:: Personal website of a Toronto web designer
Archive, March 2004
Wednesday, 31. March 2004
Google Email
[11:55 pm]
Second post about Google in three days, but it is a very interesting one.
Google to offer 1 gig of free e-mail Search engine Google Inc. announced Wednesday it will launch a free, Web-based e-mail service to compete against popular services from rivals Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
This was a logical move actually, I heard rumors about it a few months ago.
Monday, 29. March 2004
Google redesign
[04:07 pm]
Anybody noticed subtle changes on Google's homepage and result pages? This design is even more simplistic than the previous one. On the homepage we notice that the pretty tabs are gone, but we now have Froogle tab, which wasn't there before.
PHP 5 and XML
[03:51 pm]
XML in PHP 5 This article is intended for PHP developers at all levels who are interested in using the new XML functionality in PHP 5. Only basic, general knowledge about XML is assumed. However, it's an advantage if you have already worked with XML in PHP
Saturday, 27. March 2004
Visiting Europe, finally
[05:42 pm]
It's been more than 5 years, since I flew over the Atlantic for the first time. The time has come to do the same, but in the opposite direction. Sofia and I will go to Europe this May/June. We bought the tickets already. We will be visiting France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona), and Portugal (Lisbon). In all of the cities Sofia's family will host us, which is pretty nice. It has always been my dream to visit Paris, but I am also looking forward to seeing Barcelona and Lisbon.
I am not looking forward to the flight, but I've been convinced that the exposure is the best treatment for phobias.
Thursday, 25. March 2004
Image alteration
[06:52 pm]
Why you should never put your photo on the Internet!!
Monday, 22. March 2004
Web design . . .
[09:36 pm]
. . . going in the wrong direction?
There's way too much talk about CSS and XHTML and Standards and Accessibility and not enough talk about people.
Saturday, 20. March 2004
TinyURL
[11:58 pm]
Honey, I Shrunk the URL.
A Wired article about Kevin Gilbertson, the guy who first came to the idea of shortening long URLs. No doubt, TinyURL.com is a simple but very useful web tool.
Friday, 19. March 2004
Accessibility comes for free
[12:49 pm]
I don't care about accessibility
Speaking notes used by Jeffrey Veen during the Accessibility is for everyone! panel discussion at South by SouthWest earlier this week.
Wednesday, 17. March 2004
Pixels or inches?
[08:13 am]
SEO is a science as well as art, but I must admit, certain search engine results don't make me proud of my accomplishments. When you think about it, we men are unfortunate creatures, never happy with what we've got. The situation is even more complex when a consortium of random people starts to get worried about the size of one's love muscle.
Tuesday, 16. March 2004
Never try to cross a highway, especially if you are a newcomer
[07:43 pm]
I just read an amazing story about a couple with a 14-month old baby, who came from China to Toronto three days ago. After the shopping, they got lost in the city and somehow ended up at the edge of one of the busiest highways in North America, . . . trying to cross it. Fortunately, a police car and a tow track driver came on time to save this family.
This story reminds me a lot about my first days here in Toronto, or Berlin. I never did something like this, but boy, was I lost!
Monday, 15. March 2004
Image hijacking
[08:21 am]
An avatar that links to a 48.97 KB image. How ignorant is that?
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} nappturality\.com
Sunday, 14. March 2004
You are here!
[10:39 pm]
Earth as viewed from the martian surface. This is the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. It was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd martian day, or sol, of its mission.
More at NASA's Press Release Images: Spirit
Friday, 12. March 2004
Passionate Skin
[08:23 pm]
My previous post reminded me that I should put back the passionate skin.
PHP Tip: Use === operator to compare types of two values. For example:
$a === $b where $a = 1 and $b = "1" will result in boolean FALSE. Here is how you can test it:
<?php
$a = 1;
$b = "1";
echo var_dump($a === $b);
?>
Thursday, 11. March 2004
Earth Erotica
[11:51 pm]
Nature is the best artist.
Sex is the [add your superlatives here]. Heather Firth takes two of life's elements I feel most passionate about, sex and nature, and combines them to create some of the most beautiful and mind-boggling images I've come across.
Tuesday, 09. March 2004
RSS Feed
[05:28 pm]
FYI, you can now access sashaDesign blog via RSS. I am tardy, I know it.
Manipulation Challenge #1
[12:41 am]
The challenge is to make him look like somone (or something) else. I enjoy wasting my time with this kind of Terminator stuff.
Monday, 08. March 2004
Introducing the basics of colour theory
[08:23 am]
Using Color This is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of "Web Graphics for Non-Designers", by glasshaus, (ISBN: 1904151159, copyright glasshaus 2002). It introduces the basics of color theory, choosing color schemes that work, and good practice when dealing with color on the Web.
Sunday, 07. March 2004
Eolas browser plug-in patent rejected
[03:04 pm]
Feds reject Eolas browser patentThe U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated a claim to Web browser technology central to a case against Microsoft, a move that could spare the software giant from paying more than half a billion dollars in damages, according to documents obtained on Friday.
This is a good thing; browser developers can continue to work with plug-ins the way they always did and web developers can keep their focus on other, less stupid issues.
Saturday, 06. March 2004
Bug fixed, or maybe not?
[07:51 pm]
A few days ago I ranted about a Firefox bug that caused these humble pages of ours to look funny. I rewrote my style sheets slightly and hope that it fixes the problem with this page. I am sure, smarter people than me will fix browser issues.
Thursday, 04. March 2004
IE6 image display bug
[11:52 pm]
I think that IE6/WinXP has real troubles showing images. I didn't tell you, but that was the main reason why I switched to Firefox a few days ago. This bug with IE6 (an example I just reproduced) usually happens randomly and on pages with small, repeated gifs. I have a feeling that it started right after I installed Windows critical security updates, but I might be wrong.
I stumbled across two topics at OzoneAsylum today, where people complained about a similar problem:
· Problem with IE 6
· A funny image bug
Wednesday, 03. March 2004
MSN Toolbar
[11:21 pm]
Download MSN Toolbar FREE. No personal information required!
- Block Pop-up ads with Pop-up Guard.
- Find search terms quickly with Keyword Highlight and Highlight Viewer.
- Search the Internet from any Web page.
For some reason, this toolbar looks very familiar to me. Knowing Microsoft, who knows, in 2 or 3 years from now on, we might all have this superfluous thing installed on our machines.
Tuesday, 02. March 2004
Bug
[05:36 pm]
I just filed a bug report about a problem that's been bugging me for a while. I hope that it hasn't been reported already. I also hope that it isn't something I could have fixed on my end. Take a look at the screen shot to get an idea of what I am talking about.
