blog.nonlinear.cc

Model Photo

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:29:11 +0000

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Model Photo by Betatester. Watch Animation
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I def need better pencils.. I miss 6B.

Blue Girl

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:49:04 +0000

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Blue Girl by Betatester. Watch Animation

WTF Nun

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:47:22 +0000

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WTF Nun by Betatester. Watch Animation
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I cheated on this one, like colors and some patterns straight from the original. it’s ok, it’s called training.

Gamer

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:27:20 +0000

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Gamer by Betatester. Watch Animation

Met Bear

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 01:56:25 +0000

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Met Bear by Betatester. Watch Animation

YouTube Leanback

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:11:15 +0000

Youtube created the leanback experience, allowing you to watch your videos back-to-back, couch potato style.
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Sadly, google experience is rough on the edges, so I’m listing some suggestions to make it truly rewarding.
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If a video is watched or skipped, remove it from my playlist. (no need to be haunted by videos I don’t care about)
It’s flash. Fullscreen, NOW!
when I return to page, resume latest video on exact same point I left.
video playlist should be reverse-chronological. Like blogs. Except for the resumed video (see above)
context is important: It’s nice I can watch videos my Facebook friends post on their wall, but it comes with a message. And a person. Can I see it
Being it social, can I reply? Comment? Like? Retweet?

Club Kiddo

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 03:49:52 +0000

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Club Kiddo by Betatester. Watch Animation

Wary Kiddo

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:30:28 +0000

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Wary Kiddo by Betatester. Watch Animation

Nerdy Kiddo

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:04:47 +0000

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Nerdy Kiddo by Betatester. Watch Animation

Sporty Kiddo

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:18:47 +0000

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Sporty Kiddo by Betatester. Watch Animation

more geeky me at the cafe

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:56:26 +0000

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more geeky me at the cafe by Betatester.
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Space Age Kung Fu guy illo

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:01:29 +0000

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Space Age Kung Fu guy illo by Betatester.
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Mom’s wedding, some pics

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:35:19 +0000

these are some of the pics i took on my phone. You notice we don’t have anything of the ceremony: my sister took those, and i’ll have it soon enough.
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Nerdy guy illo

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:41:04 +0000

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Nerdy guy illo by Betatester. Watch Animation

Ska guy illo

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:51:13 +0000

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Ska guy illo by Betatester. Watch Animation

iPod guy illo

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:50:45 +0000

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iPod guy illo by Betatester. Watch Animation

Sunny me

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:04:23 +0000

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Sunny me by Betatester.
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Sunny me by Betatester.
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Sunny me by Betatester.
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Self Portrait

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:13:18 +0000

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Self Portrait by Betatester. Watch Animation
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I started an illustrator group, kinda running buddies, but for illos. each week a new assignment. The first one was "self-portrait"

at work, photobooth

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:52:05 +0000

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at work, photobooth by Betatester.
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Cat Talk

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:36:48 +0000

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Cat Talk by Betatester. Watch Animation

Soft as Snow but Warm Inside

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 01 May 2010 22:12:31 +0000

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Soft as Snow but Warm Inside by Betatester. Watch Animation

Slimey illo

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:51:31 +0000

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Slimey illo by Betatester. Watch Animation

Data Li illo

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:55:15 +0000

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Data Li illo by Betatester.
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I forgot to save it and although brushes got it back, I lost the history, so no animation on this one.

Banana Peel illo

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 03:15:05 +0000

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Watch Animation

Wary guy illo

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:28:15 +0000

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Watch Animation

Ramón Illo

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:20:23 +0000

iPad + LiveSketch + Brushes = bliss!
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I’m still waiting for an iPad edition of Manga Studio EX. with a built-in marketplace.
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Watch Animation

Dentist illo

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:18:04 +0000

Using brushes app. Not as good to illustration (it’s a scan) but perfect for color.
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made with brushes viewer. Watch Animation

Inspiration Pics 01

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Some of random pics from my inspiration folder collection…
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The entire inspiration folder can be seen here, and the song is 8.1 by Rekorder (itunes).
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Lazy Eight for 2010!

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:26:50 +0000

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Lazy Eight for 2010! by Betatester.
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Thanks, Rudy Rucker!

Brooklyn Comics Festival

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:33:59 +0000

Big questions 11 & 12

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Big questions 11 & 12 by Betatester.
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From Brooklyn comics festival.

Mostly silent, birds trying to mourn their dead. And giant swans. And
and an air pilot. And a monk.

