10 buku dari 2011. (Mungkin 11)

Pada hujung tahun selama dua tahun berturut-turut, saya bawakan senarai 5 Buku Ter..., yakni lima buah buku yang meninggalkan kesan mendalam pada diri saya pada tahun tersebut. Namun saya tidak mampu meneruskan 'tradisi' ini kerana masa saya sudah tidak sesenggang dahulu.

Oleh itu saya rangkumkan buku-buku yang seumpama dari tahun 2011 dalam senarai ini. Sebagai kompromi, saya pendekkan nama senarai tetapi saya panjangkan isinya daripada 5 kepada 10. Dan senarai ini dibawakan sekali harung, bukan dalam lima bahagian seperti sebelum ini. (Tiada lagi suspen!)

Inilah pilihan 10 buku dari 2011 saya.


Islam in Malaysia: Perceptions and Facts
Penulis: Ustaz Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin (diterjemahkan oleh U-En Ng)
Penerbit: Matahari Books (2010)
343 halaman

Seseorang itu boleh dilabelkan sebagai kontroversial kerana sebab yang munasabah atau tidak munasabah. Atau kedua-duanya, seperti dalam kes Ustaz Dr. Mohd Asri dan tokoh-tokoh yang lantang menegur masyarakat. Harga yang perlu dibayar demi membawa masyarakat Islam ke arah pembaikan dan relevancy. (Entri asal.)


Liku-Liku Pencarian Nur Islam: Pengalaman Memeluk Islam di Barat
Penulis: Sulaiman Dufford (diterjemahkan oleh Noresah Baharom)
Penerbit: Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia (2010)
248 halaman

Hadiah Hari Ulang Tahun Kelahiran daripada isteri tercinta. Buku ini akan membuatkan berfikir kita secara mendalam tentang apa yang perlu dilakukan untuk memajukan dakwah Islam dan membantu saudara baru. Berita pemelukan Islam oleh saudara baru selalu disambut dengan dengan gembira oleh penganut Islam sejak lahir, namun realiti yang didepani oleh saudara baru mungkin tidak seindah yang kita bayangkan.


The Creative Habit
Penulis: Twyla Twarp dan Mark Reiter
Penerbit: Simon and Schuster (2005)
256 halaman

Buku tentang kreativiti adakalanya dipenuhi teori-teori, atau saranan yang tidak jelas kaedahnya. Tidak dengan The Creative Habit. Ditulis oleh seorang koreografer ternama dari Broadway, buku ini menekankan kepada perbuatan yang menjana kreativiti, di samping menerangkan tulang dan daging yang membentuk sebuah karya kreatif. Banyak mengandungi rujukan kepada budaya dan seni Amerika, bersedialah untuk berulang kali mengGoogle dan mengWikipedia.



Bicara Buat Pemimpin dan Rakyat
Penulis: Ustaz Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin
Penerbit: Utusan Publication Sdn Bhd (2010)
292 halaman

Koleksi kedua tulisan Ustaz Dr. Asri di ruangan Bicara Mufti selepas Mengemudi Bahtera Perubahan Minda (yang diterjemah menjadi Islam in Malaysia). Buku ini disudahi dengan catatan beliau semasa melepaskan jawatan mutfi.



Every Living Thing
Penulis: James Herriot
Penerbit: St. Martin's Griffin (2005)
352 halaman

Bukan mudah untuk mengucapkan selamat tinggal kepada sesuatu yang begitu menyentuh sanubari kita. Setiap perkara pasti berakhir. Begitulah juga siri semi-autobiografi doktor haiwan desa James Herriot, atau nama sebenar beliau Alf Wight, yang turut merakamkan cerita tentang pahit getir, suka duka para petani, penternak, dan pemilik haiwan di Yorkshire dan jalinan indah di antara makhluk-makhluk Allah yakni manusia, haiwan, dan alam. (Entri asal.)



Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything
Penulis: Steven Levy
Penerbit: Penguin (2000)
336 halaman

Apple bukanlah Steve Jobs dan Steve Jobs bukanlah Apple. Apple terdiri di atas usaha Jobs, Steve Wozniak, dan ramai lagi individu, membentuk DNA syarikat yang sedang paling dicemburui saat ini. Cerita di sebalik kelahiran Apple Macintosh, komputer yang mengubah dunia. Fun fact #1: Apple Macintosh adalah komputer pertama yang direka untuk dioperasikan mengguna tetikus. Fun fact #2: Pada tahun 1984, tahun Macintosh dilancarkan, penulis dan teknologis John C. Dvorak melihat melihat tetikus Macintosh lalu berujar, "tiada bukti ada orang yang akan mahu menggunakannya." Saya percaya Encik Dvorak kini telah menilai semula pendapat beliau tersebut. (Entri asal.)



