Lizzie's blog

Coda
Coda is an amazing multipurpose program created by Panic Softare for the Mac OS platform; it combines a text and CSS editor, FTP program (based on the already wildly succesful FTP tool for Mac, Transmit), terminal, web previews of your files, and even has a built in version of The Web Programmers Desk Reference. I absolutely LOVE this program because it eliminates the need for having multiple applications open and streamlines my web editing and uploading process. Unfortunately for PC users, Coda is only available for Mac.

On October 26th, Apple released it's new "baby".. the new operating system for Mac, OS 10.5 or as many people know it, Leopard. As any dedicated Apple fanatic would, I had this preorderd to ship to my door on the release date. This is the fifth major update to OS X and contains, by Apple's count, up to 300 new features... such as major changes in the OS's interface, updates to several of the OS's built in programs, and improved security. While I don't have the time to go over all 300, I'd like to touch on two of the key new features.

New UI:

As a creative person, I'm always looking for different things to inspire me and my designs, such as museums, books, the internet, and my surroundings. When I can't get out of the office, I like to check out different designers websites for inspiration. There has been a recent trend in the web world of "web galleries", which showcase hundreds of websites with good design. I like to browse through these galleries, clicking from link to link to look for something, may it be a design element, color scheme, or interesting photo, that catches my creative eye and sparks the lightbulb in my brain.

I came across this non-profit organization on Friday called One Laptop Per Child. OLPC is focused on bringing inexpensive laptops to the children in impoverished countries of the world, with laptops costing just $100 dollars to produce.

Any nation's most precious and valuable natural resource is its children. We believe the emerging world must leverage its children, tap their innate capacities to learn and share and create on their own. Our answer to that challenge is the XO laptop, a children's machine designed for "learning learning."