Scott Bush

Some people don’t eat out. Others invest. Paranoid people keep cash in their mattress. How does this guy save? Coupons. That’s right. Not only does he clip’em, he proudly advertises the fact on his license plate. Spendin’ coups, baby.

No, this isn’t about a horrible car accident. I was driving down the road the other day and I saw something I’d never seen before: a mini-car underneath a huge semi truck that, I assume, helps to steer. Either that or the guy was just driving along in his Smart Car, got run over, and found himself suddenly part of much larger vehicle.

Pretty cool design. But I shouldn’t be suprised; it was a Boeing truck and that’s one organization known for its innovative designs. But what I am most pumped about was that the “driver” (if that’s the right term) was waving back at me as I took his photo. Sweet.

After a dearth of design-related posts, I finally have a useful tidbit to write about. “What!?” I hear you shout. Why, it’s the use of tiny icons that indicate to visitors what a link will actually do. Some sites (notably Wikipedia.org) employ this technique and I decided I wanted to do so on a site I’m working on for my former employer, CESNW. I’m working a Learn and Serve project site for them.

Why would this be important? It’s another information layer for users as they navigate. A link could potentially:

• Go to a new page within the same site;
• Go to an external site (say, Amazon.com from a blog page);
• Download a PDF, Word document, or other file; or
• Open your mail client to send a message (the

  mailto:

  link)

Why not show the visitor what’s going to happen when they click the link? “Too much work,” you say. Pshaw! Not with CSS and some crafty selectors. Simply develop some cute icons for the link types you want to call out, then add anchor selectors (

a

) that search for tell-tale strings like

.pdf

or the

http://

protocol that precedes external links. That’s all you have to do, as compliant browsers (IE 7, Safari, Firefox, etc. but not the ill-mannered IE 6) do the rest.

I found a couple of good sites that explain all this if you want more details. I’ll implement this on my site when I’ve finished doing so for the others I’m working on.

A heartfelt congratulations to our good friends Jacob Humphrey and Margielize Villaceran, who tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony Saturday, 9 June. It’s been a nine-year courtship for the two, so I’ve no doubt that the marriage they’re beginning will be a happy and stable one.

One of the best things about a wedding are the friendships they renew, and this was no exception. We saw our friends Matt and Kristina, whom we’ve not seen for over half a year; Erum Thompkins (formerly Dewji) and her husband Michael; Margielize’s friend Ellia, whom I’d not seen in eight years; and, of course, the regular contingent of friends. A special note to Jacob’s brother Micah for giving one of the best toasts I’ve had the pleasure of hearing.

Here’s a brief interview I imagine Andy Summers having with his personal trainer:

Personal Trainer: “Okay, Andy, let’s hit it hard this week. We’ve got a lot to work on. You’ve got a paunch, you eat terribly, and your skin is pallow.”

Andy Summers: “No thanks.”

This took place in 1988 and Andy’s not looked back.

All joking aside, The Police were incredible. Sure, Andy Summers looked a little worn out relative to bandmates Stewart Copeland and Sting (who looks better than he did in 1988, if possible), but he played that guitar like a pro. I had worried that these aging rockers would destroy their legacy with a crappy, geriatric performance but I was glad to be completely wrong.

I was lucky enough to be invited by my friend Tara, whose coworker bailed on the second show at the Key Arena on Thursday, 7 June. We were directly opposite the stage on the far side, but we had an obstructed view of the stage and the three huge screens above it. These were crucial to the show, as they displayed cool animations based on The Police album covers (Ghost in the Machine was the best) and close ups of them singing and playing. Sorry for the poor quality cell-phone camera shot.

Musically, they were awesome. It was a veritable hit parade. The good thing about a reunion tour where the artists aren’t pushing a new album is they don’t foist a bunch of new stuff on you that you don’t want to hear–nothing but net, baby! Here’s the setlist:

1. Message in a Bottle
2. Synchronicity I
3. Spirits in the Material World
4. Voices Inside My Head/When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around
5. Don’t Stand So Close to Me
6. Driven to Tears
7. Walking on the Moon *
8. Truth Hits Everybody
9. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
10. Wrapped Around Your Finger
11. Bed’s Too Big Without You
12. De Do Do Do De Da Da Da *
13. Invisible Sun
14. Walking in Your Footsteps
15. Can’t Stand Losing You *
16. Roxanne
17. King of Pain
18. So Lonely (1st encore)
19. Every Breath You Take
20. Next To You (2nd encore)

The asterisks above indicate my favorite songs. Can’t Stand Losing You was an experience. I’ve listened to The Police Live! album (from 1995) hundreds of times, and always sung along with Sting when he invites the audience (in Boston) to sing: “We’ve shouted enough for one evening… now it’s your turn!” So when this song started and Sting sang the first part of the refrain, then held his hand to his ear to invite us to sing, I was pumped. Sure, I can’t sing, but it was so loud in the Key that no one knew.

Walking on the Moon isn’t one of my favorite songs, but it was done with so much energy and enough difference from recordings I’m used to that it really shone. De Do Do Do De Da Da Da is just one of the best Police songs, and seeing it live was no exception.

Opening act

I shouldn’t forget to mention the opening act, a group called Fiction Plane. Never heard of them? Neither had I, which is surprising because the lead singer is none other than Joe Sumner, Sting’s son! They were a pretty decent rock band, sounding a lot like a cross between The Police and U2.

Who remembers the “Konami code” from the good ol’ Nintendo days? Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start. I was wearing my “know your roots” tee-shirt—the one with the big 8-bit Nintendo controller on it and thought about that code for some strange reason. Maybe because it gave you unlimited health/lives/weapons/powers or whatever the game happened to offer by way of power-ups and I could totally use that right now.