But the birds are the main characters.
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drawnandquarterly.com
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Whiskey jack & kid coyote meet the king of stink

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Whiskey jack & kid coyote meet the king of stink by Betatester.
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“You see, we possess shapeshifting superpowers!”
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partykausa.com
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Red hiding hood redux

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Red hiding hood redux by Betatester.
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5 books, silent, with the point of view of red riding hood, the wolf,
the grand mother, the mother, the hunter.
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she even signed for me. Wolves!
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She even signed for me. Wolves! by Betatester.
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Nora-Krug.com

this one will be SO COOL to color

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:23:56 +0000

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this one will be SO COOL to color by Betatester.
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I spent all week designing this character…

then I meet a guy eerly similar to him. kinda creepy.

now I wanna know the guy better.

dressed up illo

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:12:43 +0000

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dressed up by Betatester.
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yummy tones palette

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:54:40 +0000

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manga studio EX yummy tones palette.

warning illo

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:01:14 +0000

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warning illo by Betatester.
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I feel terrible right now. everything I do looks phony or pretentious.
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that’s the act of creation, heh? bipolar for art, that’s me.

change of heart illo

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:18:40 +0000

Comic for October 25, 2009

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:46:22 +0000

Improving ixEdit

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:10:15 +0000

ixedit is an in-browser interaction editor that provides a succint code at the end, making it a better alternative than the jquery plugin forest out there. check below for a must-watch video tutorial.
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I’ve been using ixedit on my projects, and it’s a godsend. Since much of internet community is still on the discovery mode, I’m moving the discussion ahead by proposing some improvements.

simplify reediting

Currently it’s only possible to edit a already-deployed HTML page if user saves the code previously by exporting it. That’s misleading.
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Ixedit has to either:

accept deployed code on import (best: you can start from someone’s else code & improve it) or
automatically export code in-browser by history when visiting page on browser, with ixedit mode on.

plugin-friendly

Jquery plugins nowadays allow plenty of cool interactions, but add clutter to the final project with all unused options.
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Ixedit creates a more succint & integrated code, but even with all prepackaged features it has nowadays - modals, tabs, accordions, datepicker - it will always be behind plugins if edit is top-down.
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The solution is to create a path-to-ixedit plugin conversion, allowing plugin developers to easily adapt their code to ixedit.
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Since there’s no standard for jquery plugins - some are zip files, some are just tutorials, folder structure is dissimilar - maybe ixedit can become a normalizer. And since deployed code only publishes code that’s actually used, that’s more stability and less bugs.
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Examples of functionality ixedit currently lacks: tooltips, multiselect, menus with subselections, form validation, scrolling functions…

snippets

Along with migrating existing plugins to ixedit, ixedit users should be able to store their interactions for later use.
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The simplest way is a page that shows all ixedit code edited on this browser, all stored locally. It lacks sharing but it solves the automatic export issue and is fairly secure - history is browser-dependent.
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A more mature way is a snippet community under ixedit site, along with permissions, rating system, taxonomy & demo pages. It follows the normalizing policy that jquery community so badly needs.
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sis, me, mom @ a garden

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:30:32 +0000

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sis, me, mom @ the garden by Betatester.
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from my mom flickr account:

My bear bank

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:58:47 +0000

How much can my bear bank hold?

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How much can my bear bank hold? by Betatester.
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Almost $300!

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Almost $300! by Betatester.
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update: pleasure and pain blog comments on TD bank penny arcade machine

Family pics

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:37:55 +0000

my older brother is living in rio, so decided to finally digitize our family photographs. we have a box full of it.
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the entire set is here.

random poses

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:29:22 +0000

drawn using posemaniac’s random pose iphone app
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random poses by Betatester.
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song is stereolab’s ping pong.

toughen up

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:28:07 +0000

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the song is New York New York (Radio Slave’s Not Long Now Remix) by Moby. you can download it here
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copyright is dead, long live trackright

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:03:31 +0000

Copyright, as the name implies, grants content owner the right of copy.
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In the digital realm, to move a file is to copy it somewhere else and then delete the original. in our digital era every movement is a copy, and it’s insane (and anti-democratic) to expect permission for each and every movement you make.
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In other words: We can either have a totalitarian society watching our every movement, or the death of copyrights. Which one do you prefer?
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Yeah, I thought so.
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Then again, it’s unfair for others to profit from content of creators without some payment. Right now Google is redesigning its google reader with social features to compete with Twitter and Facebook.
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Or: A giant company is using content it doesn’t own to better position itself in the market. And not paying a dime for content creators. Talk about Free.
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Is that it?

the right of tracks

metadata - the information about the information - is powerful. So far, google keeps it to itself, simply because nobody asked.
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assume the peanut association commissions me to draw… well… peanuts. imagine if I can publish it on my own network systems (twitter, blog, facebook) and later give them the complete track history to determine the success of the campaign, and be paid accordingly. Now that’s a revenue model.
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too bad under existing rules, I - the content creator -have no say on my own creation tracks. heck, I’m not even allowed to see it if I don’t own the database. And oh boy, these social networks have a field day with that data.
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Can we just forget all this cry over copyright and move to a trackright system? Like, you’re free to publish my work anywhere, but you are required by law to share the tracks with me. reputation is the new currency anyways and I need all the bragging rights I can get.
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That sound reasonable.

critica

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:44:25 +0000

sorry, in good old brazilian portuguese, this one about a mimimi post of a guy that was damn rude to me on twitter.
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neguinho fica velho, e compara a situacao mundial com a situação da sua aging spine. velhos fazem isso. até os grandes pensadores franceses, fazer o que.
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as regras não mudaram: 90% de tudo é lixo, mas como tempo é limitado mesmo, você o gasta com o que merece sua atenção e o que faz seu coração bater.
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mas se prefereir gastar sua atenção observando o desfile de infâmias pra se sentir superior - revista contigo, judge judy - o problema é seu se comecar a tossir desamor pela humanidade.
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sai da frente velhinho, galera quer passar.

