Modest Musings

My Photos are Famous on Schmap

bryan — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:01:37 +0000

Here’s a pretty cool little update. Recently, two of my photographs were chosen for use on Schmap, an online travel guide using the Yahoo Maps API to highlight cool sites to see, places to eat and sleep, and much more. It seems that they use quite a few photos for each locale, so it may or may not be such an honor, but I choose to see as one!

A statue outside of The Art Institute of Chicago

My photo of a moose at Skansen. An open air museum and zoo in Stockholm.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch

bryan — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:00:28 +0000

Last night we watched Endeavour’s launch from our apartment. I have to say it was pretty freakin’ sweet. This is the second I have witnessed at night. The first was so long ago, I barely remember what it felt like. It was amazing how well we could see it (well, it looked like a giant flame) from more than 40 miles away. Daytime launches haven’t got a thing on the night! Unfortunately, if I heard correctly, this was likely to be the last nighttime launch before the end of the shuttle program in 2010.

I posted some photos on Flickr. Although, the photos did not turn out ideally, (what do you expect from an amateur at night?) you can still get some idea how incredible it was.

What is wrong with our world?

bryan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:23:42 +0000

With all of the nonsense out there that we come across day in and day out, why is it such big news that Barack Obama is getting a dog for his family. Certainly, mention it once. Maybe talk about it briefly when it materializes. I get it dogs are cute. But is it really something to spend more than a week discussing? Is there nothing more substantial to take up headline space on MSN.com?

Of course, I am just one guy who is probably just jealous that his guinea pigs did not make it to the international news spotlight. But I am working on it.

On the bright side, talk of the Obama’s future pet has pushed some of the “Dancing with the Stars” headlines out of the spotlight. Whew!

*Disclaimer: Don’t let the sign fool you, I am an Obama-ite.

A List Apart Survey 2008

bryan — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:35:24 +0000

I utilize A List Apart frequently to learn and grow as a web developer. It is an incredible tool that I hope, one day, to contribute to. For now, I’ve shown my support through their 2008 survey. Maybe you should, too.

Let it be Known

bryan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:40:38 +0000

Eating yogurt with a fork is not as easy as one would hope. Especially towards the bottom of those little cups.

Bar Camp Orlando: This weekend

bryan — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:58:54 +0000

I just registered for Bar Camp Orlando which is happening this weekend downtown. One of my students told me about it and looks like it’s going to be pretty sweet. After looking through the attendee list, it seems quite a few friends and acquaintences will be there. Should be groovy.

I’m pumped.

The Price You Pay…

bryan — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:39:43 +0000

What you are about to read is a brief tale of dishonor and blatant thievery on the www. This is a story that represents the very essence of all that Fisticuff Design Co. has sworn to protect, in our attempts to “defend the honor” of our clients on the web. I would love to tell you that the following is mere fiction. Unfortunately, as you will come to find, this tale is anything but fictional.

TFS

I suppose I should begin by “thanking” Empire New Media (empire-newmedia.com ^*) for their apparent compliment to the design/programming abilities of Rene and myself. Yesterday, I was checking some web stats for Fisticuff Design Co. when I came across a site, which I had never heard of, that had links to us on several pages. I decided to navigate over to TFS^** to see what they had to say. I was quite surprised to see a blatant ripoff of the Fisticuff site. As I looked through the site, I realized that Empire not only took the background texture, various flourishes, and overall look of the site, but when I looked at the HTML source code, I realized that they copy and pasted the entire structure of our code, even the CSS file.

Fisticuff Design Co.

I am a firm believer that the most integral part of any successful design is research. I believe that learning from and gaining inspiration from one another is an integral part of how we grow as designers. I do not condone, nor will Fisticuff Design stand for, fraud, thievery, or other sorts of dishonest behavior.

To their credit (hint of sarcasm), Empire did take the time to change a class and id name here or there, (like “narrowcolumn” and “widecolumn” to “smallcolumn” and “bigcolumn), in some effort to cover up their deceit. However, the entire style sheet was left in the same order, the same format, the same font size values, etc. Really, almost everything. Feel free to view some side by side comparisons.

You may be asking yourself, “why would Empire steal your design concept, copy your code in its entirety, and then decide to provide a link to the Fisticuff site”? That is an excellent question, I immediately asked the very same thing. The brief answer is, they did not. Rather, they did not do so intentionally.

When examining their (our) code, I noticed in the footer of each page of the TFS site, Empire neglected to change an href tag from fisticuffdesign.com to the new domain. See below.

Click to see larger image

Perhaps it is merely the price one pays for building a positive reputation through hard work, dedication, and truly believing in what one does. Or, on the other hand, is it more likely that Empire New Media are simply too lazy, and possibly incapable, of doing quality work of their own?

I have only one item left to add: Bad form, Empire New Media. Bad form indeed.
^*Authors Note: I deliberately left out the hyperlink to EmpireNewMedia.com. I see no reason to give them the benefit of a link-back. Does that make me petty?

^**EDIT: Meaning no disrespect to the CLIENT, I have abbreviated all text referencing them as: TFS. My intention here is not to tarnish their name. Rather, I want to show the sort of web “riff raff” that is Empire New Media and expose Empire’s apparent “work ethic” (or lack thereof).

Extra! Extra! Throwin’ Down Something New

bryan — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:04:00 +0000

By now you should know that Fisticuff Design is always looking to “Throw down” to defend your honor in the WWW. Recently, we decided to do a little “self-defense” by means of some updates to the Fisticuff Design Co. website. Said updates are documented, as follows:

New Projects

That’s Rentertainment Inflatables added to the portfolio
Casa del Lago web site added to the portfolio
Barfly Bar Catering updated in the portfolio (we completed the site redesign)

New Functionality

Javacript updated to degrade a bit more gracefully
Addition of slider for the portfolio thumbnails
Added an AJAX project loader

More to come and we’re still working out some of the kinks. Let me know if you come across any bugs.

Regards!

St. Jay vs. The Wind

bryan — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:00:15 +0000

We just got back from this year’s St. Jay’s Day celebration was held in Chicago, IL. It was an action packed weekend full of food, fun, and of course lots of Jay. It’s always great fun getting to spend time with my friends and even better when you add a new place to explore. I really liked Chicago and hope to return soon.

Anyway, I have uploaded the first batch of photos from the trip to my flickr account. Many more will follow.

Fisticuff Design, Throwin’ Down and Kickin’ Butt

bryan — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:38:19 +0000

Iâ€™m sure that my bragging for Fisticuff Design, however this is my blog and I can brag if I want to! Anyway, here are some new recognition Iâ€™ve seen popping up around the net.

On Command Shift 3 we have currently won 500 out of 654 battles. Iâ€™ll be honest, Iâ€™m not sure what that means exactly, but it must be cool. I mean winning is good, right?
Web Designer Wall
Sawse.com gave us some excellent kudos in this post.
CSS 2.0
Donâ€™t Get Stuck currently has us featured on their “inspiration” side bar.

So, thank you everyone who continues to give us praise and recognition.