The Bloggery of Sean Berger. (@bergrbergr)

Which Royals player has earned a bobblehead?

2010-02-10T18:50:55Z

23-year-old slugger Billy Butler had a breakout year in 2009. (photo credit: SportsGrumblings.com)

The following poll is provided by Google and supports your existing Google, Twitter, Yahoo! or AIM account.

Flash interface issues

2010-02-10T03:37:43Z

This quote is a follow-up to my brief mention of video players running atop HTML5. Someday one such prototype will replace the need for Flash and Silverlight video players, but for now we can accept that these plugins are the best way for the global Internet to consume video content.

This quote seems to put into words some of the usability problems I’ve always felt were inherit for users experiencing Flash content. Flash has its place for creative and web development teams — I’ve seen it used for much more good than evil. But that doesn’t change that its browser presentation has always given me the willies.

“Areas aren’t clickable, context-menus **** up and (the) selection of text, saving of images and all this stuff you expect from a web site is not working…You cannot just set an anchor – you have to code it. This is really important to understand. Flash is a whole new application inside on an application.”

–Thomas Maier, on Flash (read original post)

Foxdie

2010-02-07T04:03:27Z

If you’d like to beautify Firefox to look like other browsers (Camino, Safari), you should download this handy little add-on called Foxdie (Mozilla link). The add-on allows you to instantaneously change the browser’s buttons, color and tab settings (no app restart required) from the (web-based) settings menu. After having piloted it for about a month now, I’d also say it has relatively no footprint or interference with browsing speed.

Thomas Rye on self-defense.

2010-02-06T22:21:56Z

Thomas Rye recently posted a detailed piece on self-defense and martial arts. I think this to be the perfect follow-up reading assignment for anyone that hopes to defend their man-bag from the forces of darkness.

“There’s 1001 ways to hit a man, but the ones that are extremely efficient comprise a much shorter list.”
— Thomas Rye

Feature: Grant Blakeman.

2010-02-06T22:29:20Z

Grant Blakeman is a freelance designer and developer living in Boulder, Colorado. His clients include Carbonmade.com and The Autumn Film. He has posted a lot of incredible creative and tech content on his blog recently. The blog is one of my top reads, so you absolutely must add him to your weekly reading.

I’d like to call-out a few recent items from Grant:

1. A prototype for an HTML5-based Video player. It’s great to think that we’re only a year or so away from offering video without the use of Flash or Silverlight plugins. On a related note, at the end of January Google announced that they would no longer support IE 6 for Google Docs or Google Sites.

2. Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain’s design work. Jesse did some top-notch work for the redesign of Campaign Monitor in 2008-09.

3. The CGI work of Alex Roman (via IS050)

Grant is featured on my “Best of” list on Twitter — that list is always evolving, but I will quickly say that he would be the last person I’d remove from the list. Lastly, after all of the linkage above, you will more than likely appreciate his office space.

Grant Blakeman's office (photo by Grant)

Essential evolution: The man-bag.

2010-02-03T15:56:23Z

Warning: the contents of this post will be harmful to your health.

Some call it a knapsack. Others call it a satchel. And though your girlfriend may ask to borrow it for a position in her trusty purse rotation, hopefully you’ll never have to talk friends down from calling your latest purchase your new murse. Regardless of title — let’s face it, men — we have evolved. And all of those gadgets we’ve been toting around for the last few years need a home.

On Monday afternoon, I trekked out into the wild in search of such a bag. For those living in the Kansas City area, I recommend any purchase of this variety from the folks at Backwoods in Overland Park. I quickly found and purchased an all-black Patagonia Single Shot ($50 USD) with its signature feature: an infallible recycled seat belt shoulder strap. Nothing says earth-friendly like recycled seat belt. Apparently this particular bag (read: purse) is also owned by my friend Blakely, which fully confirms that my new purchase is eligible for any sort of duties in future girlfriend purse rotation. You can view additional color options for the Single Shot on Zappos.com.

Backwoods had two additional noteworthy man-bags on hand: the Patagonia Atom bag ($60 USD) and the Osprey Flip ($69 USD). For any serious shopper, both should strongly be considered.

I have evolved. Meet my new shoulder bag, the Patagonia Single Shot.

Note: an easy-access velcro flap. To the right, my Banana Republic sunglasses.

