Sam Lu - goSammy » Works

Commute Logger

Sam Lu — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:23:30 +0000

This semester I enrolled in an info visualization course which required us to submit three visualization projects over the course of the semester to be programmed in Processing. For one of my projects, I chose to log the timings of my commute by Calgary Transit as data to visualize.

Since the course started in the fall and is to last until the end of this year, I felt that it would be pretty interesting to see how the timings would change once winter rolls around as it can cold and a lot of snow can hit the city during the winter, or not.

When I first began collecting my data, I began logging my times in a notebook.

However, since I intended for this one to be my final project, I wasn’t keen on doing it this way for the long haul. Having to fiddle around with a notebook during transfers and a stopwatch at the same time was not ideal. I was a computer science student for crying out loud…so I programmed an app.

My iPhone app for logging my commute: Commute Logger

The app streamlines how I log my time by providing me with five buttons I need to push at each point in my commute. Beyond needing less interaction on my part to log my time, having produced an app such as this actually benefits my data collection process in three ways:

The timing points are more accurate compared to the stopwatch I was using.
Duration calculations between the different timing points are automated.
All my data gets collected in a format (CSV) I need for when I have to visualize it. No more transcribing from my notebook at the end of the day!

I programmed it over the course of one evening so the code is less than ideal, however in the case that someone might find code for an app like this useful and want to repurpose it for something else, I’ve made it available on Github – so feel free to fork it!

Batman Trilogy Poster Wallpaper

Sam Lu — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:54:41 +0000

There’s a fan-made poster making its rounds on the internet that you might have seen. It incorporates elements from the posters of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, put together, to display the bat logo.

Batman Trilogy – poster by ~AndrewSS7 on deviant ART

I originally came across this poster on my favourite internet news site, and in the comments section there was a request for a wallpaper. Coincidentally, I was having a slow day thought it’d be fun to redo the concept as a larger image for a wallpaper. However, I altered it a bit by making the bat logo overall a little more centered and removing any type as I like my wallpapers simple.

Below are versions for your desktop (1920×1200). I made a version which mimics the original and another which blends the three posters a little more. Click the image to view in full resolution.

You can also download it for your iPhone:

Old Snake

Sam Lu — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:40:30 +0000

Many months back I worked on a digital painting of Old Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4 which was really only released within the Critical Mass office. I planned to release it on my blog eventually and recently I was looking at it again and wanted to improve upon it. I did some touching up on it and am now releasing it as a wallpaper sans the logo and my signature as I personally like to have my wallpapers clean.

Without further ado, here are the wallpapers of Old Snake:

Download

Getting Two Links With One Ad Space

Sam Lu — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:33:46 +0000

I’ve recently done some graphic design work in the form of a header for Caitlyn Imburgo‘s blog redesign. As a token of her gratitude, she offered 160×200 pixels of real estate on her blog which I decided to use for advertising.

After working at Critical Mass for nearly two months now, I feel that I’ve been influenced by a great amount of creativity. Part of what we do at Critical Mass is online advertising for some of our clients — and some of the ads I’ve seen were not only interactive, but they also literally “thought outside the box”.

That was the preface to how I was influenced in creating this ad. Next, it started off with this illustration I made in Illustrator of a portfolio:

You might have seen this graphic on my portfolio
It also appears at the top right of this very blog

Unsatisfied with just creating an ad that was a single graphic to be hyperlinked, I wondered how I could become even more creative with this like some of the online campaigns I’ve seen. Fortunately, there wasn’t a huge process to that. I got the voila! moment while on the bus, commuting back home. While the idea was still fresh in my mind, I quickly made note of this in my notebook.

A blog is almost like a diary, and I had this idea that the portfolio graphic could be split in half. The bottom would stay the same, but the top-half would be of a notebook, represent my blog and link to it. What ended up happening was that I now got two links out of one ad:

The final ad

I’m really proud of the end result because it made good use of the space given. Also, it seems a little bit quirky that I hope you don’t just glance at it and move on, but instead give it a second look with that feeling of “…wait a second”.

iPhone Web Concept Kit

Sam Lu — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:21:49 +0000

During one of my lunch breaks at work, I came up with a concept for a web application that would be used on the iPhone. I had a difficult time finding an image of the iPhone with the exact dimensions for the screen inside so I took it up myself to make one in Photoshop that could be used for mockup purposes.

Download iPhone Web Concept Kit

If you’re a web developer looking to make a website tailored to the iPhone, you probably already realize how handy this kit could be. So if you want to whip up a mockup, download it. Everything is editable right down to the AT&T text, so I guess if you’re bored and want to modify the iPhone to look red with a different service provider, go nuts.

Contents:

One zip file containing a PSD

Notes:

Helvetica is a common font that was used. The iPhone uses it too, so unfortunately if you do not have that font, you’ll either need to buy it or use something similar like Arial as a cheap alternative.
For those who haven’t used an iPhone, the URL bar doesn’t always stay there, but it’s nice to have when presenting.
For more information on designing web content for the iPhone, please check the Apple Developer Connection page.

