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A cousin of mine just finished her studies in the university. I congratulated her and I asked what she didn’t want to hear: - And now what?
- It’s over. I studied enough. Now I want to do something else.
- Fine. But do what you want to do. Don’t forget this.
Then I stopped talking. I thought my voice resembled the voices of all people who like advising the others. I don’t believe in advising anyway. I prefer telling stories.
I don’t know what she ‘s going to do in the end. I think she doesn’t believe in herself enough. I wish I could show her why she must follow her heart and do what she wants to. For some people it’s impossible. I hope she’s not one of them.
We grow up with voices around us echoing we should make money and become successful. But how can this be done if we don’t love our profession? We don’t have the time and the resources to explore this life and realize what we really desire. We don’t have time to make mistakes and learn from them.
I have seen people turning into miserable creatures because they never followed their desires. They killed their dreams in order to satisfy the people around them, family, friends - you name it. While being a teacher I helped some of my students stop their studies and change their life. I believe it is one of the best things I have ever done.
When people love what they do, they do it well. They wake up each day with dozens of new ideas and dreams. They seize each day. The skies is their limit. And they are happy.
I realized what I want to do with my life when I was 28. Yes, for many people I was too old or immature and I should have decided earlier. Since then there hasn’t been a single day I resented my choice. And I would never exchange it with anything in this world.
I know you didn’t expect this letter, this email to be specific, from me. You see, you recently left your company, Microsoft, and this is a perfect opportunity to say to you what I ‘ve been thinking about you all these years.
The truth is we have told many bad things about you and your company. Bill, you ‘ve got to understand that he had our reasons. On the other hand, dear Bill, you never stopped being one of us, a geek, and geeks love intriguing each other. Now that you ‘re leaving the scene it seems so awkward to us. I know you have achieved a lot in your life and really I am happy about that because I think you deserve it.
Bill, I am going to say something that a lot of us keep holding it inside: without you many people would be somewhere else, would do something else, would be different. When you introduced us these white ugly noisy boxes you introduced us a whole new world of tiny miracles. These miracles used to become more and more charming day by day and fascinated us.
In this game it was you Bill that gave us a chance to be a part of it and I really need to say “thank you”. You gave me the chance to learn, play, be disappointed, laugh and finally it was you who helped me become what I am right now. I know well that none of this would have happened if I hadn’t put my very best effort on it. But, you know Bill, in this life giving a chance is a great thing. Some people never have this chance.
However, I can’t forget some of your clumsiest products you provided us. Do you remember Windows Me? It was a torture using them and I still recall the moments I was looking for my Windows 98 CD to roll back. Do you remember the infamous blue screens? Once upon a time 16MB RAM were enough to run your OS. Now 1GB RAM is hardly enough to work with your latest muddy child Vista.
I am sure you remember Internet Explorer 6. I can’t forgive you for IE6 Bill. Not because you made a mistake - everybody should make mistakes in order to evolve. I am mad with you Bill, because you left this thing alive for so long and now it makes my life difficult and my designs ugly.
Such things Bill made me become a blood brother with Steve, one of your worst enemies. But I really felt very happy of both of you when you shared the same stage last year. Of course he was slick and witty and he managed to steal the show. It’s OK. Without you, Steve would have been much worse. In a way Apple is better than Microsoft because of you.
Farewell my friend Bill. I hope your successors will be better than you - however I don’t think so. I am sure you ‘ll keep playing with your code and you ‘ll still dream of the very best products for us. Have fun.
I love the t-shirts of Wire & Twine. And I love their website. It’s beautiful, simple and straightforward. The only thing I didn’t like was that Greece wasn’t among the countries they used to ship to their products.
From time to time I visited Wire & Twine not to look at the t-shirts but to look at the shipping information, hoping Greece would be included. It came to nothing.
Two days ago I decided to send to the guys at Wire & Twine an e-mail where I kindly asked to include Greece among their destinations.
A few hours ago I received an answer where they told me that they did add Greece to the list of countries Wire & Twine ships to. Just like that.
This is what I call customer’s service mister. Thank you guys!
Needless to say what I am going to buy next. Needless to say what I suggest you to do too.
By the time I started working with my MacBook I realized that I can have so many great browsers that I almost forgot about the existence of Internet Explorer. Now, really, does Internet Explorer exist?
