Msc Applied Digital Media Internet Authoring 08

Shutting Down

2009-08-31T04:01:00.000-07:00

That's it for this blog. Going to try something different next semester, keep things fresh.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and I enjoyed reading your blogs. And extra special thanks to those who commented continuously. I hope you guys continue blogging in some form, if you do let me know where.

Goodnight, and good luck. And i'll leave you with this little piece of beauty.

The Social Media Revolution

2009-08-14T01:30:00.001-07:00

Excellent, excellent video

The King Of Pop

2009-06-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson’s Death: An Inside Look At How Google, Yahoo, & Bing Handled An Extraordinary Day In Search

The New Socialism

2009-06-22T00:36:00.001-07:00

Fantastic article from Wired Magazine about how the Internet is fostering a new era of global collectivization. Make yourself a nice cup of tea, and take a small while to read it. Very interesting.

The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted

2009-06-16T01:00:00.001-07:00

To anyone who thinks Twitter is vain, trivial or narcissistic navel gazing, think again. Iranians are using it to get the full story across to us, and Twitter have done their part too; rescheduling their maintenance as to avoid being down during this crucial time.

Twitter Reschedules Maintenance Around #IranElection controversy

HTML Wins!

2009-05-27T05:12:00.000-07:00

“I’m not against Flash and I love the work that people such as Joshua Davis do,” he explains. “It’s brilliant, but I’ve always been in this other area of web development that I thought was probably better for most content. There was a point in the 90s when I felt like a sucker for doing HTML and CSS and telling people about this stuff. I looked at all these people who had pure typographic control and could do animation, all this great, fun stuff, and I was this jackass saying ‘No, we should use HTML’. I felt like a loser, but we won – HTML has won. That’s the amazing thing for me. People use Flash for film and they use it for what Daniel Mall calls ‘the experience layer’ as part of a standards-based site. So there are uses for Flash, but basically HTML, CSS and JavaScript have become the real platform of the web now. I feel very heartened by that; it’s the thing that makes me the happiest.

Interview with Jeffrey Zeldman from .net magazine.

Yes We Can!

2009-05-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

The Design Director for New Media for the Obama campaign gave a talk recently.

A Parting Note...

2009-05-17T15:22:00.001-07:00

That's it for this semester, and I'll leave you with this topical article from the Times, which questions web 2.0's relevance...

Break free of this world wide delusion...

Murdoch to charge for News websites.

2009-05-07T02:42:00.000-07:00

Billionaire Tyrant (his own words) Rupert Murdoch plans to charge people to visit his News Corp websites, starting in 12 months or so, to fix (as he calls it) a "malfunctioning business model.".

What do we think of this? Would you pay? One of the sites I visit most often is the excellent website of The Guardian. I could see myself parting with a small monthly fee for access, but I think its a backwards step. Murdoch's inspiration, apparently, is the booming trade of the subscription Wall Street Journal. But they cater for a very specific market, would the Sun reader pay to read it online?

I certainly wouldn't pay for anything Murdoch owns....

Link (from The Guardian, freely accessible)

Adobe prepares Flash for high-def TV in the home

2009-04-20T03:34:00.001-07:00

This is an interesting announcement, via Silicon Republic
Adobe prepares Flash for high-def TV in the home

Adobe has formed alliances with leading electronics and media giants, from Intel and Netflix to Disney and the New York Times, to bring its Flash platform to high-definition (HD) Blu-ray players and internet-enabled TVs.

Now, will iPhone 3.0 finally get Flash support?

JavaScript

2009-04-16T02:47:00.000-07:00

A brief (if slightly harsh) history of why JavaScript became the world's most popular programming language...

The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language Has Become the World's Most Popular Programming Language

George Carlin - Modern Man

2009-04-12T03:02:00.000-07:00

Is Google an "immoral menace"?

2009-04-06T01:35:00.000-07:00

Henry Porter, writing in the Guardian, thinks so.

