Online Tools review: Initializr

Having a hard time with HTML 5.0? Finding it difficult to get started. Well, Initializr can help you with this task. Just pick from your choice of options, from HTML and CSS, Javascript, jQuery and even server configuration files and download your template file! That easy!

Based on the HTML 5.0 Boilerplate template, Initializr is a brilliant tool to help get the new standard out the door, properly. Head on over and take a look, I'm convinced that you'll find it useful.

Micro Homes: Zero House

From Specht Harpman Architects, an absolutely fantastic micro home: the zeroHouse! The zeroHouse was designed from the ground up to be a completely self-sufficient and comfortable home.

The zeroHouse was designed as a small, prefabricated house that can be shipped anywhere and quickly setup. It contains a complete kitchen, bathroom as well as all the necessary elements to support four adults. But the truly interesting feature of the zeroHouse is its ability to operate independently, without the need for any external utilities connections.

High-efficiency solar panels produce power and store it in an onboard bank of batteries. A rainwater collection system gathers and diverts water into a 2700 gallon tank. All plumbing fixtures are gravity-fed, which eliminates the need for pumps, that consume far too much power. Another interesting feature is the organic waste processing, which is performed in a special "digester unit", which is located beneath the house. It converts the waste into clean, dry compost that needs to be removed only twice a year and can then be used to improve the soil for agriculture around the home.

The zeroHouse is also fully climate-controlled, with a high-efficiency combined air-conditioning and heating system. The walls, roof, and floor are all insulated with closed-cell structural foam, and achieve a thermal rating of R58, which is pretty impressive.

A great feature of the zeroHouse is that it can be installed in places that would unsuitable for standard construction, including water up to ten feet deep, or on slopes of up to thirty-five degrees. By using a system of helical-anchor foundations that touch the ground at only four points, the zeroHouse requires no excavation.

Visit SpechtHarpman for additional information and complete specifications on the zeroHouse.

Micro Homes: 2+ Weekend House

There's just something about really small homes that really sets my imagination off! And this one really combines two aspects that I really like: micro homes and shipping containers.

Created by the architect Jure Kotnik, the 2+ Weekend Home is a simple, two shipping container micro home designed to be set up quickly and effectively. Contrary to many homes designed with shipping containers, the ones used in this design were specifically manufactured for this home rather than recycled from a freight company.

The layout is simple and tasteful, with enough room for a couple of people to live quite well:

A thoughtful balcony has been added, accessible from the second floor, as well as front and rear decks at ground level.

A nice effort to get the housing manufacturing sector to begin the process of mass producing these great little homes!

Online Tools review: Prezi

Are you tired of the same boring presentations? Have you been looking for a simple solution to this problem? Well, search no more; Prezi is here! Somewhat difficult to sum up in a few short words, Prezi is a Flash-based presentation tool that allows even a new user with little experience, to create beautiful, animated, zoomable, non-linear presentations!

One of the great things about Prezi is that it is available for free, with some limitations, of course! A paid subscription (there are two levels of pay access, with various options) are available and really extend what is possible. Prezi uses a fantastic user interface that is truly intuitive and simple to use. If you want to create something that will blow you coworkers (and your employers!) away, head on over to their site with your next project and see what you can build with it! I am certain that you will be completely amazed!

Pick of the week: Goodsie.com

Of all the questions that I regularly receive concerning using the Internet for business, the most common one by far is: how do I set up an online store? Of course, this is not necessarily the simplest of questions to answer. Until now, that is, thanks to our pick of the week, Goodsie.com. Currently in Beta testing, Goodsie is a web-based, online store builder. Now, before you decide to turn your nose up, serious web designers, head over and take a good look. In my opinion, Goodsie has better features and functionality in their Beta state than many competitors who have been around for years.

A beautiful interface, enough options to create the custom online store of your dreams and a truly functional output, one would be hard pressed to find a better tool to help you build a great commerce site. Of course, there are other factors involved in the creation of an online business, but this is a great start! Head over to Goodsie.com right now and sign up. Well worth seeing and I think you'll agree.

Online Tools review: HTMLForm.com

Building HTML forms is not that complicated; the only real issue is access to a decent editor to code the form, but that's not necessarily the easiest way to visualize the actual layout of your form. In essence, it's approaching a design problem from the wrong direction. In come HTMLForm.com to the rescue! In essence, this tool allows you to visually create your form, add the features and elements that you want, then generate the code for that form, to be incorporated into any project you might be working on at this moment.

A great tool and a handy one to add to your quiver if you are a mobile designer. Go take a look and try it out, I'm convinced you'll be quite impressed.

