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Just An Update
2008-04-26 04:47:00
Despite my absence from blogging, I haven’t dropped off of the planet - I’ve actually been tremendously busy! So, I’d like to apologise for being so busy lately; theres been something of a client deluge as of late. Can’t really complain, especially with the money coming in, but it does detract from time available for ...
More About: News , Update

Useful Quickfire CSS Tips
2008-01-24 16:19:00
Cascading Stylesheets, or CSS, can be pretty awkward at times. It allows you total control over the presentation of a webpage within a browser; but having the resulting webpage look identical in each different browser (IE, FireFox, et al) can sometimes be difficult. Here’s a selection of handy tips I’ve found - see if they help ...
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Merry Christmas, Folks!
2007-12-21 10:42:00
Just thought I’d take some time out of my (massively) hectic schedule to wish you guys a great christmas… and a fab new year! I want to say thanks to everyone who has supported me - friends, colleagues, and clients alike I’ve got some great things to show you all in 2008, but for now ...
More About: Christmas , Misc , Merry Christmas , Merry

Asian Graphic Design
2007-11-21 13:41:00
Recently I’ve had the fortune of forming and now fundraising a games operator and publishing company, and one of the primary operations will be to license interesting Korean and Chinese computer games to the western English markets. Checking into these things really opens your eyes to how different far eastern design is to the west. Use of ...
More About: Design , Graphic Design , Asian , Graphic

High Definition Wallpapers
2007-10-26 15:49:00
So, I thought I’d put together a couple of high definition wallpapers to go onto my PlayStation 3, and after a quick bit of tinkering in Photoshop these are what I came up with. The first one is my current PS3 wallpaper, and looks fantastic! Just click on a thumb to get to the full size ...
More About: Portfolio , Wallpapers , High Definition , Definition , High

Vote For Your Favourite
2007-10-23 05:20:00
Well, I’m finally getting around to putting together a swanky portfolio site (well, its more of a page, admittedly) and I’m wondering which of the following you think would reflect better on me as a designer. React (Gucci) The key concept behind React is just as the name implies ? Gucci turns heads and causes a reaction ...
More About: Portfolio , Vote

High Definition Websites
2007-10-16 12:46:00
Well, I’m now the (very) proud owner of a PlayStation 3 and matching HD LCD TV on which I’ve been spending a little too much time. Its the first time I’ve really seen high definition as you don’t get an accurate idea in retailers whatsoever. Believe me, the picture quality my PS3 pumps out at ...
More About: High Definition , Websites , Definition , High , High def

Reflected Text in Photoshop
2007-10-12 13:25:00
Its simple, and one of the ’staples’ of a typical Web 2.0 site ? but I’ve been getting a few requests asking how to make a reflection, especially for logo text. Here’s how to do it in Photosho p in a few simple steps. First, create a new image and add some text as a sample logo: Next, duplicate ...
More About: Text

Fix PHP Blank Screen Errors
2007-10-10 11:54:00
Sometimes, writing web applications in PHP can be a little awkward. You launch your webpage in a browser, only to see a blank page. No error, nothing. Usually this can be pretty frustrating to troubleshoot, especially if your code is thousands of lines long. However, there is a quick and simple solution to help. Add this to ...
More About: Screen , Errors , Blank , Cree

Domain Name Guidelines
2007-10-09 02:25:00
Last night I was reading through a forum topic in which affiliates and network marketers posted up their best domain names that they used. Many of them were staggeringly bad. Make It Verbal For example, one affiliate who was promoting VWD’s e-lotto program, chose the domain www.vwd-e-lotto.co.uk. Can you imagine saying that over the phone? “Thats WWW dot V W ...
More About: Branding , Domain , Domain Name , Guidelines , Deli

The Designer?s Soundtrack
2007-10-07 10:37:00
I’m a big music fan. I buy music, I produce music, I live my life by music; and so, naturally, I’m always listening to music when I’m working on projects. My Personal Design Music Here are some of the albums I regularly listen to while working - who knows, maybe they’ll help inspire the designer inside you, ...
More About: Soundtrack , Designer

