All those web designers out there, with their fancy coding skills, nobody knows how to make a proper website anymore. In this wonderful article, I’ll show you how. So open up Frontpage and let’s get started!
Continue reading ‘How To Make A Good Website’
Welcome to the blog of Dan, a designer, artist, blogger, and rabid Apple fanboy.
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Archive for the 'Microsoft' Category
Edit: The sale is over. It was a very nice sale, too.
Panic, the company behind Coda and Transmit (two of the greatest Mac apps ever made) is having a 50% sale! If any Mac users here want to buy Coda or Transmit, you can get them at a bargain right now, in this one-time event. As for all you Windows users, it is a really nice-looking page, so you can just look at it. Here’s the link to the half-off goodness.Zune HD
Microsoft has officially announced and released details/pictures of the Zune HD, which looks to be a complete iPod Touch ripoff. It’ll have an OLED touch-screen, much like that of the rumored 3rd gen iPhone/iPod Touch. It’s expected to be released in the fall. Details on it are sparse, so I’ll avoid criticizing it until I actually see it released.Kumo Bing
In a very Microsoft-like way, Microsoft has officially renamed Live Search to Bing, rather than Kumo. While I try to be unbiased, Bing sounds like a rather idiotic name for a search engine that’ll clearly be poised to take on Google. I’ll do a full review/feature-by-feature comparison of Bang Bong Bing and Google in a few days, when Bing officially replaces Live Search.…Microsoft ripped off Apple’s website? I was wondering the same thing today, and being bored out of my mind, I decided to put together a mockup of that in Photoshop. It took me about 2 and a half hours, but it turned out quite nice. Behold:
Microsoft Website + Apple Website
New Theme?
It seems that just about every web designer out there has released Wordpress themes, so I thought it would be interesting to have a try at making one. It will most likely be a minimalistic theme, which I feel are lacking amongst all the fancy themes out there. I already have a name for it, and a pretty good idea for the design. I won’t reveal too much today, so stay tuned for a full post about the upcoming theme. And before all you cheapskates ask, yes it will be free.First of all, I can already predict that the switch to Digital Television will be a complete disaster. Half the people in the country probably don’t know that it’s coming.
The next topic is about media formats. There are literally hundreds of them. Almost every company has, at some point, released a proprietary format. Microsoft is the worst offender here, as it still uses its own formats. WMA and WMV come to mind in particular. I say all the proprietary formats should die. There should be two formats for music- one lossy and one lossless. Same with video.
That’s all for today’s post. It’s a little bit short, as I’m not in a writing mood.
Have you ever needed to test a site for IE 6 but didn’t feel like booting up a clunky PC or waiting for browsershots to work? Well this is where IE NetRenderer comes in. It’s kind of like browsershots, but it only deals with IE 5.5 – IE 8. It loads almost instantly, with no waiting time. Here’s what the blog looks like in IE 5.5:
IE 5.5 Render
And in IE 6?
IE 6 Render
Surprisingly, IE 5.5 messes it up less than IE 6. Anyways, happy sunday to you all.
Yesterday, Microsoft released the public beta of Windows 7. I was able to obtain a copy, and installed it. My copy of Windows 7 is installed through Parallels on my MacBook Pro. Due to it being virtualized, some hardware didn’t work too well. I was unable to connect to the internet, use Aero, or play music. However, I was able to do everything else in Windows 7. I took some screenshots, which you can see below:
Boot Screen
The new boot screen. Instead of a useful progress bar, Microsoft opted to put in a glowing Windows logo.
Windows 7 Info
The Windows 7 info box. I was unable to get an experience rating due to a lack of drivers. I couldn’t activate either, due to a lack of internet. Clearly, I’m not going to be using Windows 7 as a main system.
Windows 7 Desktop
The general desktop, along with my Mac OS X desktop.
Gadgets
Windows 7 has gadgets…
Widgets
…and Mac OS X has widgets. Lately, they’ve been looking very similar.
Media Player
The Media Player is all white and shiny.
Control Panel
The Control Panel’s new default view.
Wordpad
Wordpad looks like a mini-version of Word 2007. Same ribbon UI, but it can’t save to .doc format. Maybe it’s meant to be a Word 2007 demo?
Notepad
Notepad has remained virtually unchanged, which is a relief.
Command Line
Command Line remains the same.
Folder Options
Windows Explorer
The new Windows Explorer. It has some Vista elements, though.
MS Paint
The new MS Paint has anti-aliasing, and various brushes. Note the ribbon UI.
MS Paint Menu
The menu in MS Paint.
Start Menu
The Start Menu, which is almost the same as Vista’s. Although when an item is highlighted, the text on it becomes quite hard to read.
Start Button
The start button, which has remained the same as Vista’s…
Start Button Sparkle
…until you hover over it. Now in addition to lighting up, it glows. Thanks a lot Microsoft, you knew just what we wanted-Â pretty glows!
Sarcasm, by the way
Windows 7 Build Number
The annoying little watermark on the bottom right. Also note the shiny “View Desktop” button at far right.
Character Map
The Character Map has remained virtually unchanged since XP. Time for an update?
Internet Explorer 8
The Internet Explorer 8 beta. I was not able to test its subpar rendering as I had no internet in Windows 7.
Windows 7 adds a lot in terms of eye candy. Glows and shines run wild in 7. But will it perform better than Vista? Only time will tell.