thoughts on pixels

I try to focus on things relevant to web professionals, designers and other creative thinkers. Not always a successful endeavor, but variation keeps things interesting at least.

Drupal status message pile-up - HOWTO sort it out on your Media Temple (dv)

Submitted by jpamental on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 11:24
TAGS:

We recently had an issue where status messages would 'pile up' and fail to clear until you logged out and back in again. We found different possible causes listed but couldn't work out the root of it until we saw this:

https://drupal.org/node/623028

which led to this:

https://drupal.org/node/635042

Turning off the Admin Menu module wasn't really an option right now, so I ventured onto our Media Temple DV via SSH, did a bit more googling for locations and found this:

my.cnf is located in '/etc'

Use VI to edit my.cnf

complicated vs complexity (and how design thinking helps tame one and avoid the other)

Submitted by jpamental on Wed, 06/30/2010 - 12:43
TAGS:

Recently the topic of complicated versus complex has come up both in relation to a book group discussion I was leading on REWORK and also with an online Twitter-based chat I was moderating on innovation. It's pretty central to everything I've learned, experienced and thought about with regard to design, so it seemed worth it to capture it here.

#D4DBoston slides for my talk on Web Strategy: Using Drupal to Transform Your Business

Submitted by jpamental on Sun, 06/20/2010 - 14:08
TAGS:

Giving a talk to day at Design for Drupal in Boston on web strategy. I wanted to make sure the slides are available so thought I'd repost here.

new site launched for @DrupalPVD - built in Drupal 7

Submitted by jpamental on Wed, 05/12/2010 - 10:02
TAGS:

Just launched a new site for a series of Providence Drupal Meetups that I've been putting together with Chris Murray. I decided that we should use this as an opportunity to show where things are going, so I built it in Drupal 7 alpha 4.

Discussing REWORK from 37signals on the BIF Book Group site

Submitted by jpamental on Mon, 05/03/2010 - 08:56
TAGS:

I've had the honor recently of being asked to moderate discussion of REWORK by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson (of 37signals) on the Business Innovation Factory's BIF Book Group. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, and as with other of their writings, take much of it to heart. They have taken a lot of time and effort to impart a lot of what they've learned over the years in a way that is easy to understand and apply to many more endeavors than just software.

Long haul: late night SFO -> PHL, Drupal and the future of the web

Submitted by jpamental on Thu, 04/22/2010 - 06:52
TAGS:

I just spent the past 3 days in San Francisco for DrupalCon, and after such an intense immersion it does warrant some reflection. What better time than 6 hours on a plane, right? John Mayer playing on my iPhone doesn't hurt either. There are many standout memories of the past 72 hours (almost to the minute since I landed in SFO Sunday night), but some stand taller. I've always been a William Gibson fan, and Tim O'Reilly quoted him well in his keynote yesterday:

"The future is here; it's just not evenly distributed."

Life at 'net' speed: heading to DrupalCon in San Francisco for newschoolyard.com

Submitted by jpamental on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 12:53
TAGS:

When I woke up Wednesday morning I was looking forward to an always-fun and interesting meeting day on the newschoolyard.com project, for which I'm the platform architect. We're working on a platform targeted at independent schools to maintain their own web sites, parent and alumni communities, and the whole project is really satisfying. Great challenge, great way to help bring innovation (and huge cost savings) to schools.

everything connects: Daniel Pink's DRiVE, Boagworld SxSW edition and talking to students about web strategy and design thinking

Submitted by jpamental on Thu, 03/25/2010 - 09:11
TAGS:

Just a quick note this morning. I spoke yesterday to Mitch's graphic design class at Rhode Island College. Saw one of my professors too - Nanch Bockbrader sat in on my lecture. I have to admit - that was pretty cool. Much of what I do and how I work as a designer was shaped by Nancy. She was adamant about being able to communicate about design: what you did, how you came to the choices you made about typography, why you used particular color palettes.

giving a lecture on web strategy to graphic design students [UPDATED]

Submitted by jpamental on Wed, 03/24/2010 - 08:02
TAGS:

My good friend Mitch Goldstein (or @mgoldst as you may know him) has asked if I'd give a talk to his graphic design students in a class he's teaching at Rhode Island College. I sat in those very halls a few too many years ago than I care to remember - but since that's where I got my start (designing and developing the College's first web site), it seemed like a great opportunity.

another cool event from carsonified: HTML 5 online conference

Submitted by jpamental on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 14:32
TAGS:

HTML 5 ConferenceCarsonified is putting on what looks like a great event: an online conference on HTML 5 with some of the smartest guys in the business: Jeremy Keith, Bruce Lawson, Peter Lubbers and Remy Sharp. It's almost here as a standard, and I know I still have a lot to learn about it.