Kevin shot me a link this morning to 9 Steps to Speed Up Broadband Firefox Browsing. The whole 9 step process took about 3 minutes and it really worked. It may be a little buggy on a PC though. I’m having some issues - not sure if they’re related though. I’ll let ya know.

UPDATE: MY issues were unrealted to these browser modifications. Enjoy!

It’s astounding the number of companies individuals who believe that just because their cousin’s friend’s brother’s uncle knew a guy who created a really cool site with overused animated gifs and flash widgets in no time at all, that we can replicate Facebook, YouTube or StumbleUpon in 2 months. Building a custom software application takes months, sometimes years, to fully develop and perfect. Even software giant Microsoft, who’s been doing it for decades, still can’t get it right, but they continue to move forward. One option that clients often fail to overlook is a phased approach. True, it’s not as glamorous as the hard launch, but it does open the door to a couple of nice options:
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I’ve been diving into some research on copywriting and typography on the web and otherwise. A series of blog posts culminating in a presentation is in the works. In the mean time, here’s a list of my resources to date:

• Web Typography Sucks
• Copywriting Is Interface Design
• Hiring Tips
• Writing Better (SXSW Podcast)
• Many Books (form You Work For Them)

A recent post on Information Architects Japan (iA), Oliver Reichenstein covers the top ten myths concerning traditional print news. In his article, “10 Newspaper Myths Deconstructed,” Oliver makes some great observations about change in the media, and the public perception of bloggers vs. journalists. It is not a big secret that traditional news has been in trouble for quite some time, and now online media is taking advantage of convenience and community in order to spread the word.

So, the main question addressed in the article is: Will newspapers be able to compete in a future that seems to be filled with online media? The following is an outline (slimmed down from the original) of the ten major misconceptions that keep newspapers from joining the ranks of the online news world: Read the rest of this entry »

So there I was doing some QA testing on one of our newly designed websites and I found that, while the site looked perfect on Firefox 2.0, there were several CSS styling errors in Internet Explorer 6. Why is that I asked myself? Despite being lacking in the standards compliance department, IE6 is still the most popular web browser and we should probably make sure that our sites always look good on Internet Explorer. For those that like stats (even if they are not 100% verifiable)…

January 2007 - Browser usage statistics according to OneStat.com:

The total global usage share of Internet Explorer 7 is 10.97 percent and increased 7.91 percent since November 2006. In the USA the market share of Internet Explorer 7 is 17.75 percent, in Canada 17.25 percent and in the UK even 28.33 percent.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0 has a global usage share of 4.83 percent. Mozilla Firefox’s browsers have a total global usage share of 11.69 percent. The total global usage share of Mozilla Firefox decreased 0.46 percent since November 2006.

The total global usage share of Apple’s Safari is 1.64 percent which is 0.03 percent more than at the of November.

I was looking for a nice WordPress plugin that would allow my readers to easily add posts to an array of social bookmarking web sites when I came across Cal Evans Notable Plugin. The problem with Cal’s plugin is that it didn’t include StumbleUpon and personally I’m a big StumbleUpon fan so that just wouldn’t work. I took a little time last night and added the StumbleUpon icon and functionallity; the file is hosted on my personal site but you can download it below and add it to your blog. Instructions for installation are included in the download.

Notable WordPress Plugin w/StumbleUpon

For those of you who can’t stand to see misspelled words on your projects, and you know who you are, I came across a great Reebok Ad today that made it all the way through delivery. Clearly a New York Minute was spent proof reading the ad, because eveything looks perfect!

I love Stephanie’s post about invisiablity Invisablity Post

Earlier this afternoon, the subject of the Lite Brite came around in the production room. Everybody agreed that it was a great memory from childhood; all of that time spent arranging those brightly colored pegs into nifty patterns. A Balloon, a rocket, a flower. The possibilities were endless.

I did a quick search and found this Lite Brite simulator that you can play with online. Everyone jumped on the site and started clicking wildly. It’s still lots of fun and is a great design exercise as well. It’s neat to see what you can still do without all of the tools that you tend to rely on in Photoshop or other graphics packages. It’s just you, the pegs and hours of creative expression. Sorry, no paper templates to punch through here…

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A new tactic has been introduced to entice consumers to watch commercials. It’s from a website called BrightSpot.TV and for every 30-second online commercial you watch you receive $0.50 towards your Gamefly or NBA.com subscription. Besides making a profit from advertisers, its goal is to provide targeted advertising content to consumers without forcing it upon them.
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