This Earth of Mankind
Penulis: Pramoedya Ananta Toer (diterjemahkan oleh Max Lane)
Penerbit: Penguin (1996)
368 halaman

Buku pertama di dalam tetralogi Buru. Raden Mas Minke, anak watan berpendidkan Belanda, bangkit mencabar penjajahan melalui pena dan pemikiran. Perkenalannya yang secara tidak diduga dengan Nyai Ontosoroh, wanita simpanan seorang hartawan Belanda, dan anak perempuannya Anneliesse, membuka pintu-pintu baru buat Minke, termasuklah pintu kepada tragedi. Pak Pramoedya sememangnya seorang master storyteller. (Entri asal.)



Bermula dan Berakhir
Penulis: Naguib Mahfouz (diterjemahkan oleh Shamsuddin Jaafar)
Penerbit:Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (1993)
622 halaman

Saya mula-mula tertarik dengan novel ini kerana Naguib Mahfouz. Tetapi usai membaca novel saya lebih berminat untuk mengetahui siapakah Shamsuddin Jaafar. Terjemahan beliau terasa begitu jati. Bagi saya plot novel ini biasa-biasa sahaja. Tentang orang miskin yang sudah jatuh kemudian ditimpa tangga dan tangga itu patah lalu menikam badannya, mengakibatkan kesakitan yang amat sangat dek luka yang dalam serta busuk bernanah, menyebabkan seluruh keluarganya menangis tidak berhenti-henti... Ya, ya, kasihan mereka ini. Pak Pramoedya dan Naguib Mahfouz kedua-duanya sama kepala, suka menyeksa watak-watak mereka hingga luluh jasad dan jiwa. Apapun, Shamsuddin Jaafar dan Max Lane, syabas buat Tuan berdua. (Entri asal.)



The Story of The Qur'an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life
Penulis: Ingrid Mattson
Penerbit: Wiley-Blackwell (2007)
272 halaman

Tidak banyak buku akademik yang mudah dibaca dan difahami. The Story of The Qur'an adalah satu kelainan. Kali pertama saya melihat sejarah dan signifikasi Al-Quran dalam kehidupan orang Islam dari kaca mata seorang ahli akademik Barat, yang juga seorang Muslimah. (Entri asal.)



Lessons of the Crusades and the Mongol Hordes: Salahuddin al-Ayyubi and his Successors
Penulis: Sheikh Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi (diterjemahkan oleh Mohiuddin Ahmad)
Penerbit: Islamic Book Trust (2007)
118 halaman

Abaikan muka J.W. yang ada pada kulit hadapan buku ini. Beliau tidak ada kena-mengena (secara lansung) dengan isi kandungan buku ini, iaitu mengenai dua turning point yang penting dalam sejarah umat Islam. Naskhah yang nipis tetapi sarat dengan pengajaran. (Entri asal.)

Mula-mula saya katakan 10 buku, tetapi tidak mungkin senarai ini akan lengkap tanpa buku ini.



Perangai Bergantung Kepada Diri Sendiri
Penulis: Pendita Za'ba
Penerbit: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (2005)
103 halaman

Satu fenomena menyedihkan di kalangan sesetengah agamawan ialah menuduh orang lain yang berbeza pendapat atau aliran dengan bermacam-macam tuduhan, daripada bermasalah kepada sesat hingga ke kafir. Apa yang menimpa Pendita Za'ba, yang mana beliau disekat oleh Sultan Perak atas desakan golongan agamawan juga, wajib dijadikan pengajaran oleh kita semua. Janganlah kita menyebelahi satu pihak tanpa berfikir panjang. "Dan janganlah kamu mengikut apa yang kamu tidak ketahui; sesungguhnya pendengaran, penglihatan dan hati, semuanya akan ditanya apa yang dilakukan.” Perintah Allah kepada kita dari Surah Al Israa ayat ke-36. (Entri asal.)

Apakah buku-buku terbaik yang saudara saudari baca pada 2011? Bolehlah kita cadang-mencadang apa pula untuk kita baca 2012 ini.

Another Inkscape project: book cover

Nothing conceptual, just experimenting with kerning.

Click to 'biggerise'.

HTML 5, CSS 3 dan kenangan membina laman web

Baru-baru HTML 5 dan CSS 3 telah diperkenalkan. Saya tidak pandai membuat analogi, tetapi percubaan terbaik saya untuk menggambarkan apakah Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) dan Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) dalam maksud yang kurang teknikal adalah: HTML ibarat isi dan tulang sesebuah laman web manakala CSS ibarat kulitnya. HTML digunakan untuk tujuan pengstrukturan laman web dan CSS digunakan untuk memberikannya rupa yang dikehendaki. Saya harap analogi ini tidak mengelirukan.

