So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

Starship daily #3: fantasy strawberry kingdom

Starship daily #3, 10/1/12. Mark Zuckerberg is set to meet with Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday during a trip to Russia, where Facebook use is growing

Hi there, fellow runner with gadgets and warhammer 40k fan and apple iphone related stuff interested in guy! Here you go with new comic strip, Starship daily #3, 9/21/12. Mark Zuckerberg is set to meet with Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday during a trip to Russia, where Facebook use is growing! Have fun!

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 8

Cycling vs running: is there any competition?

Shiny alphadrive bike gear, I like cycling and what about you?

Hi there, fellow runner! How about cycling? Do you like it? Let's talk about cycling as an alternative to running. I don't really think that riding a bike can be anyway competitor to running. And here are few points from which I've noticed the difference. First of all is complicity -- riding a bike involves service, care and a place to store your bicycle. So you can't just wake up one day and say that tis is the day. You have to be prepared, to get bike from garage, check it's functions, drive it to service if found any troubles you can't fix on the go. Then you are connected to weather conditions -- it's quite expensive to ride during winter -- you have to buy completely worm outfit and bike gear for winter riding: new tires and more headlights for example. If you store a bike at home, you have to get more attention to it -- it need complete cleanup aftr every ride, because it will be absolutely dirty after every ride.

Cute 666 kilometers on vectra wireless bicycle computer.

Second issue is about fun and lack of motivation. You can cover great distances on bike, but half of your riding time you'll go downhill and make no action, lust sit on the seat. While riding in the city, you can even get in road accident and receive traumas which can be quite dangerous. And air in your city isn't breathable at all, but your body will consume it much more then when you go on foot. There are lot of happy green cities all over our globe, but there are lot of dirty ones and we should note this.

Running is much easier to do then cycling, but cycles are great, if you have one, go for a ride tomorrow. It's fun and beautiful despite all my words above this sentence!

Gandhi quotes: top 10 Gandhi quotes for runners

Hi there, fellow runner! I've found list of Gandhi's quotations on life and society on facebook wall this morning and looked through it while trying to plan weekend run. You know what conclusion I've finally got? Mahatma Gandhi really can be teinterpreted to improve runner's motivation. Here we go with the list:

1. There is no rule of public opinion in conscience matters.

For typical runner it should mean, that you can break boundaries if you have great passion for your health improvement. Rethink lifestyle, recreate timetable, shift job, move to another city even. And never consult anybody.

2. The whole nation's greatness and moral level can be measured by how single people take care of homeless animals.

For the runner it really can mean going vegetarian or even vegan -- think on it from philosophical point of view.

3. If you going to bring peace on earth, then take care of your children.

This rule is about getting to the root of the problem, about planning and preparation. So when you are on your first winter run, for example, you should be prepared if you'd read articles on winter running and bought adequate outfit before.

4. If you can't wait for the world to change, then change it yourself.

It's about that it's never too late to get in running business, you just have to get in )

5. If you are waiting for a change to come, then go for it and meet it on the half way.

looks like Gandhi copied 4th rule )

6. When you realize that you reached ideal, all further improvement stops and you are moving backward.

Try to add more self criticism. If you feel lack of it.

7. and 8. are not related completely. Skip to 9

9. Find your aim and there will be resources.

Thats all about your running fears -- you gonna do what you have to and solve problems when meet them, not sit on the bench babbling. 

10. Completely unrelated stuff about forgiving and powerful ones, skip back to the first and repeat x times )

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

Starship daily #2: death to the false emperor

Starship daily #2, 9/21/12. “iPhone 5 and iOS 6: the biggest things to happen to the iPhone since the iPhone.” – Tim Coook

Hi there, fellow runner with gadgets and warhammer 40k fan and apple iphone related stuff interested in guy! Here you go with new comic strip, Starship daily #2, 9/21/12. iPhone 5 and iOS 6: the biggest things to happen to the iPhone since the iPhone! Have fun!

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 8

The design process: forgotten message

Websites... mmm.

Hi there, fellow designer. I have few words of terribly stupid, but awfully clean and clear wisdom for you. I've recently found out that I have a lot of thoughts on design. Much more then I have to say on every other topic, with exception for stupid science fiction, maybe. So let's prove blog's title proud spirit and settle down one design problem at last.

Drilling horizontal stabilizers: operating a hand drill, this woman worker at Vultee-Nashville is shown working on the horizontal stabilizer for a Vultee "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee. The "Vengeance" (A-31) was originally designed for the French. It was later adopted by the R.A.F. and still later by the U.S. Army Air Forces. It is a single-engine, low-wing plane, carrying a crew of two men and having six machine guns of varying calibers

Today's design agenda is all about setting user's attention on something important. While most of our undereducated clients call for more color, larger fonts and more font variants we are just smiling at them, ignoring their needs and fighting for our passions, cleaning up pixels and adding gloss to icons and buttons. It's a pity, but we are terribly wrong, both of us, I mean. Everybody pursues his or hers personal aims and we are finally reaching them forgetting about the site itself. When talking about site, I talk about final product, machine, which draws user attention to client's goods and services and converts this attention into beautiful flow of money.

The situation

Do we often get this machine after all? Not really, looking back at the bright colored Internet sites with no clear messages. They don't even get close to communication with client in most cases.
So let's find out what a client always want the designer to do with his site.

1. To make site similar to the one of his most successful competitor's site. But with some deviations. From time to time these deviations may be based on real differences between client's and his competitors businesses or on some sort of marketing myths. 
2. Add more cool clipart and stock photos. It will immediately improve site's look and feel, add some personality and of course fill in all this awfully empty space.
3. Add some browser specific, bandwidth consuming or flash related stuff to achieve some modern look in dull design. Like video on site's background. And music on background. And hello message in new window to greet dear guests. Let us never forget of entirely flash based websites. Clients still want them.

Let's now look at designers passions, which are common, by the way.

1. Site have to look great in portfolio.
2. Site should be created with as less time consumed as it can be. No matter the cost - clipart, vector stock, free icons. All measures are allowed.
3. Client should stick to designer's services. So designer produces design too complicated to be adequate to it's purposes. Some exotic banner formats, logotype, which can't be printed without complete reassembly.

And the missing solution

While reaching our goals in design process we always leave behind the site itself. It offers no communication through interactivity, but form elements are freaky and shine like a supernova. Just like they should look in portfolio ) Site offers nothing. The message is hidden behind all those things, invented by client and implemented by designer just to underline that message. Make it bold. And after all, if message is still there, it is absolutely unclear. Finally, we add some flash and about a half of our clients are left behind, they don't have plugin. At last this clone beast, we still call a site, is finished. And everybody clap their hands, like it's not a funeral )

Starship daily #1: interesting things

Starship daily #1, 9/19/12. Interesting things never happen to me, I happen to them!

Hi there, fellow runner with gadgets and design! Would you like a comic strip? Here you go.

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 8

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 8

So damn cold!!!

Awful weather for today! Here's the magic number 9