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Written by Kelsey
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Thursday, 19 July 2007 |
We've been pretty busy since our return from our whirlwind Europe trip. There's been a lot going on that I can't post about, but one little thing I'm very happy about is our logo for Cicada, a new Ruby on Rails bug tracking tool from our talented developer Josh Bassett:
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Written by Kelsey
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Friday, 01 June 2007 |
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It's been a busy year, so we're taking our annual team holiday - if you need us, we'll be on a beach somewhere. However if you really do need to get in touch, we're not available via phone, but if you send us an email we will reply. Internet access is expected to be spotty, so until June 25, we may not be as speedy as usual!
We apologise for any inconvenience.
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Don't panic, it's just a coda |
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Written by Kelsey
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
Panic Inc , developers of the most popular OS X FTP application Transmit , today released their long-awaited mystery app, Coda . As its name suggests, it may be the final answer to text editors on the Mac.
For many years I survived by buying second-hand licenses of Dreamweaver, which is now an Adobe product. As I made the transition to a CSS-layout workflow, the only real benefit of continuing to use Dreamweaver was its integrated FTP and code hinting. Unfortunately, it carries a very high CPU and Memory footprint for what was for me increasinly becoming just a text editor.
I recently switched to skEdit, which for $25 is one hell of a great editor. It also has integrated FTP, although not as nicely enmeshed in the workflow as Dreamweaver's.
So when Panic released Coda today, I just had to check it out.
And I'm here to tell you - it looks good.
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Written by Kelsey
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Wednesday, 18 April 2007 |
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AppleInsder is carrying a story on the possibility of Vodafone being made Apple's European iPhone partner. This jibes nicely with my own analysis - although I still think the sheer weight of Telstra in Australia may tip the balance. That said, Vodafone is without a doubt a better cultural fit.
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Written by Kelsey
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Friday, 09 March 2007 |
Semantics: the meaning, or an interpretation of the meaning, of a word, sign, sentence, etc (from dictionary.com ).
Using
CSS for layout has become a discussion entangled with the concepts of
usability and accessibility and as such, is as much a philosophical
discussion as technical.
Part of this discussion relates to the
naming of structural elements in the content layer; a semantic document
is one where the names of elements have relevance and meaning to the
content they contain.
How far should one take semantics? Does it have a benefit to developer, client and user alike?
One element of design already conveys inherent semantic meaning, yet is often treated as a purely aesthetic decision:
Colour.
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Written by Kelsey
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Wednesday, 28 February 2007 |
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There's a fantastic article over at A List Apart on the true cost of standards compliant design. It fits in nicely with our own philosophy.
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Written by Kelsey
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Thursday, 01 February 2007 |
 I'm working on a fairly large real-estate project at the moment which uses some interesting methods for displaying tabular data. Rather than going with the usual technique of alternating between two colours on the table rows, we're using a graduated colour scheme for the most important data; dark to light over the course of five rows, the better to highlight the sorting of the user's data. Those colours also need to fit in with the general look & feel of the site and there's lots of little information widgets which need styling.
With a layout this complex, I eventually realised that I wasn't being as consistent as I'd like with the colour settings across all my widgets.
For years I've been using the technique of putting a little 'colour chart' at the top of my stylesheet, basically an index of the major and minor colours, and a short description of where they go.
The problem with this is that in a really long stylesheet, you've got to scroll all the way to the top to reference your colours, and even then you only get the descriptions and hex values - you can't actually see the colours.
So instead, I'm now using a colour chart that shows every colour I'm using in css. How it works, after the jump:
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Written by Kelsey
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Thursday, 18 January 2007 |
If you're an Australian with eyes, you can't miss Telstra's relentless campaigning on the behalf of their broadband services and NEXT G network.
Telstra, Australia's oldest telco, has bucks to burn and a massive mindshare. Everyone knows who they are. But even owning most of the physical telecommunications infrastructure in the country that other providers must lease doesn't mean they are willing to offer customers value for money.
This week Justine and I have been agressively pursued by Telstra reps to switch to both their landline and mobile services. The interesting thing about this is that I've had a mobile since 1994 and I've never been a Telstra customer, raising interesting implications about Telstra's privacy policy in the lead-up to the introduction of the Australian Do Not Call Registry early this year.
That aside, we spent a little time running the numbers and found something interesting: Despite such aggressive tactics, we'd be far, far worse off switch to Telstra than sticking with our current providers.
Find out why after the jump.
