This year I recieved a Sony Playstation Portable and I must tell you it absolutely rocks. In kind, I decided to create and release a wallpaper / background for your PSP. The screen quality on these things is amazingly sharp and bright. An avid homebrew community ensures there are a plethora of hacks, programs, loaders, and homemade games for you to play with. Naturally I could not resist adorning my PSP with various backgrounds and illustrations of Yoshi. In fact, as a gift to all PSP owners I have made a custom wallpaper for you to download here.

Note: This is formatted for a version 1.5 PSP. Instructions on installing this background on your v1.5 PSP can be found many places. Owners of v2.0 and up have other sources.

Falto la luz que tu belleza trae en mi vida. Lo amé siempre. Adios.

A flash animation that is one part poem, one part user experience. As you read through the poem you must click on visual elements in order to proceed onto the next stanza. Look for anything that changes your cursor from an arrow, to a hand.

Click to view animation

CSS-in-60, where you can watch the progress and evolution of a CSS design project. This project has me converting an existing table-based E-Learning system/website into a CSS-driven masterpeice that is future-ready, portable and seperates style from content. The animated GIF that follows, monitors the progress of converting just the homepage. The animation is not real-time, but rather compresses many days and hours into a short, sweet, 60 second clip.

Primary client goal:

To convert their existing E-Learning system to CSS based design that will be easier for them to replicate and customize. This is realized through css design, allieviating the need to edit multiple templates and pages when any design changes are introduced.

Design Tips:

As always, clean markup is imperitive. A strong, logical document heirarchy is the first step to converting a table-based layout. I found this E-Learning system ridden with css styles. Instead of hap-hazardly stripping exterraneous tags, copying existing styles and writing unique styles for every little element, a good document model will help you break down content into logical blocks. The needed styles will become apparent from there.

Tables are for tabular data! But sometimes its not practical to replicate a table in css. This project had alot of tables used not just for layout, but for organization of content. Sometimes tables that feature alot of data, may also include elements that aren’t allowed in a table (images for example). Do your best to move the images outside the table if possible and if not, use good judgement and identify whether or not it makes sense to kill yourself trying to reproduce a table in css.. A good rule of thumb – 3×3. If you are looking at data/content that spans 3 columns and 3 rows, it may make sense to leave it a table and simply clean up any invalid markup inside the existing table.

The Clip

Flock is a browser. Its basically Firefox with some useability features and a new skin. The addons tie into the whole “web 2.0″ movement. This article was published using Flock’s built in blogging feature. If your site runs compatible blogging software, you simply enter your website address, username and pass, and begin writing. Your bookmarks can be tagged, and are stored and shared online – Deli.cio.us style.

Is this the next revolutionary browser? Does it make me want to drop Firefox? No.

The target audience is clearly the geek elite, with little benefits to a casual internet user. Flock simply makes it easier for those obsessed with recording every little thing to a blog.

Video, internet, blogs. It’s all great and now we can all be citizen journalists, but who cares?

Wow, I have just discovered Current.tv and the world is about to change.

From their site:

“Current is a new, independent cable and satellite TV network,
available in 20 million homes around the United States — and
growing. Current is about what’s going on.

We follow the global pulse via Google Current, a real-time view of
what the world’s searching for, presented every half-hour around the
clock.

We slice the rest of the schedule into short pods — each just a few
minutes long — that range far and wide, from international
dispatches to profiles of cool people to intelligence on new trends.
This is not a traditional TV network; watching Current, you’ll see
more, on more topics, from more points of view.

And much of it comes straight from you.”

A media outlet where the common person can share their views, Current is an amazing concept, and many content producers are jumping at the chance to see their work air beofre a global audience.

And yet, amid theis new age of mass-communication, what does that all mean for you and I? If we can all create the story, then what are we watching? Is it relevant? Is it noise? Does anyone care?

Powered by Google, the Internet, search engine, “wonder of the modern age”, we see what is relelvant by what people are searching for. And the Current feeds you video articles based on what people want to see.

But, does that mean, a video on eBay’ shottest selling Barbies? No, silly, it’s all about News.

The what of the story is more important than the shot. Yes, upcoming video-producer, you’ve got the Current Survival Guide to tell us all how to technically produce items that one day just might see some air, but more often than not, *content* is what will get a call from a producer. (No, not you, a TV producer).

So what do we cover? What do we write about? What do we shoot? Cover what moves you, what you’re passionate about, what you care about.

If you’re an idealist like me, then hey it’s easy right? Nope. Just because I spend half of my office time reading about events, subscribe to a jillion newsletters and think I have a pulse on the community, it doesn’t mean I can write about something that anybody but me will give 2
cents to see.

To make relvant content, like any effort worth starting, it takes a team of people. Rather than trying to be all things to all peeps, why don’t we all work together to refine content that people want to see?

For just this reason, I started this newsgroup on the Current site called Got Content? Are you writer or idea person wanting to be a part of the revolution? Do you have Content? If yes, then visit the group and contact us.

I am blessed or cursed with the Long View. I can see for miles. With the long view, I care about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I care about building a relationship that will last years, not for one measly bit that gets aired.

If you think the same way, then work with us. If you’re interested in what Google is doing with Current.TV, then visit these links below. A Brave New World, one where stories are made from the people on up, not written by a handful of media conglomos is approaching. And we need you.

Links

http://www.current.tv/about/
http://www.current.tv/studio/
http://www.current.tv/studio/survivalguide/

Eric Needle runs Longbow SG, a strategic communcations firm. His group is building a network of locally-focused publications that care about
the future of our communities.

Visit GreenOrlando at http://www.greenorlando.com
Join his Current Group at: http://www.current.tv/studio/groups/441998