• Open your favorite FTP program and navigate to where you host your Wordpress installation.
• Once you’re there, navigate to wp-admin/includes/blogger.php and edit that file.
• Look at line 918. It should say $parser = xml_parser_create_ns();
• Change that line of code to the following: $parser = xml_parser_create(); (You’re basically removing the _ns from there)
• Save your changes and try to import your entries again. Should work like a charm!

Here’s where I found the solution.

I’ve always loved the RSS Screensaver for OS X. But I wanted to have a version of it without any of the text, so I went in and made one and came up with a slightly different color scheme.

If you’d like it, you’re welcome to it. Below are both the link to download and some brief installation instructions.

Here’s how to install in a couple easy steps:

• Download and unzip the sphere.zip file
• Open Macintosh HD » Users » Your User Name » Library » Screen Savers
• Drop the unzipped file into that folder
• Open System Preferences » Desktop & Screensaver
• Look under “Other,” find and select “Sphere”
• Enjoy!

General disclaimers: I’m not responsible if this murders, maims or otherwise does something damaging to your computer (it won’t, I’ve been using it for a while!), and this screen saver requries OS 10.4 or greater to work. Sorry Windows and Linux folks.

An interview Spicy Web Designer did with me for their site went live over the weekend. In here, we discuss the latest fashions, give hair tips and talk about juicy gossip! Or, we might’ve just discussed a few geeky things and how I got to be where I am today. You’ll just have to see for yourself.

I keep wishing that I’ll find more games that are fun and meaningful that aren’t your typical run/shoot/level up/save the girl/die games. Don’t get me wrong, those are a great time. But after playing the same formula for years and years, it’s great to find something different.

That said, I found one after listening to a segment on indie game developers on NPR’s “Future Perfect.” The game’s called “Passage.” The entire game is maybe 2 minutes long, and is probably just as powerful a game as I’ve ever played. It’s a simple premise, you’re a guy walking through life. You can pick up a wife or go it alone. And you get to see the impact of the choices you make. Bonus: it’s free!

Fun illustration by Rosa Pomar.

I found an interesting article on Techmeme this weekend too, entitled “The Australian cancer that will kill the internet.” The article focuses on Australia’s attempt at censoring the internet for their users, the people’s endeavor to block it and why it matters for the rest of the world.

My two cents on the matter: despite all the bad things that are and will be on the internet, having a third party mandate what I can and cannot do or see is a terrible and slippery slope. I fully support the idea that the Internet should be uncensored and unfiltered by any government or company. If anyone wishes their internet to be censored, rather than enlisting their government why not look into something like Net Nanny or Cyber Patrol?

I’ve just joined up with Etsy to sell a few of my prints! I’ll be adding more as time passes, but right now I’m having a “Hi, I’m New Here!” sale and everything’s discounted.

Have a look around my Etsy shop and give the economy a little stimulation, would you?

I got the photo “Zombies” from Ruipalha’s photo stream, the quote from The Picture of Dorian Gray. The quote reads:

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.

Tuesday

Tuesday’s was a pretty fun one. The quote was from Joanna Field and reads:

I began to have an idea of my life, not as the slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know.

Here’s the original photo.

Wednesday

Wednesday’s photo took me to the beach and brought me to some fun medieval type. I had fun playing with the type. Here’s the quote:

When you meet your antagonist, do everything in a mild and agreeable manner. Let your courage be as keen, but at the same time as polished, as your sword.

Thursday

Thursday’s cover was a little interesting, The title of the article was “Inside Wants Out,” which happens to be the name of an early John Mayer song. Here’s the photo, as well as the quote from Ambrose Bierce:

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

Friday

I had lots of fun on this, and was really lucky to find this photo. It was pretty fun working with it, and the rest of the content was pretty much golden! Here’s the quote from Dante Gabriel Rossetti:

The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.

Let me know if you end up continuing this exercise, I’d love to see your results!

