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Go ’head, Mr. Lendle
About a month ago, I got a call from Brian Ford, who happens to be my cousin. Brian’s wife, Carolyn, had come up with an idea and Brian wanted my thoughts. Amazon had recently rolled out a new feature that allows users to lend Kindle books to others using their e-mail address. This, in effect, means you can really only lend books to people you know (because you probably don’t know many stranger’s e-mail addresses). Carolyn’s idea was simple: what if there were a site that could hook you up with a stranger that has the book you want, so they can lend it to you?
Although I owned exactly zero Kindle books and in the past five years have literally written more books than I’ve read, it sounded like a pretty great idea, and I was interested in building it. The first thing I did was call up my homeboy Nathan Borror, whom I trust implicitly on all things, but especially all things web and all things books. Nathan runs social book site Readernaut, and I figured he’d be able to help me understand the ins and outs of how a service like this might work, and he’d probably also know if something similar was already out. Nathan dug the idea and said wasn’t aware of anyone else already doing it. I was sold. That same night, I dug into Amazon’s Product Advertising API to see if I could make this thing happen.
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Why I’m a hybrid. (Like a Liger. Or a Tigon. Or a Prius.)
One of the most popular blog posts I’ve ever written was titled Django for non-programmers. In it, I explained that I was not a programmer, and had no desire to become one. The article, written over four years ago, was all about how people with very little programming experience can use Django to build cool stuff. And while I still think it’s true that Django lets non-programmers do some pretty neat things, a funny thing happened over the years: I learned to love being a programmer.
Well…sort of.
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Building BarStar
Over the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of my free time working on a personal project centered around a social activity I’ve become pretty passionate about: karaoke. Karaoke? Yes, karaoke. Why? Because it’s fun, dammit. I could write a whole separate post on why I love karaoke and what makes a great karaoke performance, but my boy Jon Culver already did, so just read that, instead. But I did think I’d take a few minutes to write about the process of building BarStar, and how it came to be.
Back when I was at Blue Flavor, Keith Robinson had this idea for a simple iPhone app. We were calling it “karaoke finder.” All it was really supposed to do was use your physical location to tell you where some karaoke is going down tonight near you. Simple, but very useful, especially for those of us who travel and want to find karaoke in a city we’re not familiar with. The idea kind of died as Blue Flavor fell apart last summer.
Separately, way back in May, my good friend and fellow KC-to-Seattle transplant Scott Phelps and I had the idea to somehow make a karaoke game. Both of us were (and are) very interested in real-world social games like Foursquare and Gowalla, and wondered if such an idea could work for a niche hobby, like karaoke.
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Web Dev App Reviews from the Pros – Part 1, Mac
Fuel Your Apps asked me, and several other web pros including Dan Rubin and Tim Van Damme, what apps we code in on OS X.
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Designers’Couch: Interview with Jeff Croft
Honored to have been interviewed by Designer’s Couch. Note that a few of the screenshots in the page are not actually my work at all. The version of the New York Review of Books is not the redesign I did for them, but rather the old version, and the Explore Steamboat design shown is a newer incarnation than the one I did.
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Goodbye, Blue Flavor.
Today is my last day at Blue Flavor.
For the past couple of years (and then some) I’ve worked with some of the brightest minds in the web community on all sorts of exciting projects. I’ve learned a ton about myself, the way agencies work, dealing with clients, and developing web experiences in the real world — a world that has timelines and budgets and limited resources and other potential pitfalls. Blue Flavor has absolutely the most enjoyable job I’ve ever had, and I think joining them was exactly the right move for me two years ago. But now, it’s time to move on.
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Cartoon of me on my deathbed in .net magazine
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It’s been a long time comin’…
I’ll keep this short. Maybe.
I think it’s important, as Obama himself said, to remember that this man getting elected doesn’t change anything in terms of our economy, the war, terrorism, and other major issues that confront our country. I firmly believe Obama will be a harbinger of change for those matters, but it’s going to take a lot of work from everyone to get it done.
But on the matter of the color of Obama’s skin: change has been delivered.
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World Tour 2008: Slides and commentary from my recent speaking engagements
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been honored and excited to speak at five events in three continents. It was a lot of work and a lot of travel, but worth every bit. I’ve had the time of my life, met a ton of great people, and share and gained more knowledge than I ever could have imagined.
