October 2006
The unfortunate death of Helvetica
Mon, 10/23/2006 - 22:18 — AnonymousI’ve been holding off a while now writing a follow up to my Open Letter to John Warnock. Partly because I’ve been hemming and hawing over what topic to write next. But also because I’ve been waiting for a response from Warnock himself.
That finally came this past weekend.
John Warnock and Chuck Geschke were spotlighted and interviewed by the San Jose Mercury News. In the interview, which you can read online (account required), Ryan Blitstein asked Warnock directly about my open source font request.
Q: Last summer, Andrei Herasimchuk, who spent eight years at Adobe, generated buzz among designers and programmers with an open letter asking Adobe to open-source several of its typefaces online so the Internet would look less boring. What do you think of the idea?
Warnock: It’d be very easy to do that. Adobe can do it with just its own typefaces, but it wouldn’t fix the problem. HTML does not have a go...
True Professions
Tue, 10/17/2006 - 22:18 — AnonymousI knew I'd have to come out of the closet some day. I guess now is as good a time as any. Some of you will be shocked, others will not care and many will not have a clue why I'm even writing this post. But I think it's important you understand why I write from the perspective I do, and why B L A N K has a different tone than most blogs, Christian or otherwise. Understand, not everyone who writes articles for B L A N K shares my view. That's good. Uniformity is boring, and it plagues design, especially "Christian" design. Nonetheless, you ought to know where I'm coming from. So, without further adue, here's my design theses nailed to the door of my heart:1. I am a Christian. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Fill in the blank with all the answers you feel are necessary to define what that is doctrinally, experientially, or whatever. Both good and bad. I probably fit most of them anyway.2. I design and get paid for it. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Fill in the blank with the answers you feel qualify someone to be a designer, both high and low. I've no formal design training, so if that is a criteria on your list, you can scratch what I said about being a designer.3. As a Christian and a designer, each have a profound influence on the other. One is who I am, the other is what I do. Who I am...
The Limits of Design
Wed, 10/04/2006 - 19:35 — AnonymousI'm concerned. Has anyone else but me noticed the growing tendency in Western democratic countries around the world to censor anything that might be considered offensive to Muslims? Think back to the Danish editorial cartoon, the book by S. Rushdie and most recently the modification of a musical performance in Germany. It seems so small and insignificant, but these are signals that something is shifting in our world--a shift that will eventually constrain our freedom to speak the truth through design. It's a spirit of fear. And it's not exclusive to Islamic extremists coming to get you if you say anything against the Prophet Mohammed. You can find fear operating in dictators, emperors, fascists, communists, capitalists, democracies and even Christian churches. We're naïve as designers to think that the power of fear which for centuries has shaped, stifled and controlled the expression of truth through the visual arts can't exert it's influence again. Let's take a little quiz to see how fear might already be impacting our choices:1. Do you have a burning passion or project in design that you'd like to pursue, but just can't seem to do it? 2. Do you dream of working independently, but can't break free of your current employer?3. Have you ever known what the best design solu...
The SOSF (Society of Secret Fairies) have struck again
Thu, 10/19/2006 - 14:44 — AnonymousA cheery postman still wearing shorts (its very mild for this time of year) knocked on my door this morning with a surprise parcel from across the ocean, the SOSF have struck again.Clearing a space on my work bench and with camera at hand to record the occasion I preceded to open the box in a careful but excitedly hasty manner, a gorgeous smell wafts from the box and fills the air of my small untidy studio a hint of the season to come... I catch a glimpse through the autumnal coloured packing ... beautifully wrapped parcels.A coveted box filled with goodies... I begin to open colourfully wrapped parcel after parcel. A handful of magnets... some stickers as well as other little goodies reminding me that Halloween is nearly upon us... Fun pumpkin earrings and necklace jewellery with a not so scary sparkle purple spider ring presented in a lovely little gift box all will be worn while i scare the bejesuses ...
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Wed, 10/18/2006 - 16:07 — AnonymousI had a lovely surprise waiting for me when I returned from my monthly outing to the Doctors yesterday Tuesday morning, An unofficial SOSF gift from my friends Penny and Toby at Natural Attrill Opening the small box I was greeted by a lovely pair of earrings handmade by the ever talented Toby and I have been wearing them ever since. Thank you again Penny and Toby for my ‘cheer up’ gift they really did put a smile on my face Thank heavens for digital cameras after several attempts and lots of pics of my left nostril, i was finally able to get a pic with the earring in shot.Work wise I have spent today working in Photoshop retouching wedding photographs. I would love to show you some before and after shots but I don’t yet have permission. The photos in question are lovely, but the...
A time to reflect
Tue, 10/03/2006 - 17:43 — AnonymousFirst off I am sorry I have not posted for awhile, but I have a good excuse, I have been unwell. Some of you know that I suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis and after a rather long spell in remission it decided to kick off big time. The past couple of months have been pretty bad with most of my joints being affected, I have had to have help dressing and not been able to walk without doing a seriously good impression of a cross between Quasimodo and Long John Silver. On a positive note I have lost weight woohoo yeah! 12lbs to be exact due to this glitch (the body burns up a lot of energy when the immune system goes into attack joint mode) not really a good way to do it but hey I’m not complaining. And I have been trained to give myself my weekly injection of Methotrexate and have been jabbing myself for a number of weeks now, something I never thought I would ever do. In the mean time my lovely doctor has given me a course of steroids which has helped ease the pain bliss! and I am starting to get back to my normal self (what ever that is)With my apology in place I thought I’d better to include some photo’s to break up my pitiful excuse for not posting for so long.The first pears from the tree planted in the garden two years ago. They tasted...
Fix Commerce Server 2007 After Renaming Machine Name
Tue, 10/17/2006 - 18:57 — Anonymous
There are time you have to change your machine name post a Commerce Server 2007 installation and after doing so you render your Commerce Server in operable. No matter what your scenario is I will give you two solutions. These solutions are recommended for single server deployments only.
Supported Solution
The supported solution only works for a very few scenarios for example, your Enterprise images Development Systems to prepare a computer for doing imaging and customization. Install Commerce Server but do not configure it, then make an image of the system. After installing the imaged system on to a computer run the Commerce Server Configuration.
Non Supported Solution
The non supported solution is exactly as it is, you will not get any support if you follow these steps. Now that I have made that disclaimer lets get down and dirty.
MSCS_Admin Database
Commerce Server holds all site configuration in MSCS_Admin database. This Database is created when you first configure your site and every time you unpackaged a site all it's configuration data will be stored in MSCS_Admin database. So how is it that MMC Console or Commerce Server knows where this database resides? That's a good question. Commerce Server holds the ...
How does North Korea make its announcements?
Tue, 10/10/2006 - 03:13 — AnonymousNorth Korea's state-run news service announced the successful detonation of a nuclear weapon on Sunday. "The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent," said the Korean Central News Agency.
...Simplifying Authorization Management of Commerce Server Web Services
Mon, 10/16/2006 - 00:36 — AnonymousTo make the job of your infrastructure easier you may want to follow my next piece of advice. When un-packaging a Commerce PUP you get four Web Services to manage your commerce engine. Each Web Service has a different Authorization XML store. Let’s find out what Authorization Manager is.
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