But in the meantime, I keep on the lookout for ways to grow in our current economy, and I’ve seen a few posts with good ideas on how to do it. I’ve read about keeping your current clients very happy, improving your game while you’re not doing client work and lots more. The ones that have hit me most are the ones though were ones about sharing and passing on work to other designers.

Airbag’s “Goldfish” article really sums it up:

To those who own their own business: I challenge you to push harder. If you need $50k to keep your family under house and home then do everything you can to bring in $150k. Chances are you won’t make the larger goal, but you’ll do far better than selling yourself short and it’s likely that you’ll need extra resources to finish all the work, help from people who are looking to supplement lost income. I’m not talking about going through the process and stress of actually hiring more people (there is a good reason why the IRS created the 1099 form). Don’t turn away any work that comes through your door. Get it. Grab it. Take it—as much as you can— and network with the people who are ready and willing and have the skills you need. Team up, and conquer.

Another good read is A List Apart’s “Filling Your Dance Card in Hard Economic Times.” Have a look at this excerpt:

If your agency or company is doing well, do your best to help unemployed colleagues get new jobs or freelance work. Make introductions within your network. Help job seekers with their curriculum vitaes (CVs) and above all, show a little love. (Just dropping someone a line to say “hi” can make all the difference.)

With that said, if you’re looking for work, please send a link (either in the comments or by email) to your portfolio. I’m going to try and pull in as much work as I can and I’d be happy to pass along work to other designers. And yes, I’ll still throw in a reward if you send someone my way.

If you’re a Photoshop or other kind of image making nerd, you may enjoy this.

1. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
   The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2. Go to http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
   The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go to http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
   Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use Photoshop (or something else!) to put it all together.
5. Post a link to it and share with your friends!

I love my moleskine. I also have a bit of a penchant for some nice Helvetica.

So to the genius who came up with putting the two together, I want to give you an internet hug. This thing is gorgeous.

Oh how I wish I could buy one. But sadly, I don’t think any more are for sale. But you can check out more photos and drool over this at Nubbytwiglet.

• an iTunes gift card
• an Amazon gift card
• a credit for design work with me

The amount you get on the card or the design will vary based on the project, so I can’t tell you how much you’ll get in advance. But I’ll make sure it’s worth it for you.

I think this is a lot more usable than a plethora of checkboxes or the multiple select menus in my opinion. I’ll definitely make sure I implement this in my next project.

I love information graphics, that’s no secret. After Obama was inaugurated, I found the full text of his speech and made a Wordle with it and put it into a desktop for you.

You can download the background here.

What’s Wordle? It’s a really sweet service that makes word clouds and gives prominence to the words that appear most often. With this, you can see the words that appear most in his speech and get a feel for the overall tone and message of it. Go have a look at their site!

Enjoy it and share it with your friends!

I came across this fun screencast video. It shows off Leopard’s features, but what’s about it is that it’s more like a nice take on a music video. There’s also a Windows version if you’re into that after the break.

Oh how heavenly. Someone’s collected all my favorite chicken dances from Arrested Development and put them to a nice tune.

I really love packaging, but it’s an area where so many companies go into excess and it becomes wasteful. That’s why I was especially happy to see Newton Running’s latest shoebox.  It’s exactly what a shoebox should be: simple, minimal and green. I hope to see—and help—more companies going towards this.

The talented people at TDA Advertising made this up for the Newton folks. Bravo for both!

I’ve added support for Cooliris on my site. It’s a fantastic way of browsing images, and I thought it would be perfect for browsing through my portfolio.

Cooliris is free and works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and iPhone!

So go get it!

I want a reason to visualize data like this. And then eat it. This pie chart is really made of chocolate!

Note to self: find client in chocolate industry. Right now.

Last week I was fortunate enough to get in on the fun that is Boxee.

Boxee is a free media center application that will dig through your computer (and any networked hard drives!), organize all your music, videos and photos. It even works with lots of photo sharing services like Flickr!

The real fun begins when you get to watch video—you can stream video from Hulu, CNN, Comedy Central, MySpaceTV and more! (And as of right now, there aren’t any commercials in the Hulu streams.) Mega bonus.

