Ben Goodger is a star. This NZ native's name has been intertwined with Firefox's since its inception. And now, as he leads his small team -- and the rest of the switched-on web -- on to the much-anticipated IE-trouncing victory, his name is not likely to go away either.
Go you good thing!
Monday, September 20, 2004
Saturday, September 11, 2004
Art and Flash
I've just come across two interesting Flash sites showcasing artists' work.
The first, Ron Berg Photography, is essentially a simple yet clever gallery site for this distinguished photographer. The design makes use of vertical scrolling, strange for a Flash site, however it works well, with the words taking second place, and second space, to the gorgeous pictures.
Other clever Flash elements are incorporated without fanfare -- as it should be -- each fitting perfectly in its context. The site design and interface as a whole has a smooth, clean feel to it, and the copy gives it all quite a character: he's a photographer, so "just look at the pretty pictures man". Love it.
The second site is Encore Magazine, one of three online mag's from MagWerk, a German design house, sponsored by heavyweights Sony and Diesel. An extremely cool "art and design"-focussed offering, the interface comprises a magazine lying open on grass, with birds merrily chirping in the background, as you may find on a lazy summer's day. Pages of the mag house the site content, and a subtle bottom navigation bar allows the reader to move around within it.
The content here is excellent, featuring cutting-edge and upcoming artists from various media in a magazine-style layout enhanced with Flash for animation, interactivity and interest. The future of magazines? Possibly -- this would surely be cheaper to create than a printed version, and with the web, your market becomes limitless.
One small gripe -- they make use of a Flash technique that Juxt has been employing for ages -- allowing the user to "turn pages" by clicking the page corners -- but they don't do it as well as Juxt, who also add a drag functionality to their works so you can drag the page across -- as quickly or as slowly as you'd like -- by pulling on the corner, as well as by clicking it.
That said, however, the main navigation is great. I love the gelling of preloader with navigation, which works really well here, and the fact that it is down the bottom, out of the way of the pages and the meat of the mag.
It's a pity, then, that the bottom navigation only takes us to page 82, while the net mag's last page is actually on 102. Poor planning there, the nav needs to be scalable to be completely usable.
Overall though, Encore Mag is refreshing and entertaining. Issue #2 hits the web October 2nd. Definitely worth watching out for.
The first, Ron Berg Photography, is essentially a simple yet clever gallery site for this distinguished photographer. The design makes use of vertical scrolling, strange for a Flash site, however it works well, with the words taking second place, and second space, to the gorgeous pictures.
Other clever Flash elements are incorporated without fanfare -- as it should be -- each fitting perfectly in its context. The site design and interface as a whole has a smooth, clean feel to it, and the copy gives it all quite a character: he's a photographer, so "just look at the pretty pictures man". Love it.
The second site is Encore Magazine, one of three online mag's from MagWerk, a German design house, sponsored by heavyweights Sony and Diesel. An extremely cool "art and design"-focussed offering, the interface comprises a magazine lying open on grass, with birds merrily chirping in the background, as you may find on a lazy summer's day. Pages of the mag house the site content, and a subtle bottom navigation bar allows the reader to move around within it.
The content here is excellent, featuring cutting-edge and upcoming artists from various media in a magazine-style layout enhanced with Flash for animation, interactivity and interest. The future of magazines? Possibly -- this would surely be cheaper to create than a printed version, and with the web, your market becomes limitless.
One small gripe -- they make use of a Flash technique that Juxt has been employing for ages -- allowing the user to "turn pages" by clicking the page corners -- but they don't do it as well as Juxt, who also add a drag functionality to their works so you can drag the page across -- as quickly or as slowly as you'd like -- by pulling on the corner, as well as by clicking it.
That said, however, the main navigation is great. I love the gelling of preloader with navigation, which works really well here, and the fact that it is down the bottom, out of the way of the pages and the meat of the mag.
It's a pity, then, that the bottom navigation only takes us to page 82, while the net mag's last page is actually on 102. Poor planning there, the nav needs to be scalable to be completely usable.
Overall though, Encore Mag is refreshing and entertaining. Issue #2 hits the web October 2nd. Definitely worth watching out for.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Firefox Extensions Rock the Web World
Melissa Ray has converted to Firefox. She writes:
I have my own favourite extensions for Firefox.
Most everyone I know - including myself - is switching from IE to Firefox.She's found faith now due to her discovery of SpellBound, a spell-checker extension, and the essential Google power-user tool, GoogleBar.
I have my own favourite extensions for Firefox.
- Digger - adds a right-click menu to the address bar's Go button that allows you to jump straight to a higher directory of that site, or the ftp site equivalent. Brilliant.
- Paste And Go - can't live without this. Right-click context menu in the location bar allows you to paste a URL and load it automatically, no Go button or Enter key required.
- Tabbrowser Preferences - essential for tabbed browsing, enables you to customises when tabs/windows open, what the open with, where they open... get it.
- ConQuery - brilliant, adds a right-click "Query To..." menu that opens out to a list of all search engines you've added to the Search Bar, allowing automatic searching of your highlighted word at that engine.