Semasa saya meneliti artikel-artikel yang membincangkan potensi serta kekurangan (buat masa ini) HTML 5 dan CSS 3, saya teringat pada zaman saya mula-mula belajar untuk membuat laman web. Percubaan pertama saya merupakan tugasan yang diberikan oleh tutor saya dalam subjek Multimedia. Ketika itu saya merujuk kepada dengan rakan saya, Ar. Bayangkan, saya seorang pelajar bidang komputer duduk berguru daripada seorang pelajar dari fakulti Bahasa Arab. Sebenarnya sesiapa pun yang boleh belajar untuk memanfaatkan Internet jika mempunyai minat dan kesanggupan untuk belajar.

Selepas 'ditauliah' oleh Ar, saya ke perpustakaan untuk mencari buku-buku berkaitan rekaan laman web. Saya telah meminjam dan menelaah beberapa buah buku dan mula berazam untuk membuat laman saya sendiri. Sasaran saya hanya sebuah laman web hanya sebuah laman web yang ringkas, memadai untuk saya bereksperimen menggunakan HTML dan CSS. Ketika HTML masih dalam versi 4.5 dan CSS pula versi 2.

Lama web pertama saya telah dimuat naik ke Geocities, sebuah perkhidmatan web hosting yang serba ringkas yang juga telah berhenti beroperasi pada tahun ini. Dengan kata lain, laman web saya yang ini sudah lenyap dari alam siber. (Salinannya yang asal pula telah lenyap akibat hard disk saya yang juga telah berhenti beroperasi.)

Pengalaman inijuga telah meyedarkan saya tentang pentingnya kandungan atau content. Apa gunanya sebuah laman web yang cantik pada luarannya tetapi lansung tidak mengandungi sebarang sebarang maklumat yang berguna? Tujuan utama orang mengunakan Internet adalah untuk mencari maklumat, bukan untuk mencuci mata dengan melihat laman web yang cantik-cantik. (Ya, saya sedar bahagian akhir ayat tadi boleh ditafsir dengan maksud lain.)

Ketika itu saya baru sahaja tamat pengajian pada peringkatan sarjana muda dan mula berfikir untuk bekerja. Namun perancangan Allah telah meletakkan saya di rumah di mana saya dan keluarga sibuk menguruskan arwah datuk saya yang sedang agak kritikal di hospital. Saya ke hospital pagi dan tengah hari, mengirimkan makanan kepada saudara yang menemani datuk dan menjemput mereka yang usai giliran meneman untuk pulang. Rutin ini memampukan saya mencuri-curi masa untuk eksperimen HTML dan CSS saya.

Pada masa yang sama, saya cuba untuk menulis kandungan untuk laman web saya yang kedua. Memandangkan kegilaan saya terhadap anime dan manga pada masa itu sedang melangit, saya memilih untuk menulis ulasan tentang beberapa siri yang saya telah atau sedang baca dan tonton. Namun tulisan saya yang paling panjang merupakan sebuah artikel mengenai kartunis Dato' Lat. Artikel yang termuat dalam dua muka surat laman web itu telah diilham oleh sebuah dokumentari tentang beliau yang disiarkan melalui Disovery Channel dan buku autobiografi beliau, Lat on Lat. Semasa saya kecil, ayah saya selalu membelikan saya buku-buku koleksi kartun beliau, antaranya Kampung Boy, Better Lat than Never, Mat Som dan Entahlah Emak. (Hingga kini saya masih mencari kedai yang menjual Town Boy). Sayang sekali ada di antara buku-buku ini yang hilang, kemungkinan besar tercicir semasa kami berpindah rumah.

Saya cuba untuk mencari laman web kedua saya, tetapi nampaknya laman web ini sudah tidak lagi wujud. Yang masih kekal bersama saya adalah ingatan pada saat-saat saya berkerut dahi kerana cuba memahami bagaimana HTML dan CSS berfungsi.

HTML 5 datang membawa perubahan-perubahan yang saya lihat sebagai amat memudahkan. Begitu juga CSS 3. Banyak perkara yang dulu terbatas oleh CSS 2 yang kini menjadi senang dengan adanya CSS 3. Ini termasuk kaedah yang lebih mudah untuk memuatkan video dan audio ke laman web menggunakan HTML 5.

Saya tidak bercadang untuk mengulas secara teknikal perubahan-perubahan ini. Cukuplah jika saya katakan bahawa untuk mempelajari rekaan laman web pada masa sekarang adalah lebih mudah berbanding dengan beberapa tahun yang lalu. Inilah realiti tentang pengetahuan teknologi; apa yang kita kuasai hari ini akan kelak digantikan dengan sesuatu yang baru dan lebih canggih. Kita hanya akan maju jika kita terus-menerus belajar untuk meningkatkan pengetahuan yang sudah ada.