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iPhone: Australian carrier speculations |
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Written by Kelsey
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Wednesday, 10 January 2007 |
 So the big news of this week is the iPhone. Virtually everyone I know, geek or otherwise, is talking about this thing.
And let's face it - what's not to talk about. In most of the western world, this kind of device is revolutionary in terms of technology convergance, design and elgance. Japan, perhaps unsurprisingly, is less than impressed.
Despite the hype, my own desire was little muted by the acknowledgement that we won't be seeing the iPhone in Australia for at least a year.
To my thinking, this is probably a good thing. Much as I like their products, the old agade "Never buy version one of anything" holds true as much for Apple as any other technology company. Every true geek has learned this law at great personal frustration - if not expense.
First-generation fear isn't the only factor working in Australian's favour, however.
The current iPhone is only quad-band compatible, meaning no 3G. While this is probably due somewhat to the extra strain 3G use places on batteries, it's more likely that the generally patchy 3G coverage of Cingular (now AT&T, the only phone company currently slated to sell iPhones in the US) was the major contributing factor.
The rest of the world, however, likes 3G - or at least the idea of it. I don't know anyone who regularly makes video calls. I've tried, but never been able to acheive a connection on my Sony Ericsson V800i, supplied by Vodafone. But with Hutchinson's '3' network dominating the airwaves, no self-respecting telecommunciations firm can afford not to claim 3G network capability.
I think we can assume that in some form or another, there will be a 3G iPhone.
So the real question: Who will partner with Apple in Australia?
The choice of Cingular in the US is telling. A big carrier, not regarded as a particularly revolutionary company, the US-based firm was willing to overhaul the way their network operates to accomodate Apple, the first example of their collaboration being visual voicemail. No doubt more will be revealed closer to the release of the product.
Another clue lies in understandng the importance of Cingular's EDGE network to Apple's plans. While far from being the fastest wireless data network in the US, it's certainly the widest, with the largest coverage of any telecommunications offering. So while you may not be able to get online faster than everyone else, you'll be able to get online in more locations. Let's face it - there's not going to be an Apple proprietary BitTorrent widget (please don't make me eat my words on that!), so mass-downloads aren't the order of the day. Ubiquitous access to web, email, maps and chat is vital - and for this, most users would forsake a little speed for a lot of coverage.
All of which combined gives us an idea of who Apple might choose to partner with in Australia.
Let's run down the list:
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BlueAnt X5 bluetooth stereo headset |
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Written by Kelsey
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Tuesday, 02 January 2007 |
I'm a card-carrying gadget freak, so it's no suprise I've been on the lookout for a decent bluetooth stereo headset for some time.
Despite an allure of near gravitational proportions, I've never really been able to justify getting an in-ear bluetooth headset. It's a lot of fuss (plus a piece of flashing plastic sticking out of my ear) to alleviate the task of picking up my phone - something I find not too onerous.
Bluetooth stereo headsets are another matter. I like the idea of wireless audio, able to get up from my computer or leave my iPod beyond the reach of its white tether. I also cycle hundreds of kilometres a week, and the iPod headphone cable can be a bother. A crucial factor, however, is that I can't hear my phone when my headphones are on.
So for me, a killer product is one that will:
- Wirelessly stream audio from my iPod or computer
- Pair with my phone to deliver calls on demand
Currently there are two products on the market that deliver, the Plantronics Pulsar 590 series and the BlueAnt X5. While I'll also give a review of the Plantronics in a few days, I chose the X5's.
My thoughts after the jump:
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Written by Kelsey
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Friday, 15 December 2006 |
I was initially going to write this as a small footnote, to be added to our portfolio explaining why not all of our past or present projects are standards-compliant. I realised that there was more here than a footnote, it's something I feel bears a little exploration.
(Those of you not wanting the Clff Notes definition of standards and validation may want to hit 'read more' and skip to the end)
So what are 'Web Standards'?
The World Wide Web Consortium (also known as W3C) is an organisation that creates the rules that modern web browsers follow, for the most part. There's no legal obligation to follow these rules, but most companies who create web browsers try to get pretty close. These rules determine how browsers interpret the code that designers use to create websites. Not all browsers interpret the code the same way, so designers need to know how to build code that's robust enough to take into account the variances in the way that different browsers interpret code.
There's also the issue of accessibility, how to build sites that take into account those viewers who may have difficulties viewing sites as intended - visually impaired viewers with screen readers, for example.
In the last couple of years, the code standards that we work from have changed significantly and not all designers have had time to catch up.
And frankly, I can understand why.
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