MondayLunchCrew

In case you've ever wondered about your web coolness: Take the Test. [via]

Serious, I love most of the stuff Cameron comes up with... Check out his Experiments link. I can't get enough of CSS Love Child. [Previous Mention].

Labels: Web

I've been listening to the Futures of Web Apps Summit pod-casts (RSS Feed). I applaud Carson Systems for putting out for all of us who couldn't attend! It's a great service and it's a great way to increase interest in future seminars. BTW, the next seminar speaker list looks awesome too!

Some of the talks are really technical. Most are really informative. Some are really surprisingly funny. Content wise, it's great exposure to web apps, web sites, technologies and what people have done and are doing on the web.

And then there's little gems like these: (via)

• Cats that Look like Hitler
• Stuff on my cat

Labels: General, Misc, Web

Vitamin's Article: Our Office 2.0 Experiement was rather interesting reading.

I recently put in a new hard drive on an old PC laptop so that we could get another machine to use. It's ages old, 5-6 years and I didn't want to bog it down with much in terms of applications and honestly wanted to stay as far away from as much Microsoft stuff as I could. I've been trying to figure out what's needed on the machine so that we can be productive. I need to use the machine to do PC testing for work and G needs it for basic email/word processing and browsing.

From the featured article comments, I heard about openoffice.org. I just downloaded it for my PC laptop to try out. It looks very slick and easy to use at the moment. I've got to try to put it through the paces to see. But really, had I known about it, I would likely not have purchased the Mac office suite ages ago. I really only use Excel mostly. I find that I could word process just as well on vim. In case you're also looking for cheaper, non microsoft alternatives, check out the article and take a look at openoffice.org.

Labels: Web

If you haven't heard, Firefox 2.0 has been released. If you've never used Firefox, you don't know what you're missing. Download it now!

It's far superior to IE (don't even get me going on how...) but mostly you'll see prettier websites and better response times. The add-ons are just as fun and make life much easier. I also love the search bar/tool where you can customize where you search without having to go to those pages. It's all about doing things faster and more efficiently. Here's the extensions I've got on my firefox and recommend:

Utility:

del.icio.us bookmarks *** - syncs up your bookmarks on firefox with your del.icio.us bookmarks.

Yahoo! Mail notifier ***.

Map+Get a map of any address highlighted on a webpage. (unfortunately it's not the most comprehensive maps, since it uses yahoo maps as a base.

Programming:

FireBug

Greasemonkey - User script manager

Tails *** - Locate and work with objects embedded in webpages. I use it for microformats.

Web Developer *** I'd be lost without it.

Recently stopped using:

Wizz RSS News Reader. I've switched to using NetNewsWireLite.

Labels: Computer, Geek, Web

at graphpaper.com, there's a 6 part series on Class and Design that is fascinating. Part One. [via]

A recent issue of Fast Company and Part Six of this series also mentions Antenna Design. They are the ones who designed the MetroCard machines for the MTA (NYC). I was recently once again using the machines and looking at them with a lot more of a usability and user interaction design stand point, and I have to say, they really are a gem. Go to the Antenna site to take a look at their designs in more detail, and next time you use a MetroCard vending machine, take note at how fast it was to get your ticket/refill your pass.

Other interesting reads: New York Times: Class Matters - Social Class in the United States of America

Update

Even if you don't think the metroCard machin is all that fabulous compared to other machines, it will still kick the butt of this piece of crap design put out by the TTC:

Labels: General, Web

Three Two great summaries of reading for (beginner) web designers. Dig in!

• Cameron writes a beginner's guide: Beginner's Guide from a Seasoned CSS Designer
• A List Apart Primer
• A List Apart Primer Part Two: Resources for Beginners

Labels: Web

One of my favorite groups from the late 80's is Breathe I've been wanting to download the songs on itunes for ages but it's never on. (So I don't have to rip from my cassette...) In the meantime today I find link from Dan Cederholm's Blog that leads me to this story about one of the best parody songs ever made! Hands to Boag(mp3), a parody of Hands to Heaven by Andrew Rothman. A Must listen if you know the song and works with CSS. Also cool is the revelation that Marcus, one of the members of the band, went on to be a director of a web design company.

