Monday, November 26, 2007

Heads or Tails: Mark: Make Your Mark

Favicons are those little icons in the address bar of your browser. You can make your own favicons easily at sites like myfavatar or favicon.ico. I had made poor favicons for this site and for my recipes blog but I wanted a more mathematical, trademark favicon to use across these blogs and my photography blog. We all identify each other by our trademarks, which are distinctive signs or symbols that each of us chooses. Our mark.

I went to one of my favorite sites that I use in labs with my students: the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives at Utah State University, an NSF funded project to make manipulatives accessible to all schools and students, no matter what their age. The site is always growing and is a priceless resource. You can now download all of the manipulatives for a free trial period. But if you are a student, a designer, a parent or a child, it is worth $40 to buy it. All of the manipulatives have directions and most have activities that are mathematically valuable without overwhelming any learner. Here is a screenshot of my desktop while I worked with the software:


I played with the pattern block applet, and tessellated (turned, slid and flipped) equilateral triangles and rhombuses in attempts to make a stylized M for meeyauw. The graphic you see in this post is what I came up with. I then used my mouse to select my creation. This kept all of my blocks "glued" together. I colored the blocks blue. I used Skitch to create a jpeg of my logo and Photoshop Elements to make the background yellow. I am sure that I did not need to use Skitch or Elements, but I am familiar with the software and could use them quicker than finding an easier way.

I uploaded my graphic to favicon.ico which made the favicon. I downloaded it to my hard drive and I will upload it to Image Shack. In the next few days I will put the URL of the favicon on Image Shack into my templates so that it will be visible. Favicon.ico returns an ico file which Image Shack does not accept. I will have to change the filetype in Elements or iPhoto before I upload it. I also see some editing I want to make on the graphic before I am finished.

If you have any questions on this process, be sure to ask in the comments (with your e-mail if you don't have gmail). I'll answer as soon as possible.

I'm still not happy with this icon because it is not the one image that I could use for my profile. . . for my signature, or mark. But it's a start.

To see more Heads or Tails participants, visit Skittles.
I hope you have a wonderful and peaceful week.
It may take me awhile to visit all of you because I teach on Tuesday nights. Thank you for your patience.

_/\_/\_

26 comments:

  1. Wow this is an awesome and informative post. For a long time, I had thought that using my first and middle name "Misty Dawn" as my pen name and photography copyright signature would be enough to be my mark. Recently, however, I've discovered there is a very 'endowed' adult photography model named "Misty Dawn" SO... I'm thinking I need a different mark... one that is my own and won't be confused with someone else LOL

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  2. Fer cereals, I'm going to have to make me one of those now. I used to do some graphic design and it would be sweet to make my own mark all over the interweb.

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  3. That's really cool! I want to make one now!!!

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  4. I never knew what those were called...how cool! :)

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  5. Whoosh! That's the sound of your post going over my head! LOL! I'm gonna have to read it again (and possibly again) to fully understand it! What I do get is that you have made a very interesting mark there! :) I wish I had your creativity! :)

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  6. Very cool!

    Someone once gave me a little rainbow favicon and told me how to install it.. but I lost it when I had to redo my template a while back.

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  7. I love favicons in the url bar!!

    My H o T is posted.

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  8. I'd love to have a nice favicon. Thanks for this informative post and for sharing those links. I'll check them out.

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  9. I love these type of informative posts! Great job!

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  10. I didn't understand any of that! I'm such a moron!
    Have a great tuesday!

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  11. I thought at times that I should do some type of trade mark for my future ceramic shop but that down the road now.

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  12. I didn't know about the site that'll create the favicon for you... I did mine a bit more manually. But I love the cohesion that they provide. I'm glad you're spreading the word so everybody can have one! I made my friend one because I was tired of having her bookmark link appear as a blank document icon. She's displaying it, and I'm happy.

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  13. Hey thanks for the information, always used to wonder how to make one of those.

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  14. I was playing with making favicons yesterday, too. I'm not happy with mine, yet. I'm not actually sure what my mark should be. I like not having the orange blogger B, though.

    Thanks for sharing.

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  15. Very informative - happy H/T!! :P

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  16. that is so cool!! Have a great Tuesday and I am going to some of those sites mentioned right now.

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  17. If nothing else I learned a new word today. I don't know if I'll have much occasion in using it, but I learned it nonetheless. A good post for this weeks meme.

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  18. wow - brilliant is what mark I tag you with.
    It is way over my head right now but I think I want one of those favicons too... to make my mark.

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  19. Great tips . Thank you for hosting:)

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  20. Great information. I am still trying to figure out how to watermark my pictures and work within the narrow confines of 'free' wordpress. But I want to try creating a mark next.

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  21. Stop over at my blog I have an award for you.

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  22. You iz so furry tecchy!!! Da momee iz tryin' real hard wit her leftee brain to take it in, but I don't know, she might justee fall ovefur onto her right cheek!!!!

    -Dr Tweety

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  23. Hi Andree. I've been doing a bit of a catch up of your posts over the last few days. You have been a busy lady, with your bird photos, posting and mathematical fava whatsits!

    Sounds like all is well with you. Hope so, anyway.

    Take care.

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  24. This is really great, I've created a few now. Only trouble is, I have no idea how to get it up there! I looked around the website and didn't see any clear instructions on how to make it work. Any suggestions??

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  25. Hi!

    I wrote another post about the favicons that gives details about using myfavatar.com. I consider this site the only way to go now, if you want to make your own favicon.

    http://meeyauw.blogspot.com/2007/11/favicons-part-2.html

    If you have ANY trouble with getting your favicon up, please e-mail again. I'd love to help!

    Happy holidays, Becca.

    Andree

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