I don’t understand why there isn’t more space between “(” and “)” in proportional fonts. I find it very annoying (that the arc of the parenthesis is so close to the preceding or following character). Wouldn’t it be better ( and you sometimes see this in my posts ), visually, if we put a space before the hook? Yes I realize that some key keyboarding tropes would have to be re-learnt ( put two spaces after a full-stop and before or after a parenthetical token, as appropriate ), and that word-wrap algorithms would have to be taught some additional heuristics, but I find it ever-so much nicer to read.

In Australia, the European continent, the UK, they all use A4 paper. In the US we use letter. ( pretty picture of paper size comparison at Wikipedia ) A4 is a result of a rational design process ( just like Helvetica, you know the font that rules your life that so much that you don’t think about it ). Letter was a colloquial guess at how long and wide a sheet of beat tree-pulp should be. I, personally, like A4 a lot better. Like most continental europeans it’s slender and allows room for perspective. Letter is short and squatty, by comparison ( analogy applies as well ).

Two of my favorite seminars from SXSWi centered around typography, and specifically typography concepts applied to web design. The first course was entitled “Grids are Good and Why you should use them” delivered by Subtraction.com’s owner Khoi Vinh and Mark Boulton. The second was entitled “Web Typography Sucks” delivered by Mark Boulton and Richard Rutter. I highly recommend that you take advantage of the presentations that they’ve put online of these. These visual aids are great and really got me thinking about how grids could help me design better web page layouts. I’ve not yet managed to integrate their lessons into my own theme yet ) or, if I have, I have done so unconsciously ), buuuuut think that I may try to put together a grid-based theme at some point in the future ( although I’m exceedingly loth to deal with PHP hell again any time soon ).

During my training, the HP presenters ( who make great use of Futura-type face ) had an estimation of a transfer speed which was listed as: <span font-family:Futura">11 Gbps/Sec Which led me to ask: “It takes 3.14159 Gbps/Sec?” Font-dork jokes

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I don’t remember exactly when I got diagnosed as an asthmatic. Some of my earliest core memories are going to a hospital for pneumonia: trundling into a van in the dark; returning home to Slidell and convalescing while watching “The Wizard of Oz” for the first time, a rubbery “Robbie the Robot” from “Lost in Space” in hand.^{1 2} A few years later, on the cusp of Junior High, I would learn the diagnosis word “asthma,” start allergy shots, and begin a medicine regime (a super start to socially-awkward years!)

Since then, I’ve had a rescue inhaler prescription. I used the device less in Europe, even less in the Bay, and a tad bit more in NYC. Across the years, the brands and the actuator look-and-feel have changed, but I can say this: never have I seen a more beautiful inhaler than my current generic albuterol sulfate.

The design is clean and considered - it’s like Wes Anderson worked in pharma. It is, to quote the Old Man from A Christmas Story, “indescribably beautiful.“³