Bon Appetit Lunch Box Set

I was at the art supply store Omer Desseres with my wife the other day, when I spotted an interesting looking "lunch box" (yes, I can actually find even a lunch box interesting!). The Bon Appetit Lunch Box, by Martin Blum and Dan Black, is a modern twist on the japanese bento box. Made of polypropylene and copolyester, completely BPA free and microwave and dishwasher safe, the box is a great way of packing various items for a nice lunch: The dimensions for the box and matching bag are as follows: Box: 7.5” sq / 2.25” deep.  Bag: 10.5” high / 11” wide, open as Mat: 21” length / 11” wide The box includes 2 containers, as well as a fork and a recipe book is also available separately. It's not a very large container and I know a few men that would be left feeling a little bit hungry following a lunch packed in one of the these, but the idea is very well executed and the materials are top quality. Go take a look at this and other offerings over at the site.

Kolo Albums

As my wife has been working on completing a wedding album for Gen & Dave, customers that she photographed in July, she discovered a fantastic manufacturer called Kolo, who specialize in high-quality albums and scrapbooks of all types. I was very impressed by both the designs available as well as the overall material quality:

A lot of selection available and as you can imagine, a fairly premium price, but you are paying for quality:

Have a look at their website or visit Omer DeSerres art stores, who are a licensed distributor.

A new choice in construction material

I've always had an interest in materials science (yes, I am very much a geek!); simply put, matter is simply fascinating, in all its forms. But the really interesting part of that comes in the applications of materials. It is how we choose to use materials and the ingenious methods used to transform materials into other forms that is truly interesting.

Here is a new material that I believe has a lot of possibilities: Bamboo lumber. It's nice to see that some people keep thinking outside of the box!

Electrolux Design Lab

You may have heard of Electrolux before, a leading European designer of a variety of home appliances. Every year, Electrolux holds a design competition to help develop new ideas and concepts in this very competitive field.

And although they have long been eclipsed as an appliance company by some of the larger corporations, many of the ideas generated during the contest are absolute genius! Take a look at this year's contestants and ideas and judge for yourself at Electrolux Design Lab.

I am not a paper cup, really

During many of our frequent trips to Chapter's, my wife and I had often seen these great looking coffee cups, shaped like a standard paper cup, but made from a double-walled ceramic, glazed on the inside and matte on the outside and supplied with a silicone snap-on cover that mimics the standard disposable plastic covers available at most coffee shops today. Appropriately, they are named I Am Not A Paper Cup!

From what I had seen of the display model, fingerprints and smudges seemed to be attracted to the matte finish and I wondered how the cup would fare at home. I was also concerned that the disposable appearance might lead one to forget its permanent nature and attempt to throw it out. So I kept looking at it, but never purchased it.

But my wife, in her infinite wisdom and kindness, purchased it for me as a surprise. And so far, I've been very satisfied with it. After several months of use, the cup maintains its brand new appearance, although I've changed the silicone cover from the original white to a newer black version. But don't get me wrong, the original cover is in fine condition, but unfortunately, it has been stained from constant contact with coffee, which has been my only complaint thus far. I also believe that the manufacturer is aware of the issue, hence the sale of additional covers in several colours, including white, black, red and pink.

The cup performs very well, although its internal volume is far less than the cup's external size indicates. Its double-wall construction keeps contents hot or cold for quite a long time, even in colder external conditions. There is a silicone plug at the bottom, which can be removed to allow access to the hollow portion of the double wall, allowing the addition of hot or cold liquids to increase the thermal capabilities of the cup.

The fragile nature of the cup precludes its use as a travel mug, but it is a fantastic desk mug and my current favourite!

A great photo accessory

Photography can become a pretty gear and gadget intensive hobby, but one continued requirement has been power, usually in the form of batteries which eventually need to be charged. Welcome designer Weng Jie's brilliant concept:

Sometimes, you just have to appreciate people's ingenuity. Harnessing the power of light to power a device that is intended to record light. Truly elegant. Get the complete story here.

Lacie Starck USB 2.0 External HDD

Every once in a while, I find hardware that functions well, is well designed and looks good too. And that's exactly the combination I found with the Lacie Starck 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive. Some of you might already be familiar with Philippe Starck, the world-famous designer and some of the beautiful works he has created during his career.

This latest cooperation between Starck and Lacie, the well-known hardware manufacturer, has resulted in a line of beautiful devices, including both portable and desktop models in several capacities, starting at 500 GB all the way to the latest 2TB model. This article concerns the desktop version of the hard drive.

