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

It would appear record companies aren’t the only corporates’ immune to missing the entire point of an actual, genuine online journal and presence:

The organization’s announcement is essentially a press release dumped into a blog entry, the byline of which merely says “Blog Council.”

A spiffy logo and canned announcement full of pointless drivel and corporate kiss-butt self-idolizing hippy crap does not a blogging community constitute. Mr Storey nails it best — “After six years big business still has no idea what to do with this blog thing.”

Stuart Brown rolls us through his take on 2007 - More Web Design Trends & Cliches:

“It’s been well over a year since I compiled the original list of web clichés, so I figured it was time to revisit some of the trends currently prevalent in web design now.”

Some interesting punters have turned up in the parade along with some gorgeous descriptive illustrations. Succinct and devoid of the typical fluff and space fillers many such “reviews” tend to collect.

Bill Israel has released another tumblr theme, Letterhead:

“Not sure what came over me, but Saturday morning I woke up with the urge to create a new Tumblr theme. So that’s exactly what I did!”

Bill is fast becoming the tumblr themery architect and go-to guy.

Shawn Blanc reflects on his current work load and Creative Design Poverty:

“There is much more to design than white space, the two-thirds rule, and font selection. Those tricks and elements surely help when we’re stuck, but I know for certain that they are not what real creative design is all about.”

Tools and standards cannot define creativity in of themselves. Design is the outward expression of inward creative thinking.

“I look at the elements and standards of good design as the launching pad to what creative design is really about: Creating.”

Amen.

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.