Where RockMelt outdoes the standard Chrome is the full immersion of Facebook and other social media.  By no means do I consider myself a heavy social network user.  (I don’t care that you just ate a burrito, watched Glee, or are sitting at Starbucks.) But…having RockMelt has made me want to share more than usual because it’s so easy.  My ideal social network experience involves sharing photos, cool websites, new music, etc.  I like to know what my friends like so I can go try it out and see if I like it.  RockMelt makes it easy to share a website or share your status because it’s built into the browser.  In fact, you can see any feed in handy little buttons on your sidebar.  The buttons even show how many tweets or Facebook messages you have unseen. Admittedly, this can be a distraction while working.

The search box built into the browser also functions differently than what most users are used to.  Instead of jumping right to a new tab or page within the browser, RockMelt displays a window that shows all of your results which you can then click to view the link.  There is a button to simply just open up the search results in a standard fashion.  Very handy.

Check out this video to see RockMelt for yourself.

According to the website CruchBase “Thousands of brands large and small have created apps using AppMakr, including PBS, Accenture, Harvard Business Review, Maclife, Macworld UK, US Congress, PGA TOUR, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, along with churches, music bands, and smaller publications like Racer X.” At least some of the users are a little mo

They list several apps on their website that were created using their services so I downloaded about six.  As I figured, they all function exactly the same.  It’s interesting to see the range in quality of the design that goes into the loading screen, home screen icon, and content found on the app.  It truly is free and you can tell with most of the apps.  None of them featured images that could be viewed clearly on the high retina display.  This also cheapens the look and feel of the app.  I did go through the setup process through their website and did notice that you can now upload images suitable for the high retina screen.  I guess either no one does it or I just wasn’t looking at the right apps.

This global event is the brainchild of 350.org and 10:10 – two organizations that are insisting that CO2 levels must be globally lowered, each has two similar but different goals. 350.org (not to be confused with the grass roots local economy movement 3/50), basic goal is to lower total CO2 levels at 350 parts per million (ppm). Right now the global CO2 level is 385ppm, and rising. Their goal is to act now to lower it 35ppm, which is an achievable goal. Bill Mckibben, who wrote a book called “Eaarth” exploring how much Earth will be changed by run-away CO2 levels, so much so that we might as well rename the planet. Additionally he recently attempted to get the Obama administration to accept the original Jimmy Carter solar panels as an artifact and make a commitment to put solar on the White House (he was brushed off by some EPA political appointees).

The organization is 10:10, [Author's Note: This morning (10/05/10) the US website and Face Book page are down - embarrassing right? No known cause yet, other than my luck.]a British based organization that recently expanded in the US here in Seattle. 10:10′s program is more hands on. It is a voluntary pledge to reduce personal CO2 emissions 10% every year for the next 10 years. (So for me, my emissions are 13.40 tons/ year. So I need to reduce my emissions by 1.34 tons this year).  Individuals, families and businesses can join and take the pledge to reduce CO2 emissions. This is direct emission reductions, not a pledge to buy offsets, offsets may fund forest planting and renewable energy expansion, but it is not a direct reduction. Other ways to reduce your carbon foot print is buying local food and from local businesses in addition to home and personal transport energy reductions.

So on October 10th There are over 5000 events world wide, in over 170 countries. The events range from educational demonstrations to tree planting, to other activities (and after work parties – network, network, network!).  So if you’re feeling like the world is standing still on this issue and you want to get involved find something near you!

Droid Serif

Goudy Bookletter 1911

Liberation

Mido

Calluna

Enjoy this collection.

iPhone GUI 3.0

Free iPhone Toolbar icons

Glyphish

Free Vector Icons

Hand Gesture Icons

Enjoy.

First, you need to sign up for an account at www.typekit.com.  There is a free version and several different paid options.  For the Blueprint for Design site I chose the free version which places a fairly unobtrusive link in the bottom right of the browser window.  Check it out down there.  Clicking it will first take you to a page that shows the font(s) we are using. Then, obviously, it has links to their site.  I like that it doesn’t take the browser right to Typekit’s website.  It actually provides some useful information, then gives the user the option to proceed further.

Next, for our site, since we use WordPress, I simply installed the Typekit plug-in and added the embed code provided by Typekit’s website.

In our case, I wanted to change every bit of text that had the <h2> selector associated with it.  So, I chose the font I wanted, told it that the selector was <h2>, hit publish and presto, our site had the new font.  It took only 5 minutes to set up.

Here are a few screen shots of the font selection portion of the site and the editor. (Click images to view larger.)

Quicksand by Andrew Paglinawan – a free sans serf face with 7 weights – including a dashed version.

This strong, angular typeface is ideal for headings. It features 96 of the most commonly used glyphs (characters).

League Gothic is a revival of an old classic, and one of our favorite typefaces, Alternate Gothic No.1. It was originally designed by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders Company (ATF) in 1903. The company went bankrupt in 1993. And since the original typeface was created before 1923, the typeface is in the public domain.

Simple, clean typeface with 2 weights and a condensed version.

Note from the author

Here is the latest update of Sansation.

• improved spacing
• improved kerning
• added more glyphs
• two additional weights

Note: these dimensions should be checked.  Each paper company, envelope company or printer could potentially use different sizes.

• Download a PDF with guidelines for # Sized Envelopes
• Download a PDF with guidelines for A Sized Envelopes

Thumbnail photo courtesy of abbyladybug.