Inkscape project: newspaper article mock-up

It's been ages since I last played with Inkscape. This is my mock-up of a Sunday newspaper article that I did not too long ago. In the process I picked up on a few things such as:

• using align to make the sides of text bodies align properly
• using rulers to divide to page into sections
• finding out that Inkscape doesn't do drop caps (not yet, but hopefully in the near future it will)

Overall, a fun project where I explored how Inkscape handles text.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri 1430H dalam perspektif

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri 1430H buat semua pengunjung Muslim. Semoga ibadat kita semasa Ramadhan yang baru berlalu diterima dan menjadi asbab kita bertambah soleh dan solehah, insya-Allah.

Saya akan bertolak pulang ke kampung di utara tanahair untuk bersama dengan ibu bapa, Tok serta saudara mara lain. Harap-harap hari bahagia ini akan membawa kebahagian, dan bukan yang sebaliknya. Kepada yang bakal berjalan jauh untuk sampai ke kampung, berhati-hati ketika di perjalanan. Kepada yang beraya di KL atau di perantau dan jauh dari insan-insan tersayang kerana apa-apa sebab, janganlah bersedih kerana kalian masih bersama kami dalam ingatan. (Yang ini khas buat rakan saya yang sedang belajar di luar negara. Tabahkan hati, ya?)

Terimalah 'kad' yang semenangnya tak berapa indah ini sebagai pengganti diri. Bukannya tak mahu buat cantik-cantik cuma masa tak mengizinkan. Saya sepatutnya sekarang sibuk berkemas untuk perjalanan balik kampung. Tapi saya sempat bermain-main dengan Inkscape sekejap, mencuba beberapa teknik yang baru diketahui. Sebelum ini saya telah mencuba untuk membuat teks yang dalam perspektif tetapi tak berjaya. Rupanya tekniknya tak sesusah mana, dan hasilnya seperti di atas.

Dan tolong maafkan saya jika ada sebarang salah silap. Kalian juga saya maafkan.

iWoz

Awal bulan ini saya membaca iWoz iaitu autobiografi Steve Wozniak, salah seorang daripada dua orang Steve yang menubuhkan syarikat komputer Apple. Steve yang seorang lagi ialah, siapa lagi kalau bukan, Steve Jobs.

Saya beli iWoz dua tahun yang lalu di Jualan Gudang Times. Saya hairan kenapa buku ini berada di jualan sebegini sedangkan buku ini baru setahun diterbitkan. Biasanya jualan gudang menjual buku-buku yang agak lama, mungkin untuk menghabiskan stok. Apabila saya membaca, baru saya dapat agak kenapa.

Buku ini agak teknikal untuk kebanyakan orang. Saya pernah belajar dalam jurusan komputer semasa di peringkat ijazah dan saya sendiri terasa yang buku ini agak teknikal. Ini bukan satu masalah besar, cuma pada pedapat saya ini mungkin antara sebab buku ini kurang mendapat sambutan. iWoz bukanlah buku untuk pembaca jenis santai.

Steve Wozniak

Tetapi bagi mereka yang berfikiran teknikal, iWoz ialah buku patut dibaca. Wozniak ialah seorang jurutera yang bersemangat tinggi selain tekun dalam menyelesaikan masalah dan kreatif dalam mencari penyelesaian. Awal buku ini ialah tentang Wozniak ketika membesar dan dorongan utama beliau dalam memilih bidang sains dan teknologi. Bapa beliau yang merupakan seorang jurutera sering bercerita tentang perkara-perkara teknikal seperti komponen elektronik—perintang, transistor, dan sebagainya—walaupun ketika Wozniak masih dalam sekolah rendah. Kita sendiri pun mula belajar benda sebegini ketika sekolah menengah. Menurut Wozniak, menerima penerangan yang jelas dari bapa beliau tentang sains dari kecil menyebabkan beliau mendahului pelajar-pelajar lain dalam matapelajaran tersebut.

Dengan minat yang membakar serta pengetahuan yang semakin hari semakin bertambah, Wozniak memberanikan diri untuk mencipta pelbagai ciptaan, antaranya sistem perhubungan berwayar yang merentasi pagar deret rumah beliau. Sistem ini menghubungkan rumah beliau dan rumah kawan-kawan beliau yang juga sederet.

Dua Steve semasa muda. Wozniak (kiri) dan Jobs.

