What is Steampunk - Information, Origins, Art, and Culture
Steampunk - When History Repeats Itself You Get Art!
While surfing the net a few weeks ago I came across an interesting subject called “Steampunk”. Now because the internet is so large it is not uncommon to run across various subcultures, but I found Steampunk to be one of the most interesting ones I have seen in awhile.
Steampunk originally started out as a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction written about in books and comics during the 1980s-1990s. They were works of fiction that painted pictures of future worlds that relied on old fashioned “steam” technology. A good example that comes to mind is the Myst series of videos games.
Lots of written works, movies and games have based concepts and visuals off of the Steampunk mythos. As Steampunk’s popularity grew it started to transverse the gap between fiction and reality. While this has mainly been in the form of art and style, in some cases it has been applied as an actual engineering style by certain groups.
A recent example of Steampunk artwork that mixes the “old” and the “new” is the Telectroscope, designed and built by artist “Paul St George”. It consists of two giant telescopes of lens and mirrors that allow people in London and New York to interact with each other in real time via a fiber optic connection.
However some of the most interesting implementations of the Steampunk style have been homebrew inventions, and reverse engineering people have created with the aesthetic in mind. Some great examples of this can be seen in YouTube videos where people have created some really interesting devices throwing conventional technology to the wind.
It is interesting to hear people say how history repeats itself. This is very true in many aspects that we see from day to day. Steampunk is very interesting in that it utilizes antique methods of engineering to mirror modern technology with a neo-Victorian twist.
Check out the wikipedia entry on Steampunk for some incredibly interesting background information and resources.
How to tell what Font a website is using
How can I figure out what Font a website is using
The other day my fiancée was working on her website and she was looking at other sites for inspiration. She came across a site that she really liked and they were using two different fonts that she thought would look wonderful on her site.
She was messing around with the default fonts that were available to her through WordPress and her style sheet and she told me that she couldn’t find the right ones. I told her there was a trick she could use to figure out what fonts a website was using if she would to like to use them on her website.
The first method I recommended to her, which is the easiest way goes as follows:
Method #1
1. Copy a line of text that uses the font you like from the website you are looking at.
2. Once you have copied the font, use Open Office (or MS Word) or any other program that retains formatting when you paste text into it.
3. Paste the copied text into the word program and highlight it.
4. Go into your text options in the word program, and the font that the program has defaulted to should be the text that is being used on the site you are looking at.
You may want to compare a sample of the text using that font on your site and see if it has the look you desired. If the text matches then you know you have determined the correct font.
There may be some cases where the fonts do not match if the person is using a special font. By default most browsers will display any common fonts but if the website is using a strange font the browser will default to a font that is similar to the one being used.
The other method which requires a little more digging around but can be quicker if you are familiar with HTML. It can be utilized by doing the following:
Method #2
1. “Right Click” on the web page and choose the “View Source” option from the menu.
2. Once you have done this a text editor will open with the HTML from the website being displayed.
3. Click “CTRL+F” to open the “FIND” window in the text program.
4. Type in “FONT” and then click “Search”
5. The text program will now locate every instance of the Font tag in the HTML. This will allow you to determine what types of fonts are being used throughout the page.
Take a general look at all the fonts to get an idea for what font is being used most. Most designers will usually not use more than two types of fonts so it should be easy to figure out which one is being used most.
Although email marketing is just another advertising way used in internet marketing, it is totally dependent on web site hosting.
In some cases the site may rely heavily on a style sheet for setting the font. This is a common practice now a days. Even if this is the case the author or designer will sometimes specify fonts manually for certain areas of the page so the “FIND > Font” method is still a good trick to use.
This can come in handy when people are redesigning their site or trying something new on their blog. It’s really amazing how much fonts can affect the look and feel of a site and choosing the right font can really help you improve the overall appearance of your website.
Thanks for checking out Pseudorant. We appreciate the support.
Totally Useless HTML Element of the Day – The <'em'> Tag
EHH<EM>!… Can I have your attention please!</EM>
Today I would like to talk about the <EM> HTML tag. While searching for information on another apparently useless HTML meta tag, I came across the definition for this HTML element.
The <EM> tag is used to put words in an “Emphasis” style, which strangely enough looks just like italics.
For Example!
There is apparently a distinct difference between the two tags though. The HTML standard defines the <EM> tag as being a “logical style” where the <I> tag is considered a “physical style”.
What this means is that a “physical style directs the browser to display in an italic typeface whereas the logical style directs the browser to display with a distinctive emphasis leaving it to the browser to decide how this is achieved (underlining or distinctive colour might be used).”
(Reference - http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/encyc/em.html - Page is no longer available)
In order to further explain the “Emphasis” tag the staff at the University of Wolverhampton performed several experiments with the <EM> tag in different browsers to see how the tag would be displayed. These were their findings:
“All browsers rendered the text using an italic typeface.”
(Side Note: In all fairness, blogs do happen to use the <EM> tag but they use it to create the effect that you get when you click on the “Italic” button in your editor.)
As always thanks for checking out Pseudorant. We appreciate the support.