If indeed a new era of global responsibility has come into being with measures that actually restrain banks and isolate tax havens, it may be time for the planet's dominant economic powers to focus on the destructive, anti-civic forces of the internet. Exactly 20 years after Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote the blueprint for the world wide web, the internet has become the host to a small number of dangerous WWMs - worldwide monopolies that sweep all before them with exuberant contempt for people's rights, their property and the past.

What do you guys think?

Link

Viva La Revolution!

2009-03-31T02:02:00.001-07:00

Firefox 3 becomes most popular browser in Europe for the first time ever...

Chrome beats the hackers..

2009-03-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

I'm STILL waiting for Google to get us a Mac-version of Chrome...but in the meantime this makes very interesting reading.

From The Independent:
Chrome beats the hackers

Aviary.com launched, online browser based graphics suite..

2009-03-19T03:49:00.000-07:00

This is quite something, the guys behind Worth1000.com, a very popular Photoshop-contest site, have launched a suite of feature rich graphics packages the work through your browser.

I've had a quick play with it this morning, and I am mighty impressed so far! Check it out at http://aviary.com

Is this the end of Internet Explorer as we know it?

2009-03-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

From Silicon Republic...

Internet Explorer line to end as Microsoft leaps with Gazelle
It’s the end of the line for Internet Explorer, with reports indicating Microsoft’s next browser Internet Explorer (IE) 8 will be the last traditional version of its web browser.

What's most interesting is the news they might be using the WebKit engine..which would be huge in terms of Standardised Web Development..

Variety in Title and Body Fonts..

2009-03-08T16:11:00.000-07:00

Nice little article from Build Internet about adding some variety in your choice of fonts...

Variety is the spice of life.

Do we take technology for granted?

2009-03-04T12:16:00.001-08:00

Louis CK thinks so... "everything's amazing right now, and nobody's happy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus

Engaging the blogosphere...Ryanair v the Blogosphere

2009-02-27T05:59:00.000-08:00

A couple of incidents occurred this week of prime examples of how NOT to engage the blogosphere, here is one...

An Irish web developer named Jason Roe discovered a glitch on the Ryanair website. He reported it, then found himself on the receiving end of some less-than-friendly responses from Ryanair staff. Needless to say, this thing exploded over the Irish Blogosphere, even making mainstream news outlets. How did Ryanair respond to this PR crisis? They called bloggers "lunatics". Hmmmm...

Any opinions on this? I think someone in Ryanair needs to get up to speed on modern marketing...

Beta version of Safari 4 clocks in at 42x faster than IE7...

2009-02-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

Holy moly....this might convince me to move over to Safari....

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49301219,00.htm

JavaScript rendering times is becoming the latest battleground in the web browser wars..

Usability

2009-02-20T01:16:00.000-08:00

We'll be taking about usability in greater detail, but this is an interesting article Smashing Magazine ran recently..

Common Web Usability Blunders

Merry Christmas everyone..

2008-12-23T07:41:00.001-08:00

Remember, you should have sent me your site by now...

Internet Explorer Security Flaw Found...

2008-12-16T15:34:00.001-08:00

What did I tell you!!!

Alternatively...

2008-12-04T01:33:00.000-08:00

52 fonts you could use instead of helvetica...

Type Trumps!

2008-12-03T06:54:00.000-08:00

This combines too of my geekier loves, Top Trumps, and typography

TypeTrumps

24 ways...

2008-12-02T01:29:00.001-08:00

This is great...an Advent Calender, except each day leading up to Christmas is advice for web developers...

check it out...

24 Ways

Tutorials....

2008-12-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a good list of Photoshop tutorials from PSTTUTs...might be of use for your posters? Always keep an eye on PSD Tuts...

50 Great Photoshop Tutorials.

The Simpsons take on Apple...

2008-12-01T09:46:00.001-08:00

Monty Python embrace YouTube

2008-11-21T03:28:00.001-08:00

This is a great clip, and sums up what I was saying about companies embracing YouTube rather than fighting it.

