Retro Gaming on real backgrounds (via ffffound)

I’ve done Google Image searches numerous times for hand and arrow cursor icons (and I haven’t ever saved them permanently to my ‘design_resources’ folder years ago when I should have).

Sometimes it’s easier to just do certain things yourself. So I’ve rolled my own icons.

You can download them here:

cursors_arrow_and_hand.psd.zip (all 3 icons on separate layers, PS CS3)

It’s not rocket science to make these icons, but if I’m helping just one frustrated web designer out there, this post was worth it.

*a little trivia for ya, or maybe not – OS X has a black arrow cursor, and Windows has a white arrow cursor. The hand, or link rollover icon above, is an OS X version. My friend and I refer to it as the ‘Mickey Mouse glove’. UPDATE 31.08.2009 – due to the popularity of this post over the last year, I’ve created a new set of hand cursor icon alternates you can grab here.

My friend Bryan has updated his site with a lot of great new photos. I’m particular mesmerized by the set, Rostros, 2008.

photo credit: Bryan Larrick

He’s also got some good samples up on his Flickr stream.

Just read a good post by Seth Godin about traffic hitting your website.

This is a truth of the Internet: When traffic comes to your site without focused intent, it bounces.
75% of all unfocused visitors leave within three seconds.
Any site, anywhere, anytime. 75% bounce rate within three seconds.

His point is that it’s not important how many hits your site gets but how engaged your readers are. I agree. Quality over quantity. Got it.
Unless you are Digg, where these one-hit-wonder links are at the core of it’s business strategy. They could also have deep and engaging links in there too, but it doesn’t really matter to Digg. Digg feeds on links, links of all kinds.
Digg takes these fleeting links to the extreme by providing data visualization tools in Digg Labs.
Digg makes the unfocused its focus.
Yin needs Yang.
You get the idea.

I was out this weekend in Central Park and then I decided to go downtown, to one of the places I usually dread going – Broadway in SoHo.
What made Broadway tolerable for me was the fact that I had no destination. I was not there to buy anything, just to grab shots of all the consumers.
The complete set, NYC 4.19.2008

spotted in Newark:

Interviewer: Bob, tell us your impressions of Baby Steps.
Bob WIley: Mash potatos and gravy Marie. I couldn’t be happier about Baby Steps. I was a terrible disaster and now, because of Baby Steps, I’m on tv in front of millions of people. I’m very excited.
…But it did work that way. That’s the miracle of Baby steps. It’s not just this book, it’s this man. It’s the compassion, it’s the dignity, it’s the wisdom. It’s the Horse Sense of this guy that gets you. He actually had me stay here last night in his jammys.
from the movie What About Bob?

Apple knows very well the power of Baby Steps. They’re proving it with the continual improvements to the iPhone.
This week it was discovered that Contacts searching and Meeting invite functionality will be included in the next firmware update for enterprise iPhone users. They could have rushed this feature months before with all the bugs and issues that go with rushed software updates, but they’ve only been adding features when they’re ready and needed.
When the iPhone launched in June 2007, it had a core set of applications and functionality. If it had launched with any fewer features it would be incomplete (some people will argue this). As time has gone on, Apple has added functionality (and fixes) with each successive firmware update. They keep building and strengthening on a solid foundation.
This methodology is emtremely useful – from building houses to building websites. Too many times we try to launch products too quickly and at the same time cram as many features into our products as we can.
This doesn’t imply that you should launch a product and intentionally leave out functionality. It means that you should launch a complete product with a roadmap to the future. There’s simply no way to predict everything your product should do or that consumers will want from it – not even Apple can predict everything. There will always be changes made along the way.
Working this way gives you time to get things right and also has the added benefit of giving your customers something to look forward to.
Baby Steps, people.
Baby Steps.

I’m back from Honduras. What a great country.




Check out the full set of images on Flickr.

Palm chief: no new Treos until summer – Bummer, I was looking forward to some fresh 8-bit graphic ‘smart’ phones.
…pysche!

I shoot photography because I love it. I think if I wasn’t an art director, my second career choice would be photographer.
Like any activity, photography takes practice. Many of my shots are not winners. That’s not to say that I snap away recklessly and hope for the best, but there’s definitely a level of experimentation I engage in.
A good part about this experimentation is due to the fact that for a while now, I shoot a lot of photos with my camera hanging around neck at around stomach-level. This lets me grab shots of people relaxed.
Many people are much more on guard when you’re aiming at them. Much like aiming a weapon, aiming a camera at someone without permission is threatening. With the camera at ease, I don’t have to worry about this. I get the shots I want. Well, I try my best to get the shots I think I’m getting from my waist.
Shooting like this sometimes results in some unexpected money shots, but many times they end up less-than-ideal. Underexposed, overexposed, out of focus.
Every now and then though, when the rare elements of photography are in alignment, I capture some great little moments. It makes all those duds worth it.

In the Ray, from the set 3.15.2008

VaryWell

Bryan has posted some fresh photos, go check em out.
*note: each thumbnail on the homepage represents an entire collection of images.