So let’s cut to the details. I figured it only appropriate to impart a full manifest of items that could be traveling around with me in the near future:

iPod. After months of getting acclimated to my Touch, I’ve finally cemented how I use the device. Four apps come to mind: Tweetie 2, 2Do Lite, LifeChurch.tv’s Bible and the Apple-engineered Notes. Tweetie 2 is the only paid app in that list, but all of them are worth it. As for my music, the last month of music listening has included The Sailor Sequence and MuteMath’s Armistice record. I’ve listened to those tracks continually. While doing any sort of writing or thinking, I absolutely need access to Sigur Ros and their side project Jónsi & Alex. Some others I would recommend, if you find yourself purchasing any new tunes in the near future: Ray Lamontagne, Sandra McCracken.

iPod wall charger.

Sandwich. PB&J or tuna salad are acceptable.

Camera. For me, my new Holga 120N, a Christmas present from my brother.

Latteland coffee sleeve. This is a great idea from a Kansas City coffee shop chain – a cardboard coffee sleeve that you’re to re-use as your punch card. I’ve had mine for nearly a year but always forget it in my car. Now it’ll be on my person at all times.

Sunglasses. You can find a good pair of shades in a lot of locations, but I found mine on sale last spring at Banana Republic. After seeing the Book of Eli last Wednesday, I believe Denzel UV-ray protection (pre- or post-apocalypse) is a good idea.

All of this? On my person?!? Unbelievable! Men should've thought of this decades ago!

Car & house keys. Nothing says, “Imma climb mountains in my free-time” quite like wielding one’s keys on a carabiner. And though the $1.00 version of such you bought while checking out at the local hardware store surely couldn’t suffice for mountain climbs, your friends won’t know any better so long as you don’t tell them. Conclusion: carabiners are the new pink are the new black.

Kleenex. For each of those late-winter sniffles you just can’t seem to shake. Which brings us to our next item…

Cough drops. Halls menthols will do, but for serious throat soreness, Ricola’s Honey Lemon drops are my cough drop of choice. What with marketing words like “natural” and “herb” on the package, these are sure to convince your friends that you belong in a hippy commune and clear up that cold all the same.

Possibly candy. But don't tell your mom I said that.

Journal and not just any pen. A man-bag of any kind is best suited for trips to local coffee shops. Where else would you carry all of this stuff? The grocery store??! Ridiculous! For anyone frequenting a coffee shop, you can’t possibly forget a handy-dandy journal.

I’ve been writing in a journal for roughly eight years and I’ve been writing with my pen of choice — the Pilot G207 — since my senior year in high school biology class. At some point that year, I woke up one day to realize that I’d been wasting my life finishing those lab reports with inferior writing utensils. Ever since, nothing but this pen will do. There are few pens quite like the G207; what I mean to say is that the folks at Pilot have really outdone themselves. I’d like to think the ‘G’ stands for gangsta, but something tells me it’s a subtle reference to the gel ink that each of these unbelievable inventions contain.

The Pilot G207.

College basketball fans can liken my Pilot G207 obsession to Digger Phelps's matching highlighter/tie wardrobe on ESPN.

Pocket knife. MacGyver made it through most all of his seven seasons on ABC without the use of a pocket knife, but for the less-resourceful, a Swiss Army knife can provide both utility and protection. If you, the reader, attempt to steal any of the above items from my satchel, I’m not afraid to use afforementioned knife in self-defense.

Editor’s note: the author of this blog does not endorse violence. And he won’t bring any sort of weaponry to the work place.

Okay guys, which items have I forgotten? What items and gadgets are you carrying around this spring? Please elaborate. And ladies, help us out!!

Hello, Garmin. (part III)

2010-02-03T15:57:26Z

It’s Saturday. And I am unemployed. And that’s kind of awesome. Okay, I’m employed. Technically.

I build stuff. I create stuff. And life’s too short to not be building and creating every day.

Soon I will step into a new position as Interface Designer at Garmin (GRMN), a position with their online user experience team. Since my early days in college, I’ve always been provoked to design for users, not clients. Working on the Garmin team should allow me to balance the challenge, tact and necessity for addressing the needs of both parties. Strategy, thought, design, user-testing and front-end development are all things I want to do daily. All are essential to the job description.

Budgets restrict good thinking.

To re-think how customers interact with your brand only when marketing dollars are allocated to such a project is the wrong way address business needs. Unfortunately, this is a side effect of the client-plus-ad-agency model. Inside of recession, less marketing dollars equates to less agency-driven thought and strategy in driving sales. Time and money should always be allocated to the effort.

Time well spent increases sales.

With this in mind, the best fit for me is a team where questions are continually asked of design and user experience. The primary budget is one of time. The primary question is, “Does this initiative merit our time?” Making sales is important to any company. When you’re ringing the cashbox for a company like Garmin, the products sell themselves.

