A Whole Lotta Nothing

iStockphoto ends up on a license plate!

My new license plate, originally uploaded by mathowie.

I love my new Share the Road license plate that is now offered here in Oregon. It's only $10 as a one-time fee and half goes to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and half goes to Cycle Oregon, both bike-friendly organizations I support.

I noticed it looked familiar when it showed up. I've been a casual user of iStockphoto for some time and I recently designed a site for a race series a friend was throwing (first race is this Saturday and I'll be there in the beginner class!) and I used iStockphoto to get that cool outline of Oregon and the cyclist profile (I used a slightly different illustration). When I opened the DMV envelope I instantly recognized the cyclist, because it's this file, just reversed, and with the water bottle removed from the outline.

I'm not faulting the designer, iStockphoto is a great place to get super cheap illustrations and I use them all the time, rather, I'm more stoked that an illustration there ended up working all the way up to an optional state license plate.

Layer Tennis this week

I went to the dentist last week and while I was still high off the fumes, I mistakenly said "yes" to doing commentary for this Friday's upcoming Layer Tennis match. I've spent the better part of today reading up on old matches and following Rafe's excellent guide to judging.

This week they're doing video with After Effects and since I know virtually nothing about actual motion production, I promise to be a completely clueless flailing treat to everyone.

Boing Boing redo

I gotta say that I'm enjoying the Boing Boing redesign so much that I'm actually breaking down and making a real blog entry about it (as opposed to a witty twitter quip, or simple delicious link, or a lowly screenshot posted on flickr).

I thought the old design was showing its age and the ad layouts were very distracting (the jokes about it looking like NASCAR weren't too far off). I even sent a mockup of a cleaner layout to Xeni and Cory a couple years ago, but I never thought it would change and assumed it would putter on for several more years in its previous state. I don't know what prompted the change, but the new look is a great improvement. It's way cleaner, easier to read, and the ads are no longer distracting. I disagree with Nelson on the change (though I agreed with his previous assessment). At this point in the lifespan of Boing Boing (one million dollars!), I no longer compare them to other blogs and instead to major media outlets, so I'm cutting them slack on three ad zones. Look at any page at even nicely designed media sites like the New York Times and you'll see 3-5x more advertisements. So among top-shelf media sites, their advertising is barely noticeable.

I'm also happy to see a new gadget blog that's unlike all the other million gadget blogs out there. It helps that it's authored by my all time favorite gadget blogger, a man that deserves a medal for getting hired to write a regular column on Gizmodo, only to get fired after Gawker editors and readers took his first essay way too personally and seriously. It's clear from day one of this new Boing Boing blog that this won't be another shopping or wishlist gadget blog. Free from all the pointless gadget lust that powers other sites, this looks like it'll be more along the lines of "interesting crap someone built that looks cool/works in a cool way."

Bottom line, it was a great surprise to see Boing Boing's new layout and direction today and I think it's a huge positive change (and adding comments was nice too).

Brilliant, clever hack for apartment dwellers

I always miss the 3rd, originally uploaded by cherrycan.

I love this. If I always went out of the same door (like in an apartment), this would be a lifesaver.