - but the last thing that inspired me this much was sneak peeks of Street Fighter 4’s watercolor-y goodness. I was obsessed with the Street Fighter series as a youngster (maybe it was Chun Li), but enough about that. This post is about Cabel Sasser’s wedding.

When I saw his post about the Wedding design theme “pixel flowers” and nerdery, I checked it out. I loved everything about it. There’s something about a good design taken to the full extent. I’m not just talking a good website here people. I’ve been doing web design so much, that I appreciate so much when design bleeds out to moleskins, print, decorations and more, much less a wedding! Cabel’s wedding made me wish I was a designer, and that my wife was as equally nerdy as me when I got married.

Pixel flower tree invitations.

Pixel tree moleskines for the wedding party.

Pixel art wedding character revisions.

Be prepared to pee yourself with pixel awesomeness when you read about his wedding design. I know I did - P.S. That’s a secret.

When feeds became popular, it worked to have one icon on your site to point your readers to your RSS or Atom feeds. As feeds are more prevalent in blogs and websites abroad, the presence of multiple feeds abound. I have a feed for my blog, the nerdlab, my bookmarks, my friend feed as well as my twitter updates. That’s a butt-ton of feeds.

Browsers have come up with a smart way of offering this content to users and it is usually place somewhere by the location bar as shown below:

Firefox 3 Feed Menu

Safari 3 Feed Menu

With the click of a button, you can view all of the feeds available in the <head> of the document.

But still, it’s nice to offer users an alternate way to get at your feeds, so typically you will see a feed icon lurking around a site somewhere. At times, you will see a list of two, three or more links to different feeds offered on a site. Why not have an easy and standard way of offering your feeds via a nice, compact menu, just like in the location bar, but on your site? Why I ask? Why?

It’d be awesome to allow users to click your feed icon and be presented with a list of feeds to choose from. Hmmm, I want your twitter feed in Atom format or I’d like to subscribe to your blog feed in RSS format. Done.

The jQuery Feed Menu

Here’s how easy it is. I am going to plop one right here: . Go ahead click it. You know you want to. This feed menu was created easily by the following snippet of code:

var fm = new FeedMenu();
fm.write('#jquery_feed_menu_example_1');

Cool huh? That piece of code finds all of your feeds in the <head> of your HTML document and makes them into a handy menu you can plop anywhere. Here are some more examples:

Atom Feeds

Atom Feeds:

Code:

var fm = new FeedMenu('link[type*=atom]‘);
fm.write(’#jquery_feed_menu_example_2′);

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds:

Code:

var fm = new FeedMenu('link[type*=rss]‘);
fm.write(’#jquery_feed_menu_example_3′);

Different Theme Classes:

Classic Orange
Komodo Media v.4 Woodgrain
Komodo Media Azure

Transparent on Dark (for dark backgrounds)

Transparent on Light (for light backgrounds)

Code:

/*
* @param 1: CSS link selector or array of JSON objects
* @param 2: Class Name: null, wood, azure, trans_on_dark, trans_on_light
/*
var fm = new FeedMenu(null,'wood'); //2nd param is class
fm.write('#jquery_feed_menu_example');

Last, something custom

Let’s say you don’t want the feed menu to find links for you. You want to provide them in code. Check this out:

And, here’s the custom code:

var oCustomLinks = [
{
title:'RSS Feed',
href:"http://feeds.feedburner.com/komodomedia"
},
{
title:'Subscribe with Bloglines',
href:"http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://feeds.feedburner.com/komodomedia"
},
{
title:'Subscribe with Google Reader',
href:"http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http://feeds.feedburner.com/komodomedia"
}
];
var fm = new FeedMenu(oCustomLinks);
fm.write(’#jquery_feed_menu_example_6′);

You can download all of the files used here to use on your site. Feel free to modify and use this code how you see fit and if you use it, please drop a comment here to show me how you’ve used it.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

• command_tab - Collin Allen
• ridlo - James Ridle
• lmarburger - Larry Marburger
• alanhogan - Alan Hogan
• lovskogen - Tor Løvskogen
• bryanveloso - Bryan Veloso
• lashakrikheli - Lasha Krikheli
• mschoening - Maximilian Schöning
• thursty_thurst - Thurston Elfstrom
• webdav - Dave Simon
• denhamcoote - Denham Coote
• xENo - Jimmy Thomas
• markjardine - Mark Jardine
• mheerema - Matt Heerema
• CoryDuncan - Cory Duncan
• jtkendall - Joshua Kendall
• natalie - Natalie Jost
• falkowski - Brendan Falkowski
• indiqo - Maximilian Bartel
• theblahman - Daniel Barrett
• cdharrison - Chris Harrison
• lukesh - Francis Lukesh
• jmathias - James Mathias
• lealea - Lea Alcantara
• snookca - Jonathan Snook
• gotwalt - Aaron Gotwalt
• elihorne - Eli Horne
• friarjohn - John Bedard
• ikkekietje - Sarah
• unqueram - Michael Unquera
• jking - Josh King
• webgeekgirl - Christine Kringle
• DraStudio - Oscar Cortez
• n0s0ap - Ben Lew
• prof - Gerald Scheetz
• prof - Kyle Sollenberger
• imjustcreative - Graham Smith
• reybango - Rey Bango
• SuzanneE - Suzanne Elfstrom
• shawnw - Shawn Wallace
• lillianb - Lillian