Labels: Computer, Geek, Web

<geek>
Follow a bit of fun courtesy of SimpleBits, and I got to the following sites and posts which is being linked here for future reference outside of my del.icio.us and shared for anyone interested in web design and order. Some of these posts are years old but still really relevant and has got me thinking in a slightly different way about my web design.

• CSS Love Child. This is the bit of fun for geeks.
• WebPatterns and WebSemantics
• WebPatterns.org
• What's in a name? Reading this article has got me convinced that header really should be branding. His concluding proposal left me thinking he was being too simplistic and not generalized enough. I'm glad he went on to revise his proposal in the following article.
• What's in a name? Part Two. The conventions here are a lot more in line with something that makes sense to my logic.
• Structural Naming. I desperately need a teeshirt that says SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue > 0.

and this boxing match is the kind I'd actually watch. I thought it was hilarious, but is that too much geekness?
</geek>

Labels: Geek, Web

Saw this on SubwayKnitter. Interesting concept and another example of someone taking a problem and running with it. Very innovative, and I wonder how well it works with sock needle sizes. Where does the battery go?

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Speaking of innovation, I've admired Ideo for ages and I just read today in the October 2005 issue of Fast Company that the GM wrote a book, The Ten Faces of Innovation. I'm really looking forward to reading it, that is after I get a copy. Yes, I realize that May 2006 is the latest issue, but this one was lost in the mail and their excellent customer service resent it to me.

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Been reading books on CSS of late for work and in the end, there's just one that I really love and value so far. Here are the ones I've read so far in order of recommendation:

• CSS Mastery, Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd with Cameron Moll & Simon Collison. Foreword by Dan Cederholm
• Professional CSS, Cascading Style Sheets for Web Design by Christopher Schmitt, Mark Trammell, Ethan Marcotte, Dunstan Orchard, Todd Dominey. Foreword by Jeffrey Zeldman
• Cascading Style Sheets: The definitive guide by Eric Meyer

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In progress on the knitting front: Petula from Rowan Mag 31: It took just a few hours to get the bottom band done and then 24 hours of procrastinating and being fustrated, 2 hours of attempts and sitting down and doing it the 103 stitches have been picked up evenly and the body of the sweater has begun in earnest. However, I'm not looking forward to having to do the same thing on side two. I will, however, enjoy knitting the body as much as I can until then.

Labels: Web

I've been doing a lot of CSS for work lately and decided to put some of the skills to use and give the blog a minor facelift. I was getting rather bored with the old look. For those looking for major CSS inspiration, check out CSS Zen Garden. I'm so impressed by what people have been doing with such a simple page and get so much out of it. That's skills. My favourite one of late has got to be Mozart. I love how as you scroll the page, the background music shows through the positioning of the boxes. Very nicely done. I've finished the sock that's show here in progress on Sunday morning. Then I sat around and didn't do any knitting for a few days and just started it's mate yesterday. I'm uncertain how I like the colours of this sock, but it was worth a try. You don't know until you actually knit it to see if you like it. I've got a bunch of other colours and patterns to try out coming up. I'm looking forward to it. Flour in the past couple of weeks has had a real breakthrough and seems to overnight understand the concept of being house broken. So, our lives are a little easier. We've been going out to dinner with friends, leaving her at home and coming home to NO accidents! Ah... we can see the light. She's been losing all her baby teeth, and it's rather gross to find bloody teeth here and there and bloody toys lying about. We're not in the clear yet, she still has accidents but she can be trusted to run around on the carpet without much supervision. Here's a recent photo of her with one of her newer toys. Ringu has since suffered terribly by being shredded and bled on. At least one of the rings in this three ring toy will have to be tossed out in the next day or two if it last that long! She's getting groomed this weekend, so I'll put up some cuter nicely groomed photos of her after that.

Labels: Flour, Web, Westie