October 25, 2010

Who says RSS is dead? Ask.com does

Death of Bloglines masthead
Just over a month ago, I logged into my Bloglines account to read my RSS feeds just as I do on a daily basis. I found a red statement before me that said, “The Bloglines service will officially close October 1, 2010.” The date was later extended to November 1st.

I understand that businesses have to shift focus as the Internet changes from one technology platform to the other, funding is lost and hard decisions have to be made. But proclaiming the death of RSS? Is this true?

In a statement issued by Ask.com (who owned Bloglines, a fact I didn’t know), said, “…Flash forward to 2010. The Internet has undergone a major evolution. The real-time information RSS was so astute at delivering (primarily, blog feeds) is now gained through conversations, and consuming this information has become a social experience. As Steve Gillmor pointed out in TechCrunch last year, being locked in an RSS reader makes less and less sense to people as Twitter and Facebook dominate real-time information flow. Today RSS is the enabling technology – the infrastructure, the delivery system. RSS is a means to an end, not a consumer experience in and of itself. As a result, RSS aggregator usage has slowed significantly, and Bloglines isn’t the only service to feel the impact. The writing is on the wall.”

In other words, social experiences such as Twitter and Facebook have replaced the RSS aggregator? I disagree. Social media has enhanced the experience of getting to the best stuff in a crowded online world, but the RSS feed is the “subscription” to a constant flow my favorite stuff. There’s a difference there for me. Maybe that makes me old-fashioned?

I’ve already ported over my feeds to the Google reader which seems to be the leading next best thing, which is hard to say considering their terrible interface (I tell people with a scowl on my face, “it sucks!”). Perhaps Steve Gillmor (quoted in the Ask.com statement) is just upset because he was using Google reader.

I will miss Bloglines and thank the folks that ran it for providing me a daily feed to my favorite places online.

Links:
Bloglines: www.bloglines.com (at least for a few more days)
Ask.com’s Statement: Bloglines Update
TechCrunch Article: Rest in Peace, RSS

October 24, 2010

Flipboard for iPad

Flipboard for iPad masthead
As I finish re-tooling my new design for bradmccall.com, I’m finding how much less I want to “blog” about design in the typical sense of the word. There are some great designers out there who do that full time and have refined it down to a science. That’s not me. I’ve decided that I’m going to use my blog “zone” as a format for sharing things I’ve run across that inspire me.

Lately much of my inspiration has been linked to my new toy, Apple’s iPad.

After hearing that I had purchased an iPad, a coworker mentioned that I try Flipboard, an application that turns your Facebook, twitter, and other new streams into a new, more consumable format. After downloading it, I’ve found that I can hardly view my regular twitter stream in any other format versus the more compelling view that Flipboard has created. Just this simple “redesign” of information has inspired me to think of other things in my world that can be looked at in new ways. It’s a product where the aesthetic design and enjoyable interactions have clearly improved the experience.

Links:
Flipboard for iPad: www.flipboard.com
Apple iPad: www.apple.com/ipad

August 10, 2009

Trying something delicious

Delicious bookmark cloud masthead
After collecting interesting links in my Yahoo Notes, on 3 or 4 different computers (home and work) and emailing myself dozen of things “to read”, I finally decided to give Delicious a try. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to tag all of the things I’m interested in, but have already begun to make it a necessary part of my daily process to save links and refer back to frequently accessed searches. Here’s the tag cloud for Brad McCall’s bookmarked links thus far. Hopefully I’ll be able to incorporate this tag cloud into my future “About” page on bradmccall.com as I’ve seen some other designers do.

October 14, 2008

iPhone away!

So I thought it appropriate that I announce my new iPhone by posting a blog from it. So I downloaded the WordPress blog tool, then found out the code on my blog was outdated. After updating that, I came back and typed a post and then for some reason, the post or save buttons wouldn’t appear. So after some practice, and the realization that it’s not the most practical device for typing, here it is. Expect to hear more about my new “toy” in the future, I’ve already come across a couple things of interest.

March 6, 2008

Rediscovering CSS – again.

I had an “ah-ha!” moment over the past couple days. CSS is awesome!

Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve been so focused on the aesthetic design of websites for so long, and not how they’re engineered that I took CSS for granted? (I have always been able to surround myself with excellent programmers who’ve spoiled me.) So maybe the power of CSS hasn’t sunk in due to the fact that I’ve never gone in and tweaked it for myself?

But now I get it. CSS is awesome! (Did I say that?)

Read the rest of this entry »

April 9, 2007

LinkedIn Recommendations

The other day I had a co-worker looking at my LinkedIn profile, and said “Wow, you have so many recommendations”, and after explaining how they came to be there, I thought of blogging about it.

Early last year I had a friend who had just laid off send me a request to write him a recommendation on LinkedIn. Knowing full-well his talent and the work that he did when we worked together, I was happy to. That was when I learned about LinkedIn’s built-in ability to request Recommendations.

