Joel Gardner - Life in beta | Ramblings, musings, and non-sequiturs

Have your QR code and eat it, too

April 4, 2010 Non-sequiturs

I really like QR codes. These 2D bar codes can hold all kinds of information from URLs to contact information to calendar events, in a compact little square of black and white. Also, because they aren’t widely used (yet), they are kind of like secret codes that only those in the know can decipher, while […]

Tagged as: food, geek, linkedin, QR code

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Gorgeous espresso machine needs no electricity

April 1, 2010 Bitter Life

I love espresso. Not these candy-coated, whip cream-topped milkshakes masquerading as lattes that you get at Starbucks but real, honest-to-FSM shots of black, creamy java goodness. Some day I’ll have a real espresso machine but for now my little Krups machine is sufficient for my afternoon fix. This manual espresso maker is tempting, though. Not […]

Tagged as: coffee, espresso, gadgets, linkedin, want

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Approaching life as a beta release

March 31, 2010 Hacks

The world is in beta. Everything on this planet, even the planet itself, is in a state of constant upgrade and change. Everything is evolving, including you and me. Realizing this can be a relief for those of us who tend to be perfectionists. There will always be tweaks and revisions to be made but that shouldn’t stop us from putting ourselves out there and inviting input and constructive criticism from others.

Tagged as: beta, life, linkedin

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Where the music matters

March 30, 2010 Music

The last office building I worked in was shared by five radio stations and two TV stations, all of which were owned by Clear Channel. On the radio side of the building, they played one of the stations over the intercom, a different one each day. I worked on the TV side but I could […]

Tagged as: linkedin, media, Music, radio

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Homebrew Hacker: Make your own jockey box

March 27, 2010 Hacks

Over at Lifehacker, a tutorial from Make shows how to make your own jockey box for chilling beer. For those unfamiliar with the term, jockey boxes are basically ice chests which sit between the keg and the tap. The beer flows through tubing, which is in ice or ice water, chilling the beer to a […]

Tagged as: beer, fun, hack, homebrew

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How to: Resizable background image in a Thesis theme

March 24, 2010 Dev

When I was designing the look of this site, I decided it might be cool to have a background image that automatically resized itself depending on the viewport (browser window). Here is how I was able to get a resizable background image using nothing but some clever CSS in my custom Thesis theme.

Tagged as: CSS, Dev, linkedin, thesis, wordpress

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What’s the difference between a web designer and a web developer?

March 23, 2010 Dev

When people ask what I do I say I?m a web developer. Occasionally I?ll be asked how that is different from a web designer or if they are the same thing.

Some will argue that the difference is semantics, that web designer and web developer are interchangeable terms for people who build websites. I disagree.

Tagged as: design, Dev, linkedin

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47 CSS Tips & Tricks

March 17, 2010 Dev

It doesn’t matter how much you think you know about CSS, there’s always something else, some new trick, hack, or work-around that you should know. 47 CSS Tips & Tricks To Take Your Site To The Next Level is a nice round up of CSS examples from basic to advanced. Here are 47 of those […]

Tagged as: CSS, design, Dev, linkedin

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