smackfoo.com | I find your lack of faith disturbing.

I think we have another candidate for Gruber’s Jackass of the Week:

Asked why he as a black man grew up during segregation could advocate discrimination, Mr Hutcherson said: “How many homosexuals have you ever seen had to ride on the back of a bus? I haven’t seen one. I know that many blacks have in the past.”

Whatever happened to “Love thy Neighbour” — in the “too hard” basket?

You know, there is so much one could say about this and so many colourful high-descriptive terms spring to mind, yet I cannot help but think to react extremely negatively is simply providing the exact response this type of behaviour is attempting to illicit.

There is nothing right or “good”, morally, religiously or otherwise to defend the position Mr Hutcherson is taking.

Chris Cabanillas has written a wonderful and insightful piece on the current frustration that is licensed typography and the web:

“I’d like to show this post to you in FF Meta Serif but I can’t. Foundries would like you to be able to use their fonts on the web but they can’t just give their work away so they must wait for the technology.”

I agree strongly with Chris that technologies like sIFR are — with respect to Shaun and Mike — not a good solution. It doesn’t scale well, and to be blunt removes much of a typeface’s personality in the process of converting it into an image.

I’m simply not a fan of using flash-and-or-java-and-bitmaps to overcome typographical challenges. Irrespective of how brilliant the use of the technology might be. And it shouldn’t have to be this way, as most modern Operating Systems can render font families pretty darn well.

With the advent of Cleartype, even Windows has the ability to do a half-decent job. Yet here we are, still, converting typefaces to poor-quality low resolution images — to avoid breaching any typeface licensing — in order that we may inject some form of typographical colour to an otherwise vanilla-like pallet.

Converting typefaces to bitmap images, then, clearly isn’t the answer and in a way permits the world to embrace a second-best option rather than actually confront what has been traditionally placed into the “too hard” basket. If a fast and efficient methodology allowed for real time vector creation — given it’s wondrously crisp scaling capabilities — then one might be on to something.

But even that is a cop out, to a degree, as it’s still not necessarily rendering a typeface as the designer intended. Right now image replacement is an ugly, inefficient and wasteful process that simply doesn’t have any advantages. The alternative standard means I will have to keep on using Verdana, Palatino Linotype or other open-licensed typefaces.

“But, I think the only way we get there is if a web designer, a typeface designer, and a type developer get together over coffee and hash this out. If we leave it to a committee it may never happen.”

Chris poses some excellent questions and thoughts — if you’ve not subscribed to Restiffbard yet, I highly recommend that you do.

Anne Zelenka of Web Worker Daily fame asks:

“What’s the best way to handle rudeness online?”

Ignore it.

Lets rewind a moment for context, given Anne has also offered up the following observation:

“While you can learn something from your critics, when criticism tips over into personal insults that’s a good time to turn away.”

I have a special, purpose built receptacle for email that might cross the line from sarcasm into stupidity and abuse. It’s called ‘Trash’. Trash is quite remarkable in that it can make virtually anything magically disappear. One moment it exists, the next, it does not. Once gone, it no longer has any potential to affect otherwise good judgement.

Arguing on the Internet is stupid. If you respond in an attempt to straight-jacket the ignoramus who initially made such comment, you will provide exactly that which is wanted — a reaction. Ignore it and move on.

Emotive, abusive and mentally challenged outbursts are almost always an attention seeking activity. Ignore it and the behaviour will cease, or it’s perpetrator will go elsewhere for their cheap thrills. Call them out and the argument will already be lost.

Richard sends out a heart-felt plea to his lost love in Connie, I Miss You:

“It’s been all downhill since then. My mailbox is full of spam now, and the only notification I get is a little number in a red circle. No longer do I hear her beautiful voice telling me “you’ve got mail.” I’m constantly bombarded by popup adverts and unwanted porn and I have to look up the news myself.”

In this age of instant messaging, spam, 2.0 hype and incessant viral marketing it’s easy to forget how simple online life used to be.

No constant interruptions care of yet another Facebook application or 2.0 group chat, where being “Linked In” meant you were one of the chosen few to actually have some kind of Internet connection and Email applications greeted you with a gentle loving care.

