Nathan Stanton's Blog

Closed for business…

nathan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:09:53 +0000

I’m working full time. So I don’t have alot of time to do this. I leave you with this. update 11/17: i meant to mention that I’m working for diapers.com gotta love those diapers!

Density and Zoning

nathan — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:07:24 +0000

An interesting article to read on the inaccuracy of the idea that “free market” = Sprawl. Using the oft cited example of Houston, TX to disprove. Might be a bit of a lengthy read for most folks, but basically Houston does have a good deal of zoning regulations that impacted heavily the creation of sprawl unlike many assertions by free market libertarian sprawl loving writers. The two most critical zoning regulations it has are: large minimum lot sizes of 5000 sq ft for many unattached residential, as well as high parking space per car requirements far above most cities. (Portland actually negotiates to LIMIT parking in buildings near mass transit) via Marginal Revolution.

Photo credit Baldheretic via flickr

Easily turn your handwriting into a font

nathan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:12:15 +0000

I’ve documented my attempt at creating a rough font from my handwriting in a previous post. But now a new online service fontcapture makes it incredibly easy for those non technical folk. I havn’t tried it because I already have a font of my handwriting but it looks quite cool. All you need is a printer/scanner.

Facebook -> infomercial

nathan — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:42:37 +0000

I’m not going to use links in this post because I don’t want to give free SEO boosting to any of the following web dev companies. But damn… I find so many ads by web designers on Facebook that just suck… Atleast pay $5 bucks for a stock photo thats not washed out.

Wise words?

nathan — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:02:54 +0000

“If you bankrupt a company before you’re 25, that’s like a badge of honor! Get out there.” – Jim Coudal

Just under a year ago today I was probably heading down that path, but having the lease pulled out from our budding venture nipped our costs as well as the opportunity in the bud. We folded 6 months later having spent only a fraction of the raised and anticipated capital expenses. A great article that discusses some of the conundrums designers face in finding both a paycheck and a bit of happiness with work. Comparing working for “the man” or setting off on your own path to financial self reliance. Whatever your feeling about the quote check out the full article via DesignGlut.com

Peashoot App

nathan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:11:07 +0000

I’ve been testing out the Peashoot App. It’s a mix of google analytics, bit.ly, twitter, and an automatic growth generator. Very cool. When someone inserts this http://pea.to/dyd into a twitter post or reference link it will track it. Also you can setup keywords to send their tweet to your pea inbox or automatically add users referencing the keyword. While it does have the ability to be abused if you choose an overly broad keyword I think it has a good potential to help you efficiently build followers and interact with those discussing your product online. I’ll followup after having more experience with it on real campaigns.

Faulty Reasoning

nathan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:19:30 +0000

This past week it was all over the news how “Organic Food Not Healthier, Study Finds” But when you look deeper the study says something different. It says the study found that organic food was not richer in nutrients. This makes sense because organic food has almost nothing to do with the genetic varieties (although it can’t be GMO) and ALL about the use of pesticides and other chemicals on the food. The study did not look at the levels of harmful substances in the organic food but merely the level of positively identified nutrients. An organic apple of the same variety as a normal apple isn’t going to have any more potassium in it. The seemingly illiterate media picked it up as saying there’s no health benefit to organic food. Codswallop. Having an apple doused in chemical pesticides is far less healthy than an organic apple even though they might nutritionally be the same.

Three Sisters Backpack

nathan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:18:53 +0000

A few weeks ago I went backpacking into Park Meadow in Three Sisters. It was Eric and I’s third or fourth venture into this particular area, we have rotten luck actually ascending anything completely mostly because we don’t take to the trails and/or go the correct route but thats not to say we don’t have good times. This would be no different in terms of failing to peak but we did get up onto a ridge and did some crazy rock climbing, rock and glacial shoe skiing. The mosquitos were particularly pesky but that just kept us moving or fully rain geared up. Photos in the beginning courtesy Eric you can find more and a cool t-shirt at lonelydinosaur.com (at the blog). and the ones at the end by Isaac: http://isaaclanekoval.com/

Details + Web Design

nathan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:35:27 +0000

Most people argue that if you are too nitpicky and complient in web design everything you do will forever be behind the new innovations and be constantly fixing things for various browsers (a very time consuming endeavor) but that’s not to say that you shouldn’t do it. More and more I find top companies fail tr even bother to take a look a the page before having it go live let alone do a full check across a variety of browseres. See below for just one example. Twitters Terms of Service page… at twitter.com/tos . Notice that the text is shifted to the left, this occurs in both Safari 4 and Firefox 3.51. Twitter can pull this off because they have a monopoly on the market but smaller companies without a monopoly and that strive to attract new customers need to focus on this type of detail. Thats why its important to hire a web designer and not just setup your stock wordpress blog if your a company that wants to show your customers you care about the details and go above and beyond to make sure you provide great service.

Could you build a toaster?

nathan — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:46:16 +0000

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of what we could really know if you traveled back in time 2000 or even 4000 years. Obviously algebra, calculus, and some other mathematical knowledge in your brain would be hugely advantageous not to mention a bit of economic and business theory along with basics of health and sanitation. But who really knows how to build a computer, a cellphone or let alone the bastion of every kitchen the TOASTER… One man, an ingenious art student at RCA in Londan has set out to find out if he can build one on his own. He even opted to use a variety of modern technological equipment to get him there. Still as the videos show its a mighty big task.

“Left to his own devices he couldn’t build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich and that was it.” – Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams, 1992

Check out more videos and a background on the project at: http://www.thetoasterproject.org/