I’ve always been happy to post the slides I present at conferences, and the recent talks are no exception. However, besides regular hour-long conference talks, I’ve done some full-day workshops that attendees pay quite a lot more for, and I’m not as comfortable posting those. I hope you understand.
With that out of the way, here’s an overview of my recent speaking engagements:
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Jeff Croft at Web Directions South: Elegant web typography
The great folks at Web Directions have posted the slides and audio from my recent typography talk in Sydney. Enjoy!
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WDS08: Workshop Day One: Django-a-gogo!
Michael McCorry came to my Web Directions workshop and was kind enough to write up a mini-review on his blog. Awesome. Thanks, Michael — was great meeting you!
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Babysites.com: Graham Allen Kussmann
Baby site for my new nephew! Sweet.
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What’s good in Sydney?
Michelle and I will be spending some 20 hours this Friday and Saturday traveling from Kansas City to Sydney, Australia, and I couldn’t possibly be more excited about it. Since I was a kid, Australia has been at the very top of my list of “places to go someday,” and the fact that I get to do it with Michelle, and as part of a great event like Web Directions South is a testament to just how great a life I’ve had the privilege of leading over the past several years. I love travel and I love meeting and exchanging knowledge with the wonderful people in the web community, so the fact that I get to do both on a regular basis is just amazing (also thanks to Blue Flavor, which not only lets me do this, but actually makes speaking at events around the world part of my job requirements). I’m so lucky.
As I said, I’m super stoked about going to Sydney, and I’m really looking forward to partying again with old friends like Jina and Josh, catching up with some great acquaintances like Scott and Cheryl and Daniel, meeting several of my tweeps in person for the first time, and also getting to know entirely new people.
Having just returned from London and not had a ton of time to plan out our trip, I’m looking for advice: what should we do while in Sydney?
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NETTUTS: Quick Fire With Jeff Croft
Jeffrey Way at NETTUTS asked me several rapid-fire questions in this fun interview.
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Pro CSS Techniques: by Jeff Croft, Ian Lloyd and Dan Rubin
Dan made us a site for Pro CSS Techniques. Sure, the book was released almost two years ago — but better late than never, right? The site Dan designed is beautiful. Ian and I couldn’t ask for a better promo for our book. Thanks, Rubin!
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My first Django pluggable: django-mailfriend
I finally got the balls to put some of my code out there. This simple app allows for “e-mail this to a friend” functionality for any instance of any model in your Django database. If it sounds interesting, check it out. I’d love feedback. As you know, I’m a designer first, coder second, so I’m quite sure some of my code is not as optimal as it could be. Hopefully someone will find it useful.
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New: Podcast “conversations”
This is just a brief post to let jeffcroft.com RSS readers know about something you may have missed: I’ve started a podcast, of sorts. Not so much a “show,” these are simple audio conversations between myself and other web designers and developers.
Last week, I participated in a “callcast” on Kevin Fricovsky’s blog, How I Work Daily. A callcast, as Kevin calls them, is a relatively short, laid back, “call,” (performed over Skype) between him and someone else in the web industry that he records and posts. I really enjoyed doing it — Kevin was a great host and had great questions. For a long time, I’ve thought hosting a podcast could be fun, but I was unwilling to make the time commitment required to put together a smooth, well-produced show like This Week in Django or Boagworld. Kevin’s simple idea got me excited enough that I flat out stole it (sorry, Kevin!).
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Fall speaking schedule
As you may know, part of my job at Blue Flavor entails speaking at conferences, giving workshops, and so forth. This fall, I’ve got several events lined up, and I wanted to let you all know about them.
First, I’ll be giving a workshop on building Django apps on September 8th in London. I’m again working with Carsonified on this, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Having been to several of their events, I really believe no one out there runs web events more smoothly than Ryan and his team.
The workshop will be an introduction to Django and will focus on building custom content management systems, making use of Django’s automatic admin interface, generic views, and template language. It’ll be a full-day workshop, and there are seats for up to 40 attendees. If you’re interested, register now!