Garmin's Forerunner 305, a watch for runners.

Grady tells me that Olathe means “beautiful.” It’s fitting. Well, not the suburbia part. Suburbia is beautiful to some, but I’m more of a midtown Kansas City guy. The opportunity to design for potential and existing Garmin consumers is direct and immediate. And that’s beautiful to me.

Credits. (part II)

2010-02-03T16:05:57Z

I know much of this has been said, but I want to follow up my last post with some specific thanks.

To Anthony, Arlo, TB, Riebs, Bobby, Adam, Grady, Shawn, Derek, JT, Drace, Krista, Ogggggggg, Swood, Sarah, Weidner, Brent, Jordan, Angela, Corley, Hattery and Paul’yee Prato I specifically say thank you for teaching me to be a better creative. I’m grateful for everything that was afforded to me in my time at BR. You guys took a chance on me. And I think it worked out for all involved.

And thanks to Steve Bernstein for running a great ad agency. You, Bob and family are top notch.

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This is the second post in a three part series: Read Part I | Read Part III

BR has been good to me. (part I)

2010-02-03T15:58:54Z

Friends! I have news for you.

This Friday is the last day I will ride the elevator to the ninth floor at 4600 Madison Avenue and step into the hallways of Bernstein-Rein’s creative department. Soon I will make my last flavored latte at the coffee bar on fifteen. It’s been a great three (nearly four) years at the Kansas City ad agency.

Hours upon hours of time with mentors and friends.

My experience at BR has been deeply rewarding both personally and professionally. So many team members have mentored me — I don’t know where I could possibly start or finish, so please understand that this paragraph isn’t comprehensive:

Anthony has shown me that creativity doesn’t exist merely on-screen, but it’s everything we live, sing and do … from day one Adam believed in my work. He also taught me how to create practically for clients in Photoshop. He’s great at communicating ideas and strategy from the creative perspective, while addressing tough client problems … Nathan’s approach to asking questions and creating design solutions has stayed with me … in my earlier days at BR, I continually studied HTML/CSS solutions from Brandon and Bobby … And Travis showed me that coding things from scratch and meticulous attention to detail aren’t silly concepts, but rather essential craftsmanship for those that want to be the best.

Bernstein-Rein’s work for household brands like McDonald’s, PetSmart and Hostess Snack Cakes will continue to receive recognition within the national ad community. The agency is capable both digitally and analytically – they dig deep to understand both consumer and marketplace. Most importantly, BR is a place full of great ideas that drive retail sales. I am blessed to have played a small part in our last few years of work.

So what’s next for me?

The ad world has been great, but the best fit for me is a position where questions are primarily asked of design. I have something lined up. More to come!

Probably a people person.

2010-01-19T23:01:54Z

Don’t get me wrong, I am a people person. But I am surprised by how much time I am spending with people lately.

Colt McCoy could throw a football over d’em mountains.

2010-01-09T19:08:03Z

On Thursday night, I became a Texas Longhorn fan for the course of the BCS National Championship game. At kickoff, a good story was in the air – fourth-year quarterback Colt McCoy was facing off against Heisman trophy-winner, Alabama’s Mark Ingram.

Harry How/Getty Images

Yet it was only five plays into their offensive game plan and the Republic of Texas’ one and only protagonist McCoy went lame. He was injured. Injured badly. The tackle from the Alabama defensive lineman came at the end of an uneventful run — it certainly didn’t look like the breed of hit that would render him medically ineligible. The senior quarterback found his way to the sideline and medical staff gave him immediate attention. As he sat down on the turf behind team benches, countless bodies surrounded him. At this point, I joked that he was on the phone, praying with Tim Tebow for a few divine play calls for use later in the game. Locker room x-rays would later show no conclusive injury, but the pain spoke enough for experts on the Texas sideline: this was a shoulder injury.

There was plenty of heroism from Alabama’s running back duo of Ingram and Trent Richardson in the second quarter, who each finished with 100 yards rushing on the evening. And when Nick Saban led Alabama to a final score of 37-21, it was clear that he had heroically coached this program to their first National Title since 1992.

Every part of me wanted McCoy to return in the third quarter, inspire his troops and march the burnt siena army downfield for magical second-half scores. Because there’s something different about the story of a ballgame when the lead character is a gun-slinging cowboy having climbed from humble ranks of 2A Texas high school gridiron play to the biggest game of the year in college football. (McCoy’s high school team is coached by his father, making the elements of which a screenplay fit only for Disney cinema.)