Personal transformations in the Internet age

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:06:27 +0000

boing boing talks about what happens with second chances when computers don’t forget.
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I’ve been thinking bout it for quite some time: if computers dont forget, how can society move on?
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I imagine some cultures will become a class society, a faux democracy with some selected few picked in the infancy with a spin machine all over their lives, to make them shiny, hence electable. since this lifetime spin doctoring is damn expensive, it would be a society in thrall of interest groups. puritan societies tend to that: they have high standards of how people should live, and won’t give it up that easy.
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other will be more forgiving, humane, letting it go of our previous image of ourselves. then again, it can become corrupt with double standards. some people are free to do something, some are not. it’s all about PR wars for the public perception. latin america works this way.
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we can also point to radical transparency, a sort of digital eye contact: you’re free to look at any info, but the records (of who, what, when) are also public. if you see me, i see you seeing me. we humans are good at that. it will be a society of bots, daemons amassing data about spectators of ourselves, giving us reports and asking for “what to do next”. for that to happen, we need to legislate our way in: it’s a complicated world, but at least it levels the playing field.
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or, we can legislate each person possess its own digital shadow - say, we have an untransferable copyright over our digital traces - and any system that keeps personal info is in fact dealing with radioactive material. pirate party to restore privacy, heh?

are you for real?

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:36:49 +0000

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the song is nathan fake, the sky was pink. you can download it here.
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are you for real? (complete image) by Betatester.

don’t mind me, plz.

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:27:00 +0000

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don’t mind me, plz. by Betatester.
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nerdish. #drawing by Betatester.

Converting Animes for iTunes (using mac)

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:04:18 +0000

install isquint
install metax
open isquint, drag all the movies to the list
choose optimize for tv
choose H.264 encoding
hit run (or play, or whatever). go take a walk, it takes a while.
one it’s all converted, delete all original files, keeping only the .mp4 ones
open metax, drag all the movies to the list
select all in the list
on info, add the cover (find it on the web if anything)
on video, choose video kind tv show
below, on show, type the anime name
click write and share
then you can share the resulting files.

uniqlo calendar

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:38:26 +0000

2 illustrations and one photo

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:16:49 +0000

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Mother’s day @ water taxi by Betatester.
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Hottie latino by Betatester.
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This one I’m so gonna color by Betatester.

Ativiti, closed beta

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:51:56 +0000

Ativiti is the startup I’ve been working on for like a year with some friends. It will finally go closed beta in like 2 weeks.
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Since I had to keep my mouth shut for a while and I’m so proud of this project, I’m coming back with a vengeance:
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Ativiti is our take on social task management… Dead-simple, friendly. you can manage your tasks as usual, plus:

each task has tabs, with optional features like:
- Team tab assigns it to other people *
- Notes tab allows detailed information
- Files tab allows uploads *
- Talk tab allows discussions *
each ativiti project can be published as a Guide: it goes to a public space where other users can save as new projects
and vice versa: you can browse ativiti Guides so you don’t have to start a project from scratch
users can paste Guide embeds on blogs, sites. think youtube, but for lists. *
authors can track Guide usage: how many subscribed, how long did it take to complete, which tasks took longer to finish… *

* = not functional for closed beta
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Here are some public links so you can have an idea:

Ain’t my baby beautiful? (say yes!). I’m organizing my invitation list… If by any means you want to join please email me, you’re more than welcome.

Best bookmarklets roundup

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:22:15 +0000

bookmarklets are smart links: instead of pointing to pages, it runs simple scripts. Used wisely, it’s a huge timesaver.
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to use it, simply drag the titles to your bookmarks bar.

EMAIL

Composes an email with the info of the page you’re currently browsing: subject is the page title, body is page title + link. A godsend.
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It breaks if the title uses ampersand.

TWITTER

Same as above, but as a popup to your twitter post page. Link is minified automatically. You gotta be logged in tho.

MOODBOARD

Opens a query popup, you type your term and it builds a spezify moodboard for you. Good for quick inspiration needs or if you wanna check art/fashion/design terms.

LATER

Saves the page to instapaper. If you want, you can even install the iphone app to read on your commute: no interruptions. You need to setup an account tho.

READABILITY

Cleans cluttered article pages: just the content, please.

SELECTOR

That’s for webdesigners: It allows you to click on page elements and give you info about it (classes, etc). Good for reverse engineering.
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PS: Safari has a nifty keyboard shortcut: command/control + 1 opens the first link, command/control + 2 opens the second, etc. If you keep same order it makes life even easier.
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Firefox works differently: you can setup keywords under link properties (option/right-click), and if you type it on the address bar and hit enter, it opens the link.