Wozniak bertemu Jobs melalui seorang kawan. Mereka berdua berbeza kira-kira empat tahun dan memiliki minat yang sama, iaitu mereka ciptaan baru. Antara projek mereka merupakan membuat alat yang boleh membuat panggilan percuma. Dengan erti kata lain, curi talian atau phone phreaking. Mereka menyeludup masuk masuk ke pusat rujukan sebuah pusat pengajian tinggi untuk mengkaji buku panduan spefikasi talian telefon. Projek ini juga memperkenalkan mereka kepada phone phreaker lain seperti Captain Crunch yang amat terkenal di kalangan phone phreaker.

Gabungan kepintaran teknikal Wozniak dan kepintaran berniaga Jobs membawa kepada ciptaan sebuah komputer peribadi yang kemudiannya akan dikenali sebagai komputer Apple. Pada ketika ini iaitu awal tahun 80–an banyak syarikat cuba mencipta komputer peribadi untuk kegunaan para pemilik perniagaan. Apa yang dicari-cari pengguna ialah komputer mudah digunakan dan tidak mahal.

Wozniak memahami kedua-dua kriteria ini dan bertungkus lumus untuk merealisasikannya. Apple I ciptaannya mempunyai paparan yang besar, papan kekenci, perisian yang berguna untuk bisnes dan berharga murah. Kebanyakan komputer lain sekadar mempunyai paparan sebaris seperti yang ada pada kalkulator. Tidak hairanlah jika Apple I mendapat sambutan luar dugaan.

Seterusnya, Jobs dan Wozniak membuka syarikat komputer Apple. Seperti syarikat-syarikat lain Apple tidak terlepas daripada mengalami pasang surut. Antara saat paling genting yang dialami Apple ialah kemerosotan jualan Apple III yang rendah kualitinya berbanding Apple II yang sangat laris. Ini menyebabkan Jobs meletakkan jawatan dan meninggalkan Apple, syarikat yang beliau sendiri tubuhkan.

Buku ini juga ditulis untuk membetulkan beberapa tanggapan salah tentang diri Wozniak, Apple dan Jobs. Ramai yang percaya Jobs dipecat dari Apple, tetapi ini tidak benar seperti yang diceritakan tadi. Begitu juga tanggapan yang Wozniak sendiri sudah dipecat atau berhenti dari Apple. Hakikatnya beliau hingga hari ini masih bersama Apple, walaupun secara tak aktif. Manakala Jobs kini sudah kembali ke dalam Apple semenjak Apple membeli syarikatnya NeXT. Beliau kini memegang jawatan CEO Apple.

The search for proper quotation marks

Ah, the quotation marks. Have you noticed how the default quotation marks is different (and a lot less attractive) from the actual quotation marks?

I've been trying to get Inkscape to show the actual quotation marks for some time now.

The solution I tried was to use a word processor, replace the default the default quotation marks with special characters. In this case, actual quotation marks. Not all fonts offer special characters, we need to check the font set first. And paste everything back into Inkscape.

But I just learned that there's an easier way of doing this, simply by pressing Alt and a few numpad keys.


Actual quotation marks look way much better the default one, don't you think?

(Source of the quote above, here.)

My new desktop

UPDATED!

Some time ago, I wrote about my efforts to declutter my desktop. I used a small software called Jedi Concentrate to basically hide my desktop items. That was a workable method, but not a very good one.

Now, after about two years later, I've stumbled upon a better method. The result can be seen above. What do you think?

First of all, this method is a fairly simple one. I can't take credit for it because it is a simplified version of other people's desktop makeover methods. You can have a look them over at Lifehacker (see Most Popular Desktops of 2008). My method is a very, very simple one that require a few downloads and some tinkering here and there. By the way, I'm using Windows XP.

If you're interested, here's the basic explanation:

• The windows taskbar is set ot auto-hide
• A wallpaper.
• I downloaded and installed Rocketdock, and it sit the bottom side of the desktop
• Fences, to manage and hide my desktop items

The method in details:

Set taskbar to auto-hide: Right click the taskbar > Properties > On the Taskbar tab, check the "Auto-hide the taskbar" box.

Set the wallpaper: Personally, I prefer large-sized wallpapers. To change the wallpaper, simply right click on the desktop > Properties > Go to the Desktop tab > and click browse to select the wallpaper you like.

Download and install Rocketdock: Rocketdock is a better way of handling shortcuts to your favourite folders and files. Spend some time trying it out. I set my Rocketdock to be at the bottom, but it can be set to appear at the top, left or right side of the desktop. It can also be set to auto-hide.

Download and install Fences: Oh, Fences, where have you been all my life? Fences does two things that I love. One, it groups desktop items like files and shortcuts together. This really helps declutter any messy desktop. Two, by double clicking on the desktop (but outside Fences), it will hide everything on the desktop. My desktops items are properly managed and they remain hidden. So cool.

