Play Pac-Man on Google.com
This is why, despite all of the privacy controversy, Google is a totally unique beacon of innovation and light-hearted fun. Seriously, no one but Google would do this.
Today, to mark the 30th anniversary of Pac Man, Google has a working Google logo / Pacman game on their homepage. Press insert coin to play, then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to play. It even works with multiple players online. Try it out here. Part game, part art, all awesome.
R.I.P. Myspace
As in, my personal Myspace profile. Rest in peace.
How long has it been? At least 8 years. We had a good run, Myspace. But somewhere between you getting bought out and competing directly against Facebook, fate had it in for you to annoy the shit out of me.
But I have to say: quitting you wasn't easy...
...because Myspace asks you over and over if you're sure you actually want to delete your Myspace account. I have no idea how someone can reach the fifth tier of "Are you sure?" questions on accident.
"Myspace" as it was laid to rest. It's ugly. Click for bigger.
I left a cancellation comment
This was after submitting my cancellation request and confirming the submission 6 times
Hooray! No more Myspace.
Total Fluency Business Cards
Total Fluency is something I've been working on for a while now but haven't released anything publicly. The website isn't finished yet but the business card and logo are. So, here they are. I included some color variations below, just for fun. I'm thinking of printing this design in multiple colors and mix and matching them. Click the images to see full size!
Alternate Colors
Slaying Spam with Akismet
Recently, Chengdu Living has been getting hammered with spam comments and trackbacks (notifications of sites linking to Chengdu Living). Fortunately, I use Akismet and none of it actually makes it onto the site. Akismet, if you didn't know, is a spam filtering system that compares each and every comment with an online database that checks the origin and content of the message (words, phrases, links) to determine if it's spam. It's very accurate.
Today I woke up and there were 89 new comments on the site that had been auto-filtered into the spam category - each and every single day it takes me about 2 minutes to scan through those and filter out the few legitimate comments and trackbacks and delete the rest. If it weren't for Akismet, the site would be covered in spam.
And if you didn't know - errant comments and distortion on a website will slowly kill it.
Chengdu Living Forum & Classifieds
The Chengdu Living Forum is online!
I had to overcome quite a few obstacles to get this working, so I'm happy to release it. Basically, it's a discussion forum with a classifieds section that's built into Chengdu Living.
These are some of the challenges I faced putting this together:
Arrangement
The Forum & Classifieds is broken into two categories (naturally) with sub-categories beneath. The Forum breaks out to General Discussion and In Chengdu, and the Classifieds lead to Marketplace (buy/sell), Jobs & Apartments, and Personals. I think this is a logical system that pleases almost everyone at once. There's a temptation to create additional categories (like Food/Cooking or Travel), but that would be spreading the trickle of posts too thinly. With the traffic roughly divided between Eastern & Western hemispheres, there's a need for general and local sections.
Platforms
Unfortunately there isn't really a forum platform that can do everything that I want it to, because I wanted the forum to be within the site from the beginning (which vBulletin doesn't like). bbPress is what I ended up using because it couples well with WordPress, but development is all but a lost cause. Many plugins don't work or haven't been updated in years, and the platform itself is really showing its age. It requires a LOT of customization and attention to clean up the small details. Some very small bugs remain, but I've achieved the goal of building it within the framework of Chengdu Living and will continue to develop it.
Competition
As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm not the first to think of a location-based online forum & classifieds for Chengdu. Craigslist has a Chengdu section, but it's almost totally empty. And then there's GoChengdoo, which is a middle of the road option. I thought it was run by people I know, but I think someone in another city is actually pulling the strings. In the case of GoChengdoo, they have a good magazine which has come a long way, but their web offering is lackluster. I wouldn't have made this forum if I didn't think I could significantly improve on the options presently available.
Goals
Stop it from stagnating. Make sure that there are always new users, always new topics, always new threads. Built it into something that people will want to use. Promote it.
My hope is that people who read the articles on Chengdu Living check out the forum and participate. Interacting with readers and peers through comments on the site is fun and I hope to elevate that interaction to the next level with the forum.
Check it Out
Anyone reading this, feel free to check it out: Chengdu Living Forum