At first I thought it silly to ask someone to say something nice about me in writing. But as I began to request recommendations from a few of my former colleges and contract clients, I found it was an excellent way find out from others just how good a job I do/have done as well as let potential clients or employers know what it’s like to work with me. It was testimonial, or validation of my work.

The LinkedIn feature of recommendations – and how you used these recommendations in gaining new business or obtaining a job – can be just as valuable an asset to your portfolio as the designs you put in there. Sure, your design work is excellent, but how is it to work with you?

Here are a couple excerpts from the recommendations others have given me:

“Having hired and managed several large, national agencies when I worked on the Pizza Hut, Pepsi and Blockbuster brands, I was surprised (and impressed) that I was getting top agency results from a team of only one person, Brad McCall…”

“…He is extremely versatile, delivering best-in-class results for every project he took up…”

“…It’s hard to believe so much talent can fit in one person…”

“…I give Brad my highest recommendation and look forward to any project that I can collaborate together with him on again.”

“…The first version [of the product user-interface] started winning awards before it was even out of beta, and the feedback on the second major version has been every bit as positive, even though the degree of complexity was much higher. Excellent to work with, good business sense, and creative work that is second to none.”

“…He is easy to work with, insightful and very good at what he does. His knowledge of color, layout, and visual impact are incredible. Though his work speaks for itself, I gladly endorse Brad as well…

“…Brad is a valuable asset to any project he is a part of.”

“…Brad has a built-in desire to add value to every project and company he is involved in…”

“Brad is the most effective person I have worked with at communicating through design…”

“…Brad has an amazing capacity to do it all, in copious amounts with consistency, quality and with a great attitude…”

“…Brad’s work was some of the best I’ve seen. It was creative, artistic, and professional….

January 1, 2007

Blogging in 2006, a Year in Review

As this is the first day of the new year, I wanted to use it as a chance to send out a big thank-you to those who read my blog on a regular basis and take the time to comment. I also wanted to list the top 5 most read blog posts that I wrote in 2006 and a little snippet from the post:

Top 5 Posts of 2006 by Traffic

  1. Website Pirates Strike Again – Park City Group
    I was looking at a list of public companies in Utah a couple days ago. One intrigued me, so I accessed their website. The Park City Group was founded by Randy Fields, the co-founder and former chairman of Mrs. Fields Cookies. Their customers include such well-known names as The Home Depot, Foot Locker, Inc., The Limited, Albertson’s, Schnuck Markets, Pacific Sunwear of California, Wawa, Busch Entertainment and Tesco Lotus. And guess what? Their website design is pirated.
  2. Design Your Own Snowboard with Revolution
    The last time Jon and I were on the slopes (last month, can you believe it? With all the new snow, we’re planning on going this month as well) I looked around to get a sense for some of the snowboard designs that were out there. And you know what I realized? Most snowboard designs suck.
  3. Utah Creatives – Designers, Agencies, Firms and More
    So there use to be this great site called ampUTate.org that would contain links to all the local Utah advertising agencies, graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, etc.
  4. Pixel Patterns Wallpaper – New Graphic Design Trend?
    Here’s something I’ve been noticing a lot lately, haven’t you? I call it Pixel Wallpaper, while I think most of the web calls it “Pixel Patterns” (or even “Atari Style Wallpaper”). Forget that wallpaper of the past, you know those nasty repeated gifs cut out from a photo or grabbed from a 3D texture makers. These babies are cool. Use a pixel pattern for your blog background or website – here’s where to find some.
  5. Is Social Bookmarking the Search Engine of the Future?
    So it wasn’t until a couple months ago, that I began to hear about the whole concept of “Social Bookmarking”. I’ve even mentioned it to a couple of my friends, and they always pose the question “what ARE you talking about?”

Good things are going to happen in 2007, so stay tuned to The Daily Brad for more changes.

December 29, 2006

Can a Graphic Designer Leave Apple Behind for Windows?

It’s true, I’ve got a foot in the Apple world and the PC world. Because I’ve worked as an in-house graphic designer for tech companies over the past 6+ years, I’ve spent most of time using a PC to do graphic design work. I’ve found that companies who have a small design staff require their designers to adapt to PC’s so they can interface with the rest of the organization (Microsoft Outlook for meetings is a big one), and so the network guys don’t have to go out of their way to give anyone special treatment.

But now that I’m working from home I have a PC running a AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz, 2GB of RAM and Microsoft Windows XP Professional version 2002, and a Apple G4 Dual 1 GHz PowerPC with 1.5 GB RAM running Mac OS 10.4.7. And you know what? I think I prefer the PC. (Big gasp here)

Perhaps it’s my history with Apple which all started with the upgrade I made to my G3 (the pretty blue one). I needed all sorts of attachments to hook my former printers and scanners because their abandonment of Apple Talk. Then when I upgraded to my current G4, Apple switched rebuilt their system completely and I had to replace all my software with OSX compliant software to avoid that nasty “Classic” loader thing that took forever. And now, I’m ready to upgrade design software again, and found the whole “Intel Processor” issue with my Adobe Suite. While I appreciate Apple trying to stay ahead of the game, it seems that it might be worth my money to switch to PC.