Well, there you go, my simple desktop makeover method. The effect of implementing this has been positive so far. I can tell you that looking at it sometimes makes me forget that my PC is already 7 years old!

Yet another theme makeover

No, your eyes are not tricking you. This blog has just underwent another theme change.

The reason is to accommodate users who are still using 800x600 screen resolution. The previous one was a bit too big for that screen size.

This theme is modified from Salji Fuji by Our Blogger Templates. My many thanks to OBT for making a highly-customisable theme.

The return of MS Office (into my life)

I'm one frog that's been sitting under the coconut shell for far too long.

I've been OpenOffice exclusively for nearly 2 years. In my new job, I'm reunited with ol' MS Office, now the 2007 version. And what's this? The "ribbon" interface.

A lot of things come to mind when I work using the ribbon. One is feeling impressed at how much improvement MS has added to its aged office productivity suite. It's certainly looks cool too.

On the other hand, this definitely changes the learning curve. Finding ways to do things like adding tables and formatting the text may take users some time. (Or maybe it's just me.) Familiarity is important because it helps with intuitiveness.

One thing I dislike about Office 2007 though is the difficulty to get it to save file in older formats like Word 2000, for example. But this the same with OpenOffice, where it saves your work in its default format unless we specify otherwise. However, with Office 2007, I had to dig deep into the options to find and enable the 'Save As' function. This is not the way to score points in terms of user-friendliness.

Redhead

So this is what I do. I compensate for my lack of writing with a tweak in the layout.

Behold, a new header. Er, masthead? Banner? Whatever, it's the thing sitting at the top of this blog with the title in it. Sure, it's not the coolest in the world but I'm happy with and glad about it.

And it's in red. I tell you, red is not exactly my colour. You won't find me in public wearing red. If you do, you can safely assume I may be forced against my will to wear it. I don't hate the colour, I just think it's a bit too strong for me. In fact I find yellow, coral or peach more tolerable.

This whole red thing going on is actually my attempt at breaking out of my own box. I just hope nobody's eyes will get hurt in the process.

Anyway, credits should be where they're due. The thingy above was done using Inkscape, the wonderful open source the scalar vector graphics (SVG) editor. SVG is much, much smaller than JPG or PNG, making the header's size small and faster to load (I hope).

My gargantuan thanks to mulomen, the person who shares the SVG of the RAF 977E van over at the Open Clip Art Library. Great job, couldn't done this without it.

And a big bouquet of gratitude to SMeltery for the font Audimat Mono. Love it, and the other free fonts being offered too.

Kulihat... merah

Saudara, saudari, blog ini bersalin lagi.

Bersalin kulit.

Harap yang pilihan warna ini tidak akan memudaratkan penglihatan saudara saudari semua. Jika ya, itu bukan niat saya. Saya minta maaf.

Sebenarnya saya geram. Saya geram sebab dah berpuluh-puluh kulit yang saya cuba, tapi satu pun yang melekat (di hati). Saya cuba itu, cuba ini.

Akhirnya saya kembali kepada pilihan yang ditawarkan oleh Blogger. Alhamdulillah saya masih ingat CSS sikit-sikit. Cuil sana sikit, cuil sini sikit—akhirnya kulit yang ini siap.

Satu lagi harapan saya ialah supaya blog ini akan dimuat dengan lebih laju.

(Saya berdoa semoga tidak akan ada rentina-rentina yang tercedera ketika melawat blog ini kerana blog ini tiada perlindungan insurans.)

Typography case study: ClearviewHwy

My earlier introduction to the book Thinking with Type may not be the most persuasive way to get anyone interested in typography. So I think, why not share a real world example of how typography can make a difference.

This example is taken from the book's website. Consider ClearviewHwy:

Clearview Hwy is the new typeface developed for use in U.S. highway and street signs. As they are adopted over time, the United States will become the most legible place on Earth. The designers’ goal was to create more readable roadsigns without having to make the existing signs bigger (which would cost a huge amount of money as well as causing more visual clutter and crowding.) Designed by Don Meeker and James Montalbano. Available from http://clearviewhwy.com.

Imagine yourself speeding through the highway, franticly looking at signboards for direction. Failing to read the signboards would be frustrating. Therefore, signboards should be legible (readable) even from afar.

They also needed to make signboards legible without making it larger, which increases the cost. By optimising the font's features, Clearview can be fitted into the standard sized signboards and still appear aesthetically pleasant. Clearview was designed and optimised by a group of designers, human factor scientists, psychologists and engineers. So it's not just the typeface designer and typographers who help make a good font or type. It takes a lot of other expertise as well.

Thinking with Type

My first experience working with typefaces ("muka taip", as it was called then) was in my Form 2 art class. Our teacher Mr. A made us create our own set of fonts using his cardboard strip method. This was followed by a few weeks designing a poster, using the font we made ourselves. At the time, I thought of all this as nothing more than a just another school work.

