list

/ Don

A Decade of Lessons in Small Business Management

As we round third plate to complete our 10th year of business at era404, it’s impossible not to reflect upon the previous decade’s successes and lessons. In fact, despite the enormous pride we have for our successes—the awards we’ve won, the opportunities we’ve been afforded, the pieces we’ve created—it was in the lessons that our company grew the most. We can only assume that the same way the triumphs and tribulations of a child’s first ten years shape his or her personality, a business uses its own experiences to analyze the risks it will take and the directions it will pursue.

The first ten years weren’t always easy.  Read more

/ Don

Google Plus Contacts Flooding Google Talk

It took me a little while to find this, so I thought it might be helpful to post it on [d]online in case others are having the same issue.

After signing up for Google Plus, I noticed that my Pidgin contact list was getting flooded with contacts. Many of those contacts had a Google Plus email address rather than a normal one. I’d recognized a few names but not all of them. So I went to Google Plus and realized that these were all contacts that were in my Circles – friends of friends, subscription lists, companies under profiles of users, etc.

If I clicked “Block Friend,” “Remove Friend,” and/or “Hide Friend” from Pidgin, Google Talk (on my Android) or Google Talk on my Gmail sidebar, the users either remained in the list or disappeared until the next time I logged in. As you can probably imagine, it’s frustrating to see a wealth of users flooding a buddy list when they’re not, indeed, buddies.

After poking around online, I found a number of other users were dealing with the same issues. I tried a few recommendations and hacks, recommended by some of the more proficient users, but none of them seemed to work. Finally, I landed on a post in a Google Plus Help forum that seemed to do the trick. If you’re experiencing the same issues, try the following: Read more

/ Don

Font Shop: Top 100 Fonts of All Time

Below are Font Shop’s Top 100 Fonts of Al Time, as rated by an international jury. If I have time and/or motivation, I’d link each of these. Sadly, at this point in my life, I do not.

Rank | Font Name | [Date Designed – Designed By]
1. Helvetica [1957 – Max Miedinger] 2. Garamond [1530 – Claude Garamond] 3. Frutiger [1977 – Adrian Frutiger] 4. Bodoni [1970 – Giambattista Bodoni] 5. Futura [1927 – Paul Renner] 6. Times [1931 – Stanley Morison] 7. Akzidenz Grotesk [1966 – Günter Gerhard Lange] 8. Officina [1990 – Erik Spiekermann] 9. Gill Sans [1930 – Eric Gill] 10. Univers [1954 – Adrian Frutiger] 11. Optima [1954 – Hermann Zapf] 12. Franklin Gothic [1903 – Morris Fuller Benton] 13. Bembo [1496 – Francesco Griffo] 14. Interstate [1993 – Tobias Frere-Jones] 15. Thesis [1994 – Lucas de Groot] 16. Rockwell [1934 – Frank H. Pierpont] 17. Walbaum [1800 – Justus Walbaum] 18. Meta [1991 – Erik Spiekermann] 19. Trinité [1982 – Bram De Does] 20. Din [1926 – Ludwig Goller] 21. Matrix [1986 – Zuzana Licko] 22. OCR [1965 – American Type Founders] 23. Avant Garde [1968 – Herb Lubalin] 24. Lucida [1985 – Chris Holmes / Charles Bigelow] 25. Sabon [1964 – Jan Tschichold] 26. Zapfino [1998 – Hermann Zapf] 27. Letter Gothic [1956 – Roger Roberson] 28. Stone [1987 – Summer Stone] 29. Arnhem [1998 – Fred Smeijers] 30. Minion [1990 – Robert Slimbach] 31. Myriad [1992 – Twombly & Slimbach] 32. Rotis [1988 – Olt Aicher] 33. Eurostile [1962 – Aldo Novarese] 34. Scala [1991 – Martin Majoor] 35. Syntax [1968 – Hans Eduard Meier] 36. Joanna [1930 – Eric Gill] 37. Fleishmann [1997 – Erhard Kaiser] 38. Palatino [1950 – Hermann Zapf] 39. Baskerville [1754 – John Baskerville] 40. Fedra [2002 – Peter Bil’ak] 41. Gotham [2000 – Tobias Frere-Jones] 42. Lexicon [1992 – Bram De Does] 43. Hands [1991 – Letterror] 44. Metro [1929 – W. A. Dwiggins] 45. Didot [1799 – Firmin Didot] 46. Formata [1984 – Bernd Möllenstädt] 47. Caslon [1725 – William Caslon] 48. Cooper Black [1920 – Oswald B. Cooper] 49. Peignot [1937 – A. M. Cassandre] 50. Bell Gothic [1938 – Chauncey H. Griffith] 51. Antique Olive [1962 – Roger Excoffon] 52. Wilhelm Klngspor Gotisch [1926 – Rudolf Koch] 53. Info [1996 – Erik Spiekermann] 54. Dax [1995 – Hans Reichel] 55. Proforma [1988 – Petr van Blokland] 56. Today Sans [1988 – Volker Küster] 57. Prokyon [2002 – Erhard Kaiser] 58. Trade Gothic [1948 – Jackson Burke] 59. Swift [1987 – Gerald Unger] 60. Copperplate Gothic [1901 – Frederic W. Goudy] 61. Blur [1992 – Neville Brody] 62. Base [1995 – Zuzana Licko] 63. Bell Centennial [1978 – Matthew Carter] 64. News Gothic [1908 – Morris Fuller Benton] 65. Avenir [1988 – Adrian Frutiger] 66. Bernhard Modern [1937 – Lucian Bernhard] 67. Amplitude [2003 – Christian Schwartz] 68. Trixie [1991 – Erik van Blokland] 69. Quadraat [1992 – Fred Smeijers] 70. Neutraface [2002 – Christian Schwartz] 71. Nobel [1929 – Sjoerd de Roos] 72. Industria [1990 – Neville Brody] 73. Bickham Script [1997 – Richard Lipton] 74. Bank Gothic [1930 – Morris Fuller Benton] 75. Corporate ASE [1989 – Kurt Weidemann] 76. Fago [2000 – Ole Schafer] 77. Trajan [1989 – Carol Twombly] 78. Kabel [1927 – Rudolf Koch] 79. House Gothic 23 [1995 – Tal Leming] 80. Kosmik [1993 – Letterror] 81. Caecilia [1990 – Peter Matthias Noordzij] 82. Mrs Eaves [1996 – Zuzana Licko] 83. Corpid [1997 – Lucas de Groot] 84. Miller [1997 – Matthew Carter] 85. Souvenir [1914 – Morris Fuller Benton] 86. Instant Types [1992 – Just van Rossum] 87. Clarendon [1845 – Benjamin Fox] 88. Triplex [1989 – Zuzana Licko] 89. Benguiat [1989 – Ed Benguiat] 90. Zapf Renaissance [1984 – Hermann Zapf] 91. Filosofia [1996 – Zuzana Licko] 92. Chalet [1996 – House Industries] 93. Quay Sans [1990 – David Quay] 94. Cézanne [1995 – Michael Want, James Grieshaber] 95. Reporter [1938 – Carlos Winkow] 96. Legacy [1992 – Ronald Arnholm] 97. Agenda [1993 – Greg Thompson] 98. Bello [2004 – Underware] 99. Dalliance [2000 – Frank Heine] 100. Mistral [1953 – Roger Excoffon]