Matters of Grey » Chaunce Dolan

Evolution Of The Geek {Infograph}

Chaunce Dolan — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:43:41 +0000

Today the term “geek” may invoke thoughts of many different types of people and you may even smile when you think about it, probably because in some way you may consider yourself a geek. Flowtown created this great infograph that shows the evolution of the geek starting way back in the 1500′s which meant fool. It wasn’t until the 1950′s that the term settled closer to what we know today and was defined by a person that was passionate about technology.

The term geek has really taken on a new flavor in the past 10+ years and now seems to have a sense of pride attached to it. I know when someone calls me a geek, like my wife, I smile and say “Thank you”. The first of the geek sub-categories I would say that us here at MoG fall into is the Internet Geek.

Internet geeks became widely popular in the 90′s dot com boom. This group includes programmers, website builders and LEET speakers.

Of course the geek in me wanted to change the LEET in the quote to 1337. If that isn’t proof, I don’t know what is.

What is also interesting is all of the sub-groups of geeks and how many I actually fit into — not just one, but at least 4 or 5. Which one or ones seem to speak to your heart?

by Flowtown. Browse more Humor infographics.

Kinect Star Wars Freebies

Chaunce Dolan — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:00:50 +0000

To celebrate May 4th, also known as Star Wars Day, “May the Fourth Be With You,” I decided to post some cool Star Wars freebies.

A few weeks ago Xbox Live members received emails about a new website dedicated to the release of the new Kinect Star Wars video game for the Xbox 360.

On the site are a lot of cool game trailers. There are also a ton of easter eggs hidden throughout the site. Each one you find lets you download some cool Star Wars swag from wallpapers, posters, and papercraft. Well, I found all of them and posted them here for you to download easily. I even added a few extras to the mix, including some sounds that they had embedded into the site. Furthermore, make sure you visit our Star Wars Ringtones page for more awesome sounds for your phones.

Wallpapers

Coruscant Skyline

320×480 | 360×480 | 480×800 | 480×854 | 960×640 | 1024×600 | 1024×768 | 1280×800 | 1280×1024 | 1600×1200

Arc 170 Starfighter

320×480 | 360×480 | 480×800 | 480×854 | 960×640 | 1024×600 | 1024×768 | 1280×800 | 1280×1024 | 1600×1200

Papercraft

Anakin Darth Vader Helmet Papercraft

Arc 170 Starfighter Papercraft

Battle Droid Papercraft

Customizable Jedi Papercraft

Lightsaber Wrap Set

R2D2 Papercraft

Posters & Mask

Boonta Eve Classic Poster

Rancor Door Sign Poster

Rancor Mask

Ringtones

Jabba Laugh – mp3

Pod Racer Engine – mp3

Rancor Breathe – mp3

Rancor – mp3

Lightsaber On – mp3

Ship Laser – mp3

The Art Of Color Coordination {Infograph}

Chaunce Dolan — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:42:57 +0000

As web design practices such as keyword-rich content and fast page-loads become increasingly more important, the art of color coordination in a web site’s design can be one of the most challenging skills to master. Knowing how the color wheel works and how colors coordinate with each other can keep you from creating unpleasing results in your site’s design.

The infograph released by KISSMetircs demystifies the relationships between colors and also explains useful combinations such as: primary, secondary, tertiary, and all the way through rectangular (tetradic) colors.

You may be asking yourself why all the muss when it comes to colors in a web site’s design? Consider this quote from the infograph:

Psychologists have suggested that color impression can account for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of a product or service…A bad color combination can have the same negative effects as poor copy and slow load times.

Now you can understand why the art of color theory or color coordination can have such a profound or disastrous effect on a web site’s design and message.

by KISSmetrics. Browse more Technology infographics.

Gamers Get Girls {Infograph}

Chaunce Dolan — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:03:11 +0000

OnlineUniversity.net created this fun infograph comparing online gaming users to online dating users. The stats show that online gamers have more favorable conditions for dating than what online daters do. So it seems that the online gamers have the 1-up on the online daters.

Browse more infographics.

Modular Origami Made From Foreign Currency

Chaunce Dolan — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:53:15 +0000

Canadian visual artist Kristi Malakoff has created a unique modular origami collection using unusual forms of paper: foreign currency. While traveling abroad she collected all sorts of different types of currency and decided that it would be a great paper type when building origami pieces.

Here is a list of the different countries whose currency she used: Afghanistan, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Iraq, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Yugoslavia, and Zambia. As you can see from her collection, the use of foreign currency makes for some unique visual textures and vivid colors. What an inspiring idea. She also has quite a wide range of mediums that she has worked with that you can see on her site.

