:: Personal website of a Toronto web designer
Archive, November 2003
Sunday, 30. November 2003
Well-designed weblogs
[10:51 pm]
We all know, most weblogs look boring and similar in design, but there are exceptions, which look quite appealing to the eye. Of course, it is difficult or impossible to tell what a good web design is. It is certainly not always a visual thing and it always depends on the audience, right?
Saturday, 29. November 2003
Who's feeling lucky?
[04:18 pm]
Go to Google, search for I am feeling lucky and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button and see where it brings you. I don't think it'll last for too long, but it is nice :-)
Friday, 28. November 2003
Meatrix
[11:09 pm]
Davor sent me a link to a great Flash movie, Meatrix, which I had to share here. The movie is a part of a campaign against destructive and dangerous practices of factory farming.
Thursday, 27. November 2003
QTFairUse
[02:27 pm]
DVD Jon Takes Crack at ITunesA young Norwegian who became a global hacker hero by writing and distributing a program to crack DVD security codes appears to have struck again, this time against Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes online music service.
Wednesday, 26. November 2003
I'm feeling lucky
[08:27 am]
If anybody wants to buy me a present, I suggest "I'm Feeling Lucky" Boxer Short ;-)
I came across this, while looking for a way to link to some page using Google's "I'm feeling lucky" redirect. For example:
http://www.google.com/search?q=kulic&btnI=foo
As you can see, btnI variable does the trick.
Tuesday, 25. November 2003
Kefir
[03:57 pm]
I discovered a new passion - Kefir! For those who have no idea what it is, take a look at Dom's Kefir in-site, which might look cheesy from the web designer's point of view, but it is the best information about Kefir on Internet, and it is funny too. At the moment, I drink Liberty certified organic kefir, which tastes soooo good, but is not so easy on the wallet ($2.69 CAD), particularly if you drink it daily, like me. So I thought that it would be a good idea to grow my own Kefir grains. As it looks like, it is difficult to find quality and real Kefir grains on the market, but smart people solved the problem and developed the Kefir community site with a database of users willing to share their grains. Lets see if I am lucky and can get hold of them.
Monday, 24. November 2003
The end of LiveMotion
[10:57 am]
The distribution of LiveMotion software ends. This software, in Adobe's eyes, was supposed to be a better alternative to Flash.
Effective November 15, 2003, Adobe will no longer distribute LiveMotion 2.0. Though Adobe has decided to concentrate its efforts in other areas, we want to thank our loyal LiveMotion customers for their support.
Sunday, 23. November 2003
HTML Beauty
[01:40 am]
Marko Njezic releases MAX's HTML Beauty++ 2004.The BEST freeware HTML editor in the world!
Saturday, 22. November 2003
See your site through the eyes of a Mac
[12:08 pm]
Through the eye of a Mac browser (v2.0)
This is something Macless designers were looking for. Browser screenshots created realtime by an iMac G3 400Mhz "Smoke" running OSX 10.3.1 and Safari 1.1 (v100). Very impressive! I remember that a similar service was available somewhere, but not free. We hope that this will stay free or at least easy-on-the-pocket.
Thursday, 20. November 2003
PHP Quebec Conference 2004
[05:43 pm]
PHP Quebec conference 2004, which will be held on March 25th and 26th, sounds like a perfect excuse to revisit Montreal. As it looks like, some very prominent names such as Rasmus Lerdorf and Zeev Suraski will be speaking at the conference.
Wednesday, 19. November 2003
Multiple IE's idea, who is the inventor?
[01:52 am]
Wow, I just realized from where the idea of installing multiple versions of IE originated. I came across a WebmasterWorld entry (Google link, otherwise you cannot get in, I am not sure why), posted on October 8. The article, most websites linked to, including this one, was published on November 3.
Monday, 17. November 2003
Math again, and again
[11:37 pm]
Huh, I am back from yet another math exam. This time I was able to finish everything, but only God knows if everything is correct. They say, you need to practice math everyday, and I always do it two days before the exam. Miško's harassment is just an excuse.
Saturday, 15. November 2003
OpTool
[11:17 am]
Optool is a handy freeware Windows utility which easily allows you to open a given web site in another browser by pressing a key combo. Use it if your preferred browser doesn't show the site properly or if you are a developer and want to check the page in several browsers without the hassle of cutting and pasting the URL. Neat!