McCoy as valiant injury-overcoming gladiator would’ve made for much better story. As a fan, that’s what I wanted. That’s what sweet-tea drinkers and Chevy truck-owners everywhere wanted. Something American. Something bold. The stuff of legends.

Best of luck, Colt. I hope you are the sort of QB prototype that NFL scouts, coaches and teams find attractive.

Grooveshark.

2010-01-09T19:17:12Z

For those who rave about Last.fm and Pandora, Grooveshark is better.

Last.fm and Pandora are the two heavily-used online streaming music libraries, but these sites merely deliver music suggestions based on the listener’s favorite artists and genres. These services were around well before the release of iTunes Genius mixes, but the suggestion algorithms are similar in principal: “You tell us what you prefer and we’ll play things like it.”

And that’s where Grooveshark is different. And better. Grooveshark plays any song you want on-demand. Unlimited plays. No membership required. For free. Rhapsody and Napster offer the same service for a monthly fee. I’ve been using this free online streaming music player for roughly two months now as a compliment to my iTunes library. I recall trying the too-good-to-be-true service for about a week before tweeting it into the lives of my friends and followers.

Streaming music at work or home? Use Grooveshark.

Codetaculous. A TextMate Bundle.

2010-01-07T02:39:01Z

Today, I’m releasing a TextMate Bundle for front-end coders. I originally wrote this series of code snippets roughly three months ago to speed up my work with XHTML and CSS documents. These snippets have dramatically increased my speed and code craftsmanship.

» Download the Codetaculous Bundle.

This Bundle features a variety of helpful tricks for the development of both websites and email marketing templates. I’ve included a table below for reference.

Codetaculous. An XHTML & CSS Bundle for TextMate.
Snippet	Keyword	Comments	Document-Specific?
New Strict XHTML Document (template)	new	none	any
New Email Marketing Document (template, Strict XHTML)	em	Development of this template is based on the standards as defined by the experts at CampaignMonitor.com.	HTML
New Strict XHTML Document	new		any
Google Chrome Frame	chrome	Belongs in document `<head>`. Implement Google Chrome Frame for IE. About: Chrome Frame.	HTML
Conditional Comments for IE	ie	Talks to various IE browser versions. Belongs in document `<head>`. Handy for use when implementing a stylesheet specific to a version of IE.	HTML
`<img>` Tag	img	A quick XHTML image tag.	HTML
`<a>` Tag	foobarlink	An anchor tag for a specific site. You’ll need to change the keyword for this snippet. Most helpful for email templates, where absolute links are needed.	HTML
Fahrner Image Replacement	fir	A text replacement method, driven by CSS. An alternative to Typekit or Sifr.	CSS
Width attribute	wid	Most helpful when coding a table-driven layout for email marketing. A handy tabspace in this one.	HTML
Height attribute	ht	Most helpful when coding a table-driven layout for email marketing. A handy tabspace in this one.	HTML
Colspan attribute	col	Most helpful when coding a table-driven layout for email marketing. A handy tabspace in this one.	HTML
Rowspan attribute	row	Most helpful when coding a table-driven layout for email marketing. A handy tabspace in this one.	HTML
A `<table>` row	tr	A new table row.	HTML
A `<table>` cell	td	Best for use with email marketing templates.	HTML
Inline margin/padding reset	mp	For use when developing email marketing templates. Because Gmail defines margin and padding for many of a template’s block-level elements, I’ve found myself resetting margin and padding a lot.	any
Inline definition of Vertical Align properties	valign	For use when developing email marketing templates. It’s best to reset the vertical align to top for

Instructions: To implement any of the following snippets, type the keyword followed immediately by a tab-space. Some shortcuts are document-specific, meaning you must save the document with a file extension before the snippet will work.

A tip for power users: Once your code snippet appears, you’ll be able to tab through it to important parts. For instance, in the New XHTML Document snippet, the first tab-space is the document <title>. Try them out — you’ll catch on quickly.

Thanks everyone. If you find these helpful or you’d like to suggest any additional snippets for this set, reply with a comment to let me know. Any links, tweets or credits are always appreciated.

Twitter moving fwd (in > 140 characters)

2010-01-04T22:49:09Z

“There is always something more interesting on Twitter than whatever you happen to be working on.”

-David Carr, New York Times | full story: Why Twitter Will Endure

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Related: Today I found the design team at Twitter has a business account.

Bloggery commentry.

2009-11-12T15:18:41Z

Would you be more likely to comment on a blog that allowed the secure authentication and use of your existing Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo! profile?

Disqus allows you to comment on blog content using your existing Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo! profile.