I wrote about the new Netscape site a while ago (back then it was in beta), which was basically a Digg clone meant to replace their traditional news portal site that had been in its current form ever since AOL acquired them. The idea seemed great – copy the basic idea of such a supposedly popular website as Digg, but push it into the mainstream and add editorial control to prevent mob rule. However, as some would say, it looks like they may be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic over there.
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After quite a few days of hot and humid conditions, we finally got an unexpected break. Out of seemingly no where, a decent thunderstorm has broken out, finally breaking the siege that this balmy weather has imposed on us.

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Advertising on the Internet is perhaps more ubiquitous than advertising in traditional media – and for good reason. For many companies out there, it’s either their major or only source of income, and it brings in tons of cash, in many times for something as seemingly simple as running a successful website. (If you’ve ever wondered how Google makes money, it’s time to stop doing so.) There’s nothing inherently wrong with making money off of advertising, as it’s just another way to earn money, the ultimate aim of any company. What’s wrong is the way some less-scrupulous companies go about getting their ads onto your computer.
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I finally added in a style switcher, to allow users to select between viewing the site in either a fluid or fixed (default) width layout. Up until now, the layout has been a fixed one, restricted to a width of 780 pixels, so that it remains usable in even 800×600 resolution screens. Before you so smugly point out that hardly anyone you know runs at 800×600 anymore, recent facts seem to indicate that up to 1 in 5 screens are still at this resolution – so you must be able to design for this, as having to scroll horizontally greatly reduces usability.

However, this design constraint also imposes some problems on people with higher resolution screens who want the website to use more of the available space. (I personally run at 1280×1024, but prefer the smaller, fixed width as easier to read due to the smaller line lengths.) Well, taking a cue from some websites out there, I decided to implement a style sheet switcher that would allow users to pick which format they wanted. It’s now available – see that icon in the upper right corner that looks like this?

Simply click on it to toggle between a fixed a fluid-width layout, and view this site how you like it. At this time, I have no plans to add other different styles, as in my mind a simple switcher like this is all that’s needed. And, I don’t really feel like a re-design at this time; I think this current design is good at least for a few more months. (On a somewhat unrelated note, I’m currently working on a WordPress theme for public release though, stay tuned for more details.)
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Litebox is a neat set of scripts used to allow images to load and overlay the current window, which is useful for loading the original images of thumbnails. It’s based off of Lightbox (note “Light” vs. “Lite”), but uses a different effects library plus some other changes to bring down the total script file size. The original Lightbox scripts were on the order of 100 KB in size, while Litebox weighs in at just over 24 KB, all while providing basically the same functionality – neat. (You could strip out all whitespace and comments to further bring down either of these numbers)

So, what do the effects look like? Well, take a look for yourself:

Click on any image, and the larger, linked original image will popup and overlay the page – from here you can even go back and forward through the image set, by clicking on the left or right side of the current image. What’s even more neat is that if for some reason JavaScript is not enabled in your browser, the links still work as normal – opening up the location to the original image. You can still open the image link a new window if you so desire.
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I recently switched to using a Logitech MX1000 mouse because I liked the feel, ample number of buttons, and rechargeability of the unit. It’s very comfortable, cordless, and just looks plain sleek. However, there was once sorely-missed feature: The ability to set button profiles on a per-application basis. This wasn’t a fault of the hardware per se, but rather a “limitation” of the software. However, after some searching, I found a handy solution.
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Well, it has finally happened. After much talk about interoperability, (which many thought would amount to nothing but that), Microsoft and Yahoo! have finally made their instant messenging clients compatible, allowing some 350 million accounts to communicate with one another and finally ending the “Cold War” of instant messenging.
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Late last month, social networking site Friendster was awarded a patent relating to social networking. Specifically, the patent deals with things like allowing “individuals to indicate other individuals with whom they have a personal relationship”, and several other broad aspects of social networking in general. If Friendster decides to act on this patent, things could get ugly for the world of social networking.
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I started playing Guild Wars over a year ago, during last summer when I figured I’d need a good game to “get into”. Being a general fan of the RPG genre, but never having got into a MMORPG yet (for fear of wasting too much time, and the monthly costs), I was a bit hesistant to try out one. (Guild Wars actually calls itself a CORPG – Co-operative Online Role Playing Game, but that’s somewhat just semantics.) I was initially worried that the game would eventually become boring, and would suffer from the usual grinding and farming sessions that come with most online RPGs, but thankfully, a year later, the game is still holding appeal for me.
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For the past few days, I’ve been trying to teach myself how to use Adobe Illustrator for graphic design. My experience with vector-based graphics (and any sort of graphic artwork in general), has been very limited, and is in particular one part of the web design/development environment that I really need improvement in.
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