A Fond Farewell to a Fallen Giant

Just when I’d won my wrestling match with the fact the Don Cornelius from Soul Train was gone, I find out about Whitney Houston’s death while I’m out having dinner with friends. It immediately became the topic of the table, peppered with memories, regrets, dreams and opinions. We even got caught up in a conversation with the maitre d and the waiters. The doorperson at the entrance voiced her opinion as well. The one common string in the conversation was the greatness of Whitney as a singer and a performer. There’s no denying we all had at least 3 favorite Whitney songs on our playlists, and we all agreed that Whitney’s performance at the 1988 Olympics song “One Moment in Time” and her Star Spangled Banner performance at Superbowl XXV was the best singing we’d ever heard.

It was tough to dismiss it as another tragedy. Even though her life played out on the home screen, and through various tabloids, I was always able to pull a sense of pride from listening to her songs. There’s no denying her greatness nor her contributions to the music industry. Despite the stories that may surface in the next few weeks, some good, some bad, I won’t allow those statements to cloud the joy I’ve experienced from listening to Whitney sing from the heart. Rest comfortably, Whitney. I will always love you. Peace.

See Sam Speak

If you’re attending Wordcamp Miami on Feb. 17th, you can come hear me talk about WordPress plugins. I’ll be going over some basics, as well take you through a demo of must-have essentials. See you there!

Wordcamp 2012 Graphics

Good news, everyone. I was recently given the opportunity to design the graphics for Wordcamp Miami 2012 and here’s the result. The site is up and all the promotional material will soon follow.

Here’s the design for the Twitter page:

What is Wordcamp?

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

Easter Egg

While you’re on the site, stare into the background and see if you can spot the secret Wordcamp Miami organizer logo!

The Original Gangsta

Are you tired of reading the same Lorem Ipsum text wherever, well, Lorem Ipsum shows up? (Let’s not get into why you’d be reading Lorem Ipsum in the first place.) Do you have to use Lorem Ipsum text on a regular basis, and have you always secretly wished there was some way to jazz it up a bit?

Enter Lorizzle. It’s a gangsta Lorem Ipsum generator. Yes, gangsta. And it’s easy to use, too: you just go to the site, click the giant button, and bam! — gangsta Lorem Ipsum fills the page and is ready to be used. Not satisfied? Hit the button again, and it will instantly deliver a different taste of gansta-styled gibberish.

So go. Laugh. Use. Enjoy. Click HERE. Fo Shizzle.

The Hairy Type

Is your Latin lacking a certain rugged handsomeness?

Well now, to mark Movember, you can fill in the gaps with some random hairy lipsum. After all, no project is a blank project when you’ve a luxurious moustache.

To mark the month of ‘Movember’, The Bare Hair Bunch have set up a Movember-themed Lorem Ipsum website. The Hairy Lipsum Generator generates random mustache-related text for charity donations. Users may choose between ‘paragraphs’ and ‘hairy tidbits’ for hairy lorem ipsum filler text.

Click HERE and type some fur on your lip (or artwork).

Sonny 3.3 Arrives!

The latest and greatest version of the WordPress software — 3.3, named “Sonny” in honor of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt — is immediately available for download or update inside your WordPress dashboard.

WordPress has had over 65 million downloads since version 3.0 was released, and in this third major iteration we’ve added significant polish around the new user experience, navigation, uploading, and imports. Check out this short video that summarizes the things we think you’ll find are the cat’s pajamas:

For Users

Experienced users will appreciate the new drag-and-drop uploader, hover menus for the navigation, the new toolbar, improved co-editing support, and the new Tumblr importer. We’ve also been thinking a ton about what the WordPress experience is like for people completely new to the software. Version 3.3 has significant improvements there with pointer tips for new features included in each update, a friendly welcome message for first-time users, and revamped help tabs throughout the interface. Finally we’ve improved the dashboard experience on the iPad and other tablets with better touch support.

For Developers

There is a ton of candy for developers as well. I’d recommend starting your exploration with the new editor API, new jQuery version, better ways to hook into the help screens, more performant post-slug-only permalinks, and of course the entire list of improvements on the Codex and in Trac.

Beatles in Pixels

Here are a cool set of graphics promoting the anniversary of the Abbey Road album (my personal favorite). These cool graphics are courtesy of Penney Design. Enjoy!

Abbey Road Anniversary Tribute

Sgt. Pepper in Pixels

Magicial Mystery Tour: I Am The Pixels

Job-Less

There’s to much that could be said, so much that’s already been said, and almost nothing left to be said. Never has the statement “Let the work I’ve done speak for me” been more appropriate. Thanks, Steve. Best ride ever.

Type Ladies

Fontland is not just a man’s, man’s, man’s world anymore.

Over the years, MyFonts has occasionally received mails from customers worrying about the relatively low number of female type designers represented on their pages. Needless to say, this was not on purpose but simply reflected the situation in the typographic world. However, things are changing fast. At design colleges around the world, female type design students now often outnumber the men. And at MyFonts, the list of productive “type ladies” is growing rapidly. This month’s selection of popular new fonts is a case in point. Successful typefaces from Germany, Denmark and the United States are proving that FontWorld is not just a man’s, man’s, man’s world anymore.

SEPTEMBER Rising Stars

Click HERE for more.

The Post Jobs Era Begins

Artist. Rebel. Taste maker. Trend setter.

The outspoken leader of the largest technology firm in the world stepped down this week and the masses are memorializing him as if he had died. It’s a testament to the effect that a visionary has on the world, one who has transcended the concept of great leadership in ways that will mark him in the history books forever.

I remember the first Macintosh commercial. Really. Not some crappy version from YouTube, but from the 1984 Superbowl. It was a blow-out. The Raiders beat the shit outta the Redskins. One of my favorite running backs at the time, Marcus Allen, won MVP. It was 21 to 3 at halftime, and Washington had no prospects of scoring. It was so brutal that I almost turned it off.

Then, during a 3rd quarter timeout, the network cut to commercial. And there it was. The most bizarre ad I’d ever seen. I had NO IDEA what they were talking about, but it was the hot topic at work on Monday. Within 13 months, I cleaned out my savings account, and bought my first Mac. The rest was, as they say, history.

At Column Five they’ve put together an amazing timeline of the man’s professional life, visualizing what it is to have led the technology world to where it is today. Thanks for the ride, Steve. You’re my new MVP of Superbowl XVIII.