3D transportation series

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:30:55 +0000

some 3dme tests… It’s still not stereo, but I’m learning.

my workspace

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:04:12 +0000

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my tentative 3D picture, using 3D me app

Podcasts I watch or listen to

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:29:58 +0000

You can either click on each link to subscribe, visit the site or download the complete OPML file and drag it to iTunes to subscribe to all. you can delete later the ones you don’t care about.
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Enjoy!

Music

Talks

News

Entertainment

Compare to my previous list.

Winter happy (I have a scanner now, no excuses)

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:46:36 +0000

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Winter happy (I have a scanner now, no excuses) by Betatester.
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Time to move beyond 960?

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:04:30 +0000

Stopdesign asks if it’s time to move beyond 960. Hardware suppliers assumed market would want higher resolutions, but in reality final users don’t go beyond 1080×960 px like power users - developers, video producers - do.
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I wrote this answer originally on my google shared items, but I’m reposting here since I need more input.
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My theory is that final users didn’t migrate to higher resolutions simply because it makes typefaces smaller by default. had we grew the screens, while preserving typeface size’s ratio, people would go for it.
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Then again, we depends on corporate defaults, and those depend on programmers that - unlike final users - love smaller fonts to glance at more code.
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If that’s the case, it’s a huge blind spot.

pogoplug: hard drive, meet the cloud.

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:22:59 +0000

I’ve been using dropbox to share files with friends. it’s free version has a 2GB cap. Since I’m a mobileme subscriber, and I had 10GB to use, I tried to use it instead. Sadly I can’t share that space with groups.
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I refuse to pay another fee for cloud space, so I bought a pogoplug, a gadget that puts your USB external harddrives (or a USB hub of it) on the cloud - totally accessible via web.
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Like the reviews said, the thing is really easy to install. I had issues with the journaled format, but I expected that. Formatting aside, I got my entire external HD with all my files available on the web, and even assigned some shared folders for friends.
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As usual, I sent an email to the company with suggestions:
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Subject: happy customer here…

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Three ideas:

RSS feed is cool, but it could be RSS 2.0, with enclosures: this way any video or music file automatically becomes a podcast link. it can’t be that hard, and frankly that’s the feature I want the most.

Shared groups are really nice, is it possible to have a link where I can email everyone, right away? I’m not asking for a full-on mailing list, just a better way to communicate with members (maybe even a @pogoplug.com email that redirects to members automatically).

Is it possible to link to folders or files? For instance, if I upload a .ai for a coworker, how can I notify the person (with proper permissions, etc) accordingly? is it something on your mind?

keep up the good work, i’m a one day customer and I’m pretty happy already - I just cancelled my mobileme, in fact.

Easter Party

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:59:06 +0000

Tech Toolbox, 3

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:17:48 +0000

twenty-one jquery & CSS effects I like. Enjoy.

View all Tech Toolbox posts.

another Major Acts party, heh!

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:34:11 +0000

from MajorActs.com people. Click here for the facebook invitation.
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The Renaissance legacy

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:52:33 +0000

The Renaissance legacy:
The Vanishing Point = Self-Effacement,
The Detached Observer.
No Involvement!
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The viewer of Renaissance art is systematically placed outside the frame of experience. A piazza for everything and everything in its piazza. The instantaneous world of electric informational media involves all of us, all at once. No detachment or frame is possible.

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The Medium is the Massage: Marshall McLuhan / Quentin Fiore, adding a quote to help opiumseed on his message

from my sketchbook, 3

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:44:56 +0000

I promised myself to fill this notebook with drawings in a month. I’m way behind my goal, but ah.
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testing new issuu embed

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:25:14 +0000

major acts @ APT, this thursday

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:10:39 +0000

from MajorActs.com people. Click here for the facebook invitation.
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I can’t wait to listen to more electro, my DJ friends are getting too house-y and I want anger. Adam to the rescue, heh?
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I wish I had a higher resolution picture

Tech ToolBox, 2

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:35:56 +0000

Following Tech ToolBox: more jquery & CSS effects I like.
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thanks @elijahmanor & ajaxrain for most of the tips.

from my sketchbook, 2

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:14:27 +0000

spring cleaning

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:35:09 +0000

purging.
consolidating.
getting rid of legacy code.
claiming space.
pressin’ on.
optimizing.

from my sketchbook

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:32:00 +0000

I’m in a drawing frenzy lately, and the initial idea was to share each moment on twitter, but somehow twitpic is coughing and I was keeping it all to myself.
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so I reuploaded it to flickr, and posted it here instead.
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crowdsourced typo detection

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:19:25 +0000

I’m wondering of a cool crowdsourcing proofreading solution. Thing is, I detect typos fast, but usually I can’t warn the blog author of it.

domains grant permissions to certain users (users may apply)
selected users add the plugin & flag whatever typo
domain owner can check flagged items in a dashboard

prob a wordpress plugin on the admin side, and firefox addon on the user side.
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just wondering.

new hairdo. 34yo in 4 days.

