Tag Archives: color

Colourmod – A color picker Dashboard widget for Mac OS X

January 17th, 2012

This Dashboard widget post (see the others) is more for developers and designers than the average person.

Colourmod is a Dashboard widget for Mac OS X that you’ll end up using much more than you think you would. I’m not a designer but as someone who fiddles around on the web I find myself in need of a hexadecimal color code from time-to-time. And when I do, I use Colourmod.

There are a few ways that I find myself using Colourmod to find the color I’m looking for. The first, and perhaps most obvious way, is to drag the “blue dot” color picker around the main color well and find the color I want making subtle adjustments by using the slider. The second, is to manually enter in the hexadecimal color code that I’m currently tweaking and make small changes until I get exactly what I want.

One nice feature is the blue arrow that will quickly copy the current color code and place that value into your clipboard. This makes finding, selecting and copying a color code into your text editor very, very quick.

Feature suggestions? Sure. One thing I’d like to see is a single text area that gives the proper RGB color values for a color. Although Colourmod supplies these values they aren’t easily selected. I’d also like to see a much easier and more accurate way to use the color picker. It is very tough to make small changes especially to light gray colors.

Oh, and I’d ditch the ‘U’ in Colourmod. But that’s just me.

Wayne Barz on Color’s funding and the new bubble

March 30th, 2011

Wayne Barz, a man I hold in high regard and (full disclaimer) I get to work with on Viddler from time-to-time at Ben Franklin TechVentures, has a brand new blog entitled Techonomic Man. You have to say it slowly but the name of the blog is pitch-perfect.

Barz weighed in on Color’s $41M funding. I haven’t done so because I feel it has been a big distraction and much of the coverage has been by those that clearly have no insight into this industry (I consider myself someone who has very little valuable insight into such things). Barz has that insight. And his take is both sobering and balanced. He mainly comments on Henry Blodget’s take in Business Insider.

“It leads me to believe that Mr. Blodget’s piece might be satirical.”

And then…

“Mr. Blodget points out all the reasons why investing $41 million at this stage is a good idea. For instance, he points out that with that investment, Color is worth at LEAST $41 million to any buyer! Even if they spend half of it, Blodget assumes that the company would then have $20 million in cash and $20 million in a good idea developed! I mean, LOL. The investors can’t lose, he points out, because they have preferred stock. “

If you knew Wayne you’d be LOLing right along with him. I love the ending…

“Funds with a lot of money get to start the bubbles. Like a big ponzi scheme, the first ones in reap the most benefit. Because in a bubble, there’s always someone next in line ready to add more air. Until there isn’t.”

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