Anyone else a member? What do you think about it?

I ran across this fantastic collection of photographers today. Michael Ash Partners Photographers cover about every kind of photography you’d need in any kind of project—and all of them are aces.

I loved Markku and the Dennis Manarchy sets a ton. I think I could easily blow a couple hours browsing here.

Daytum is a great, geeky site that lets you create fun little charts. It’s currently in private beta, and I was happy to get in on the action. I’m still figuring out how useful it can be for me, so right now lots of my charts are just fun little bits of pop culture. I’m very much okay with that.

I think it’s great that you can enter sets of data and then chart them in different ways on the fly. Nice job, Daytum!

Have a look at my site and if you’re so inclined, visit Daytum’s homepage and apply for the beta!.

It’ll be great to share more fun things with everyone again.

My time in the Emerald City is drawing to a close. I feel like I should say something about my time here, but it feels kind of like I’m writing a breakup letter to Seattle. Except it’s one of those breakup letters I ask to be friends with the occasional visit benefit.

It’s been quite a ride, and I wouldn’t take anything for my time here. I’ve been honored to meet some of the best people on Earth in Seattle, worked on some exciting projects. The food and coffee here are some of the best I’ve ever had. And the music isn’t too shabby either.

Now it’s onto Los Angeles to see what Hollywoodland has to offer. I hope for lots more freelance work, sunshine and new friends!

And to The Emerald City, thanks for the fun. I’ll see you again sometime.

Undoubtedly a favorite book of mine. The Zombie Survival Guide is a great handbook on how to survive in the event of a zombie epidemic. Filled with excellent do’s and don’ts that are going to help you stay alive!

I’m also going to check out World War Z. Wonder what the Z stands for, mmm?

After much planning, thinking and a little swearing I’m thrilled to share my new portfolio site with you. It features design work, photography and some other goodies!

In the coming weeks, I’m going to be adding more work as well as other fun enhancements. I believe you’ll be pretty pleased with it all.

Have a look at the new site!

If you head over to Thunder Panda, you can print out and make your own paper zombies! How thoughtful of them. They’re super fun, but the I made one got out of control and had a run-in with Dwight. I think he’s starting to turn.

In other news, I apparently have made it a habit of posting zombie/horror-related things this week. Eh, let’s keep it up, shall we?

Commoncraft posted this funny video on zombie survival basics. They provide some great do’s and don’ts on encounters too.  Lookout!

Also, in case you weren’t for sure, I heart zombies.

Saw this beauty over the weekend. It’s an intriguing film about of two sets of half brothers on opposite sides of the socioeconomic fence. They all share a father, but he left one set of brothers in the dust to start a new family. The brothers all meet at his funeral and what follows is a slowly-paced, honest and sad story of revenge, family and spite.

I particularly loved a lot of the photography in the film, some of the shots of Arkansas in there were fantastic. Netflix has it, and I’d highly recommend watching.

One of the things I like the most about the OS X Dashboard is how it can help with your productivity. I wanted to share a three really handy widgets that can really help you get your designey things done quicker.

1) Lorem Ipsum

While I think you would do well to use actual copy wherever possible, sometimes it just isn’t an option. This widget can easily create a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph or custom length lorem ipsum phrase with just a couple of clicks. Super handy! (Download Link)

2) Measuring Block

I’ve also found this really fun widget called Measuring Block. It’s a scaling transparent grid that has pixel measurements in the lower right corner. It’s been invaluable to me when I’m trying to quickly measure an element for a comp. (Download Link)

3) Kuler

In addition to the other widgets, I’ve got a speedy way to find an inspiring color scheme. Kuler (pronounced cooler) is Adobe product for color scheming. It also has a really neat widget that automatically pulls the highest rated color schemes from the Kuler website (which is also fabulously designed). (Download link)

Do you have any widgets you use in your design process? Which ones? Sadly, I don’t know any for you Yahoo! widget folks, suggestions welcome!

If you’ve got a few minutes, why not crank up this interview? Jason Fried (of 37Signals fame) sits down to answer a few questions about working habits, the structure of his company and how not hiring a PR firm can be a good thing.

