Usability: Denver Post Electronic Edition, or Why online newspapers still suck.
I’ve never expected much from newspaper sites; their design has been years behind the curve, blanketed with ads, and transitioned poorly from their print equivalents. This morning I ventured to the Denver Post web site, and saw they had a free preview of their online edition.
JavaScript: Fonts for the HTML5 canvas tag.
I’m starting to play with some infographics for an enterprise dashboard application for which the HTML5 canvas tag is looking to be the preferred solution (View the working draft specification at the WHATWG site). Since text embedding is not a feature of the canvas tag, it may be hacked in with some fancy JavaScript and a PNG or GIF image. I found a nifty workaround by Benjamin Joffe that uses an inline encoded representation of the binary PNG data, but it was missing a few things, such as PNG alpha support.
Windows XP: Nag, nag, nag, please restart.
I’m one of those people that restarts my Windows XP machines carefully. Very carefully. As in once every two weeks or less, if I can help it. So when I’m prompted to restart after installing the latest Windows updates, I understand that I’ve just patched a security risk and that restarting as soon as possible is in my best interest, but I’m busy now, and don’t appreciate the constant nagging to restart. Lifehacker to the rescue!
Drupal 4.7: Hacking the Upload Module
I’ve chosen Drupal for a web site project for a long-time client. We’re slogging our way through hundreds of pages of content, and have decided that we want to display attachment uploads by category, with little to no impact to the content manager uploading the attachments.
I Finally Upgraded to Firefox 2
Today I finally upgraded to Firefox 2.0.4 from Firefox 1.5 for my work machine, which was the last one still running FF1.5. Why did I wait so long?
Firefox Add-on: Download Statusbar
Once I got the Download Statusbar plugin installed on all my instances of Firefox, managing downloads with the normal download manager just seemed slow and antiquated. I love how I can customize which files are automatically removed from the statusbar after a few seconds. Just another example of unobtrusively extending the user experience without having to manage another window.
Firefox Add-on: Search Marker
I’m a big fan of Firefox for the large number of plugins and add-ons that are available to enhance my browsing experience. New to me today was Search Marker, a nifty way to indicate search term location and frequency in a web page.
Portfolio: Nilex Construction
Nilex Construction is a world leader in specialty construction; they came to Xiaan Design requesting a web site redesign that reflected their position in the industry. Xiaan Design created a vibrant, photo-rich site with Joomla 1.0 that educates engineers about prefabricated vertical wick drains and more. Be sure to check out the project map to see how Google Maps were integrated into the site.
Portfolio: Loch Gallery
The Loch Gallery web site is a prime example of how Open Source Software (OSS) may be leveraged to create a business advantage for a relatively small company. Based on Joomla 1.0 and extended heavily with custom components, the Loch Gallery web site serves thousands of visitors each month who are interested in purchasing Canadian contemporary art from one of Canada’s finest art dealers.
Portfolio: Alive At 25
Xiaan Design partnered with a local Denver web design firm to completely redesign and redeploy a courseware web application for Alive At 25, a not-for-profit organization that provides a comprehensive drunk-driving awareness and education program for teens.