Street Fighter Characters Meet Tron

Chaunce Dolan — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:36:54 +0000

I found a great collection of Street Fighter characters stylized with the iconic neon-accented features as seen in the Tron movies. The artist BossLogic created these designs using Photoshop filters on pre-made designs. If you are a Street Fighter fan like I am, you will definitely appreciate these.

To download the large versions of each of these, go to his Street Fighter Art gallery. There you will also see some of his Hyper-Real Street Fighter collection as well.

Typography Wallpapers: April 2012

Chaunce Dolan — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:00:53 +0000

Desktop wallpapers are a great way to show one’s personality, whether it’s at home or at work. A clean, organized workspace includes a clean and in some cases, inspiring wallpaper. I’m also a big fan of typography. Almost any font used the right way can become a work of art.

If you would like to submit your own designs for next month, simply drop a comment and we’ll get in touch!

April Showers

By: Joey Hernandez

640×960 | 960×854 | 1024×1024 | 1280×1024 | 1440×900 | 1920×1080 | 2560×1024

Font: Some Weatz, Bebas, Ornamental Versals

Rainy Dunk

By: Chaunce Dolan

640×960 | 1024×768 | 1024×1024 | 1280×800 | 1280×1024 | 1440×900 | 1920×1080

Font: Dunkin

Basket Catch

By: Andy Morales

320×480 | 640×960 | 1024×768 | 1024×1024 | 1280×800 | 1280×1024 | 1440×900
1920×1080 | 2560×1024

Font: Null

Padres

By: Joey Hernandez

640×960 | 1024×1024 | 1280×1024 | 1440×900 | 1920×1080 | 2560×1024

Font: Nilland, Letter Gothic

Ebenezer (1Samuel 7:12)

By: Andy Morales

320×480 | 640×960 | 1024×768 | 1024×1024 | 1280×800 | 1280×1024 | 1440×900
1920×1080 | 2560×1024

Font: Five Minutes

April 2012

By: Sabrina (@_suber_)

640×960 | 1024×768 | 1024×1024 | 1280×800 | 1280×1024 | 1920×1080 | 2560×1024

Add A Pinterest Button To The Sharebar WordPress Plugin

Chaunce Dolan — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:08:23 +0000

We were looking to add the Pinterest button to our site’s Sharebar so that users could pin our content on their boards. After visiting Pinterest’s Goodies Page we saw that they have code that you can add to any page or plugin. However, the provided code doesn’t work properly.

When you click the button to pin that page, the window is supposed to scan images from the page for you to select from. Unfortunately, the image selector is blank thus not allowing you to pin anything.

After doing quite a bit of digging and testing other fan-made solutions, I came across a solution at Pinwire that works really well. It is a modified version of the bookmarklet that Pinterest also offers. It also includes the Pinterest social media share button image, and works really well too.

The only downside to using this method over the one that pinterest provides, is that it doesn’t display the number of pins that page has similar to the way other social media share buttons do. It is a small trade off to have something that actually works though, seeing as how the whole idea behind Pinterest is being able to pin an image.

How to Add Pinterest Button to Sharebar

Go to Settings in WordPress and select Sharebar
Click “Add New Button”
Name your button “Pinterest”
Input the desired position of the button
Copy the code below and paste in the “Big Button” field
Click “Add Button”
Enable the button by checking the box to the left and click “Update” at the bottom
You may want to reorganize your buttons also at this point by clicking the arrows

Pinterest Button Code

Typography Tuesday #10: Pixel Sagas Edition

Chaunce Dolan — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:53:38 +0000

Typography is an artistic expression that excites us here at Matters of Grey. Every month we try to highlight unique typefaces with our monthly desktop wallpaper designs. We love seeing distinct displays of typography, and our Instagram account occasionally portrays type in everyday life.

As font fanatics, we want to bring attention to good designs and good artists. Typography Tuesday is yet another method to share fonts with our followers.

Today we are featuring fonts from Neale Davidson of Pixel Sagas. The fonts featured today are: Celestial, Comic Book, Dunkin, Majoram, Moria, Neverwinter, Steampuff and Steamwreck. They have a huge collection of fonts that you may want to look into as well. Although these are free fonts, it is important to read their license agreements as they can change from time to time.

Why Pinterest Is So Addictive {infograph}

Chaunce Dolan — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:18:40 +0000

Pinterest has had explosive growth over the past 6 months, about an 866% increase in unique visitors. But you may be wondering what makes Pinterest so addictive. The infograph from Flowtown really explains it well.

Are you a Pinterest user? Follow our boards and pins for all sorts of geeky stuff from Star Wars, to gadgets, to typography and even origami.

Venmo Introduces Bank Funding

Chaunce Dolan — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:45:10 +0000

Venmo, the friend payment app which MoG uses, made a major announcement last night regarding how you can fund your Venmo accounts.

