Jake’s Neighborhood

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

 

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

This post discusses IKEA's move to use Verdana, a typeface mainly used for its notable legibility on web pages, but also closely associated with Microsoft. In-between paragraphs are images of IKEA which I have captured for the past four years (serving mainly as a documentation of the transition and a last look at IKEA before Verdana).

First, let's know about Verdana's origins (but this, you can Google it yourself).

Second, let's think of where we usually see Verdana being used. After the age of home-made websites read in Times New Roman, along with animated GIFs, 'Sign My Guestbook', MIDI background music and scrolling titles, Verdana came about as the primary typeface of the body text on web pages. One website that sums up what the web looked like in the year 2003 is Myspace (and it still does).

Thankfully Helvetica came to clear things up and became the prominent typeface for the past 4 years. Despite that, Helvetica has been given an unfair treatment, especially by whom I would call militant revivalists and pseudo design practitioners, but that's a totally different story altogether.

Although Verdana is quickly being phased out online, many message boards and online forums today still use this typeface (like lowyat and macrumors, which isn't much of an issue). Very rare do we get to see Verdana in real life, except on printed announcements made on the spur of the moment (like notice boards you'd find in schools).

But all of a sudden, without warning, surprisingly and so on, IKEA is adopting Verdana as a part of its identity, replacing Futura (or a variation of it), which they have been using for decades. Naturally, my reaction was "WTF?!". This was when I downloaded the US edition of the catalogue, released way earlier in August. I noticed the usage of Verdana but subconsciously dismissed it, thinking that it's just some electronic formatting error or something technically similar to that.

Then I noticed many design blogs making a lot of noise about IKEA's latest typographical paradigm shift. Some unsuccessfully defended that it is IKEA's effort to be 'truly accessible', but most protested that it is 'one step backward' and 'a backlash to the utilitarian chic which IKEA has been advocating' (not real quotes; just a summary of the majority of the comments).

This has got me thinking to myself not just why IKEA switch to Verdana, but also the motive behind this degrading decision, what sort of justification IKEA would state for their move, the connection between using Verdana and the 'expected' rise in sales (which company would want to make a move that decrease sales, eh?), and what beauty does IKEA see in Verdana which Futura does not have?

I mean, let's face it. Verdana is not a good-looker in print. Other than that, I won't comment onto the complex details; I'll leave that to the experts. Would it make sense if I were to speculate that Verdana is just some one-off thing and it's back to Futura next year? Probably not. It's not just the catalogue that is being morphed into some Verdana junkyard, but also the store signages and website. However I haven't seen Verdana on its product packaging, but we can expect that soon.

If you can recall, IKEA was using another typeface, a serifed one (which I can vaguely remember seeing it printed on its product packaging and instructional booklets [in off-white recycled paper]) 13 years ago (this was around the same time I first knew of IKEA through their billboard of a cow-print sofa with a copy that says "Home is where IKEA is", located on the Federal Highway somewhere near Angkasapuri).

One way I can think of to refer to this particular typeface is in the picture above, which is a small tray which the restaurant had back in 2006, the one similar to the numbers printed on the DEKAD alarm clock. I am not sure if it had any significance to anyone when IKEA stopped using that typeface. If you are familiar with this, do share it.

So how do I talk about IKEA's switch to Verdana without getting emotional? Not possible. Instead of checking out the lovely new items and room designs and admiring Swedish-looking families in the kitchen, featured in the catalogue like how it should be every year, this year's has got me shaking my head all the way through.

I could go on and on about the horror of Verdana + Microsoft, making very bitter remarks and then conclude that life must go on. But I am not even a typography specialist; if I see a typeface that looks good and has no disturbing connotations with renowned ugly brands like Microsoft, I'll support it. And Verdana is no way one of them.

And while being on topic, I would like to touch on the local IKEA's effort to include the Malay language in their signage, advertisements and promotional items. It's about time IKEA gave recognition to the national language. To this date, all local IKEA catalogues are published in the English language, but I hope there would be a Malay version soon. IKEA is quickly gaining attention from the Malay middle-class (who uses Malay as their first language) market who are getting familiar with the IKEA culture of buying furniture and accessories as frequent as buying groceries. From my own observation, the Malay that is being used in IKEA are mostly English-isms and direct translations. I hope they will improve on this.

Actually, there are many other things I'd like to bring up about IKEA today, like the wonderfulness of the new IKEA PS line, people who don't clean up their tables, a man who spent an hour wrapping his purchases at the wrapping tables before sending it through air mail, and a space age-looking booster seat, but I'm putting the full stop here.

How do you feel about IKEA's switch to Verdana?

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

I found the house which was used as Meera's residence in the 1995 film Ringgit Kasorrga, which I have written about early this year.

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

The Amazon Conduit will be working again on October 15, 2009. Thank you to everyone for your patience.

Have a great weekend,

daisy, Team Vox

In my last Team Vox post, I let you know that we're aware that the Amazon conduit is broken and that we're working to fix it. Many of you want to know when it's going to be fixed and I'm so sorry I haven't gotten back to you about that sooner.

Unfortunately, I don't have an exact date to give you, but rest assured, the Amazon conduit will be fixed in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I'm about to finish my latest book and I could use a few suggestions as to what to read next, so... if you don't mind, let me know in the comments what's on your nightstand and/or what book you think I absolutely must read next.

Thanks! :)

daisy