Thursday, 13. November 2003
Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines
[11:57 pm]
Jacob Nielsen's newest alertbox, Ten Most Violated Homepage Design Guidelines is worth reading, despite of the fact that I always take his articles with a grain of salt. Just imagine, every single website on the Internet following the guideline #2:Use a liquid layout that lets users adjust the homepage size
"Ice, jello or liquid" has always been good food for flame wars, I don't want to agree or disagree, but I would definitely be bored.
Wednesday, 12. November 2003
Flashkiller
[04:48 pm]
New Longhorn Graphics Tool Called "Flashkiller"Top developers at Microsoft are working on a new graphics and animation toolset for Longhorn (the next generation of Windows) that could spell trouble for Macromedia's popular Flash MX and Director MX animation tools, sources familiar with the situation told internetnews.com.
Tuesday, 11. November 2003
Kasparov vs. X3D Fritz
[01:35 am]
Chess lovers, and not only them, will be able to enjoy four exciting games between Kasparov, the world's top-ranked chess player and X3D Fritz, most dominant computer chess software. The match will start today, November 11. at 1:00 p.m. EDT and can be watched live at the official website. This match is also interesting and unique because it takes place in X3D virtual reality with the board floating in the air in front of Kasparov. His moves will be received by X3D Fritz via voice recognition and will appear instantly on the display screens. As usual I am on the human's side, but my prediction is: Fritz wins 2.5:1.5
On a more personal note, I remember playing against chess programs about 15 years ago. I was among those young chess players who were invited to the local computer club "RAK" to play a match against a chess program running on Commodore 64. If I can recall correctly, I won the match, but the computer was very tricky.
Nowadays, it is no fun for me, not anymore! I only play against a computer if I feel like being beaten up.
Related links:
Rage Against the (Chess) Machine [Wired]
Man vs. Machine - The Endless Fascination [ChessBase]
Monday, 10. November 2003
Girls for geeks?
[11:01 am]
Miss Digital World, kicking off in Italy next week, is the first ever virtual beauty contest, strictly for the most beautiful and intriguing virtual models made using the most advanced 3D graphics tools. This competition was also mentioned on CNN's website and Slashdot.
Artifical alternative for geeks who can't get dates with real women? A better choice than those funny looking sex dolls? I can imagine requests like "render me something in Britney Spears direction for tonight" in the near future.
Sunday, 09. November 2003
Googling without a browser
[01:26 am]
Google Deskbar introduced by Google Labs
[via Kurcula]
It looks like Google does have the courage to take a stand against recent Microsoft's plans to expand the Windows empire.
Saturday, 08. November 2003
Bad Internet Fairy
[01:36 am]
A Fairy, a Low-Fat Bagel, and a Sack of Hammers
by Nick Usborne.
What a great article!
Friday, 07. November 2003
Google Adsense
[11:55 pm]
I just started to experiment with Google Adsense, and I feel like a girl who just lost her virginity. People who come here daily would probably not even notice the ads, because they only appear on the archive pages, which are two or more months old. Archive pages are mostly visited by people coming via Google or other search engines. This is a learning experience for me. I don't expect to make money with this, seriously. Considering the amount of hits I get combined with the common click-through rates, I cannot expect more than $2 a month.
Thursday, 06. November 2003
Multiple IE's
[04:15 pm]
I haven't tried it out myself yet, I am not in the reinstalling mood at the moment, but as it looks like, we might be able to run multiple IE versions side by side.
Tuesday, 04. November 2003
Default Home Page
[06:20 pm]
What page did you guys set as your default home page in your browser? Blank? I had Yahoo for years, then Google News for a while, then returned to Yahoo and still stick with it. I only like it because of the always-fresh news headlines.
Monday, 03. November 2003
It's about Standards
[01:03 am]
The Importance of Code Validation, By John FoliotAuthoring to standards allows developers a level of assurance that what they are posting to the web will be accessible not only to the popular browser of the day, but to any standards compliant user agent in the marketplace.
Saturday, 01. November 2003
mnoGoSearch installed
[11:08 pm]
sashaDesign is getting older. The older the site, the greater the need for a sitewide search engine. In order to address these needs, I thought, I should replace the humble search script I wrote, with a more sophisticated one. I decided to go for a well known, open source solution, mnoGoSearch. So far so good; it really, really does a good job.