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Goin’ (back) to Kansas City
I’ll keep this one short. Michelle and I have left our digs in Seattle and are moving ourselves into an apartment in Kansas City, Missouri this afternoon. Meesh and I absolutely love Seattle, but unfortunately, there are some personal matters we must tend to back here in the Midwest. We hope to move back to Seattle just as soon as possible — but it’s hard to say when that might be. I’ll be continuing to work for Blue Flavor for the foreseeable future; I’ll just be doing so remotely.
The past year in Seattle has been perhaps the best of my life. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I love the city, all my great friends there, and my job with Blue Flavor. It’s tough to leave — but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.
See you soon, Seattle.
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Look who's tweeting about no pants!
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Webmaster Jam Session 2008
Webmaster Jam Session, one of the best web events I’ve ever been to when I spoke there in Dallas last year, is back this year and is moving to the ATL. Woo! Sorry, Big D., but Atlanta is sooo much more appealing! Anyway, I’ve again agreed to speak this year, and I can’t wait. Hope to see you all there!
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A brief word on my blog posts and links
In the past couple weeks, I’ve received a few e-mails from folks wondering why my blog has been less active than in the past. The answer is pretty simple: I’ve been busy, and I haven’t had much time to write.
However, I wanted to take a moment to point out that I post links almost every single day, and my “links” are different than most folks’ in that I write — sometimes at length — my thoughts, reactions, and opinions to the link in question. Also, I allow comments on my links, which is a bit unusual. In that sense, they’re basically mini-blog posts.
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Blue Flavor, redesigned
For the past several weeks we’ve been working on a redesign of BlueFlavor.com — and now it’s live. Keith and Kevin and mostly responsible for the design. Nick and Tom did some IA work, Tom and Kevin did the front-end development, and I did the back-end development.
Of particular interest is the awesome posters we’ve commissioned as an interesting new way to showcase some of our work. The artists we’ve used so far have been freaking great, and we’re looking forward to doing more.
For the curious, BlueFlavor.com is now powered by the same Django-based CMS that powers jeffcroft.com.
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Seattlest: Here Come the Cruise Ships
For reasons I can’t really explain, seeing the cruise ships go by my window gives me an inordinate amount of pleasure. I’ve missed them over the winter. They’re back on Pier 66, starting tomorrow.
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Seeking speaking opportunities, not too proud to beg.
It’s no secret that I love to talk. If you don’t believe me, just ask my friends.
In particular, I like talking about the aspects of our industry I’m passionate about in front of engaged audiences. Last year, I spoke at some of web design’s biggest events, including South By Southwest Interactive, Future of Web Design, and Webmaster Jam Session. This year, I intentionally took SXSW off, in part because I was scheduled to give a talk on typography in Spain in April. That event was canceled, and now I’m left with a totally empty schedule of speaking engagements.
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More details on the redesign
Last night, when I finished up the latest redesign of JeffCroft.com, I was tired of being on the computer and didn’t feel like writing much more than a somewhat-flippant “here it is” message. Today, after a good night’s sleep and reading 50+ comments in response to the new design, I’m prepared to talk a little more in detail about what I’ve done. I’d like to tell you a bit about the design, the color scheme, why I didn’t use tumblr for my tumblelog, and the CMS behind it all.
Let’s get started, shall we?
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It’s brown, yo.
Yes, it’s a pretty drastic change for me. Yes, it only really works correcty in Safari (get over it). Yes, I did it pretty quickly. Yes, this redesign also constitutes an entire rewrite of my Django-based CMS. Yes, it no longer starts with
www2. Yes, there are parts that are still unfinished. Yes, it’s a bit of an answer to tumblr. Yes, I did hide the “powered by Google” logo on my maps (shhh, don’t tell). Yes, I’ll be talking about the new design direction more in the near future. Yes, it’s light on dark (get over it). Yes, the job listings you seen on the sides of blog entries are selected based on the content of the entry. Yes, the text is smaller (get over it). Yes, I’m anxious to hear what you think.Yes, I’m going to bed.
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Looking forward to the new year
The past couple of years, I’ve posted a sort of year-in-review entry here at JeffCroft.com in late December or early January. I was getting set to do that again, and I decided I might rather look forward than back — at least for tonight. I may still write that year-in-review post, but right now, I feel more like making some goals for 2008 than reminiscing on 2007.