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:28:37 +0000

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new hairdo. 34yo in 5 days. by Betatester.
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rowmote idea

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:16:34 +0000

rowmote is a $0.99 iphone app that emulates apple remote. that’s it. no screen feedback, just data input. I sent an email with ideas for the developer.
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even loosing the tactile feedback of the actual remote (I have to look at the iphone screen), at least I can use it anywhere at home.
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i have some suggestions, tho:
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is it possible to actually save commands? like, menu-down-down-play-down-play-down-play-play? that is my “shuffle all my songs”, BTW. why should I bother to type it in every single time?
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is it possible to attach also to when I enter network or whatever push-notification system related thingy? this way my iphone can notify my computer to play songs automatically when I get back home. sweet!
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and third, because there’s no tactile feedback, what about swipes instead?

left/right swipes as previous/next
up/down as volume
one tap as play
double-tap as menu

this way we don’t even need the visual representation… you can slap anything there, even ads. or news. or whatever, really.

a new materialism

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:50:06 +0000

turns out this materialistic age wasn’t about things at all, but obsession with symbols : if the thing doesn’t match the idea, we toss it out, eager for another.
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the idea of how things should be, of course, is carefully orchestrated by a media cabal of body hatred.
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the new materialism: taking care of your own things. take your body with you.

Testing QuadCamera

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:31:40 +0000

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Testing QuadCamera by Betatester.
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Podcasts I subscribe to

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:57:34 +0000

I’m moving my podcast subscriptions from my macbook air to my modbook, so below I listed all podcast I listen/watch. Some guidelines/clarifications:

It’s all free (it should go without saying, but some people don’t get it yet, so again: All podcasts are free)
If not noted, it’s an iTunes link
If there’s no iTunes link it’s a direct subscription link
If there’s an HD version, I choose this one (hence, no iPhone sync)
YouTube videos are converted using YTPodcaster
I do have time coz I watch no TV. I have no TV.

Audio

Video

Anderson Cooper 360° Daily
Apple Keynotes
Apple Quick Tour of Leopard Server
Channel Frederator - Cartoons!
Cool Hunting Video
The Digg Reel
enxame.tv direct subscription
EPIC FU
fred | YTPodcaster direct subscription
ill doctrine
Just the Facts
Most Viewed | YTPodcaster direct subscription
Most Viewed - Brazil | YTPodcaster direct subscription
MSNBC Countdown
MSNBC Rachel Maddow
mwesch | YTPodcaster direct subscription
Nite Fite
Onion News Network
sxephil | YTPodcaster direct subscription
TEDTalks
TPMtv
Track-shun Anime Review
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Business Card 2.0

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:06:25 +0000

Tech ToolBox

Nicholas Frota — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:52:37 +0000

I tuck all cool effects I find under a TOOLS bookmark folder… Below is my updated collection. It’s heavily slanted towards jquery effects, but you can find CSS tricks & other graphic design tools.

Word HTML cleaner - A tool to strip Microsoft’s proprietary tags and other superfluous noise from Word-generated HTML documents, leaving all the basic goodness intact.
Body Border - cool CSS trick
jQuery ToolTip
ecommr - a collection of e-commerce interface and design elements
Spoonflower - custom fabrics
Superfish - an enhanced menu jQuery plugin that takes an existing pure CSS drop-down menu and adds much-sought-after enhancements
Favikon - creating favicons has never been easier
SocialHistory.js - enables you to detect which social bookmarking sites your visitors use
jQuery magicpreview plug-in - automatically updates selected elements on a page based on form fields. Perfect for previewing forms.
jQuery pageSlide - sliding (or “throwing”) content aside to reveal a secondary content pane
Color Fading Menu with jQuery - fading is the new rollover
Animate a hover with jQuery - Animate an image while hovering it and show the visitors information while doing that
Ctunnel is here to protect your anonymity online! Browse the web through our server to get past pesky url or ip based filters!
VectorMagic - Convert bitmap images to vector images with a few simple clicks
Blueprint Grid CSS Generator - generate more flexible versions of Blueprint’s grid.css and compressed.css and grid.png files
HTML/XHTML Character Entities
Convert TrueType Font to Sifr Flash File - Upload your font and they’ll send the sifr file to you
.htaccess Password Generator - generate all the necessary codes needed to password protect a directory or selects files within it on your site via .htaccess
Select Multiple Form Fields - Finding a better solution for multiple selection
jQuery iPod-style Drilldown Menu - an iPod-style drilldown menu to help users traverse hierarchical data quickly and with control
Load Content While Scrolling With jQuery
Galleriffic - A jQuery plugin for rendering fast-performing photo galleries
CrossSlide - a jQuery plugin that implements in Javascript some common slide-show animations, traditionally only available to the web developer via Adobe Flash™ or other proprietary plugins
Using jQuery for Background Image Animations
Sliding JavaScript Dropdown Menu - easily add smooth transitioning dropdowns to your website
Versionista - monitors any Website and alerts you when it changes, visually showing you the exact words and senteces that have been added or removed
A brand new PNG fix for IE6
prettyCheckboxes - a solution for people who wants to have a consistent look for checkboxes across browser or those who simply want them to look better
Packaging Templates
PatternTap - Interface collection for design inspiration
jParallax - turns a selected element into a ‘window’ that moves in response to the mouse
NEW dynamic basic CSS TEMPLATES
ie7-js - a JavaScript library to make Microsoft Internet Explorer behave like a standards-compliant browser
4 Uber Cool Css Techniques For Links
text2mindmap - convert your text to mindmaps
bgPatterns - make or browse patterns on the web
BigTarget.js - Increase the size of click targets and get more call-to-action conversions
Multicolr Search Lab - Using visual similarity technology you can navigate flickr interesting collection by colour
title - description
droppy - Nested drop down menus
Jquery DynaCloud - a dynamic JavaScript tag/keyword cloud with jQuery
Lorem2 - An all-around better Lorem experience