Why am I talking about utopia? Because all the browsers of which I am going to tell you are fast, reliable and beautiful. Above all, I am happy because I know that my websites are going to look the way I designed them, apart from minor details. The whole experience becomes so pleasant that you don’t want stop surfing.
Of course I am not going to refer to all Mac browsers but to the ones I use day by day.
OmniWeb
Omniweb is my favorite one. From the very moment I downloaded it I loved it. I loved it so much that I bought it. Yes, OmniWeb does not come for free, it costs $14,95 but it worths every cent.
The main advantage of OmniWeb its tab drawer which can open on the left. It’s fast, stable and highly customizable. Not the perfect browser during design and/or development, mainly because there are browsers more capable than OmniWeb when it comes to professional use.
Safari
Apple claims it is the best browser in the world. I am not that sure, but I know well that Safari is the fastest one and a very stable browser. Safari is a must have browser and the Windows version is also great.
The latest version of the browser includes a new menu called “Develop” which makes it good during development as well. This menu can be even better and I think it will in the near future.
Camino
I feel Camino is an ignored browser by many users and I think it deserves more of our attention. It is very beautiful, fast and it feels as a native Mac application although it isn’t. It is an open source product and this is another reason we should spot the lights on it.
I am pretty sure Camino would have been my main browser if I hadn’t discovered OmniWeb.
Firefox
Firefox managed to be our favorite Windows browser and changed the way we think of the Web forever. It became so popular because it is a really great browser and it helped us move away from Internet Explorer. The Mac version of Firefox never felt as native as it could be, but the new version of it, Firefox 3, seems far better than the previous ones.
Firefox is simply the best during Web design and development thanks to the magnificent AddOns made for this purpose, it is also a child of open source coding and it becomes even better day by day.
Shiira
Shiira reminds me those girls who look very sweet and they only need some time to become real charming. Shiira is very beautiful and it has some features e.g. tabs on the left like OmniWeb, that make it worth mentioning. It deserves at least one download to your system.
The only thing I don’t like is some unexpected crashes and the fact I don’t feel people who created really care about its progress.
Opera
Opera is an unlucky browser because there is Firefox which makes all of us tend to forget it. Opera is very fast, faster than Firefox, very customizable and often updated. The extensions developed for it make it even better.
Every Web designer who really wants to test a website should have Opera among her applications. Even for typical users Opera is a browser you just can’t ignore.
Plainview
Plainview was developed for a single reason: to enhance presentations. It is a full screen browser which can help a lot people who make presentations.
I see is as an interesting experiment since it is not the most usable browser in the world and I am curious how better it can become.
This is the end of my list. I said nothing about Flock, a browser focused on social networking and iCab, a very plain but powerful browser. Both browsers are interesting and recommendable but I think there isn’t enough space for them as long as it regards me.
If you are a Mac user, don’t miss the browsers mentioned above. You ‘ll see why I talked about browsers utopia.
Every day, about the same time, when I go out to breathe some fresh air I see the same thing: a mother taking her child from school. It wouldn’t matter if this child was like all, but she isn’t.
Obviously this child suffers. She can’t walk like all of us, I see the mother almost dragging her gently to cross the road. The child can’t talk either. All I hear are sounds, something between talking and crying. I can’t name from what she suffers of and it doesn’t matter at all.
The mother looks around her to check if anyone’s watching. Calm down, nobody’s watching.
There mustn’t be a single person in this world who doesn’t feel his heart stop for a moment when he looks at them. There mustn’t be a God who lets such things happen. But they do happen. Imagine, you could be that child or even worse you could be this mother.
If I was politician, I would try to do something to make their life easier. If I was a doctor, I would try to lift some of their burden off. I am neither a politician nor a doctor. And I think it would make me a better man, if I could create a website to help this children forget all this miserable life for a second. It sounds silly, I know.
“The complete manual of Typography” written by J. Felici is a great book for those people who want to start with the basics of typography and move on. The book explores typography in depth and it can be used as a reference as well. Web designers and graphic designers are the main groups of people who would care about it, but the subject is practically open to anyone.
The book is divided into two main chapters. The first one has to do with the basics of typography e.g. differences between fonts and typefaces. It also covers the evolution of typography through time.
The second part of the book examines the correct use of typography and it covers all details about it.
Typography is a kind of art and technique at the same time and it is interesting to see how things have changed through centuries depending on the use. For example, Garamond, a typical typeface for everyone who uses a computer, was born in the 16th century because of people needs to create a more legible and at the same time elegant type. Garamond, changed the way people used typography and it remains unchanged and heavily used until nowadays.