The Starck hard drive is a 195 x 115 x 52 mm aluminium enclosure, built a beefy 3mm thick, with a sculpted, polished steel face featuring the Starck logo which is backlit and angled in such a way as to project the logo on the desktop in front of the device. Somewhat pointless, but original in its application:

Another interesting point is that the entire front facade is actually touch-sensitive, with the capacity to recognize both light and hard touches and can be associated with different actions, from mounting hardware to launching applications. The easy to use Lacie Desktop Manager software lets you set these settings easily.

One of the features that most appealed to me was the lack of a cooling fan; the thick aluminium shell is designed as a massive heat sink to keep the drive at a correct operating temperature, with little to no sound. That's a true blessing for audio recording and other uses where external noise is an issue. Like many other external desktop drives, an external power supply is required to operate the drive and this makes less of a portable solution. If this is a concern, the portable version of the Starck hard drives are bus-powered, but with correspondingly smaller capacities.

This is a USB 2.0 drive and most of the tests that have been run by third parties have demonstrated that this drive falls within the range of the faster hard drives currently available. That makes it an great candidate for more demanding users.

If you're looking for a new external drive, this might be the solution for you. Did I mention the great price and pretty universally positive reviews on this family of drives? Sounds like a good deal to me!

Pick of the week: Sketch-A-Day

Following last week's post on Industrial Design and sketching, here is another worthy site, and coincidence of coincidences, it is also by the same young designer, Spencer Nugent. The site, http://www.sketch-a-day.com/, is essentially a gallery of the designer's daily sketches and ideas and is a veritable visual treasure trove of sketching ideas and topics.

Take a few minutes to view some of the very talented work on display.

Pick of the week: ID Sketching

I've always loved to draw and sketch and the Internet is a fantastic resource for any artist. In my regular browsing, I came upon http://www.idsketching.com/ and I have been hooked since. Built and maintained by a talented young industrial designer called Spencer Nugent, the site offers several excellent articles and numerous videos, as well as an interesting forum section.

The site is well worth a visit.

Pick of the week: Design Ideas Depot

A rather special Pick of the week this week. As I mentioned last week, my wife has been working on her first blog and being a very talented amateur graphic designer, photographer and artist, she has a wide choice of things to write about and share with others. Her blog, aptly named Design Ideas Depot revolves around these topics. English is not her first language, so she took her time writing her first post, and I for one, was quite impressed with it. I find that the elegance and grace of her personality show through in her writing style.

Now, I know that you may think that I am a little biased, and I do admit to being my wife's greatest fan! But in defense of that, I am an intensely critical person, and I struggle to find anything wrong with her work. It's just not that easy; most people who view her photography are astounded by its beauty and quality.

I am keeping an eye on what she'll write about next, and I believe you'll feel the same way after reading her too.

RAIS Woodstoves

When I was younger and living at home, we lived in a beautiful house in Markham, Ontario. Since my father had decided to remodel the house, one of the elements he wanted was a wood stove. A fireplace would simply not do, as my father was raised in the country, where fire was all important for heating during the winter. It was during that time that he learned that a fireplace was mostly a decorative home element rather than a true source of heat. With a wood stove, the closed combustion chamber and the heavy mass of metal that make up the stove structure increase the efficiency of any wood burned within by capturing and releasing heat over time.

When most people think of a wood stove, the image of a small, black, horizontal, front-loading stove comes to mind. But these types of stoves are what I refer to as the basement stove; it works well enough, but it sure isn't pretty to look at, so might as well hide it in the basement! Well that is not the type of stove my father wanted. He told me about a stove he had seen in an old home, a vertical design, covered in enamel, with front and top loading. I had never seen anything of the sort, but lo and behold, my father returned home one evening with a receipt for delivery for the stove he wanted, the Petit Godin cast iron wood stove:

Although Godin stoves are no longer made, it is possible to find them through specialized dealers and other sources, including antique stores! Although I always found that little stove very nice, it just didn't appeal to me aesthetically. I prefer cleaner design, with less clutter and decoration, but higher manufacturing quality and more efficient functionality. My research led me to discover RAIS, a Danish company that designs and manufactures wood stoves in several different models based on the original RAIS wood stove, designed by the architect Bent Falk in 1970. He took on the challenge of designing an environmentally-friendly series of “green” homes that made use of effective fireplaces. For his designs, he was awarded the Danish Design Award that year for his stove, the RAIS 1.