(via O’Reilly)

I’ve discovered this fabulous plugin called Cooliris, and have spent endless amounts of time toying with it. It’s a browser plugin that allows you to scroll through and view lots of images in a gorgeous, interactive 3D wall. Being an image and usability nerd, I’m really impressed with how it works and how simple it is to use.

You can launch a Google Image Search, browse Flickr, Facebook and lots of other websites. You can even enable your own site if you’d like. I personally was very happy to find that out, and am going to be including that in my upcoming relaunch.

Cooliris is free and works with Firefox, Safari and yes, Internet Explorer. They even have an iPhone application! So you literally have no excuse for not getting it and enjoying a new way of browsing the web.

Go have a look around their site.

Also in the coming weeks I’ll:

• be relaunching a portfolio stuffed with new work and goodies.
• moving to Los Angeles
• promise to blog more. Really!

If I can help out on a project, or you know someone who needs a good designer or photographer, send them my way won’t you? hello [at] joshuamauldin [dot] com

(You can also get this shirt at the Chop Shop)

I was greeted by a friendly email this morning from the good folks at YouWorkForThem saying they’d redesigned. They’ve really improved their UI and ease of use for the site. The image previews are a little larger, but it’s even easier and smarter to navigate within the inspiring samples they provide. Go take a look!

Totally hooked on this show. Just finished Season 1 and got blown away. Who would have thought I’d fall in love with a show whose main character is a serial killer. Way to go, Showtime.

And thank goodness Netflix lets you watch instantly!

After snagging Radiohead’s monumental “OK Computer” for $1.99*, I decided I’d pay a little more attention to our friends at Amazon who apparently know how to make a sale and have decent taste in music.

I scoured their site to see if they had an RSS feed for this page but I was unsuccessful in said search. That’s sad, but apparently the geeks over at Yahoo! Pipes put together an RSS feed for us all to enjoy.**

* These MP3s are 256kbps and NO DRM. I love Apple and iTunes, but this is way better.

** I’ve been using Pipes a lot lately to assist in some web app writing, I love it.

It really is true. Seriously.

(via xkcd)

A great, thoughtful poster that blends typefaces’ names with movie names. I only wish they listed all of them on the site AND that it wasn’t sold out! 2001: A Monospace Odyssey is brilliant.

I want one. Seriously.

(via Monster-Munch)

• Design
• Photography
• Heh
• Movies & Music

You can make 3d environments that you can explore with only a simple digital camera. I’m hoping to try this out soon! It looks really sweet. Nice one, Microsoft.

From the article “What if Modern Advertisers Created the Stop Sign.” It’s so funny to me, mostly because it’s true.  

Apparently, they do exist!  Go get yours from MiiSculptures (who also took this dapper photo)!

Now, if that reality distortion field he generates would get rid of the buzzing in my earbuds.

Zero questions asked.

(via Etsy)

Especially the one about graffiti.

I love how this works.  Telescopic Text ©:  It’s like a contextual “more” link so you can get more details where and when you want them.

Now, to apply this to every website and bleedingly long blog post AND have it work in reverse. That’s the trick, dear friends.

I’ve updated my Flickr to show some photos from my good friends Hans and Christyn’s wedding!  Highlights include me capturing a mob fight with the groomsmen (it was friendly!), earning the title of “photo ninja,” and generally sweating to death in such hot weather.  You can view the whole set on Flickr.

I’m glad some smart designer offered up a guide to solving this “problem.”  Current Configuration has kindly let everyone know how to properly hang a toilet paper and they have lots of neat (read: funny) graphics for supporting their case.  They even provide you with a printable brochure!  I love nerdy little information graphics, and this is a great addition to the collection.

So…are you an over or under hanger?

This one is of “Echoplex,” and features a seriously cool way of setting a drum beat.  Don’t want to spoil it for you.  More videos after the break.

Piggy

The Greater Good

Survivalism

Only

Head Like A Hole

That’s a sure fire way for me to…get a new keyboard.  

