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The good folks of Web Directions North have just created an opportunity for you to get yourself a free ticket, as well as hotel accomodation and places on the ski trip. So if you want to come to Web Directions but feeling a bit nervous about the money, here’s your chance.
In case you didn't knew about WDN yet, it's a conference this February in Vancouver, Canada. There is a list of amazing speakers, including me (don't know about the amazing part though), a fantastic location, and after hours events. There is also more info on the schedule, workshops, topics and of-course pricing.
So if you want to get a good deal, join the affiliate program and get 4 people to sign up for the conference and you have a free ticket for yourself. Either use the unique URL on your site or start probing your friends to join you.
If more people sign up it goes even further but you can read that on the affiliate program page. It's a unique way and you never know what happens and it can't hurt to try. All you need to do is get your unique URL, and then you can spread the word in whatever way you think is right for you.
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Things have been progressing slowly here around the home/office and it is as many people already have said before, it’s a continuous process of improving the surroundings. We bought a lot of interior magazines and did some googling to get inspiration. That is when the idea came to add a new section to the blog that I think could be worthwhile. Ideas enough for improving things around here but the execution is something else :)
Like I said the idea came to me while doing research for us and I thought why not share that stuff with the readers. So as of today I will introduce a new section called "Modern Home Design". It's not my intention to give lectures about the items I show but just post some pictures about what I like and could be of interest. I know it's not like it's not been done before but I really think it could be an asset to this blog since things are about design around here anyway. The items that I post could be all kind of things like furniture, vases, lights, bathrooms etc. Pieces that make you dream and appreciate the art of industrial design.
The first item we talk about is something that we opted for our bedroom. We have enjoyed a Swissflex SF 505 slat base for some time now, but since it is just a basic model, it's now time to addd a bed frame to it. That's when we bumped into the SF 500 Ambiente accessories. We wanted something tied but still with some personalty. The SF 500 - Ambiente is all that, since it is very versatile and because you can go from a discreet bed upgrade through sleek design feet to a luxurious complete system featuring headboard, side tables and our unique bed surround. You can choose from different materials: aluminium or various lumbers as well as leather and fabric covers in eleven different colors. It features some nice usability touched like integrated sliding profiles, that can be moved freely along the side of the bed (for when you sit up for example). There are these clever reading lights that can be turned towards where you are reading.
This bed is not one of the cheapest but if you consider how much time you spend in it, your back will thank you in the long run. I can vouch that it actually works because I sleep better and more solid than I did in my previous bed. The good thing about this system is that it is modular so you can go as far as your budget will take you or you can do as we did, start just with the basics for a few years and update when you can. We chose a black leader back panel and allumium legs combined with bedside tables doors in cherry wood and glass topping.
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In response to an earlier blog entry about using Visual Studio Express to write/compile a Notes C-API program (after giving up on using MinGW and Eclipse CDT), I just got a comment by Ed Schaller that he has posted some initial instructions on getting everything working with MinGW on Windows:
Here's his article: MingW32 & Lotus Notes API
I might have to give it another try...
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One of the reasons I was attracted to CSSEdit was its gorgeous interface. Jan Van Boghout isn’t only a talented developer but a great designer as well. I’m sure many people don’t realize, but Jan designs every element himself. Just look at MacRabbit’s new website, the icons etc. and I think you’ll agree it’s topnotch. High time we sat down with Jan to ask him a few questions about this new release…
1) Let's start by talking about the very clean and slick new interface of CSSEdit 2. I'm sure many readers are wondering how you come up with the ideas and how you tackle the task of creating them. What I am wondering is, if you create them in Photoshop or Illustrator and if you start by sketching them? If you sketch, any examples left that shows the progress?
I always carry around an "analog" notebook. Whenever I think of something cool, I sketch it out or describe how it works. Usually it goes from "think about cool idea X" to more elaborate UI sketches and behaviors over time.
Channeling my ideas into that notebook allows me to focus on what I *should* be doing. I often get random ideas while I'm working on something completely unrelated, so I can just write it down and continue working. Later, I can look at it again and flesh it out.
2) Would be great if you could share a trick or two in how you handle the creation in Photoshop or Illustrator since they are some of the best in the industry.
I'm probably a terrible person to ask this to! I live entirely in Photoshop for my graphics work, mainly because it was the first thing I really used. I took a stab at Illustrator once, but I was too impatient to make the mental switch from my (mostly) pixel based workflow to vector-only. I use Photoshop vectors a lot, but I don't think I could live without those little pixel tweaks. Leopard's 512x512 icons will probably help me change my mind :)
At the risk of sounding like a total newbie, one thing that really helped me is a way to change the opacity of a layer simply by typing a number. I used to click and drag that irritating little slider all the time, now it's usually just a single keystroke that does the trick.
3) How did you come up with the new features? Is that based on user feedback only?
User feedback can be tricky, but it's very useful to detect general trends. If tons of people request something particular, I don't rush into a coding frenzy to implement a particular feature (unless it's just an awesome idea). Instead, I try to dig deeper and find out what the basic problem is.