Years later when I started working with Powerpoint and web design, I realised how valuable the lessons Mr. A gave us were. Different fonts and types can convey different meanings. Picking the right font to use is an art by itself.

I may not understand the subject better than any formally-trained arts graduate. But at least I can have a conversation with someone with that background (like my cousin's husband, an arts lecturer.) I'm indebted to Mr. A for opening my eyes to the world of typography and font design.

I decided to further educate myself on this subject with Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors and Students. Ellen Lupton, the author, opens the book with a brilliant quote:

Typography is what language looks like.

This book however is not intended for general reading. It is slightly heavy with terminology. There are explanations but nothing in detail. It is more on the intermediate side. As a beginner, I had to refer elsewhere as well.

The book is divided into four parts: Letter, Text, Grid and Appendix (compiling advice, warnings and other useful notes.)

In Letter, readers are started off on a historical tour on typography. Ever wondered why italics are called that? Italics is actually a branch of typography. In the 15^th century, Italian typographers created types that captures the cursiveness of natural handwriting, which is slanted to one side. This part also includes a brief lesson the anatomy of types.

The following part, Text, takes everything in last one to a higher level. Text are after all letters in formation. I was surprised to learn that the paragraph is actually a necessary invention for text. Of course, since none of us talk in paragraphs. But text flowing on and on without any paragraph is certainly unbearable.

Grid, or more familiar to us as layout, talks about the many possibilities in arranging letters and text on a page's space. Grid is a new concept for me. I once tried to produce an assignment in a magazine format, and I struggled to get everything in place. If I had viewed everything in terms of grid, I might have saved a lot time and effort.

Even without any arts background, anyone can learn to appreciate types and typography from reading this book, thanks to the informative essays and the loads of example and photo. Lupton generously shares a sizeable portion of the book on the book's website. Thinking with Type is not just an essential design reading; it's a visual thinker's delight.

Tom Peters Essentials - Design

To Muslims readers, a blessed and successful year ahead insya-Allah.


Tom Peters isn't another brash, young Wall Streeter with some 'ideas' or a milion-dollars-making head of a major corporation. He's a business thinker, writer, consultant and a 65-year-old. You can't fault him for being short of insight.

The first few pages of his book, Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age, is in red. The guy's really angry about the wrong things that is going on in the business world and how they repeated almost endlessly. I, on the hand, nearly fell off the couch. This is not just another management book. This guy is on to something.

I didn't finish reading Re-imagine (my library membership expired). However, I found this book, which is distilled from points discussed Re-imagine (and much cheaper). It is part of a series that includes Leadership, Trends and Talent.

Design, according to Peters, is the new soul of the enterprise. Business is not just about the numbers, it is also about the experience. About beauty. About love.

Sounds a bit far-fetched? Maybe to someone who doesn't think much about design. Personally I think about time a book like this is written.

The core ideas of this book correlates business with design thinking in order to guide companies to become spectacular and scintillating. Settle for nothing less than this. Create experiences, not just transactions. Wow everyone.

Peters also practices what he preach. This book looks more like a coffee table book than a business book. I have sneaky feeling Peters has a long-hidden designer side that finally came out (and had a blast) when he wrote Re-imagine and the later books.

Branding exercise

The new year (both Gregorian and Hijrah) is time to move on to new things. So here I am, trying to make changes in my life, this blog included.

For this blog, I was thinking of giving it a makeover. A new template that makes reading much easier, if possible. Yesterday afternoon was spent doing that. I uploaded a few snazzy templates and tested how they looked with respect to the content. (One of them was a radically impressive.)

Unfortunately none of them were met my expectations. Some had brilliant colours but tiny font size. One in particular (the radically impressive) makes everything look like they are on a canvas sheet. But it has a tiny space for the title.

I could go through the codes' template line by line and tweak them to my liking. But I realise that I do have as much free time as I used to. My CSS knowledge has also gone rusty a bit.

Maybe I'll try again some other day. I was really hoping to get this blog looking brand new immediately.

One change that has made here, if haven't noticed it already, is the title. This blog is roughly 3 years old, and it has undergone name changes more times than its age number. (Yes, branding isn't quite my forte.)

The previous sidebar blog title sign is now replaced with a central header. It's quite big. If you experience loading lags because of it, please let me know.

Finally, I hope the new year and changes will bring good things, insya-Allah. For all of us.

Card-bo!

I played around with Inkscape some more, and ended up with...

Card-bo! (Complete with coin slot on the top left side of its chest!)

Hope you like it. Originally from the pages of one of my favourite(st) manga, Yotsuba to!

