Here was something written in his article that impressed me:

Hint: Properly describing your images can help your ranking in the image search results. For example, Google image search brings me hundreds of referrals everyday for the search terms “abstract” and “dj“.

There is lots more to learn over in the post Web Designer Wall: SEO Guide for Designers, so check it out!

6 years ago I discovered Exploding Dog (this was my favorite) and had my mind blown by Sam’s simple use of a drawing tablet. I tried my own experiments with a mouse but with lame results. 3 years ago I inherited an ancient Wacom tablet which wasn’t even supported on my computer, but at least I was using a digital pen rather than my standard mouse.

When I began at AWP I borrowed Molly’s super awesome (BIG!) Wacom Intuos3 tablet, which rocked. I used it on two project for the Cornell Cooperative Extension and had a blast. But a few weeks ago I realized that I needed my own (for work, and home) but didn’t want to shell out $300 to get a pressure sensitive hand-drawn tool. I was skeptical when I found the Bamboo and Bamboo Fun, but
read some raves and decided to pick one up.

It has been through a full week of use and I love it. The 4″ x 6″ drawing surface seemed a bit small at first, but I’ve gotten the hang of it. Something to note: I’m not using a tablet for handwriting recognition (not that any computer could recognize my penmanship). The majority of my work with this tablet will likely be in Painter, Illustrator, Photoshop and maybe Flash. I’ll post some example drawings soon.

Printed locally and on recycled stock:

They are multi-purpose, as they can function as a mail-ready tri-fold brochure, or big and juicy poster!

Problem #1: How can I set up two Trac repositories running on the same Trac server?

The answer to this one was easier than I thought. Normally you would point tracd right to a single project like this (the $> represents your command line prompt):

$> tracd --port 8000 /path/to/your/environment/ProjectOne

If you have multiple projects, you need to give tracd the path directly to the environment along with the -e flag like this:

$> tracd --port 8000 -e /path/to/your/environment/

Simpler than I thought. After searching all over Google I found that solution right from Trac’s built-in command line help ($> tracd –help).

Problem #2: When I create a new Trac environment I get the message “Warning: Can’t synchronize with the repository (/path/to/my\ files/ProjectTwo does not appear to be a Subversion repository.)

Again, a massive Google search returned no good answers, but the solution was actually simple. All I had to do was edit the trac.ini file (line 156) to remove the \ (backslash) character from the path name. So I changed the line from:

repository_dir = /path/to/my\ files/ProjectTwo

to:

repository_dir = /path/to/my files/ProjectTwo

Fixed! You don’t even need to restart Trac if you’re using tracd, the built in server.

How did that extra backslash get in there anyways? Well, when you set up a new Trac project ($> trac-admin /path/to/myproject initenv) you will be prompted for several setup options including the file path to the new trac project. If you’re on OSX like me, you’re used to adding a backslash to directory names that contain spaces. As far as I know, Trac needs those backslashes to create the new project directory and files, but then it adds that same path to the trac.ini file, including the backslash. I don’t know if this is a bug… I’m just glad Trac is working now!

So I’ve been keeping my eye (and ears) on Portishead’s new upcoming album for a while now, and I’m beyond excited. Giddy, would be the best word to describe it.

All Things Considered had a super interview with Geoff and Adrian (and amazing clips from the album) over the weekend. It was so fascinating while I was driving home that when I finally got home, I stayed in the car to listen to the whole thing.

Last night I was all over YouTube looking for clips from last weekend’s Coachella, which would have been pretty nice to attend. I found a lot of other stuff, and Casey chatted Prince’s version of “Creep” over to me this morning, which was in my opinion, alright.

But the new Portishead album is already giving me the chills. I don’t care if it sounds completely new, or if it is re-hashing the same old (which, doesn’t seem to be the case). Sadly, their only US show this year happened on Saturday, but who knows, maybe they’ll hit Roseland again sometime. Get that video if you are even remotely familiar with them. I still have my VHS copy from 8 years ago. Yeah, they’re that good.

The end of our work week just got a whole lot bettah.

5 gold stars if anyone can name all the visible albums right thurr in my iTunes. Ok, and you’ll get a copy of the Jetsetter album.

Part of our musical inclination leads us to discover the wide variety of music new and old out there. I like to call it our musical education. And I have learned about way more music in the past few months than at any other time in my life. Keeping our musical selection lively in our office keeps our office going, for sure.

The best is when you discover a new song that you just can’t stop listening to. This doesn’t happen every day. Tyler acquired this great song on iTunes for free no less, “Time to Pretend” by MGMT, found on Oracular Spectacular. Immediately we were obsessed, playing it over and over (later realizing we weren’t the only ones). What is it about this song? First off, the beginning keyboard melody was inspired by the dance of the band’s pet praying mantis! Very cool sound. The lyrics in this song are quite ridiculous and involve a lot of mocking of the music culture and themselves.

This is our decision to live fast and die young
We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun
Yeah, it’s overwhelming but what else can we do
Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?

Why at the same time strangely uplifting:

But there is really nothing, nothing we can do
Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew

The song is loud, intriguing, and addicting. The video is amazingly creative and goes all out and there is a 3D version!! Fun!

MGMT, started by Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Van Wyngarden’s from Wesleyan University, have a website that is kind of whack. You can enter a keyword to search images and then an image matching the keyword appears as the background for the site. It also has some crazy color changing roll overs. More goodies - the song “Electric Feel” (my current favorite) features a user interactive video where you can change the background and foreground images.

She got the power in her hands to shock you like you won’t believe
Saw her in the Amazon with the voltage running through her skin

If you want to have some fun, check these songs out, as well as others done by these talented musicians, just don’t blame me if you can’t stop listening to them!

Amir Bar-Lev directs this thought-provoking documentary about a precocious 4-year-old artist whose abstract works have drawn critical comparisons with modernist greats such as Kandinsky, Picasso and Pollack — and whose talents have already profited her more than $300,000. Is her gift with a paintbrush just an illusion, or is she truly an artistic visionary trapped in the body of a child?

Inspiration or manipulation??? I won’t reveal to you what happens because Amir does a wonderful job of telling the story as it unfolded… but let’s just say it’s not so pretty at the end. Amir gives a balanced take on the events and leaves you as the viewer to decide what really happened. And it’s the kind of movie that you just have to talk about immediately after watching it. Admittedly, I was also really intrigued because of the local proximity of the story.

So add this right to the top of your Queue, this is a must-see documentary!