How to

Making Wooden Business Cards with Ponoko

In Design, How to on 13 October 2008 with 11 comments

Ponoko is a New Zealand-based print-on-demand service for 3D objects. I decided to give them a try by making some wooden business cards. Here’s how it went.

I started by downloading the Ponoko Illustrator templates. Their “Making Guide” is excellent. Basically you use different colors to denote laser cuts and fills in light, medium, or dark [...]

10 Ways Newspapers Can Improve Comments

In Community, How to, Internet on 28 July 2008 tagged Media with 28 comments

The other day Bob Garfield had a good kvetch about dumb comments on newspaper websites on his show, On The Media, and I posted my two cents, but I still don’t feel better. I think that’s because Bob’s partly right: comments do suck sometimes.
So, instead of just poking him for sounding like Grandpa Simpson, I’d [...]

How to Write a Story (for Geeks)

In How to, Writing on 10 July 2008 with 10 comments

So maybe you’re a geek and you want to write a personal story for someplace like Fray. Writing, like life, is personal. Do whatever works for you. But if you need a hand, here are some things you could try. Take any that seem helpful and discard the rest.
First, tell the story – with your [...]

Making “Hand” Bags

In Craft, Fray, How to, Magazines on 20 December 2007 with 6 comments

A while back I scored a Gocco from a friend. A Gocco is a novel screen printing kit from Japan that’s no longer in production. I stowed it away in our office, waiting for a good project to bring it out. Today was that project.
I wanted to do something cool for Fray’s first subscribers. Since [...]

NaBloPoMo Q&A 6: Chopping Blocks

In Creativity, How to, Interviews, NaBloPoMo, Q&A, Writing on 15 November 2007 with 2 comments

Or: How To Bust Your Creative Block
Megan asked:
Say someone’s in a rut. What advice would you offer for getting out? ie, how do you stay creative and engaged? Who/what keeps you accountable?
And Joey asked:
How do you overcome creative block? What inspires you?
I had an English teacher in high school who said something I still think [...]

How to Shoot Events

In How to, Photography on 7 November 2007 with 12 comments

A few weeks ago I found myself in Beauty Bar in San Francisco. I was standing on the bar, the actual Beauty Bar, in my own private Coyote Ugly.
My head bumped against the ceiling. I was sweating so hard, my glasses were fogging. I adjusted the flash forward so it would bounce in the right [...]

NaBloPoMo Q&A 4: The Web Biz

In Business, Geek, How to, Internet, Interviews, NaBloPoMo, Q&A on 6 November 2007 with 3 comments

Zazzy asked:
I’m studying web development. Do you have any tips for crossing that hump between moderately-talented-amateur to professional (or you know, semi-almost-professional)?
I’ve worked in the web biz since 1995. Back then, there were no courses in web stuff. No degrees. So the people who got hired were the ones with “killer homepages” (to use the [...]

How to Take Halfway Decent Photos with an iPhone

In Apple, Geek, How to, Photography, Technology, iPhone on 1 July 2007 with 14 comments

Heather and I think of our cellphones more as cameras with phone attachments than phones with camera functions. So when a new one comes along, the first question we ask is, “How’s the camera?”
Today I took my new iPhone to the local dog park to find out. Short answer: About average for a cellphone, with [...]

How to Write a Book in Three Easy Steps

In Books, How to, Writing on 6 November 2006 with Comments Off

My book, Design for Community, has just gone out of print. It lives on as a download, but it’s just not the same. There’s just something special about those dead trees.
After I finished writing the book, back in 2001, I wrote a little story about what it was like. It was published online in a [...]

How to Make Coffee 2: Revenge of the Nerds

In Coffee, How to on 29 July 2005 with Comments Off

There’s no better way to learn a few things than to tell the internet that you know a few things. Case in point: A couple weeks ago I was having a low self-esteem day. So instead of focusing on what I was bad at, I focused on what I was good at. Coffee. So I [...]