Brit Mansell :: Life's Influence on Design

2010 King of the Hammers Photos

brit — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:06:07 +0000

I was lucky enough to get to attend the 2010 King of the Hammers race in Southern California. I posted all of the pictures on the Octane site. Please check them out if you’re interested. 2010 King of the Hammers Photos Related posts:SEMA 2009 Photos I’m in Las Vegas for the 2009 SEMA show. So... Mason “Mase” Mansell [...] Related posts:

SEMA 2009 Photos I’m in Las Vegas for the 2009 SEMA show. So...
Mason “Mase” Mansell is now home. Child number two, Mason “Mase” Mansell was born on 4/14...
BarCamp Birmingham is Coming! For those of you interested in anything Internet-tech related and...

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SEMA 2009 Photos

brit — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:47:41 +0000

I’m in Las Vegas for the 2009 SEMA show. So far, I have greatly enjoyed the show and the trip.

You can see some of the 2009 SEMA photos on the Octane Media site. Please check them out and let me know what you think.

2010 King of the Hammers Photos I was lucky enough to get to attend the 2010...
BarCamp Birmingham is Coming! For those of you interested in anything Internet-tech related and...

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Chevrolet 2500HD Leveling Kit

brit — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:04:43 +0000

I spent most of this weekend working on my “big” truck. The first order of business was to install a leveling kit. This was so I could fit the Hummer H2 wheels and tires under it. The kit went on pretty well and I even got the factory truck center caps to work by grinding off some little spacers on the caps. The wheels look pretty factory to me now.

While I had the front up on jack stands, I noticed some slop in the front passenger wheel bearing. Today, I fixed that problem as well. $250 later I had a new unit bearing to install. The process took a couple of hours while I was fighting the small garage and rain outside. It’s done now and all is well.

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Jeep Move

brit — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:52:37 +0000

I’ve been working on my Jeep project for a while now. Well, to be honest, I worked on it a lot when I first started it, but due to two kids, a new business, lack of tools (mainly a vehicle lift), and lack of knowledge on the four link setup, I just don’t have any time to get it finished.

I’m teaming up with Blue Torch Fab to finally get it finished, but doing so meant that I first needed to get it out of the basement. That sounds like an obvious answer, except that it doesn’t have axles attached. Hilarity ensues.

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Fox 6 Interview

brit — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:48:59 +0000

The grand opening for Shift Workspace was yesterday and Fox 6 news was on hand to document the event. Here is their take on it.

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JVC GY-HM100 Still Shot

brit — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:28:24 +0000

This is a single frame pulled from a 720P shoot. It was run through Photoshop and Auto-Leveled.

I am very happy with the quality. It is more than sufficient for anything web related.

Click on the image to be taken to the flickr page to see the full resolution version.

JVC GY-HM100 First Impressions My brand spanking new JVC GY-HM100 came in today. Cool...

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JVC GY-HM100 First Impressions

brit — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:14:55 +0000

My brand spanking new JVC GY-HM100 came in today.

First thought: it’s bigger than I thought it would be after seeing the pictures. This is not a bad thing. I’m actually glad it’s a little larger than I expected. Basically, the camera unit is a little larger than most consumer cameras on the market. Once you add on the included accessories and throw on a wireless mic receiver, the camera really has some bulk to it.

Bad news first:

I tried to save some money and ordered some eBay memory cards. I don’t know if those cards just aren’t the “class 6″ speed they advertised or if this camera is just snobby enough to know they didn’t cost $300 each, but either way, it turns up its nose at these cards and won’t record video on them at all. The error displayed is, “Cannot use in video mode”. Well, that’s descriptive. Come on JVC, how about “Card does not meet minimum speed requirements” or a more snobbish response like “eBay cards, like OMG!!!”.
No tethered recording (that I can find). I knew there wasn’t a firewire connection when I ordered it, but I was hoping for a miracle here. A lot of the stuff I shoot could be recorded directly to a PC with the proper connection (Adobe OnLocation). However, this does not seem to be possible with this camera. It will connect to a PC via the supplied USB cable, but doesn’t appear to work over USB to record video. Maybe some solution will arise.

Good news:

Size. Enough said.
Audio simplicity. I love the way the audio controls are organized and easy to use. They seem to be a little more intuitive than my previous Canon XH-A1.
Great viewfinder eyepiece. The rubber cover around the viewfinder is very large and soft which should make daylight shooting much better by keeping out more light.
Zoom ring. When I first read that the zoom (or focus depending on setting) ring was servo controlled I was pretty bummed, but after using it for a few minutes I think I could get the hang of it and create some smooth zooms pretty easily.

Without memory cards, that’s about all I can report at this point. Hopefully, I will be able to round up some cards tomorrow and give some sample footage and talk about the streamlined editing process.

UPDATE: I picked up a SanDisk Extreme III card at a local camera shop. That’s the largest card I can find locally. It seems to work just fine. I think the issue with the cards is around the write speed, not necessarily their “class 6″ rating. Hopefully, I will have some sample video up soon.

JVC GY-HM100 Still Shot This is a single frame pulled from a 720P shoot....

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BarCamp Birmingham is Coming!

brit — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:55:13 +0000

For those of you interested in anything Internet-tech related and local to Birmingham, you should check out BarCamp Birmingham. May 2, is the date. Signup is open now.

2010 King of the Hammers Photos I was lucky enough to get to attend the 2010...

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Mason “Mase” Mansell is now home.

brit — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:51:17 +0000

Child number two, Mason “Mase” Mansell was born on 4/14 at 5:07PM. More details and photos are available at http://www.themansellstory.com/mason/welcome-to-the-race-mace/.

2010 King of the Hammers Photos I was lucky enough to get to attend the 2010...

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Wireframing with Fisher Price

brit — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:57:00 +0000

It was Christmas Day, 2008. My wife, 2 year old daughter and I were all around the Christmas tree opening gifts. It was my daughter’s turn to open hers and she picked up one of her presents. As soon as she opened it, I knew this one particular toy could play a major role wireframing. Huh? Wireframing with a child’s toy??? I’ll explain.

First of all, it’s no longer a “toy” since it has been requisitioned as a “tool”. Henceforth known as the “tooly”.

Enter the Fisher Price Doodle Pro

There are a few points about this toy that make it perfect for wireframing:

It’s a toy – Wireframing is one of the last parts of web design where I feel creative. This creativity is spurred by the bright colors and the thought that I’m back in preschool playing with toys again. Design should be fun and this tooly helps with that.
It’s a toy – Wait. I just covered that.
No detail – It’s very hard or nearly impossible to put any type of detail into these drawings. In some parts of design, detail is very important, but in wireframing, detail can be the downfall of the process.
Easy to erase – Iterations are the key with wireframing. It will, most likely, take many attempts to get your layout just right. Using this tooly, you can quickly jot out a layout. If it’s worthy, snap a photo of it with your phone or camera for later analysis. Then, wipe it clean and start over taking into account the good parts and the bad parts of previous iterations. Hopefully, soon, you will have the perfect layout on you new tooly.
Inexpensive – $18.00
“Eco-Friendly” – Since everything else is getting bonus points for being green, why not this tooly? No wasted paper. No discarded, dried up markers. Heck, it doesn’t even need refills.
Dimensions – The width and height (when turned 90 degrees) are about perfect for a “normal” size web page. This helps keep things in proportion while still allowing for content to be below the infamous “fold”.

Example:

I have yet to take this tooly into a client wireframing meeting, but you better believe I will when the need presents itself. After the client(s) get over the initial shock of me plopping this down onto their big conference room table I think it will be well received and the benefits will become apparent.

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