more NYE party pics

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:03:18 +0000

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nicholas by criminal.
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bichona by criminal.
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bichona 2 by criminal.
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eliane by criminal.
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New Years Eve

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:44:56 +0000

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in brazil we call it reveillon by Betatester. map here
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holiday party pics

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:24:43 +0000

slideshow here.
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matthew dear by Betatester.
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me, julio & jeff by Betatester.
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masayo & natsuki by Betatester.
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thabata & isabelle by Betatester.
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a lot of ppl again by Betatester.
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my 10 best animes of 2008

Nicholas Frota — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:42:21 +0000

Maybe you’re not into anime: I can’t blame you ,there’s a lot of crap out here. But there are gems too: Amazing stories like the ones I list here.

Chevalier d’Eon

wikipedia | netflix | another review | watch trailer
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Eureka Seven

wikipedia | netflix | watch first episode
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Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

wikipedia | netflix | watch first episode
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Ghost Hound

wikipedia | no netflix | watch first episode
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Kurau Phantom Memory

wikipedia | netflix | watch trailer
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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

wikipedia | netflix | watch first episode
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Paradise Kiss

wikipedia | netflix | watch first episode
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Red Garden

wikipedia | netflix | another review | watch first episode
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Shingu: Secret of Stellar Wars

wikipedia | netflix

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Welcome to NHK!

wikipedia | netflix | watch first episode
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Zegapain

wikipedia | netflix | watch first episode
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a message to marketers

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:59:24 +0000

this was a google reader note but I decided it was too good so I reposted.

1

Internet is a two-way, dialog media. marketers insist in one-way, monolog discourse because they want control. It won’t fly.

2

Information consumes attention: the more information we have, the less attention to share. Interruption is the new pornography.

3

We’ve seen what you did to mass media: eating it from the inside and leaving out a bloated corpse. thanks, but no thanks.

Comment about My SeamlessWeb

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:23:59 +0000

my email to seamlessweb.com:

We use seamlessweb for our weekly meetings, and we usually decide which one will pay the bill and keep a tab of who owes whom. We all have seamless web accounts, and we rotate.
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Is it possible to create a social feature on seamlessweb? We can separate the dishes to each user after purchase, and in return the system keeps tab of who owes whom.

The recommendation engine get smarter

Users will usually pay each other with another seamlessweb purchase

Take care and keep up with the good work.

The DADA Server

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:28:20 +0000

Your secret name is Lauren.
The animal which symbolizes you is giraffe.
The color of your soul is seafoam green.
The celebrity you most resemble is John Lennon.
Your special pain or illness is malaria.
Your most important time of day is 4:00.
The shape of your life is pentagon.
And the flavor which identifies you most is lavender.
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[From The DADA Server]

What Apple can offer to iPhone developers

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:23:39 +0000

Apple as the Gatekeeper

Yes, we all heard the arguments: On one hand, cellphones are critical devices and users can’t afford delays caused by bad code, so a gatekeeper is required. On the other hand, Apple can be as capricious as it wants - refusing applications out of whim, allowing big players access to undocumented features - and the developers can only swallow the pill and work around it.
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If Apple wants to be the gatekeeper, shouldn’t they offer something else in return? Below I write about two ideas that can only work correctly with a top-down approval system, like what Apple offers.

Gestures

The iPhone menu is broken: Moving one icon pushes all the others, hence no position is fixed and there’s no muscle memory (when you are so sure of your moves you don’t have to look to accomplish it).
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iPhone has 10K apps and growing, there’s simply no way you can create a one-size-fits-all menu off it. What to do?
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Then again, iPhone has a refined touchscreen, why be stuck in the old point-and-click method? Why not draw something on the screen, and summon the matching application? Upside-down V for Amazon, M for mail, S for safari, anywhere on the home screen, Presto!
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Yes, users need to learn each matching gesture, but application developers would be more than willing to educate them.
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But, developers can’t assign gestures willy-nilly to their apps, otherwise different apps could use the same gesture and that’s a problem. We need a top-down system to compare and approve the gesture library.

