The Final Word on IE6

A friend of mine recently asked the question "Why the Hate on Internet Explorer 6?" He explains some very logical reasons why it doesn't make sense to be so negative about IE6, and as I agree with him on just about all points, I thought I'd give the clearest answer …

Regex Patterns for Single Line CSS

Update: You can now download the Textmate macro file rather than recording your own (skip to the download »).

There has been plenty of discussion about the pros and cons of single-line style sheets, and I've been including them as an option when teaching CSS management …

Simple CSS Hover Tab Thingy

Update: The original edit of this post and demo file didn't quite work in IE6/7 (ok, didn't work at all, really). That's what you get when you rush and/or don't care about certain browsers :) See the comments for my quick explanation of the fix (the demo now works in

I Need Some Spacing

Way back in June over on Subtraction, Khoi presented a tweaked version of the Gmail interface (and then a follow-up article regarding the feedback on the first), improving spacing and alignment by making a few small but significant changes overall:

"...by normalizing …

Some Thoughts on Logo Design

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of answering a few questions for an article being written by my friend Elliot Jay Stocks for .net Magazine (Practical Web Design here in the States). Elliot quoted me quite nicely in the article, but I thought it would be interesting …

Screencast: Finder Window Icon Trick

To celebrate Mac Day (any Steve Jobs keynote address deserves a worldwide holiday as far as I'm concerned), I've decided to do my first screencast, so you'll have something to play with while waiting for the MacWorld madness to begin (it also helps justify my purchase …

Sidebar Creative: Collective Realignment

Two years ago in Austin, Texas, at SXSW Interactive 2006, an idea was conceived by 4 friends, and nine months later Sidebar Creative was born. That was a little over a year ago, and now that our fledgling design collective has had a chance to stretch its limbs, open …

Pardon Our Dust

If you're visiting this site for the first time, and are seeing the default WordPress theme (aka Kubrick), please rest assured that a custom designed theme is hiding somewhere within the WordPress installation -- WordPress is just having a bit of a tantrum lately, and …

Email Doesn't Scale

I've been wanting to write about my problems with email for a while now, but keep coming up short when it comes to explaining exactly why it fails for me. That is, until reading Tantek's latest on the subject:

"I'm probably responding to less than 1 in 10 emails that …

Pink for October

As you may have noticed (if you're viewing this site in a standard browser), I've ditched orange in favor of pink, and things will stay that way for the rest of October. I'm doing this, along with many other sites, to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

For more …

Sidebar Creative Interviewed by Digital Web

Matthew Pennell of Digital Web Magazine recently sat down with the boys from Sidebar Creative for a group chat about our little design collective.

We talk about what goes on behind the scenes, our approach to creating web apps (including our first venture,

Interviewed by Designer Interviews

'Tis the season for being interviewed — this time I sat down (virtually) for some Q&A with Helen from Design Interviews, and now the fruits of our labor have been published for your enjoyment.

It covers topics not touched on in my last interview (and vice versa) so if …

Customize your iPhone: SummerBoard

Update: SummerBoard 2.1+ makes much of this tutorial inaccurate, but the theme instructions still work. I'll be writing an updated tutorial shortly to reflect the changes and additions.

Note: Before following this tutorial, make sure you have everything you need »

The …

Customize your iPhone

I've been enamored with my iPhone since standing in line for it back on June 29th. It's the only thing I've ever waited in line for (not even concert tickets or an Xbox360) and so far I've been thrilled with it — it's the single coolest item I've ever owned.

Of course, …

Customize your iPhone: DockSwap

Update: "DockSwap" is now known as "Customize". Also, for more theme-like options, you may want to use Summerboard instead »

Note: Before following this tutorial, make sure you have everything you need »

With the introduction of the iPod Touch, many iPhone owners …

Interviewed by Adii

It's always nice when someone shows interest in your background, and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Adii a few weeks ago, and the result is now online.

Superfluous Bantering with Dan Rubin is brief, but includes some good questions and hopefully good …

Those days are gone, again.

Whether "those days" are summer, your childhood, youth in general, or just a period of consecutive days which, taken as a whole, represent a positive snapshot of life, they seem to pass all too quickly. I'm not sure if I simply experienced a great summer (I've never …

Life is good...

I'm writing this from a somewhat-crappy hotel room in downtown Seattle, WA. It's 1am and I've recently returned from an evening spent with friends from here and abroad (ahem, Mr. Budd), and I have to say things are quite good. My life is about to head in at least one, …

Refresh Miami Tomorrow

Refresh Miami is upon us again! Last month's meeting was a week later than normally scheduled, so we've only had to wait 3 weeks for the next one :) Come on down (directions/maps linked from the Upcoming event page below) and get to know more of the folks who make up …

Introducing Sidebar Creative

Today, a new team is born. No, it's not a new company (per se), but a collective of developers and designers who all share the same goals, run their own consultancies, are active in the web standards community, and want bigger and better things for the web community.

We …