Remember

2008-11-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

Remember guys you need to send me your idea for your presentation by this weekend.

Have a good one, and enjoy this, probably my all time favourite thing on the internet, ever! The wisdom of Alan Watts:

Nettuts

2008-11-07T03:44:00.001-08:00

From the crowd that do PSDTUTs is NETTUTS. Another site I visit daily. Their feature on 50 Must-Read Books on Web Development is really helpful.

This is kind of mind boggling, isn't it?

2008-11-07T02:45:00.000-08:00

Web Designer Wall

2008-10-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

Another site i love is Web Designer Wall..its full of tutorials on how to do stuff with CSS etc. Check it out.

Web Designer Wall.

A List Apart

2008-10-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

One of my absolute favourite web sites about web design, CSS and design in general is A List Apart. They do everything from practical articles about how to do things with XHTML/CSS to general talk about design theory. I'll be giving you some specific articles to read next week..but for now browse around.

A List Apart

Philippe Starck : Why design?

2008-10-27T04:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a GREAT talk by Philippe Starck on design....

Link.

By the way, the TED talks are usually pretty amazing and inspiring. Check them out.

Memes

2008-10-23T07:05:00.000-07:00

Oh, internet memes...

One of the things I love about the internet is the concept of viral campaigns or memes. The whole Rick Astley "rickrolling" thing is great. (Only this past month did Rick get nominated for Best Act Ever at the 2008 MTV awards. To me nothing best displays the global and democratic nature of the web like a good silly meme. Especially if it concerns Rick Astley.

I see memes have already infected our own little Digital Media network of blogs...so, carrying on from one of you guys, I'll give this meme a go..

The Soundtrack to my Life:

Opening credits : Alan Silvestri - Theme song from Back To The Future

Waking up : ELO - Mr. Blue Sky

Average day : Jay-Z - 99 Problems

First date : David Bowie - Let's Dance

Falling in love : DJ Shadow - Blood On The Motorway

Love scene : Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy

Fight scene : Rage Against The Machine - Bulls On Parade

Breaking up : Bob Dylan - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Getting back together : Al Green - Let's Get Together

Secret love : Naughty By Nature - OPP

Life’s okay : A Tribe Called Quest - Oh My God!

Mental breakdown : Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy

Driving : The Prodigy - Their Law

Learning a lesson : Jinx Lennon - Forgive The C****

Deep thought : Mos Def - Mathematics

Partying : Outkast - G.H.E.T.T.O.M.U.Z.I.C.K.

Happy dance : Van Halen - Jump

Regreting : Hmmmm...no regrets, no song.

Long night alone : DJ Shadow - Building Steam With A Grain of Salt

Death scene : Wu-Tang Clan - Tearz

Closing credits : Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone

Best T-Shirt Ever?

2008-10-23T03:07:00.001-07:00

I'll wear this at graduation...

Helvetica T-Shirt

Photoshop Tutorials...

2008-10-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

Anyone interested in learning some cool Photoshop effects should check out PSDTUTS.com. I've picked up loads of good techniques here that I've adapted for my own use. Check it out.

CSS Layout Techniques

2008-10-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting collection of articles about CSS layout...

CSS Layout Techniques: for Fun and Profit

I Knew It!

2008-10-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

From The BBC:

Internet use 'good for the brain'

For middle aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power, research suggests.

A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulates centres in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.

Will Google think of everything?

2008-10-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

What do you think of this? Of course, I've never had such fears my self.......

Google Mail Goggles aims to end drunken email embarrassment

Blog Roll updated....and links.

2008-10-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

Hi guys

I've updated the blogroll, so you can check out the other class blogs.

Here's some links to help you get acquainted with HTML.

W3 Schools
HTML Dog

Hello World!

2008-09-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Class

Welcome to the blog for the year.

Here as well as listing all your blogs, I will be posting interesting links to articles about web design, web 2.0 and related topics.

Ruairi