Free Cron Alternative
2007-10-06 12:59:00
With a lot of online applications and services, the ability to periodically perform scheduled tasks such as backing up or updating data is invaluable. This is usually performed via cron - a Unix/Linux facility whereby repetitive tasks can be scheduled as needed. However, many hosting providers do not provide cron access, and dedicated hosting is simply ...
More About: Resources , Alternative , Free , Cron , Native

Using Remote Images in Flex
2007-10-05 13:29:00
Using images within Flex is usually a straightforward affair ? its merely a case of using an <mx:Image> tag to specify and load the required image. However, if you’re planning on using images hosted on domains other than the one your Flex SWF will be on, things get a little more complicated. Security Access: The Cross ...
More About: Images , Remote , Mote , Ages

Will Web Design Die?
2007-10-04 13:34:00
Here’s a thought for you: is the art of website design, doomed to die? Or will it become something else entirely? The Traditional Model: Design er Centric Design A typical website has been put together by a designer, or team of designers, who have crafted the entire layout of the site. They put together the logo, formed templates, ...
More About: Web Design

A Question For My Audience
2007-10-02 20:31:00
OK, so I’ve busy working my socks off recently ? I’ve been studying Flex, building webmaster tools, designing merchandise, advising a client with their advertising campaign, and revamping several website designs for various folk. Give me a break! Anyway, one thing thats not essential but would be useful to know, is this: how can I export a ...
More About: Question , Misc , Audience

PayPerPost
2007-10-02 05:02:00
So, it seems my blog has finally been accepted into the payperpost system ? which is good news for me, as it?ll help monetise (and therefore, motivate) things around here. If you?re not familiar with PayPerPost, here?s how it works: as a blogger, you sign up for the site (your blog needs to have been running ...
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MySpace Gets New Look
2007-09-29 02:08:00
Well, MySpace finally decided to work on a newer look for it’s home pages (and presumably, other sections to later follow). Could it be that MySpace will actually look ? dare I say it ? attractive? Nope, despite some mildly interesting buttons it’s still as cheap looking and amateurish as ever. You’d think a site pulling in ...
More About: News , Myspace , New Look

My First Flex App
2007-09-16 15:27:00
Presenting the as-yet untitled zazzle.skwee.com application. Its crude, basic, and lacks options or interactivity. But it was fun (in a frustrating kind of way) putting this together I basically put together a simple online app whereby users can drop in an URL to any image they choose, and transfer the image onto a custom ...
More About: News , Flex

AmfPHP
2007-09-13 17:47:00
If you use Flex or Flash as a front-end for a web application, and PHP is your flavour of choice for back-end programming, then checking out AmfPHP should be your top priority today. AmfPHP is a Remote Procedure Call (RPC) toolkit designed to make communication between PHP and Flash (or Ajax) substantially easier, by reducing interpreting and abstracting the calls to simple, low level methods. As a Flex example, instead of sifting through XML results in the format of xml.results.firstnode.secondnode.thirdnod e AmfPHP instead converts the incoming resource to an ActionScript type, which can be easily sorted through as an array. The website features various video tutorials to guide you through installing, testing and integrating AmfPHP with your applications, as well as extensive documentation detailing the various aspects of using it in conjunction with your preferred front-end. For Flex integration with other languages such as ColdFusion, .NET or Ruby, visit the official Flex website...

The Joy Of Flex
2007-09-07 22:39:00
Today I’ve had the pleasure of experimenting with Adobe®’s rich internet application development framework: Flex . In a sentence, it can be summarised as giving your web applications an attractive and interactive Flash interface. Although initially sceptical given my past experiences with Flash (and my inability to work in terms of frames and animation), I finally ...