Some of the models offered include several freestanding soapstone wood stoves. Yes, the same type of stone used in Inuit carving! Soapstone has many advantages to offer from a heating perspective. It is quite dense and retains heat long after the fire has died down. It radiates that heat in a gradual and diffuse manner, avoiding unnecessary hot areas in the room. It allows for the construction of smaller wood stoves that maintain very high thermal efficiency.

If you are looking for a new fireplace, whether a freestanding model or an insert, with or without soapstone, head over to RAIS and take a look at what they offer.

A new way to look at mobile homes

My wife and I are hoping to move into a home one day, but we both feel that the quality of most homes today leaves a lot to be desired. Spurred by a belief in self-sustainability, environmental friendliness and value, we are looking at home builders that provide these types of features in their design.

One company that caught our eye is the Canadian design firm, Sustain, that provides numerous designs based around a mobile platform. As such, many of their homes are classified as mobile, and may bypass several issues involved in typical residential construction, such as foundations and more. We have known about this company for a while now, and I've even posted some information about the MiniHome Solo, but we wanted to make sure that they would stay in the business and actually build some of the great concepts they came up with. It is nice to see that they have continued the premise of building on a mobile platform. One great advantage of such a design includes the possibility of moving the entire home to another location, which can be an attractive option.

The model above, called the MiniHome Solo, is a bit on the small side, but is fantastically appointed and one of the greenest and most eco-friendly homes available for production today. Take a look here for a gallery of images. And Sustain is expanding and improving, in more ways than one:

Many of the newer designs are based on the experiences learned with previous models and most of the designs share some common ideas, such as external materials that do not require any maintenance or painting, low power consumption and more.

Head on over to their website and take a look a what they've got to offer. So far, we have been pretty impressed and will inquire to get more information.

Pick of the week: Smashing Magazine

I have been browsing the Web for many years now, and a topic that used to be very, very popular, web design, has given way to templates and other assorted time-savers for Mr. and Mrs. Everyone. The problem is, there are still web designers around, and they still need insight, inspiration and just plain help.

In comes Smashing Magazine, a fantastic weblog dedicated to web developers and designers. Although some of the articles tend towards the technical aspects of web development, none of them can be faulted with being boring or useless. If you are in the field and have never taken a look at this site, then do yourself the favour. If you are just an amateur, many of the design-specific articles will be of tremendous use as well.

The beater bike

I've been riding bicycles for almost 30 years now, although I really haven't ridden much lately. But I do have a cycling project in mind though. I would like to build a beater bike. What's a beater bike you ask? My definition of a beater is a bike that is just not attractive to thieves, that is simple to operate and that is as trouble free as possible. In essence, a useful urban bike.

I already have a really nice bicycle, and although it is a joy to ride, it is a problem in several circumstances. When I want to go into town, I never feel that I can lock up my bike safely, as it has numerous desirable components. Like a race car, it is meant to be used, then stored. What I need is a bike that I don't really care about, with no removable parts, as are common on more expensive bikes. Parts like quick release hubs or seat posts, derailleurs and shifters, as well as some more obvious materials, like carbon fiber, that can be locked downtown without fear (or with less fear) of theft.

Here are some of my basic requirements:

- 700C wheels (road bike wheels)
- Puncture resistant tires and tubes (with shraeder valve, for availability)
- Single speed drive (simple and reliable)
- Chain drive (simple and reliable, easily available replacements)
- Front and rear v-brakes (simple and reliable, easily available replacements)
- Straight handlebars and low rise stem (for a more comfortable position compared to road bike stems and handlebars)
- Straight fork (no suspension)
- Matte paint job (most likely black, although grey might be even less appealing to thieves)
- Freewheel hub (I don't really like flip-flop hubs)
- Platform pedals (I don't really want the trouble of clipless pedals)

Some manufacturers have begun producing bikes that fit many of my requirements except one, price. I have been told that it is possible to go to a bicycle "recycling" centre, and build up a new bike from old parts for a reasonable amount.

The Trek Soho:

The Trek Soho is a great looking bike, but it is listed at almost CAN$1000, and that is just too much to be considered a beater.

The Trek District:

With the District, Trek is using a belt-drive system instead of the more traditional chain design. They feel that this provides a more rugged and quieter transmission system. I would very much like to ride it myself and determine that on my own. I have faith that such a system could work very well indeed. But once again, the bike is priced beyond the definition of a beater.

The Giant Bowery Mashup:

The Giant Bowery Mashup really looks like a track bike with straight handlebars. It has a nice paint job, and a nice mix of parts. But it is also too expensive for my needs.

I will keep exploring what is available on the market, as that is an obvious and simple solution. But I will also be keeping my eyes open for a discarded bike that might just meet my needs. More to follow.