CSSEdit 2's Overriding is a great example of that. Everyone who codes dynamic sites has their favorite language or system, so I used to get all kinds of requests to handle Ruby on Rails, PHP, .... In the end though, the objective is to test your sites so they work in a browser. So I made anything that displays in a browser work, without having to worry about everyone's favorite languages.
I have a deep fear of bloating my apps, and it's incredibly hard to remove a feature once you've added it. If you've ever asked me for a feature that still hasn't popped up, I may just be waiting for the way to do it "right" :)
4) You seem to have a pretty rare mix of talent. How does a programmer become such a good designer? Or should I reverse the question?
Haha, thanks for the compliment! I guess I was a designer first, programmer second. I've always appreciated pretty things, but it wasn't until Mac OS X that I started thinking about designing anything of my own. Aqua was a "wow, sweeeeeet!" experience for me, and I wanted to duplicate that awesomeness. Of course I sucked at first, but I got better over the years. I'd show you just how bad I used to be, but when I searched my backups, it turned out I skillfully removed all traces of the horrible artwork I remember.
I tumbled into programming mainly by accident. A few years back, I felt I needed something to hide the mess of icons on my desktop, so I wrote DeskShade with great effort. I took Aaron Hillegass's Cocoa book and spent 2 months learning about Cocoa and programming in general. Since then I've gone through a few app revisions and started studying Computer Sciences. Looking at CSSEdit 2, I would say I've improved ;)
5) How has MacOS X changed your life as a programmer? Can you shed some light on the differences in creating CSSEdit 1.0 and 2.0 done on Tiger for example?
It has started my life as a programmer :) Developing CSSEdit 1 and 2 was a world of difference. The first version was written in the Jaguar (10.2) days, and Apple's frameworks have really improved a ton between now and then. Even WebKit didn't exist when I wrote CSSEdit 1.0, whereas vital parts of the app build on top of it now. Developing for Tiger is quite nice, and Leopard looks like it will be even better.
6) As a developer did you ever go to the World Wide developers conference or did you ever receive a sign of life from Apple? Personally I think this 2.0 makes a great chance of winning an Apple design award.
I went my first time this year, it was a blast. It's great to finally meet people in the flesh when they're usually across a huge ocean. A sign from life, hmmm. Some people at Apple must like CSSEdit 2, because it recently got featured on the Mac OS X Downloads page. That was pretty damn awesome! Let's hope even more Apple employees like it when I enter CSSEdit in the next Design Awards :D
7) Do you plan to add HTML editing to CSSEdit?
I plan to keep CSSEdit true to its name, so I wouldn't expect CSSEdit to edit HTML :) Currently the Preview senses changes to the HTML file in any editor, so you can use your favorite tool.
8) Are you going to do
With the exception of HTML editing, I prefer not to comment on my plans for future versions. They would surely come and bite me in the ass later! That said, I have a lot of improvements in mind for the future.
9) How have you applied your experiences from using Version 1 to make improvements in Version 2?
CSSEdit 2 is almost a complete rewrite thanks to version 1. I had a much more limited view on source editors and CSS development when I wrote 1.0. The new CSSEdit is the result of all the should-have-done-it-this-ways that popped up with version 1.
10) What kind of tools do you use? Why did testing take a long time and did it pay off?
I mainly use Xcode and Interface Builder, and Apple's optimization tools. I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro, but I do 99% of my development on the laptop (or notebook, since it will turn your lap into super-heated plasma). The only thing ruining the experience is Photoshop in Rosetta.
The testing phase took a long time because it wasn't a testing phase in the traditional sense. I was adding features till the last minute, which allowed me to build more incremental feedback. Once the basic stuff works, you can start worrying about the layer on top of that, and so on. I had a great bunch of testers with excellent feedback. I can't say there were a whole lot of bugs (it was rock solid even in the early stages ;) ), but the testing phase exposed common problems with brand new features, such as Overriding.
11) Are you able to make a living off your independent software efforts?
It's too early to tell for version 2, but the outlook is good. I will be a full time student for a while longer though, so I won't be able to dedicate all my time to MacRabbit for a bit longer. I hope it's feasible to go full time once I graduate :)
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I was reading an article on the Microsoft Watch site the other day when I noticed that their favicon (you know, that little icon that shows up in the browser address bar next to the URL) was moving. Moving, I tell you! It was in motion. Not standing still...
I thought to myself: "Hmm, I thought favicon files had to be bitmaps. How do you make a bitmap move?"
Then I had a better thought: "Why don't I just do a View-Source and see what the heck is going on?" So I did. And at the top of the HTML page they have:
Coolness. You can define an alternate icon that's an animated GIF.
I was going to do that myself, but I have no graphic design abilities and I couldn't think of anything that wasn't obnoxious and blinky. But it would be a fun way to add a little bling bling to the ol' site.
NOTE: interestingly enough, I didn't see ANY favicon for that site in IE6, only Firefox.
UPDATE: here's a fun little animated Domino favicon: 
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