http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/25/924-gnaw/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1860

The most memorable gift I got from childhood was the Millennium Falcon. It was the only Star Wars space ship I ever got and it was the best. My parents definitely got a good $ to play time ratio out of that one. What is your most memorable gift?

Also, Biff’s of Xmas past!

Nog
Carp
Conditioned
Taste
Secret
Aftermath
Cling
Charoo

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/24/design-decade/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3353

Not everything that happened in the 2000s sucked. Los Angeles writer and design gadfly Alissa Walker looks back at a decade in which the design field redesigned itself, “transforming from an industry that created better objects to one that created better experiences.”

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/24/923-missing/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1858

I had 2 bicycles stolen when I was a kid. My parents were nice enough to purchase them for me, along with a bike lock. I always locked it up wherever I went and never had a problem. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a garage or any other place to lock up the bike at home so I would always leave it leaning up against the back of the house. It turns out, that’s not a very secure storage area. I’m still not sure why they didn’t come up with a new plan after the first incident.

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/23/bangadelphia/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3348

Philadelphia is a happening little city, the cradle of liberty, and the site of Happy Cog East. It’s also a city that gets unfairly overlooked—like a beauty whose sisters are supermodels. But I have a plan.

I want to rebrand Philadelphia as !adelphia.

I can see the logo. I can see half a dozen ad campaigns, some of them even good. I see a decent theme-line and sense that a much better one is out there. I see commercials and bus posters, I hear tourist board tie-ins and radio spots. I see Kottke, Joe Clarke, and Design Observer trashing the campaign on various intellectual and typographic grounds. I see contests where designers submit how they would have done the logo.

Maybe it’s the meds talking, but I think we’re on to something. Viva !adelphia!

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/23/922-clipped/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1856

I’ve acquired many baseball caps in my life but I don’t wear them. I think the most I have ever worn one was during a trip to Disney World when I was a kid. It was an adult size hat and made my head 4 or 5 inches taller. Anytime I see pictures from that vacation all I can think about is how ridiculous that hat looks.

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/22/manhattan/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3338

When I moved to this teeming borough of painters, drunks, junkies, queers, nudie photographers, novelists, girlfriend-supported guitarists, bikers, drummers, sax players, gang members, and ad folk, I little imagined that it would one day be considered a safe, boring island of stockbrokers, playing straight man to Brooklyn’s hipster.

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/22/921-cheek/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1854

Fortunately I have never lost my wallet. I’m guessing it would be a huge bummer. I have freaked myself out a few times by somehow putting my wallet in the wrong back pocket. It doesn’t seem wrong until I sit down and my butt comes to the slow realization that things are amiss.

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/21/real-fonts-and-rendering-the-new-elephant-in-the-room/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3319

My friend, the content strategist Kristina Halvorson, likes to call content “the elephant in the room” of web design. She means it’s the huge problem that no one on the web development team or client side is willing to acknowledge, face squarely, and plan for….

Without discounting the primacy of the content problem, we web design folk have now birthed ourselves a second lumbering mammoth, thanks to our interest in “real fonts on the web“ (the unfortunate name we’ve chosen for the recent practice of serving web-licensed fonts via CSS’s decade-old @font-face declaration—as if Georgia, Verdana, and Times were somehow unreal).…

Put simply, even fonts optimized for web use (which is a whole thing: ask a type designer) will not look good in every browser and OS.

Jeffrey Zeldman, Real Fonts and Rendering: The New Elephant in the Room
22 December, 2009
24 ways: The Advent Calendar for Web Developers

Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=3319

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/21/920-hollow/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1836

This comic makes me think of avocados. There are many fruits and vegetables that turn out to be something different than what I thought I was buying. I open them up when I get home and find nothing but disappointment or horror. Avocados seem to be the worst though. They are expensive enough that I only buy the exact number I need and when they turn out to be bad the whole meal is put on hold. I only use them for things where they are an essential ingredient.

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/19/font-geek-theres-an-app-for-that/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3309

If the geek on your list loves playing The Rather Difficult Font Game by Kari Pätilä, and if that geek owns an iPhone or iPod Touch, she will adore The Font Game app, created by Kari Pätilä (game designer, web stuff), John Boardley (ilovetypography founder), and Justin Stahl (iPhone development). With 657 font samples, three levels of difficulty, and the ability to post your results to Twitter, it’s the perfect way to test or show off your type chops, or just learn.

Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=3309

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/18/fab-font-favelet/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3303

This is a bookmarklet made for web designers who want to rapidly check how different fonts and font styles look on their screen without editing code and refreshing pages. 

Download the amazing and oh-so-practical Soma FontFriend bookmarklet.

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/18/wig-out/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3296

Seen on Graham Norton, Anderson Cooper 360, Harper’s Bazaar Japan, Business Week, CosmoGirl, and more, Julie Jackson’s Glamourpuss: The Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs makes the perfect holiday gift. Alas, it is temporarily out of stock. But for just 99 cents, you can download the Kittywigs iPhone app. It lets you put straight or curly wigs of every color and variety on your favorite cats, dogs, or other friends. Other fine Julie Jackson products include Subversive Cross Stitch.

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/18/919-layered/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1830

My favorite paper mache projects as a kid were always the ones involving balloons. We would layer strips of glue-soaked newspaper over the balloons and hang them up to dry. The next day was the magical moment when we got to pop the balloons leaving behind the empty newspaper shell. I think the balloon popping was my favorite part. The craft project that made use of that shell was just to fill time.

Also, I was recently interviewed on Tall Tale Radio. Check it out!

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/17/918/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1825

Maybe in the future instead of giving us healthier junk food at work and school they will just make it really annoying to get. Instead of the bag of chips falling dow the chute you’ll have to continuously turn a large wheel for 3 minutes to slowly lower it off the shelf. Kind of like how we rarely have ice cream here in the house. We have to want it enough to drive out to the ice cream shop and get an individual serving. Diet via laziness.

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/16/917-snip/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1822

It’s funny how some people think they are invulnerable and therefore everyone else should be the same. I overheard a conversation about flu shots where one person’s reaction was “Flu shots? Ha! Just stay in bed for a day and get over it. Why would you waste your time getting a flu shot?”

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/15/live-on-your-dial/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3272

Today only, join Ethan Marcotte and yours truly at 3:00 PM EST for a live Q&A on standards-based design and Designing With Web Standards. Hurry, this free event is limited to the first 250 registered participants.

Short URL: zeldman.com/?p=3272

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/12/15/take-it-and-like-it/

http://www.zeldman.com/?p=3262

Each year since 2007, we’ve asked you, the members of the web design community, a few dozen questions about your professional life, and compared your answers to those of your colleagues. The data you provide and we analyze is the only significant information about our profession as a profession to be published anywhere, by anyone. So please take the survey for people who make websites. The job you save could be your own.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/survey2009/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/15/916-creased/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1820

Other things that are frowned upon in art museums: cooking french fries, water balloon fights, spontaneous combustion, archery, monster truck rallys.

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2009/12/14/915-burn/

http://www.thebookofbiff.com/?p=1817

There are a bunch of automatic hand sanitizer dispensers throughout the buildings at work. The manufacturer clearly likes the idea of selling lots of refills for these machines because they shoot our about a quarter cup of goo at a time. Apparently they were calibrated on a different planet where everyone has eight hands.