It should be noted that I’m not particularly good at — or fond of — looking forward or backward. I’m very much a live-in-the-moment type of person. When I was at Future of Web Design in New York I heard Joshua Davis say, “If you’ve got one foot in the past and one foot in the future, you’re pissing on the present.” I love that line, as it perfectly sums up the way I tend to live my life. But, at the start of the new year, I’ll allow myself to look forward just a bit. Here are some things I intend to do in 2008…
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It’s not the tool, it’s how you use it.
Today, as I was looking through the referrers for this site, I found a comment from my now-co-worker D. Keith Robinson, dated December 4th, 2003. A few excerpts from the comment:
MoreIt’s an age old debate. Flash vs. HTML vs. CSS — blah, blah, blah. I’ll hammer a few more nails into this dead horse if it’ll help get the message across. It’s not about the tool, it’s about what you do with it. … The problem usually is that some designer or developer latches on to a certain technology (it could be CSS, it could be Flash, it could be anything) and thereafter tries to solve every and all problems with it. … Flash is a tool, CSS is a tool. If you are working on the Web you’d probably want to have both in your “toolbox” and know how and when to use each. … A carpenter doesn’t try to build everything with a hammer, does he? Why should a Web designer be any different?
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UMS Interviews: Jeff Croft
Gene at Unmatched Style recently interviewed me as part of a series of interview on that site. Check it out.
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Hear me speak: Refresh Seattle, October 30
If you read this blog regularly, you’ll remember that I had some thoughts on The New Layers of Web Development in a recent entry. Basically, I talked about how the full stack (from web server to server-side programming to client-side rendering) of a modern web apps works together, and how it may disrupt the traditional Web Standards advocate’s Structure/Presentation/Behavior view of things.
What followed was a very hearty and useful discussion. After reading the comments, I’ve re-framed some of my opinions, changed a few others, and found better ways to talk about yet others. And I’m putting it all together in a presentation for Refresh Seattle that I call The Full Stack: Reevaluating the “Layers” of Web Development.
My Refresh Seattle event is on October 30th at 6:00pm at the Ballard branch of the Seattle Public Library. I will be keeping the presentation fairly short — maybe 40 minutes or so, and leaving plenty of time for Q&A.; Like all Refresh Seattle events, there will be drinks, appetizers, and conversation afterwards at The Bar-Mar (probably my favorite lounge I’ve been to in my short time in Seattle).
I really hope to see you all there! Even if you can’t come to the event, at least come to the Bal-Mar for drinks and such!
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Upcoming speaking engagements and events
Following Keith’s lead, I saw fit to drop a short post letting you all know about a handful of upcoming speaking engagements I’ll be participating in and events I’ll be attending. I hope to see many familiar faces and meet some new ones!
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Tall Tom: A Case for the Crusty Old Website
Flavorite Tom Watson waxes nostalgic about the heyday of the personal website. I couldn’t agree more. Much of that nostalgia, along with a healthy enjoyment for so-called Web 2.0 apps of today (Flickr, etc.) is what inspired me to aggregate all my online data here at jeffcroft.com. He also mentions ChrisGlass.com, which is definitely amongst the best personal websites I’ve ever seen.
Personal websites are what got me excited about the Internet back in 1994. I hope the MySpaces, Facebooks, and Virbs of the world don’t supplant them.
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Top five things I’ll miss about Lawrence
Barring any (more) unforeseen changes to our schedule, Michelle and I should be nearing Sioux Falls, SD this time tomorrow. We’re hoping in the car tomorrow evening and heading off to the great Northwest. We were supposed to leave on Friday — but our movers called today saying they’ll be here early. Thus, we also need to leave early in order to beat them to Seattle. No worries — I’m excited to get there and have a weekend to get settled before I start working in the new office on Monday.
Guess how many turns there are on the 2000 mile route from Kansas City to Seattle? One. Yes, one. Take I-29N, hang a left on I-90, and that’s it. I thought that was amusing.
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My Posse’s On Broadway
Or, I’m moving to Seattle. Yes, it seems it’s once again time to press the double-arrow and skip ahead to a new chapter of my life and career. There are only a handful of companies in the world I think I might enjoy working for more than The Lawrence Journal-World (where I’ve spent the past year and a half) — and my path just happened to cross with one of them on a recent trip to the Emerald City.
