Archive for the ‘uncategorized’ Category

Subjective Art Can Be Functional

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

I just wanted to take moment before I dive into the subject of art and functionality to introduce myself. My name is Nicole Schmidt and I’m Nimbletoad’s newest addition to the team. I’m here to offer design support and maintenance to the everyday operations. I’m excited to join the team in forging new media trails. When I’m not updating and developing sites my passion is creating art with my hands instead of a computer. Here is a a look at my offline passion.
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Artwork made with recycled trash and renewable resources by Nicole B Schmidt.Visual art, in the traditional sense, is simply mechanical reproduction. In the days of the masters it literally was reproduction because copying someone else is how people learned how to create art. Even with today’s modern and contemporary art movements visual art is still an imitation of nature, imitation of fantasy, interpretation of other peoples art or an attempt to be original through circumstance. So if visual art is subjective and functional art like the Taj Mahal is objective how can you have functional visual art?

I think my form of art is the pinnacle of functional static 2D art. I say this because my art is not just an expression of mine it is a product of repurposing. I take paper trash and recycle it to create my art. It’s one step further in getting the most functionality out of something that originally was made to have one function. Would someone know the original function of my materials was to report on the latest printed news or to inform the recipient their APR was being increased to 29%? Probably not but then again that is what I was going for, art made from trash that didn’t look like it was made from trash.

Some art purists may say it matters what the art was created with, a true artisan uses only the finest materials. For them art is not that subjective and they hold fast to a certain set of beliefs, this is what brings them to their opinions of what fine art is. It’s ok they can stay in the stone ages where functionality and art were two separate entities I myself will keep forging ahead carving new paths for those that follow.

My art is on display at Vine To Glass, 210-A N. Coast Hwy., Oceanside, CA 92054 through August 8, 2009. Come for the last hurrah with my art on the walls: Sun & Sea, Vino & Tapas at 6:30 p.m., Vine to Glass & Vigilucci’s Present the following pairings:

  • Bailly Lapierre Blanc Brut Reserve, Cremant de Bourgognepaired with Endivia e Salmone Affumicato (Endive and smoked salmon)
  • Venica Jesera Pinot Grigio paired with Prosciutto e Melone (Parma Prosciutto and Cantaloupe)
  • Casa Barranca Red Blend paired with Involtini di Melanzane (Eggplant stuffed with wun dried tomatoes, goat cheese and basil)
  • Ramos Pinto Ruby Port paired with Tartine alla frutta (Mini fruit tarts)

Cost is $35. Please RSVP to (760) 757-1037 or via email at tastings@vinetoglass.com no later than 5pm on August 6th.

HTML 5 Highlights

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

New Features Supported: Structural Tags
New Features Inconsistently Supported: Canvas Offline, Native Video, Geolocation APIs

Doctype is now a simple <!DOCTYPE html>

Common structural divs are now their own tags.
Here are the self explanatory ones:
<div id=”header”> is now <header>
<div id=”nav”> is now <nav>
<div id=”footer”> is now <footer>

Tags that need a little clarification:
<section>
According the HTML 5 spec, a section is a thematic grouping of content, typically preceded by a header tag, and followed by a footer tag. But sections can also be nested inside of each other, if needed.

<article>
WHATWG notes, the article element should wrap “a section of content that forms an independent part of a document or site; for example, a magazine or newspaper article, or a blog entry.”

You can have more than one article tag on a page and each article can also be broken into sections using a section tag. This is very similar to how CMS systems like Joomla specify content but be careful when planning you structure in HTML 5 so as not to create a tag sea.

<aside>
Text in parentheses, annotations, pull quotes, inline footnotes or sidebar content would all fall under this tag.

Making it compatible with older browsers
If you need to support legacy browsers you need a fix because they won’t apply CSS to them. To fix it you need to apply some JavaScript using the createElement method and add it to the head of your HTML 5 file. Don’t worry about specifying the MIME type because in HTML 5 all scripts are assumed to be type=”text/javascript” which means there is no need to waste your time with attributes anymore.

<script>
document.createElement(‘header’);
document.createElement(‘nav’);
document.createElement(’section’);
document.createElement(‘article’);
document.createElement(‘aside’);
document.createElement(‘footer’);
</script>

To learn more about HTML 5 features and to see it in action check out HTML 5 Gallery

Billy Mays – A Master Presenter of Functionality

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

So I guess the myth that celebrity deaths comes in threes has been dispelled with the recent news that TV pitchman Billy Mays died Monday, June 29th. What brought Billy Mays TV pitchman celebrity status? After meeting Max Appel, Orange Glo International founder, Mays was recruited to demonstrate on shopping networks for the company. It was pretty evident what Appel saw in Mays’ delivery style. Not only was his enthusiasm infectious but he showed you why it was such a great product. Billy Mays, another great example of why functionality comes first.