- Web Developer - essential tools for coders and designers
- Plain Text Links - open links that haven't linkified
- ChromEdit - edit user preference files
- SuperScroll - smooth scrolling
- IE View - check a page in IE
- Cookie Culler - protect selected cookies from deletion
- MiniT - drag tabs around
- UndoCloseTab - undo the last three closed tabs
Monday, September 06, 2004
Styling file selection input fields
Ok, one for the web coders, and something I've banged my head against walls about in the past: <input type="file"> fields. Impossible to style, right?
Wrong. Yay!
Created by Michael McGrady, and wrapped up in JavaScript goodness by the eminent PPK, check out his clear tutorial on how to stop those pesky form elements from lowering your style.
Wrong. Yay!
Created by Michael McGrady, and wrapped up in JavaScript goodness by the eminent PPK, check out his clear tutorial on how to stop those pesky form elements from lowering your style.
Bloggers Love Firefox
The linked site above is currently running a poll on "Your choice of browser", and, with 43 votes so far, the results are overwhelmingly in favour of Firefox: 79%, compared to IE's 9%, Safari's 6% and Opera's 4%.
Whether or not this site is indicative of the global population is hard to say. I'm keen to find more personal -- or other -- sites currently running polls on browser usage, including non-blog-related sites. A broader data sample is essential due to the sheer density of web logs around -- blogs could easily gain niche popularity, but are they then representative?
For that matter, are blog users typical of web users in general? Would the average 9-to-5 worker, who only checks their email and reads their favourite gossip/sports sites, ever be likely to hear about blogging, or Firefox?
Firefox may gain favour quickly amongst bloggers, but if said bloggees are an introverted, parochial lot -- or, worse, leading a double life and not telling "real" friends about their blog -- then it'll stop there.
However, Firefox 1.0 is imminent and the excitement is palpable -- and it's no longer constrained to just net geeks. The Firefox tide is still coming in, and we've only just started making waves. Watch out IE, you're starting to leak...
Whether or not this site is indicative of the global population is hard to say. I'm keen to find more personal -- or other -- sites currently running polls on browser usage, including non-blog-related sites. A broader data sample is essential due to the sheer density of web logs around -- blogs could easily gain niche popularity, but are they then representative?
For that matter, are blog users typical of web users in general? Would the average 9-to-5 worker, who only checks their email and reads their favourite gossip/sports sites, ever be likely to hear about blogging, or Firefox?
Firefox may gain favour quickly amongst bloggers, but if said bloggees are an introverted, parochial lot -- or, worse, leading a double life and not telling "real" friends about their blog -- then it'll stop there.
However, Firefox 1.0 is imminent and the excitement is palpable -- and it's no longer constrained to just net geeks. The Firefox tide is still coming in, and we've only just started making waves. Watch out IE, you're starting to leak...
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Coffee spillage
Thursday, September 02, 2004
UserFriendly.org - for Geek Laughs
Excellent daily comic about all things geek, with particular emphasis on current events from a geek perspective.
Great stuff.
Great stuff.
Mozilla's got a new jacket
And it's bolder, brighter and better. Why?
The masses need info short, fast and to the point. The old design, and Firefox's page in particular, was wordy and confusing for new users. IE plays for the masses, and to get the masses back, Mozilla needs to do the same.
The KISS method was required -- and as usual, Mozilla and its band of supporters have stepped up quickly to the task, making the necessary changes and getting the product out for all to learn about and enjoy. The new site is clean, fast-loading and full of the latest information in easy-to-read bullet-point form, enabling visitors to find exactly what they're looking for super-quick.
The web comes alive with Firefox. What are you waiting for?
The masses need info short, fast and to the point. The old design, and Firefox's page in particular, was wordy and confusing for new users. IE plays for the masses, and to get the masses back, Mozilla needs to do the same.
The KISS method was required -- and as usual, Mozilla and its band of supporters have stepped up quickly to the task, making the necessary changes and getting the product out for all to learn about and enjoy. The new site is clean, fast-loading and full of the latest information in easy-to-read bullet-point form, enabling visitors to find exactly what they're looking for super-quick.
The web comes alive with Firefox. What are you waiting for?
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Firefox is Sizzling
The link above is for one of the many articles springing up all across this here wide web about the growing popularity of my beloved Firefox -- such as this one asking "Are the Browser Wars Back? How Mozilla's Firefox trumps Internet Explorer" on Microsoft's own msn.com.
If you haven't tried it yet, go download yourself a copy. I'll be posting more about the why's and how's at later dates, so watch this space. For now, get it, install it and run with it. You will be impressed with the speed, just wait till you start playing with the features. Be aware that it's not IE. Therefore things are different. And that means better.
If you haven't tried it yet, go download yourself a copy. I'll be posting more about the why's and how's at later dates, so watch this space. For now, get it, install it and run with it. You will be impressed with the speed, just wait till you start playing with the features. Be aware that it's not IE. Therefore things are different. And that means better.
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