Venmo sent out an email notifying current users that there is a new option on how you fund your accounts. They have worked it out so that you get funds directly from your bank account whereas previously you could only get funds from your credit card.

What & When Things are Changing

Up until May 1st, you can continue using Venmo the way you have been via credit card funding. You can also opt to switch to bank payments early. If you’re confused, you can also learn more about bank payments.

Starting on May 1st, everyone must switch to bank payments to continue using Venmo for free. You can still use your credit card as your funding source, but you will be then charged 3% to cover processing fees.

Why They Changed the Funding Source

Venmo had been covering the credit card fees so that they could offer a simple and fast payment solution between friends. To continue their growth, they have been working for the past couple months on this new funding option. They have connected with many of the major banks like Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and thousands more.

At Venmo, we believe payments should be fun, fast, and easy. We also believe that payments between friends should always be free.

New Pinterest Profile Design Is Available

Chaunce Dolan — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:10:14 +0000

As we announced earlier this week, Pinterest was planning to release a new design for users profile pages. It is available as of this morning. The noticeable difference is that your profile is now using the Boards Page versus the Pin Page.

The other major change is globally across all pages and is that your profile info (avatar, description, and activity stats) is all displayed prominently at the top of the page.

Another new part of the design is on the Boards (Profile) page. They used to have each board have 9 tiny thumbnails to display. Now it shows one large thumbnail of the most recent pin in that board as well as displaying 4 tiny thumbs of recent pins.

Do you like the new design or would you prefer to have the old design back? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

New Profile & Boards Page Design

Old Boards Page Design

New Pins Page Design

Minimalist Pixar Posters from Poster Inspired

Chaunce Dolan — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:56:16 +0000

I wanted to showcase another collection from Posters Inspired out of their Etsy profile. This collection is of the Pixar movies Wall-E, Monsters Inc., Cars, Bug’s Life, Up and Ratatouille. What I really enjoyed about them, beside the minimalist design, is that they captured the essence of each movie through its portrayal.

They have a great collection of other posters that aren’t just Pixar related. They have Movies, including Star Wars (which we recently showcased), TV shows and some creative typography posters. The print size is 8″ x 10″ and 12″ x 16″ and is digitally printed on 250g off-white textured card stock.

They have the posters priced really well too $8-$18 each. If you want to buy more than one, they have deals for quantities:
2 for $30, 3 for $40, and 5 for $50

The Internet by 2015: Introduction of the Zettabyte {infograph}

Chaunce Dolan — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:40:34 +0000

As the internet becomes more and more vast with rich media like graphics, audio, and video; our consumption of that media is also increasing at an alarming rate. Recent findings from Cisco point to the need to add the term “zettabyte” to our daily lexicon, by as soon as 2015.

To place that amount of volume in more practical terms, an exabyte alone has the capacity to hold over 36,000 years worth of HD quality video…or stream the entire Netflix catalog more than 3,000 times. A zettabyte is equivalent to about 250 billion DVDs.

Curious about the size of a zettabyte worth of storage? A zettabyte is a billion terabytes. That is kind of difficult to imagine. I figured out what this would be using today’s standards of a 3 terabyte external hard drive (Western Digital). Here is what I came up with:

Dimensions: Length 6.94″, Height 7.94″, Width 1.94″
Volume: ~106.90 cubic inches (~0.0618634259 cubic feet)
Weight: 3.0 pounds
Units Necessary: ~333,333,334 (1 billion divided by 3 as we have a 3 terabyte drive)
Total Volume: ~20,621,142 cubic feet
Total Weight: 1 billion pounds (500,000 Tons)

To give you an idea of what 20,621,142 cubic feet is, the Empire State Building is about 37 million cubic feet, so the stack of external hard drives would stand half as tall as the Empire State Building. 500,000 tons is equivalent to 62,500 elephants. That is a lot of space, weight, and data by today’s standards.

Source: Cisco Blogs

Enjoy!

Minimalist Star Wars Posters from Poster Inspired

Chaunce Dolan — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:55:12 +0000

I found a great set of minimalist Star Wars posters on Etsy by Posters Inspired. What I really enjoyed about them, beside the minimalist design, is the water color brush technique and the burnt red color palette used.

They have a great collection of other posters that aren’t just Star Wars related. They have Movies, including Pixar, TV shows and some creative typography posters. The print size is 12″ x 16″ (420 mm x 297 mm) and is digitally printed on 250g off-white textured card stock.

They have the posters priced really well too at $18 each. If you want to buy more than one, they have deals for quantities:
2 for $30, 3 for $40, and 5 for $50

The Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

Revenge of the Sith

A New Hope

The Emire Strikes Back

Return of the Jedi