I’m not going to categorize these people at all. They aren’t necessarily designers, programmers, zookeepers, athletes, etc. They are fun people that make being on twitter fun for me. They converse, respond and at times initiate conversation with me. Without them, twitter wouldn’t be worthwhile. It seems to me that they are also good people and don’t have issues with talking to anyone, so follow them and they may follow you. Happy twittering!

Please, feel free to comment with your favorite twitter friends as well.

Nerd Glasses

I <3 Nerds. I can sense a nerd like Gandalf sensing the ring...and "Nerdification" - I'm adding that to my list of words to use once every 2 minutes.

Cappuccino

Hmmm, nerds, coffee…is there more to life? I love the scripted “Cappucino”.

MailChimp

Jon Hicks: He rocketh vectors hard. Mental Note: If Jon Hicks designs one more monkey, I’m recommending him for leading actor in the new “Gorillas in the mist”

Espresso

More coffee? Maybe I need to get on a program. I almost want to drink the foam. Wait - there it is. yes. I DO want to drink the foam.

fmTuner is a small WordPress plugin for retrieving song details from your Last.fm profile and publishing them anywhere in your WordPress theme. It provides options for choosing among your Recent, Loved, or Top tracks, as well as tools to adjust the update frequency and appearance.

Collin at command-tab has whipped up a sweet piece of Wordpress plugin meat, so hop on over there and install this plugin!

Also, many of you have asked about how I styled my last.fm playlist and I plan on writing a blog entry on how to do just that. Keep tuned for that!

• Simple class interface that I can instantiate with new Classname
• Public functions/members
• Private functions/members
• Priveleged functions/members
• Static functions/members

Lately I’ve been using JavaScript functions as class objects and utilizing private, priveleged and static members and functions to my hearts content. Let me share.

Disclaimer: I don’t consider myself a JavaScript guru, nor do I think that this is the best solution evar known to mankind. If you have a snooty comment to say, please don’t leave it here. If you have a piece of constructive criticism or have better methods, do tell. I’d love to hear what you use. If your JavaScript knowledge is more l33t, then by all means, humbly share.

A Basic Class & Instance

function MyClass () {
//...
}
var oClass = new MyClass();

Public Member Variables & Functions

Public functions and variables are available to access on an instance of a class.
function MyClass () {
//..
}

//public member variable
MyClass.prototype.publicVar = “My Public Variable”;

//public member function
MyClass.prototype.publicFunction = function () {
alert( this.publicVar );
}

//create an instance
var oClass = new MyClass();

//run a member function
oClass.publicFunction(); //Alert: “My Public Variable”


Private Member Variables & Functions

Private member functions and variables are hidden to outside code. Only public functions can access them.
function MyClass () {

//reference to this
var self = this;

//private member variable
var privateVar = “My Private Variable”;

//public member variable
this.publicVar = “My Public Variable”;

//private member function
var privateFunction = function () {

self.publicVar += ” Modified By A Private Fucntion”;

alert( self.publicVar );

}
}
//create an instance
var oClass = new MyClass();

//run a private member function
oClass.privateFunction(); //private function is undefined

//get a private member var
alert( oClass.privateVar ); //private var is undefined


Static Member Variables & Functions

A static function or variable is available on the base class (or JavaScript) function, but is not available to the class instance.
function MyClass () {
//...
}

//declare a static member
MyClass.staticVar = “My static variable”;

//declare a static function
MyClass.staticFunction = function ( pInput ) {
return new MyClass( MyClass.staticVar , pInput );
}

//create an instance
var oClass = new MyClass();

//run a static function (NO access to private or public)
oClass.staticFunction( 9 ); //staticFunction is undefined on an instance
//run a privileged member function on the class
MyClass.privilegedFunction(); //The function runs


Priveleged Member Variables & Functions

A privileged member function has access to private variables, but is available publicly.
function MyClass () {

//private member variable
var privateVar = “My Private Variable”;

//privileged member function
this.privilegedFunction = function () {
alert( privateVar );
}
}
//create an instance
var oClass = new MyClass();

//run a privileged member function
oClass.privilegedFunction(); //Output: alerts the value of the private var



These classes may come as news to you…or maybe you’ve known about them since you were a fetus. In either circumstance, they’ve been a big help to me.

Word up.