Bowling in Inkscape

At one time I directed a lot of my focus on mastering Inkscape, the wonderful, open source vector graphics editor. But things didn't pan out as planned.

Inkscape isn't as intuitive as I thought, which is not a bad thing. It's just that it's a tool with a learning curve. Figuring out how to use it means spending time trying its functions and features, and not by guessing which one does what.

I took the latter approach got disappointed. Inkscape seemed easy at first, but frustrations took over as I couldn't find the way the things I want. For example, I tried to create a magazine-style layout using it but the final output was not sharp enough and the size ended up wrong. I abandoned Inkscape for some time, thinking of giving up entirely.

But later (can't exactly remember when but about months later), I gave Inkscape another try. I was bored and I tried some things that I never tried before, like using paths and nodes. The result is the above: the bowling pin.

Yes, it looks like sketchy, amateurish at best. But it is a badge of courage for me. I played around with nodes and paths, something that scared me back then, when I thought Inkscape wasn't as easy as I would like it to be.

I took a leap of faith. It was scary, like it should be. It's a good reminder for myself that the scary possibilities are sometimes the ones that change things for the better.


A bit about the bowling pin. Initially it was a round shape converted into a path. In path mode, nodes can be added. Nodes can be manipulated to give an object the shape or curve we want it to have. For example, I added nodes to the circle to form the neck of the pin. It's a fairly simple manipulation, but I wasn't successful at manipulating paths and nodes before and that caused a lot of the frustrations.

Now I'm less scared of Inkscape. It takes time to learn it and I'm willing to give whatever it takes to get it working.

(The bowling pin is blue because one of the first bowling pins I ever saw were the plastic toy ones that my father bought me when I was wee lad. It had other colours too. And please never invite me to go bowling, because like virtually all other sports I'm just awful at it.)

Get Vista fonts without Windows Vista or Office 2007

Along with a whole truckload of new features, Microsoft has bundled a new set of fonts for the new Windows Vista and Office 2007. The font set is designed to make use of the ClearType technology, which allows for better on screen display and readability. If you've got neither of the aforementioned programs, you still get your hands on the Vista font set by downloading Powerpoint Viewer 2007 (a Powerpoint files viewer, for computers without Office installed). It will also install the Vista fonts.

Personally, I find the set to be a refreshing update. However, like a lot of people, I really hope Microsoft would license the fonts openly so that they can they be used by Mac and Linux users the way they use common fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana) right now.

Also worth reading: Poynter Online's article on the Vista fonts. I recommend you to read the comments afterwards for some enlightening insights on the topic.

Divorce pain? It could be transactive memory loss

In Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, I stumbled upon an interesting concept proposed by psychologist Daniel Wegner called transactive memory. The idea of transactive memory may help explain the feelings of pain and lost experienced by people when they get divorce or lose a spouse.

Transactive memory explains the concept of the knowledge that already exists around us externally and explicitly. I read about its discussion in Psychology of Everyday Things as a way to reduce errors made by users and lessen the burden of remembering things to do. This can be in the form of signages, labels, meters and so on.

We tend to remember very important things, like our home's or parent's telephone numbers and our I/C number.

For less important things, we deal with them a in slightly different way. We remember where we might find them instead. For example, we might not memorise the number of the contact number of our suppliers, but we do remember where we keep them. For that reason, we use notebooks, phone directories, business cards, software and other people.

In Wegner's experiment, he tested 59 dating college students couples who have been seeing each other for at least 3 months. They were then separated into two groups: those paired with their partners and those paired somebody else (people they don't know). The were asked to read 64 statements like "Midori is Japanese melon liqueur" and "Luke and Laura got married on 'General Hospital'". After 5 minutes, the pairs were asked the write down as many statements as they could remember.

Wegner found that pairs that know each other got significantly more statements right than the pair who don't know each each. He theorises that when people who are in a relationship for some time develops a joint memory system. This system only helps them to remember more things but also 'organises' the remembering process according who has the best understanding.

The idea of transactive memory may also not be exclusive to intimate, romantic relationship and probably observable in other relations like among colleagues in a team. This idea is still new and in need of further research to see, for example, how transactive memory takes place in a workgroup or department and in couples who have been married for a long time (a decade or longer).

Regarding the pain experienced by divorced people, Wegner writes:

Divorced people who suffer depression and complain of cognitive dysfunction may be expressing the loss of their external memory systems... They were once able to discuss their experiences to reach a shared understanding... They once could count on access to a wide range of storage in their partner, and this, too, is gone... The loss of transactive memory feels like losing a part of one's own mind.

I can't help to wonder if transactive memory explains why sometimes spouses are able to finish each other's sentences. Any thoughts, dear married readers?

(Picture from anyjazz65's flickr set, licensed under Creative Commons.)