Room 34 Creative Services

Website Consulting, Web Design & Development

Underdog of Perfection

  • Zeldman on Outlook 2010

    Thursday, June 25 in Technophilia

    I'll take Jeffrey Zeldman over Jakob Nielsen any day. (Case in point.) And Zeldman's criticism today of Microsoft's inexplicable use of the Word HTML rendering engine in Outlook 2010 despite IE8's genuine efforts to become standards compliant is true to form. A quote worth... »

  • Arial vs. Helvetica, Part II

    Tuesday, June 23 in Technophilia

    Here we have another exhibit in the battle of Arial and Helvetica: two signs posted side by side, and obviously designed with some intention of consistency. Sort of. Their sizes are different, their shapes are different, and, of course, one is in Helvetica (the left) and one is... »

  • 2012 trailer

    Saturday, June 20 in Video Clips

    As titillating as apocalypse stories may be, I've never really believed that the world is going to end on the winter solstice in 2012, as "predicted" by the Mayan calendar. I don't think they really predicted the end of the world; that's just as far in the future as they... »

  • The only thing worse than Arial is a careless mix of Arial and Helvetica

    Friday, June 19 in Miscellany & Minutiæ

    I snapped these photos yesterday in the parking lot of the Lyndale Rose Garden in Minneapolis. Why, at a garden with huge displays of flowers, fountains, sculptures and more, would I bother taking not just one but multiple photos of the pay machine in a parking lot? Fonts.... »

  • Tornadoes in my hometown

    Thursday, June 18 in Video Clips

    Last night some tornadoes tore through the countryside near my hometown of Austin, Minnesota. Some brazen stormchasers captured this incredible footage: Update: It looks like Austin itself was hit too, judging by this slideshow. »

  • Copy and paste, now on an iPhone near you

    Wednesday, June 17 in Technophilia

    If you don't own an iPhone, you'll probably fall into one of three categories regarding the topic of this post: You assume the iPhone already has copy-paste, and are surprised to learn it's just been added as part of the new iPhone 3.0 software, released today. You think... »

  • I have a “Hunch” that I’m an Apple fanboy

    Monday, June 15 in Technophilia

    Daring Fireball tipped me off to an interesting new site, Hunch. Hunch is a site to help you make decisions. Naturally the first question I tried out with it was one of Gruber's suggestions: Should I buy an Apple iPhone or a Palm Pre? It became pretty clear to me as I... »

  • New Name, Same Old Blather

    Saturday, June 13 in Site News

    My loyal reader(s) may have noticed that this blog now has a new name: Underdog of Perfection. For years I've referred to my rambling blog on a scattered assortment of topics as "Blather," which seemed (and still is) a perfectly suitable name. However, in recent months I've... »

  • Let me keep stealing your bandwidth, or I’ll sue!

    Friday, June 12 in Technophilia

    Here we have a message from someone who is, quite possibly, the world's biggest douchebag: And just for what it's worth, I've stolen this image the right way: I downloaded it and am serving it from my own site. I know a bit about bandwidth theft myself, as more than... »

  • On knowing your target market, and knowing when you’re in the target market

    Thursday, June 11 in Gamer Gabble, Waxing Nostalgic

    I've never really watched Venture Bros. on Adult Swim, although I've long suspected that I might like it if I gave it a chance. That suspicion was heightened tonight as I perused the DVDs at Target. To any average person, this cover design may fall somewhere between... »

  • Solution for the iPhone Facebook problem

    Monday, June 8 in Technophilia

    Facebook on the iPhone is a profoundly dissatisfying experience. The Facebook iPhone app is no good (at least it's free), the iPhone-optimized Facebook website ( is no good, and using the regular Facebook site on the iPhone is not exactly optimal either. Come to think of it, the... »

  • Best Google Doodle yet

    Saturday, June 6 in Gamer Gabble, Technophilia

    If you're a regular user of Google, you probably know that Google likes to occasionally honor historical events by changing its logo for a day, in a way that symbolizes the event it's honoring. These are usually interesting (if for no other reason than simply what events the... »

  • Dug the Dog (minor spoiler)

    Friday, June 5 in Video Clips

    I saw Up today, and I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I have enjoyed every Pixar movie (except A Bug's Life which I frankly found a little boring). Some have been better than others. But I think I can safely say Up is the best one yet. The opening sequence was such a masterpiece... »

  • The Comcast rabbit commercial makes me want to gouge my eyeballs out

    Thursday, June 4 in Video Clips

    What little research I've done seems to suggest that most people who've bothered to react to it actually like this commercial, but I find it highly disturbing and totally unpleasant. It is ugly and stupid, and I hate it. So, of course, I need to subject you to it. OK.... »

  • Unadvertised Palm Pre feature: it’s a cheese slicer!

    Thursday, June 4 in Technophilia, Video Clips

    Yes, my iPhone love blinds me to the merits of other smartphones. And yet, it seems almost sacrilege to even call the iPhone a "smartphone" and categorize it that way. It's so much more. But then again, so is the new Palm Pre, coming out this weekend. For instance, here's one... »

More Underdog...