Or perhaps it’s just a feeling… the way the clicks work, the keyboard, the mouse… the interface… perhaps it’s only a matter of personal preference? Now Apple allows you to run Windows, which is old news, but it even confuses the issue further in the ongoing MAC vs. PC debate.

So what I’m curious about, is how many graphic designers chose PC as their computer by choice? I know there is this passionate debate about MAC vs. PC, but when you put all the feelings aside, is one better than the other for specific tasks? And what about graphic design tasks, which computer to you prefer? In my opinion, it seems that the PC has caught up in the graphic design world, and now it’s a matter of preference. What are your thoughts?

December 22, 2006

Read My Mind By Reading My Bookmarks

My thought today: Can you tell what’s on someone’s mind by what they’ve been bookmarking? See if you can figure out what I’ve been thinking about by looking at a dozen of my most recent bookmarks:

  1. Flipper Nation
    I’m a huge fan of anything HGTV, and recently I’ve also been watching a lot of shows about Filpping Houses. I ran across this link, a parody of couple of guys who flip houses. Not only did I get a good laugh, but I also thought they did an excellent job of integrating Web 2.0 concepts into the promotion of their website. I thought if I had a chance, I might blog about some of their comical “rules to real estate” in my some-what always-neglected Utah Real Estate Blog
  2. Graphic Design USA Logo Trends 2005
    Since I’ve been getting quite a few clicks on my graphic design trends category, I thought I’d do some more research and found this link. I thought it halarious what they called some types of logos such as “wicker balls”, “weaves”, and “puffies”. I’ve been noticing a lot of “transparencies” in recent design annuals and wanted to blog about it being a trend.
  3. Does chocolate really give you pimples?
    No, I’m not really worried about pimples, but ran across this article in looking for interesting items for my Tweet Sweet blog about misconceptions of chocolate. I ended up blogging about Does Chocolate Spoil instead.
  4. Icon Advertising Museum
    I’ve had several posts bouncing around in my head about Advertising icons or “company mascots” as I call them. I also wanted to refer Jeff Fisher to this link when I posted a response to his Michelin Man post (since he mentioned he was a fan of advertising characters), but I forgot.
  5. Logo Lounge
    For $100 annually you can have access to over 41,740 logos that have been uploaded and cataloged by Logo Lounge members. Members can also upload their own logo designs and they’ll be entered in their logo competition where winners are published. It’s always nice to have logo books around when brainstorming for a new brand, but it’s even more nice to have a logo book with my logo inside. (Jeff Fisher is my hero when it comes to getting published)
  6. doba.com – Education Page
    After running across their co-founder’s blog, AND seeing a couple billboards saying “need products to sell”, AND finding a product that was on their website that would work great for Therty Brand, I decided I should probably learn more. Doba provides product sourcing services for small businesses and entrepreneurs, in case you were wondering.
  7. The Gardo House: A History of the Mansion and Its Occupants
    In a random search for historical houses of Salt Lake City, I found one who’s appearance intreaged me, and I wanted to know more about it. Starting with my search of “Amelia’s Palace”, I ended up finding this link. I was sad to find out that this amazing piece of architecture originally built for Brigham Young was torn down in 1921. But what an amazing history – well worth the read.
  8. The Portland Business Journal – The Oscar goes to…
    After visiting a Moonstruck Cafe in Portland Oregon and blogging about their amazing chocolates, I tried to figure out if their familiar logo had won awards. I learned that it was purchased by Sally and Dave Bany, former executives for Columbia Sportsware company, in 2001. They took their experience and applied it to chocolate with the intentions of positioning it to grow into a national, premium chocolate brand.
  9. Feedburner
    What in the world is Feedburner and why have I been running across it so much lately? It looks like something I should learn more about, so I bookmarked it. Do you use it? Perhaps you could fill me in.
  10. is this your name?
    A bit of a goofy site that allows you to enter your name and see various stats about it. Since I recently discovered that I’m an egosurfer, this site really appealed to me.
  11. seomoz.org – Long List of Link Searches
    I scanned this article about SEO inside information, and bookmarked it to come back for later. As a website designer, I’m always interested in expanding my arsenal of information about SEO.
  12. Ironic Sans – Idea: Pre-pixelated clothes for Reality TV shows
    Have you ever watched reality television and saw someone that was wearing a t-shirt with a pixelated logo? Here’s the idea for David’s pre-pixelated line of clothing. I found some of the comments prett comical.

Since this is my last post before the Christmas Holidays, I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Christmas!

December 10, 2006

Too Sexy for Your Mac Dock




Dock Porn

Originally uploaded by The Iconfactory.

So I was browsing the blog of my favorite icon geniuses, the iconfactory, and ran across a posting that read

Our Chief Typist, quite by accident, discovered that the icons in his dock spelled out ”$eXy” and wondered what other words he could make from all the various app icons on his HD.

so I went over and checked out the flickr page they created to add more of these little jewels. There’s only 20 there right now, but you’re welcome to add your own.

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