The movie was one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen.  And surprisingly slim when it came to cheesy dialogue, which seems to plague lots of otherwise good superhero movies (sorry, Iron Man).  The makeup and special effects were nothing short of incredible.  This is especially true with our villains.  And the truck chase scene you saw in the previews was far more amazing than I could have imagined—it was brilliant.

I’d like to make special note of Heath Ledger’s acting here as well.  Not because of his death just before the movie’s release, but because of how great it actually was.  He played very well what I thought to be a dark and crazy villain.  He nailed the mannerisms of The Joker down to the last little detail.  

They also seemed to handle multiple villains really well.  Considering Spiderman 3’s approach to multiple villains, The Dark Knight took the cake and drank Spiderman 3’s milkshake.  The villains were pretty well developed, and they didn’t really seem to compete for screen time or seem really flat.  My only criticisms were that a certain villain was in the movie for such a short period of time, I wondered why they were even there.  Perhaps to avoid where Spiderman 3 fell short.

I can’t wait to see this in IMAX!

I want this for my room, and maybe I’ll share it with future children!

Heading to North Carolina for a week, so updates will likely be non-existent.  See you soon!

I find that I’m posting in lots of places, and will also be making a concerted effort to consolidate all of that information here.  Give me a little time.

Either way, it’s heavenly.

While designers still should try and provide alternative content for non-Flash users, this is one big step in solving the Flash dilemma. 

This video is a a really fantastic—and a little humorous—look at how we’re shaped into thinking linearly and steered further away from creative thinking as we progress through school.  Do enjoy!

Is this the new iPhone?  If so, looks like we’ll get video conferencing after all!  Awesome!!!

Side note:  not stoked about the grey.  

(via TED)

Check it out!

Not sure what net neutrality is?  It basically means that cable companies will control what you see on the internet.  Sites with larger budgets—think MSN.Com or NBC.Com—will run faster because they pay ISPs more money, and the rest will be throttled or filtered out of the equation.  You can read about it on Wikipedia if you’d like.

All for unfiltered internets, raise your hands!  

I’m back from gorgeous California!  We had an amazing time, and I took lots and lots of photos.  This one’s from Big Sur, a freaking beautiful beach.  I hear it’s been in lots of movies, and I can really understand why.  It was breathtaking.

I also saw the new Indiana Jones movie.  It was pretty fun, with a few minor outlying little things.  I kept hearing that it dealt with Scientology, and can now see what everyone was saying about that.  It still was good, so I’d say go watch!

Saw the new Indiana Jones today, it was pretty fun!  Corny, but it was really an enjoyable time.

Unrelated:  you should check out Boeing’s 2008 Environment Report.  No reason. ;)

Hope everyone has a good Memorial Day weekend!  See you next week!

If you don’t know about OLPC, you should definitely find out more on them.  In a nutshell, they have a goal of making sure every child has a laptop so that they can learn and explore their world.  Here’s their site.  

I came across this video of John McCain and was surprised to see that someone actually documented him answering the same questions differently lots of times.  It’s really an interesting watch, whether you’re for or against McCain.

While I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that a candidate would pander to an audience, I was surprised—and disappointed—to actually see it in action. This makes me interested to see if there are any more of the other candidates.  Send them my way if you happen to come across one, won’t you?

So if you stop in and things look strange, don’t be too alarmed.  It’ll be back to normal in a couple of days.

Love,

Josh

I love a good t-shirt like no other. � I also love it when the things I buy help other people outside of the person who sold it. � These companies help various causes when you buy their pretty awesome and cheap shirts.

Rosa Loves has some great shirts whose designs benefit various causes. � When a donation goal is reached for that shirt’s particular cause, the design is retired. � I love their stuff!

Be+cause clothing does about the same thing, and they have lots more than just shirts! �

Check them out, buy a little, and do some good in the process!

After lots of news that last night’s episode of Scrubs would be its last—from both Zach Braff’s blog and NBC saying they were done—I caught a nice little glimpse of a shiny new graphic at the end of the show.  It was an ABC Studios graphic, which instantly made me think they weren’t done yet.