Where spam was that very occasional and quaint chain email about puppies forwarded to you by Great Aunt Dora and IRC involved a VAX, an acoustic coupler, three different user manuals and just a hint of luck.

Some might suggest we’ve come along way — and to a point that’s true — but in some ways I cannot help but feel we’ve hardly progressed at all.

Jason answers a question on how 37signals perceive the relative importance of formal education:

“What we care about is intelligence, curiosity, passion, character, motivation, taste, intuition, writing skills, and the ability to make smart value judgements.

Which echoes a point that I see re-enforced time-and-time again. Formal education is no substitute for quality experience. How one handles the outside-of-box scenarios can be far more telling of experience and skill set, than smart handling of the day-to-day details alone. Jason continues:

“A few of these qualities may benefit from exposure to higher education, but we feel most of them are better learned through practical experience.”

Indeed I dropped out of tertiary education during my second year, as the material being taught had absolutely no relation to real-world environs and was painfully out-of-date. I then bounced around various IT related jobs (on purpose to an extent) in an attempt to gain valuable experience and exposure that I could utilise in future, more structured roles.

Granted, a degree or doctorate might have opened more doors at the outset, but if the decision makers behind those very doors are looking for dynamic, flexible people with the ability to think laterally and make intuitive and experience based choices — and more often than not, they are — then no amount of education (alone) will solve that need.

Michael Lopp has written one of the single most quotable articles I’ve read in recent times, entitled The Nerd Handbook:

“Your nerd spent a lot of his younger life being an outcast because of his strange affinity with the computer. This created a basic bitterness in his psyche that is the foundation for his humor.”

“Now, combine this basic distrust of everything with your nerd’s other natural talents and you’ll realize that he sees humor is another game.”

It’s frightening just how ‘close’ many observations are and how many I can put my hand up to — truly required reading for anyone that works with, lives with, or simply wishes to better understand the nerd.

Cameron reflects on a recent design brief:

“..design isn’t just some magical entity. I don’t boil lizards and fairy dust in a cauldron while mumbling pseudo-Latin phrases and waving my hand about willy-nilly to make a website, it’s not magic, or even talent. It’s work; It’s art.”

There is as much, if not more to learn in an initial failure, as there is in an instant home-run. And learning why something doesn’t work means that exact same mistake or design flaw is far less likely in future. The outcome of re-working a slightly miss-aligned concept is often a strengthening in skill set and talent, something that immediate success without the hard yards, doesn’t always provide.

As a result, Cameron’s designs are among some of the single best I have seen used within the tumblr network.

Bill Israel comments on the fascination that is layer tennis:

First, I like some narrative to the match. I don’t mean that each volley must necessarily continue a story, but I like to see the competitors get into a groove where they seem to be telling a story with their volleys.

The October 12 match was the highlight for me; each new volley contained elements from the previous serve. The result was a true match of skill and talent, where the goal wasn’t so much in developing something entirely new in each serve, rather utilising the existing layers to build a new scene of an ongoing story.

After looking at the last match, with it’s recurring themes and motifs, it’s clear the designers are devouring previous matches for guides on good technique and each serve really did stand up and add something to the last.

Thank you Coudal, for introducing such an amazing, vibrant and entirely creative event — even if it’s a very, very late night for those watching live from down-under.

The dailyapps crew on the iPhone 1.1.2 Update:

The Cat and Mouse game is on, and this time its Apple that’s got the upper hand over the Hackers. Apple has just released the firmware update to Apple iPhone.

As expected the TIFF vulnerability has been fixed, thus the usual jailbreak methodologies fail. Using vulnerabilities to open up a platform to third party applications has always struck me as one-hundred-and-ten percent the wrong ideology to follow. Sure, it may work.. for a time.

But using a failure in security to then punch an even larger, risker hole through to run third-party applications? It’s an inevitable recipe for disaster and someone is going to take advantage of that, eventually.

The only guide to calling “Shotgun” you’ll ever need. Simple, yet utterly brilliant.