June 10, 2008
I’ve been a proponent of steadily phasing out IE6 support but too many of my clients (and their at-home usability testers, hah) have IE6 inadvertently installed on their machines. You don’t know how many times I walk a client or friend through Help > About Internet Explorer and ask them to read me the version number and I was shocked to hear that they were still using IE6. “You should download Firefox or the latest IE 7.0 if you must,” I’d repeat again. A few years ago, IE6 users had more reason to gripe– it was installed on most machines at their workplace (businesses who’s windfall profits in the 90’s left their employees on Win98 machines with the latest in browsing technoloy; IE6!)
But it’s no longer the nineties, and after Facebook started recommending IE7 to IE6 users, Apple recently dropped it entirely for MobileMe service and others my ears have started perking up. I mean, Microsoft realease IE7 as a “high priority update” for Windows XP users, so that an automatic update was likely done on millions of machines. Continue reading ‘Time To Drop Designing for IE6?’
March 27, 2008
This lesson is geared toward a small business owner who has a web presence and a Google account. You can add a floating, ever-present Google Talk chatback badge to your site to your site in minutes that will let your website visitors ask you any questions they might have while surfing your website. Continue reading ‘Add A Google Talk chatback badge to your site!’
January 02, 2008
I’ve just recently had to convert an existing website into a Wordpress site for a client. The good news was that on the whole, they wanted their existing site design to stay as close as possible while giving them the ability to add news, images and videos to their website without destroying the look and feel of the website. Thankfully, with the old design in place (albeit using tables for layout) I saved hours of creative and design time. Here’s the original and the overhaul I did. I cut down the page size by 50% and reduced the size of images and calls to the server by 50% as well. And I was finished in about 6 hours.
My theme development for clients used to be a pretty exhaustive process. For each project I’d start with a fresh install of Wordpress and hack up a theme’s PHP pages till it was tailored to fit. I’d go in and add classes and id’s on-the-fly during my CSS development. Adding and updating id’s and classes for the existing theme’s structure took needless time.
That was until I met Sandbox. Sandbox is billed as the themer’s theme. But its really a theme for CSS designers. Through some inventive manipulation of the code using some PHP functions, the authors have managed to add semantic CSS classes to almost every essential element for Wordpress. You can have different styles based on page, author, date, category… you name it. Just by putting classes on the BODY tag of the generated XHTML unleashes powerful design options.
Imagine… without and manipulation to the theme code itself you can do any of the following with just CSS:
- Hide unrelevant content based on page, post, category, etc…
- Improve your site’s print stylesheet to display print-worthy content
- Use images for your dates
- Make a “day” and “night” version of your site.
- Use custom backgrounds or graphical titles based on a posts’ category
- Use different colors for links, background and titles on your site based on the page or category.
I’ll keep going… in the meantime you need to go and preview the Sandbox theme and then get your hands dirty with it. You’ll feel like a kid in a sandbox again.
November 14, 2007
I was doing a little Googling of myself this afternoon and found this bizarre video. It seems a bit too coincidental, honestly. Watch the video here.
October 10, 2007
The long awaited release of Radiohead’s follow-up to Hail to the Thief (2003) was on my iPod (and in my ears) 3 minutes after it was released to the world. 3 minutes. I didn’t have to wait in line at a Best Buy in the morning or wait for the UPS guy to deliver my pre-ordered album. No sir. I downloaded it instantly along with millions of other fans.
Radiohead has always been an envelope pusher; trying to bend and break the system. Outspoken about ticketing agencies and record label ripoffs, it was huge when Radiohead’s deal with long-time label EMI ended. Many people figured that an off-label release was imminent. Continue reading ‘Radiohead Fans Have Collective Mushy Moment’
September 05, 2007
I’m going to assume in this post that you have some experience coding XHTML/CSS and you can implement or hack up Javascript and you desperately want to start your own web marketing business. I’m also assuming that you plan on starting your web business on your own, for the most part.
Ideally, you should start an LLC or other limited liability company to front your web business. However, starting out as an independent contractor is perfectly acceptable (besides the pain in reporting your taxes.)
Continue reading ‘Start your own web design business’
January 23, 2007
So I got Xbox 360 last weekend on the day that I was supposed to house sit for my lovely friends Nancy and Richard. It was perfect since they have a 60-inch plus HDTV in the entertainment room. Sweet… I could envision hours of punch drunk game playing. It was all set up and working great but I wanted to connect to Xbox Live… get it online and see what I could download or play Gears of War with some online players. The Xbox ships with an ethernet jack and wire but the router was all the way up in the bedroom (which is a silly place to have it, if you ask me, Nancy… but I digress.) (Note: To save yourself the trouble, just pickup the Xbox Wireless Network Adaptor from your local Best Buy or gaming store.) Luckily, my laptop is always with me and they do have a nice wireless setup with some Apple Airports around the house. There must be a way to use my laptop’s wireless signal to get my Xbox online.
Indeed, there is. It’s really quite simple and I’ll give you instructions on how to do it.
Continue reading ‘Hijacking your laptop’s wireless connection with XBOX 360′
December 01, 2006
Well, you’ve got a few months to actually read this since Lost is on hiatus AGAIN, but the folks over at IGN have brought to light the top 50 loose ends on the show. And to this, I say, “Only 50?” Check it for yourself because I didn’t catch most of these or perhaps I’ve suspended my disbelief so permanently its never coming back. Word. Read it.
November 30, 2006
I just got done developing a very simple website for a local pizza and Italian restaurant. Very simple and affordable for our client. Check out King’s Pizza and let me know what you think. Let me know if it looks funny and what browser/OS you are using.
November 27, 2006
Update: I failed to quit smoking after something like 6 days. I quit quitting, so the title of this post still applies. Carry on.
It smells, it makes me smell and it turns my lungs crispy and black. That’s right, we’re talking about cigarette smoke. Sure, I love to walk around the city with a smoke in lip or accompanied with a glass of wine, but do I really need to have a smoke 10 minutes after I get up in the morning? Or everytime I get in the car? Or every 20 minutes while at work? No. I could easily save all these plastic memories but is it worth my health?
I’ve noticed it most in the past few years with my singing voice. I imagine my lung capacity is 40% of what it was before I smoked. I know that cigarette smoke gave me a “rustic” tone to my voice which I actually like, but I’d love to be able to take in more air to support longer, truer notes. That’s not the only reason I’m quitting. I’m quitting so that I don’t have to lie about it to potential girlfriends. It makes me look weak. We started a kitty here at work and Mike and I (who smoke like its going out of style) are giving $5 everytime we want to smoke. If we want to smoke, we can only at the office during the week and must pay $5. The winner after a few months takes both kitty’s. That’s really whats going to get me going. I hope Mike is weak. He’s not in the office yet but I hope hes hurting and weak so at least I can make some money out of this trying time. (The whole next week I may be a bastard, but please understand.)
Thanks to my friend Christynn I have found QuitNet and after signing up it told me that every year I quit smoking I would save $1,551.25. And also, every year I was still not smoking, would add 1 month, 17 days and 9 hours onto my life. Sweet. I’m gonna be around for a long while, suckas. In about a year of not smoking I will reduce my risk of cancer and heart disease by 50% of where it is now. Within 3 days I will be rid of nicotine in my system. Within 10 years of quitting I will have reduced my risk of heart disease and cancer to right around if I never smoked at all, so, here’s lookin at me in ten years.
