Last week, Naz and I launched Shifticons, a service which helps people create custom icon web fonts.

In a nutshell, Shifticons makes it easy for you to add icons to your website, and is a dead simple tool for website designers.

First, you mix and match icons from a wide (and growing) range of libraries. Then, you can use the icons on your website simply by adding class names to an HTML element, in a manner very similar to Twitter Bootstrap. Unlike Bootstrap, however, the icons are not images, rather they are a font, so changing the size, color, text-shadow, etc. is as easy as changing the CSS attribute. And, unlike typography services, such as Typekit, there are no hosting plans. What you purchase is yours to keep.

Please give it a try. And, if you have any questions or feedback, please let us know on Twitter, @shifticons.

I often setup aliases, and other bash configurations, in my .bash_profile to make life easier. Though, sometimes I’m not so careful; I’ll set something up on one computer, but forget to do it on the other.

Sharing configurations across two computers is easy thanks to Dropbox. Here’s how:

1. Create a file in your Dropbox. I called mine .bash_profile_shared, and stored it in the root Dropbox folder, for consistency’s sake, but you can call whatever you like, and store it anywhere on Dropbox.
2. Edit your local .bash_profile file, and add this as the first line of your script: source ~/Dropbox/.bash_profile_shared, or whatever you named your shared Dropbox file.
3. Reload your Terminal, or source ~/.bash_profile

And, that’s it. Anytime you’d like to share a config, just add it the .bash_profile_shared file in Dropbox (and wait for it to sync).

Note: She really starts cookin’ around 1:20.

Enjoy.

…

I’m surprised that the new Twitter web client wasn’t developed with progressive enhancement in mind. Here’s what it looks like with JavaScript turned off:

Compared to the old site:

I wonder how assistive devices, such as screen readers, handle the new situation?

UnacceptableVersionError: django 1.1 was requested, but 1.2.1.final.0 is already in use


Me too. After mucking around a bit, I’ve figured out an acceptable workaround:

First, download Django 1.1.1 and place it somewhere on your hard drive (I put mine on Dropbox, so that I could use this fix across multiple computers).

Then, modify your main.py from this:

import os, sys,logging
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'settings'

from google.appengine.dist import use_library
use_library('django', '1.1')

To look like this:

import os, sys,logging
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'settings'

if os.environ.get('SERVER_SOFTWARE','').startswith('Devel'):
    sys.path.insert(0, "/your/local/path/to/Django-1.1.1/")

from google.appengine.dist import use_library
use_library('django', '1.1')

Essentially, you’re telling App Engine that, when it’s in the Development environment (running on your local computer), it should prepend Django 1.1.1 to the system path. Then, a few lines down, when the App Engine SDK looks for Django, it will see that version first.

Did you hear? If you hold the Apple TV wrong, Apple loses interest. #gen1owner #bitter

I received enough replies, with varied interpretations of my poorly worded joke, that I wanted to respond on my blog. Sometimes 140 characters is not enough. What I really should have said was this:

I’m a first generation Apple TV owner. I was very excited when I bought it, but after using it for a few months I realized that it was just a shiny rubber nipple that would let me feed off of Apple’s teat and nothing else. Now, it collects dust in my closet. In my opinion, Apple abandoned the product, and as a result I feel like it was the worst consumer purchase that I’ve made in recent history. Yes, I’m excited about the announcement of a smaller, cheaper Apple TV, but I’m too burned by my first experience to head down that road again. So, I write silly, bitter tweets instead…

I do like that Netflix is now an option — as someone who has no cable hookup, it’s where I find most of my entertainment — though there are a lot of other things to consider when buying a media center. Will you want to watch Hulu, Vimeo, Ustream.tv, DivX, etc.? I do. I ended up shelving my Apple TV and hooked up a Mac Mini which runs Boxee. It runs purty good.

All in all, if you don’t already own a device capable of running Netflix on your TV, then I think this is a great, inexpensive option. For everyone else, good luck. I’m skeptical of Apple’s rediscovered “hobby,” but I hope that your purchases are well-made and enjoyed. Just consider these the ramblings of a crotchety, old man…

Naz and have submitted a talk for SXSW 2011 Interactive called "Interaction Jones and the Template of Doom." In summary, we’re going to discuss design and development ideas by looking at Spielberg and Lucas films, both old and new.

If you’re planning to attend the conference, we’d very much appreciate if you’d cast your vote for us:

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/5730

Feel free to get in touch if you have any follow-up questions.

• Added ‘centeredX’ and ‘centeredY’ options.
• Removed ‘hideUntilReady’ option. It looks pretty bad if you don’t hide the image until it’s fully loaded.
• Fixed IE img onload bug.
• Now supports iPhone/iPad orientation changes.

Many thanks to Peter Baker for providing the code to center the images.

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