Archive for March, 2008

Can SaveTheDevelopers save the developers?

. General

Can SaveTheDevelopers saves the developer?

Recently I stumbled upon an interesting campaign website called SaveTheDevelopers.org. The aim of this website is to tell everyone in this world upgrade or change the web browsers to the latest version and dumb that evil Internet Explorer 6! So to make the campaign works, a small JS file can be installed in any website so that a message will prompt out for those who still using that evil browser “Upgrade or switch your browser now!”

Every web developers and designers knew that IE 6 is a nightmare browser, because a well coded website using standard CSS will turns out ugly in IE 6. So a lot of precious time and energy was spent just to make things right in that browser. Why care about the outdated browser? This is because there is still a lot of people using it. So born this website aimed to save the developer. But will this campaign successful? Continue reading

Welcome spring with sakura songs

. J-Pop, Japan

Welcoming spring with sakura songs

Spring is just around the corner. When thinking of spring season, many people will thinking of the warm and beautiful cherry blossom or sakura. Around the end of March to beginning of April is the best time to view the blossoming sakura or o-hanami in Tokyo and Kyoto area. Sakura is a very beautiful flower and I had seen many beautiful shots of sakura and sadly I did not experienced it by myself. Fortunately I have sakura-themed songs be with me.

Below is the playlist of songs that is related to sakura. I always like sakura songs because the flower gave the artistic feeling and it feels good to listen. The first song of the playlist is the famous traditional Japanese folk song “Sakura“. I remember I sang the song before during my primary school’s singing class. Plus, there are many artists sang sakura songs in various music genres but mostly are calm, beautiful and cheerful. Continue reading

Tatsuro Yamashita – Zutto Issho Sa

. J-Pop, Lyrics

Tatsuro Yamashita - Zutto Issho Sa

Normally when I watch a Japanese drama, I will skip the ending credits part. But in “Bara no nai Hanaya” I let it played until the end because the song played in the ending credits sequence is very nice to listen! It is the drama theme song call “Zutto Issho sa” written and sang by one of the most influential Japanese musician Tatsuro Yamashita.

“Bara no nai Hanaya” is my most favorite drama of the winter 2008 season. The story is nice and engaging, the relationship is very twisting and interesting. It is not an ordinary getsu 9 love drama. I’m definitely recommend this drama to everyone. “Zutto Issho sa” portrays the look and feel of the drama, and the lyric is beautiful too. Continue reading to listen to the song with lyric and translation! Continue reading

Jeans textures free download

. Resources

Jeans/denim textures free download

Jeans is my most favorite pants and I wear it almost everyday when going out because it is nice and very tough. The colors and textures or tactile are also very unique which will give different kinds of feels. Here I scanned some jeans to create free jeans texture to share with you all.

Besides that, I also found some jeans texture out there which is good in quality and compiled them into a list, mainly sites from CG Textures, Deviant Art and Stock Exchange. Continue reading to check out the jeans textures!

Continue reading

Tesco kids street art by Banksy

. Art & Design

Tesco kids street art by Banksy

Today when I was surfing through Wooster Collective, I stumbled upon this stunning piece of street art by one of my most favorite street artist Banksy. It shows a video footage shoot by Jeremy Gibbs on how the people reacts to the art when passing by that area. It is very relieve that many people are appreciating the artwork by stopping by and observe it, or take out camera and take a picture.

This street art appears in Essex road London depicting three little children, one is raising the plastic bag of Tesco to the top of the pole just like raising a flag. While the other two children stand slightly further away and putting their left hand on their chest with serious face looking at the plastic bag, as if they are showing respect to Tesco, the biggest shopping mart in UK. Continue reading

The essential list of CSS tips, tricks & hacks

. Tutorial, Web Design

The essential list of CSS tips, tricks & hacks

I had been working on CSS heavily for this couple of weeks. Because I’m not an experienced CSS coder, I encountered many problems and get frustrated in order to get the code right and functional on majority web browsers. Luckily there is a lot of useful CSS tips and tricks can be found on the Internet that helped me solved many problems and make me smile.

I found many articles on teaching the best ways to work with CSS. It is very handy and I learn a lot from them. At here, I compiled a list useful CSS hacks, tips and tricks so that everyone can quickly find the links and start learning from the experts and becoming a smart CSS elite! Continue reading

Bottle Buster is super fun!

. General

Bottle Buster is super fun!

Bottle Buster is a exciting and carnival feel ball throwing 3D casual game that has amazing graphics and realistic physics like no other casual games. It was fun and addictive to play. The game consists of 40 challenging levels with 10 different environment themes and tonnes of stuffed toys and trophies to won! And this game was developed right here in John Galt Games studio in Kuala Lumpur.

I had to mentioned the excellent art team because they produce the amazing graphics which cheers up the whole game experience, gotta love that smiling ball. Besides that, the sound and the physics was well done too. Bottle Buster actually was started a year ago and although it was just a casual game, but it took quite a long period of time to make it great. Our studio here had done numerous rounds of game testing just to make it right. This is the first time I can really feel that a game is not easy to make. Continue reading

SHIFT logo design competition

. General

SHIFT logo design competition

In conjunction with SHIFT 10th year anniversary, they held a logo design competition to use for corporate logo for the next 10 years. Everyone can just submit their own logo design (maximum 5 designs per person), and got to be hurry because the deadline is on the 15th of March which is 3 days later.

You can check out more information on this competition in SHIFT Logo Design Competition page. Above is my design entry for this competition, very simple and minimalistic. Click here for bigger image. Wish me luck and hope that miracles can happen! šŸ˜€

Inspired by Nature: 12 websites with grass

. Inspiration, Web Design

Inspired by nature: Websites with grass

This is the second episode of Inspired by Nature web design series. The first series talks about websites with wood, and now we move on and take a look on other nature elements which integrated into website design: GRASS. From some grass inspired research, I found 12 websites use grass as part of web designs.

The natural green colors of grass is a instant attraction because it feels fresh, the richness in texture, and giving a sense of depth. Many uses grass as background and use it in website header. Company that provide grass related services also implement grass in their home page too. Besides that different execution of grass also can be seen. Continue reading to find out the 12 grassy websites! Continue reading

Illustrator Blend Tool tips and tricks

. Tutorial

Illustrator blend tool tips and tricks

One great tool that Adobe Illustrator offered to us is the Blend Tool. It is a tool to blend two objects with different shapes or color properties. It looks like a transformation from a shape to another. It is very fun to use and actually quite powerful and flexible too.

To establish a blend is very easy. Just create two shapes and select both of them, select Object > Blend > and click Make (or hit Alt-Ctrl-B). You now should see both shapes was tied together with a spline and blending steps in between. This is how blend tool works. Well, there is more stuff to explore with blend tool. Just continue reading to find out more! Continue reading