When the show was over, I checked out Zach’s site, and sure enough he had just recently posted that they were shooting another 18 episodes but couldn’t say where they’d air.  Well I’d hedge my bets on ABC.

I’m glad they’re not finished yet. It’ll be nice to get another high five from The Todd! 

Season 8 high five!

That being said, when you have clients approaching you for design work to refresh their site, you should never look at it as just a visual facelift.  Repackaging the same old thing time after time just works out to be, well, the same.  You need to make it your goal to make it better, otherwise your client’s site may not reach its full potential.

When you’re redesigning a site, you should look at it more as “refreshing” it.  Help the client redefine, clarify (or maybe even just define!) their goals.  Find out what’s working for them, and what isn’t.  If they’re unsure about that, get what you can and make it work. 

It’s a big help to talk with your client and discuss a design direction.  Getting in tune with their ideas at the outset is a big help in gaining an understanding of what they want, and will help build some trust between you. 

Get them to do some research on their own, look at competitors’ sites, and get an idea of what they want.  If a client comes to you with what you think is the tackiest, nastiest site you’ve seen and they say they like it, try to get really specific with them about what they like about the site.  Sometimes in these eyesores are great ideas, they may just be really poorly executed. 

I really recommend reviewing all the information on the site, too.  Sure everyone’s anxious to get to designing, but it’s worth it to take the time to do this.  Reorganizing and restructuring it can be a big help for both users and search engines.  Better information structure equates to a better experience for the users, higher search engine rankings, and more money in the client’s pockets.  Everybody wins!

Of course, this is just a drop in the mythical bucket of what is involved in refreshing a website, but it’s definitely something to you get you thinking about what else you can do better to help your client reach their goals.

After working through mountainous To-Do Lists which seem to keep coming in Basecamp—which is amazing for collaborating on projects online—it’s nice to see that the lists do end up ending! 

I feel like 37Signals should make something congratulatory that happens when you complete a list like a good old lolcat:

Here’s the one circulating:

Followed by the original:

How you can spot the fake:

• Look closely at his sleeve where the phone cord used to be, and you’ll see a slight bump where someone brushed out the phone cord.
• Look at the wall, you’ll find the clock it set to 3am, and in the original there actually isn’t a clock to begin with, nor do the lack of shadows around it make it look real at all.

Shame on you bad Photoshoppers! :)

Last week I wrapped up all the post production on the photographs for this movie, and have never been more pleased to show them. � Just FYI, it’s pronounced “sul-shay.” � Here’s are a few, you’ll be seeing more soon!

The rest are posted after the break!

I’m proud to announce that last week I inked a deal with a great agency here in Seattle, Methodologie. They’ve done some amazing branding/design/interactive work for Coca Cola, Boeing, Dale Chihuly, and tons tons more. Their work is inspiring, and they’re some of the smartest people I’ve met yet in design. I’ll be working with them until I leave to go to LA in August. While I won’t be able to say or show publicly what I’m doing for them (silly NDAs!), I can say it’s awesome and bigger than anything I’ve ever done before.

That doesn’t mean I will be unavailable for work, because who needs sleep! Get in touch and we’ll talk!

I’ve wrapped up the post on the movie photos, and will be linking those shortly. I was really proud of them, and can’t wait to share! The rough cut we saw looks amazing, and I can’t wait to shoot the feature in the coming months. We’re going to shoot it in Bulgaria!! Taking those gorgeous Red cameras over there will be sure to give us the most amazing picture ever. The Red cameras we’re using right now shoot at 4520×2540 pixels. They have to downsample it to 1080p HD. That sexy high resolution makes my head asplode!

More soon friends. Take care.

/Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/iLife Sound Effects/Work – Home/Cell Phone Ringing.aif.

For those of you not on a Mac, I’ve posted the file here for you to download: go get it! You’ll just need to look into how to convert it to a ringtone (basically you need to covert it to an m4r file, but it’s super simple.)

Enjoy!