That company is Blue Flavor, and I couldn’t be more excited to announce that I’ve accepted a position with them in their office overlooking Lake Union.
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LOST-Theories.com: Quick Redesign
Nothing too special here and not a dramatic change, but I gave LOST-Theories.com a quick visual refresh tonight.
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Rob Goodlatte: Three Questions for Jeff Croft
The very talented Rob Goodlatte has recently started a series of short interviews of other designers on his blog, and was kind enough to have me participate. Click through to read my thoughts on programming vs. design, web standards education, and justifying design decisions.
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Phelps: The Most Hated Family in America
BBC2 did a video piece on the Phelps family of Topeka — the most hated family in America. I have a good deal of personal experience with the Phelps family. I lived in Topeka for almost 10 years, where one hardly goes a day without crossing paths with one of them or their protests.
For those who don’t know, the Phelps run a Baptist church near Topeka whose mission is to spread God’s message of hated towards not only homosexuals (or “fags,” and the Phelps would call them), but also anyone who tolerates the presence of homosexuality. They insist that God hates America, that America is doomed, and that pretty much everyone is a fag and everything is a “Fag whatever.”
Back in my early days with the Phelps, they spent most of their time picketing things that seemed directly tied to homosexuality. For example, they picketed the funeral of Kansas City composer Kevin Oldham (who was gay and died of AIDS) and that of Matthew Shepard, who famously died after an anti-gay hate crime against him. I remember them picketing nearly every musical performance I ever gave in Topeka, because inevitably someone that was performing was gay. Today, they don’t seem to make much association between homosexuality and what they protest. They protest everything. Lately, they’ve been making headlines picketing at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.
Not all of my experiences with the Phelps family were bad. I actually become sort of friendly with Sarah Phelps in college — I believe she was one of Fred’s granddaughters, and when she wasn’t picketing and singing songs of hate on the street corners, she was actually quite nice. She was a vocal major at Washburn, and the two guys she spent most of her time with at school were — you guessed it — gay.
One of my proudest moments was when I nearly scared Fred Phelps out of his skin. I pulled up to a stop light on 17th and Gage in Topeka, a semi-busy intersection where his family (which is extremely large, by the way) used to (still does?) protest almost daily. As I waited for the light to turn green, “Gramps,” as he’s called, crossed at the crosswalk in front of my car. I couldn’t resist. I put my car in neutral and stepped on the gas as hard as I could. Phelps dropped his picket sign, jumped sky high, and almost fell over. Most of the cars around had their windows rolled down on the hot summer day, and my scare tactics elicited cheers and horn honking. It was great.
The thing that bothers me most about my experiences with the Phelps is how much I grew to tolerate them. Seeing them every day for nearly 10 years, I because desensitized to their hatred. Oh, I spent the first couple of years getting in arguments, flipping them off, and generally letting them know how much I disapproved. But after I while, I gave up. I find that sad, though. If there’s anyone in the world that deserves my hate with pure, unbridled passion, it’s these guys. And I just didn’t care. I drove by them daily, pretending like they weren’t there.
I should have ran that bastard over when I had the chance.
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A response to one especially harsh critic of our SXSW panel
Last night, while drinking margaritas at The Iron Cactus, a woman (who will remain unnamed) came up to me and blurted out, “I respect your work, but damn your panel sucked!” I told her I was sorry she didn’t like it, and she proceeded to rail on for nearly 10 minutes about just how bad it was. I was a bit taken aback, and also a bit tipsy, so I just kept apologizing and thanking her for the criticism.
I know I shouldn’t let one’s person’s feelings bother me much, but dammit, I’m human, and it does bother me. So, I thought I’d take a moment to respond to her, as well as anyone else who wasn’t too pleased with the panel.
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BoomerGirl.com mentioned on CBS News
Supposedly there will be video added to this page later. BoomerGirl.com is really getting a lot of great press (MSNBC covered it previously). Kinda crazy to see your designs on TV.
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Jeff Croft
I’m a digital product designer and developer in Seattle, WA. I currently work with nGen Works, and recently co-founded Lendle, a Kindle book sharing service.
Some of my clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Copious, The New York Review of Books, The Lawrence Journal-World, and the University of Washington.
I’ve authored two books on web and interactive design and spoken at dozens of conferences around the world.
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