Link Redirect

This feature already exists for the default iPhone apps: I’m talking about when you receive a youtube link email, and iPhone opens the YouTube application instead of safari. The same happens with any google maps link.
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But what if I receive an Amazon link, and I have the Amazon iPhone app? Or what about a facebook profile? Or twitter? Currently iPhone disregards I have the applications installed, and points to safari.
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Link redirect allows applications to claim certain domains to itself, making sure it can display the information properly.
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Of course, this claiming stuff can be a little tricky: What if amazon doesn’t want to give access to a specific app? Someone has to be the gatekeeper huh? That’s Apple’s job.

Celebrating niche blogs

Nicholas Frota — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:12:35 +0000

I’m the hunter
I bring back the goods
but I don’t know when
Bjork - Hunter
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With feed subscriptions turning blogs into push media, blog authors don’t need to keep on writing all the time to be relevant. Instead, niche blogs can afford to follow really specific themes at its own pace.
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Think of it as curators of miscellania. Below, a list of some cool ones.

Ampersand Blog - gallery of ampersands
Bunnylicious - art + bunnies
The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
Passive-Agressive Notes - painfully polite and hilariously hostile writings from shared spaces the world over
Skull a day - a daily reminder of memento mori
LP Cover Lover
Mickey Feio - gallery of ugly mickeys
I can has cheezburger - LOLcats abound
LOLtheist - blasphemy is the funneh
Push. Click. Touch. - how people and technology interact
Band Logos
Loopable
Strange Maps
Photoshop Disasters
White Whine
Street Use - the ways in which people modify and re-create technology
Art of the Title - movies title sequence, with screenshots & videos
FailBlog
Marketing Alternatif - French, but the pictures say it all
BibliOdyssey - Visual materia obscura
Animation Backgrounds - original or digitally recreated cartoon bgs
Suicide Food - on the carnivore dilemma of befriending your food
Architectures of Control - design solutions that restricts user interaction. from low to high tech.

Best iPhone apps (and how to make it even better)

Nicholas Frota — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:55:17 +0000

Instapaper - free & pro

The Good: like the web counterpart, you save pages you wanna read for later.
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The Bad: the UI is weird… Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok, but the webversion is so ridiculously simple (clicking a link means you read it) so why complicate?
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The Suggestion:

when I reach the end of the page, treats it as read, ok?
keep images & text, but strips all the rest - I don’t care about sidebar or menu.
if I turn tilt scrolling on, keep it on!

Twinkle - free

The Good: Cozy interface for my twitter friends. Heck, I check twinkle even when I’m on my computer. It’s more intimate, I dunno. Picture and GPS location too.
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The Bad: the pictures take too long to send, and it’s buggy to send, overall.
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The Suggestion:

Thanks for hosting my pictures, but I already have a service and it’s flickr. Would you mind to create a bridge between the two? I post a twitter pic, it links to flickr, and the other way around?
It… takes… too… long… to… post… I usually photograph water glasses, while waiting for the food and I’m bored. But guess what? the food comes before I can post it.
The message tab shows only direct messages…. Can my @ messages be there too?
Clicking on the twit gives me… the twit. again. What about the entire friend feed?
The landscape "what’s up with the world is supper cool"… Can you make it 3D? this map is sooo ugly! Can I narrow it to my friends? Or whatever else?

Comic Viewer - jailbroken only

The Good: you can read comics on the iPhone
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The Bad: Oh, a lot. It’s hard to install. It gives you no clues on where to put the .cbz files (hint: it’s root/var/mobile/Media/Comic). It doesn’t offer you a way to add new files (use netatalk for that, also jailbroken). Hell, it doesn’t even show you the buttons! But you can read comics on the iPhone.
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The Suggestion:

What about a manual? in english?
Can I sync?
Can it be a legit app?

Evernote - free, signin required, here

The Good: consolidate all your notes on the cloud, and check it anywhere.
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The Bad: Not much, really. Evernote is great! Ah, yeah: If I create a not on the desktop version with rich text (bold, italic, etc) I can’t edit it on the iPhone. Can you warn me before? Also, I can’t add checkboxes on the iPhone version, just check existing ones.
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The Suggestion:

Let iPhone app create & edit checkboxes & tables, also
Is there a way to share notebooks? not public, more like a small group?

Netatalk - jailbroken only

The Good: Automatically adds your iPhone on the desktop devices list.

The Bad: Nothing. Thanks for the app, a life saver and a must have for jailbroken files.

The Sugestion: It is a must have for jailbroken iPhones, can you make it as a default instalation?

PdaNet - jailbroken only

The Good: Use your iPhone as a modem.

The Bad: It sucks the battery: Make sure your iPhone is connected on a power source.

The Suggestion:

Battery warning?
A way to conceal my traffic as something legit? I don’t want AT&T banging on my door.

Cycorder - jailbroken only

The Good: video recorder on the iPhone.
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The Bad: it’s jailbroken only. That means, your iPhone can record video, but somehow apple doesn’t allow it. go figure.
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The Suggestion:

Automatic sync? with my imovie or whatever other video editor?
Can you be legit?
Can I do minor editing? I know, I’m asking too much.