Midnight WordPress Theme

Sam Lu — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:41:18 +0000

For the past few nights, I’ve been working on a new WordPress theme built upon Sandbox. The Sandbox is essentially a theme for themers since it’s been written up so that it is easy to skin using CSS. As you’ll see, I’ve only had to touch the CSS to create my result which is a testament to how well the Sandbox is coded.

Without further ado, I present to you Midnight:

Screenshots

If you’d like a better preview, feel free to view the online demo

Installation

To install Midnight, place the sandbox directory into your /wp-content/themes folder. Go into the Presentation section of your WordPress Admin panel and you should see a theme called Sandbox. Click it and your blog’s theme will have changed to Midnight.

Credit

I’d like to give thanks to PBets who graciously allowed me to use his photo “Moonlit Sky” as a background for this theme. I’d also like to thank the authors behind The Sandbox who have created a magnificent theme that can be skinned through CSS. Magnificent markup.

Other Notes

Like The Sandbox, you are free to make any modifications to my design as you wish. However, I request that you leave my name and linkback in the footer. If you have any other questions, contact me.

The theme displays properly under pretty much every browser except IE6. IE6 may display the header graphic weird because I used two PNGs in this theme.

Wii Friend Number Facebook App Released

Sam Lu — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:27:46 +0000

I’ve finally finished up my ‘Wii Friend Number‘ Facebook application and released it to the public. This app allows you to easily share your Wii Friend/Console Number with your friends on Facebook through the following means:

It displays a box/badge on your Facebook profile with your Console Number
There is a page which lists the console numbers of your friends on Facebook who have also installed the application and entered their numbers

Although this sort of application has been created by another developer, I feel that mine is simpler, but I just really created this to learn more about php/mysql and what it was like to develop a small project like this.

If you have a Wii and a Facebook account, feel free to install this app.

Boring Greeting Cards? Make Yours Unique With a Tri-Fold

Sam Lu — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 13:52:56 +0000

Last Saturday, my friend had a birthday party. Plans were set, the gift was set — but I forgot to buy a birthday card! It is tradition to accompany that gift with a birthday card. With the few hours I had left before I had to leave, I quickly whipped up a birthday card which wasn’t your original bi-fold or quadruple fold. No, mine folded three times, and it had Super Mario.

I got the idea of creating a card which folded three times from this Badtz-Maru stationary my sister kept from a friend of hers.

However, it was already bad that I was ripping the concept. I didn’t want it to be completely unoriginal. So I sat down and thought about how I could change the imagery instead. I looked to my desk and right there was Super Mario standing on top of a coin block.

Inspired by this, I thought up a scenario where Mario could fit the form of the card. Have him on top of a coin block? Wait, have him pop out of the green warp tube! Even better. Eventually the result came to be a Paper Mario tri-fold birthday card.

Now for those who are looking to make your own, I have created a kit of PSD files which you can use to create your own tri-fold card! Don’t like Paper Mario? I have guides set where you can replace the elements appropriately.

Here’s a few notes about creating this:

Be sure your printer is aligned properly and feed the paper flush into your printer for best results
I’ve placed fold marks where you should make your folds
Where I say to make the slice, measure how wide you will need to make the slice in the middle of the hole of the green warp tube. You should be able to find the width you need to slice if you measure up Paper Mario at the top from the tip of his bottom hand to the end of his foot
When cutting, use the front (the image you printed from front-kit.psd) to guide your cuts. If you use the other side to guide your cuts, you will clip out some parts of the front

New Portfolio

Sam Lu — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:27:59 +0000

It’s taken a very long time, but I’ve finally finished my portfolio. My old portfolio, Senmu Studios, has gotten really outdated and the recent work I did never made it on there.

I’ve retired that “pen name” of Senmu Studios due to its nature of giving the false notion that I was more than one person. I am now designing under my real name.

Please visit it and if you have any comments, leave them here, I’d like to know what you think!

A New Portfolio

Meteora

Sam Lu — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:23:33 +0000

What started off as a little fiddling around in Photoshop with a photo of fireworks, suddenly turned into creating a wallpaper of one of my favorite video games.

I’m pretty sure most of you can recognize where this came from.
Again I’m going to leave any sort of watermark off this creation because I hate wallpapers with watermarks too, please play nice and don’t steal =)

EDIT:

black widow on the MacThemes forums has requested a version without the Meteor:
Meteora Simple.
Also got a few requests to make a darker variant which was a great idea, it looks a lot better with more contrast:

Sam Lu - goSammy » Works

Commute Logger

Related Post

Batman Trilogy Poster Wallpaper

Related Post

Old Snake

Download

Related Post

Getting Two Links With One Ad Space

Related Post

iPhone Web Concept Kit

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Midnight WordPress Theme

Screenshots

Installation

Credit

Other Notes

Related Post

Wii Friend Number Facebook App Released

Related Post

Boring Greeting Cards? Make Yours Unique With a Tri-Fold

Related Post

New Portfolio

Related Post

Meteora

Related Post