Essential PHP Resources
2007-09-05 15:52:00
Today I thought I’d share some of the useful resources and blog posts that PHP programmers at any level should take a look at. There’s something for everyone here, from the humble beginner to the programmer whizzkid. For PHP Beginners Tizag’s PHP Tutorial is an excellent place to read through PHP information if you’re unsure about what ...
More About: Resources , Essential

Beating Ajax Woes With Free Scripts
2007-09-03 19:13:00
If you never got into coding JavaScript for your websites then Ajax , with it’s crossover integration of JavaScript and XML, may be quite frustrating to learn and utilise fully. However, help is at hand thanks to Dynamic Drive. A good source of free to use DHTML scripts, Dynamic Drive has recently expanded with two important new ...
More About: Free , Scripts , Beating

$4,000+ Prize Giveaway
2007-09-01 14:41:00
Professional graphic design and logo design specialist David Airey has been running his fantastic blog for almost a year now, and despite it still being reasonably new in internet terms, his informative and thought provoking posts have already garnered him a very strong reader base. To celebrate his one year blog anniversary and to give something ...
More About: News

Simple Geo-IP Targeting For Your Website
2007-08-30 15:23:00
IP geo targeting is one of those areas which may initially seem much more complex to set up than it really does. In this post, I’ll explain what it is, what it’s for, and how you can have it on your own website within ten minutes. What Is Geo-IP Targeting ? In summary, it’s the process where the ...
More About: Website , Simple

Whoops!
2007-08-27 00:45:00
Just a quick note to give you guys a heads-up. The past week or so my server has been playing up quite massively and my emails have been down for several days now; if you’ve tried contacting me recently then I haven’t received your message and I don’t know when everything is meant to get ...
More About: Misc

WebSnapr - Inline Web Screenshots
2007-08-23 16:19:00
A few websites and blogs have a very clever system whereby, when you hover over a link to a different site, a small image pops up showing a screenshot of the target website. Well, having that on your own website is actually very simple. WebSnapr is a free to use system which takes screenshots of websites ...
More About: Resources , Screenshots , Cree

Worth1000: Graphic Design Fun
2007-08-20 16:33:00
When it comes to using your graphic design skills, you don’t always have to work on uninteresting tasks. Sometimes it’s entertaining — and a good challenge — to edit, draw or manipulate images in a funny way. Worth1000.com is (primarily) a graphic design challenge website whereby image themes are given as “contests” to the community for ...
More About: Design , Graphic Design , Misc , Graphic , Graph

Search Engine Spidering For Music And Audio
2007-08-15 19:56:00
The National Science Foundation has awarded almost ten thousand dollars to an innovative search engine that is able to scan audio files, checking for aesthetic appeal and similarities with other artists or pieces of music. The abstract states: This SGER project aims to develop a prototype music search engine based on identifying aesthetic similarities. This engine will ...
More About: News , Music , Audio , Search , Search Engine

Yuffl - Multimedia Search Engine
2007-08-13 15:03:00
One of the newest projects I’m working on is one I’ve been putting together for personal use originally, but decided to make it public. Yuffl is a cross media search engine that allows you to search across images, video, webpages and blogs, by integrating APIs from a variety of leading engines from Flickr to Revver, ...
More About: News , Multimedia , Search , Search Engine , Engine

HTML 5 Underway, New Elements Promised
2007-08-09 16:28:00
Despite many advances in web application and design technology over the past eight years — everything from ColdFusion to Ruby on Rails, Java to AJAX, XML to CSS — HTML has always been stuck on it’s relatively archaic HTML 4.0 version released in 1999. While today we have the tools to be able to markup massively complex webpage designs, browser rendering engines for core HTML are antiquated; and so technology leaders Apple, Opera and the Mozilla Foundation have been discussing with the W3C viable options for new elements in what’s currently dubbed HTML 5. The new tags aim to improve semantic markup by making it easier to produce human readable code. For example, today’s blogs are chock full of <div> tags for every individual section. With HTML 5, sections can be split into <header> as a post or blog title, <article> for post content, and <nav> for sidebar navigation. Other potentially useful tags include <audio> and <video> fo...
More About: Elements , Html , Under , Element