FileMagnet - $4.99

The Good: PDF reader for the iPhone (among other files). There are plenty on the market but FileMAgnet has a well resolved interface so it won me over.
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The Bad: it coughs on medium to big files.
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The Suggestion:

Can I read .cbz files? It’s just a zip file with images on it… Be the first legit comics reader on the iPhone, please.
I wanna use FileMagnet to read my ever growing PDF collection… Can you warn me (by email, twiter) if I stop reading a file, let’s say, after a week? nag me!
Can I have 3 lists: One for ongoing files (on top), other for unread, and another for read files?
Can I add notes? Can I email my friends my file, with notes?

Byline - $4.99

The Good: If you use google reader, byline is the app for you: sweet interface, offline reading, youtube integration…
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The Bad: it crashes. the notes & share features are worse than google’s originals.
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The Suggestion:

Better shared readers integration: group, avatar, name.
does Notes work? I’ve seen on my google shared items page, it seems it breaks the post…
fix the Email Post feature… Original google reader sends the entire post (good) thru my gmail account (bad), iphone optimized page sends through my email (good) just the link (bad). Byline sends just the link, not customizable, and after that I have to climb all the way back to my position. It breaks the flow.
can you please fix your icon? I always mistake the orange fee/coffee circular image for a warning.

Still waiting for…

A camera fix: hold home button, opens camera (overriding code). release home button, shoots. USB connect, automatic iphoto sync. Only jailbroken, huh?

Running Partners vlog idea

Nicholas Frota — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:39:29 +0000

I have 2 open projects I wanna move forward, and I need some running mates to motivate me.
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My idea is to have a weekly virtual meeting to discuss problems, solutions, progress, and what’s going on on the web.
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Treat it as a poker night: it’s sacred time. We’re already pretty busy, and negotiate new time slots for 4 grown men on a weekly basis is insanity.
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Technically, up to 4 participants chat thru video iChat and record their stream with screenflow. We assign a weekly editor, and send each screenflow files to him. I can take care of publishing: blog, podcast, feed, etc.
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Goals:

Accountability: it becomes a videopodcast, the world is watching your steps.
Consulting: pool of professionals giving good advice.
Publicity: it gives visibility to what we do.

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Think of “the view”, but for startups.

testing macbook air photobooth

Nicholas Frota — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:56:24 +0000

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testing macbook air photobooth by Betatester.
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krshna dream

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:53:46 +0000

sorry, in portuguese… I emailed that to bruna paixão & she blogged about it.
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um pouco antes de viajar pra NY, eu tive um desses sonhos-revelacao em que conversava com krishna (que atendia tables de varios customers, us, e tava pretty busy).
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ele falou que sim, a realidade eh feita de nossos desejos. e temos problemas pq nossos desejos batem de frente um com outro, e fica dificil descrever o prato pro cozinheiro.
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falou tb que a diferenca entre criancas e adultos, eh que pra criancas, os overlapping desires sao esquecidos, pra adultos nao. tipo, cafe-com-leite, coitados.
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BTW, i wanna be invisible an do outrageous things. i wanna be an international freedom fighter.(so far)

paratransit idea

Nicholas Frota — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:03:44 +0000

below are my thoughts on AMP’s taxi.com.br idea…
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It can become a mix of vans (as in more than one passenger) and cabs (passenger defines point A and B), using networks to calculate the most optimal source. After all, fixed stops & fixed schedules were needed before the age of constant communication.
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Check seamlessweb.com business plan: Customers use the web to order deliveries (credit card payment, better menu list, convenience) and restaurants don’t need to lock a line and pay employees to be available to call. It sits in the middle, helps both parties and gets a cut of the action.
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Same way with your taxi.com.br… I’ll send you a paper about it if j can find it, but here’s the happy path:

Customer goes online (minimal website interface, good but not limited to iPhones) tells point A (where he is), point B (where he wants to be) and optionally, when (defaults to as soon as possible)
customer receives total price, pays right away
customer receives an sms telling the 5 min before van arrives (the driver has to inform the system, more on that later)
customer picks the van, is told when it arrives to point B
customer receives an email asking to rate the experience.

Price fluctuates based on van availability on the area a or b, traffic, reputation.
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The van is part of a club. It needs:

initial checkup
app installation fee (you sell)
monthly fee (comm costs)

The app can be a simple beep with gps.
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The higher the ratings:

lower the monthly fee
better offers (daily commute pool, fixed A, B points)

The driver doesn’t have to negotiate payment or service. The system deals with it and offers customers from the nearest places (route optimization). The driver gets the fare, a cut going to the system (70-30?)
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Problems:

legislation, lobbies
quality of service
do we count start or end time? End time is better, but we need to take traffic into account

Opportunities:

airports, malls, any fixed point b
daily commutes: customer pays monthly and can make minor adjustments (free prior 24h). You’re competing with cars!!!
if overall cost is cheaper than car, with same benefits (control of a to b), market it as the green solution, find government grants