If the previous paragraph feels a bit geeky, I must add that “The complete manual of Typography” involves a series of practical guidelines which can be applied anytime to our designs. Kerning and manual kerning, leading (or line-height, if you prefer), the differences between serifs, sans-serifs and slab serifs, the aesthetics of ligatures are only a few subjects this book covers.
“The complete manual of Typography” is one of the best on the subject and it is highly recommended to anyone who likes or has to work with typography. It is also cost-effective via Amazon ($32).
As time passes by Flash websites become less and less found among the ones we browse every day. It doesn’t impress me. Even if sometimes we don’t know the exact reasons why we still suspect this is the way it should be. However, there are companies or professionals who want to be represented in the Web by a Flash website. We need to tell them why this is not good.
When you ‘re hungry you can’t wait
Imagine someone who hasn’t eaten all day and it’s almost midnight. He’s hungry. He doesn’t care about the fork and he doesn’t care whether the food is warm or not. The same way a Web user appetites for real content. A Flash website makes him wait because it needs time to load or because effects prevent him from exploring the content.
Even worse, some users don’t even have the Flash plugin installed. Then they go somewhere else to find food.
When you ‘re hungry you don’t want to be fed by someone else
Imagine the same hungry visitor. He obviously doesn’t want to be fed by someone else. Web users want to control the interaction with a website and they expect certain things. Flash websites subtract control. We need to realize the Web is much different than TV or cinema. Interaction makes the difference. In the past we didn’t care that much about interaction. Not now.
According to this, even the “Skip intro” buttons are not good enough. When animation is not an ad is rarely important. People visit websites to explore the content, not the animation.
Who can take the responsibility and leave users with disabilities outside? Have you ever tried to make the text bigger in a Flash website? It ‘s impossible. Theoretically, each Flash website should be go together with an HTML one.
What about SEO?
SEO becomes much more difficult in Flash websites. Actually a Flash website can never be optimized the way an HTML one can. Come on, we ‘re living in the era where SEO is a king and it can determine the success or the failure of a website and a business. You just can’t ignore this.
Designing in Flash is a difficult thing
Flash is software which becomes more and more complicated by time. Adobe clearly evolves Flash not for simple websites. Web games maybe? Videos? Mapping? You bet.
As a result creating a really stunning Flash website takes a lot of time and effort and this should keep mediocre developers away. It’s very rare to find a great Flash website and now imagine how much it would cost. 5 times a similar one in HTML. Why not? Now does the user experience is 5 times better than the one in an HTML website? I doubt. This is a problem which can’t be solved in my humble opinion.
The alternative…
is AJAX of course. Certain effects or solutions in usability are everywhere not only because AJAX is a trend but also because we needed to address issues a better way. As a result we had to discover new means of interacting with websites and JavaScript happened to be handy.
What is even better is the fact solutions in AJAX tend to focus on the user not on the developer. It must be one of the most promising things which happen in the Web nowadays.
Painted in red in the past (due to the communist authorities), a multicolored city now, Prague is still a marvelous place to visit. I ‘ve been there for almost a week and I wish I could stay more.
Prague could be shortly described as a huge museum. Every single building of the center of the city carries some history. If someone could take a long journey through Middle ages, Renaissance, the 20th century and of course the present times he wouldn’t leave Prague out of his itinerary.
Huge castles, complicated coats of arms, churches and a river, Vltava, which scissors the city compose the view. Prague is a place where art lives and it fascinates everyone, even people who don’t care about music, architecture, sculpture or painting.
A city to live
I am really impressed by the public transport system of Prague. Countless trams can take you practically everywhere in minutes, there is an effective, though relatively old, metro, and a lot of buses which move silently through the city.
There are also huge pavements so people can walk and enjoy the sightseeing. Drivers respect walkers and tourists are treated even better. Czech people are polite and friendly. The love to help you and most of them can speak English.
Of course Czech people know the historical importance of their city. And they exploit it. It was great to see that they preserve their culture but it was not so good to feel you have to pay all the time in order to visit even the less important museum.
What I won’t forget
Actually, it is not easy to forget anything in this city. But if I had to keep 3-4 things forever in my mind that would be:
Do you know any web designer who uses 8px gray fonts on white background?
Anyone who still designs with spacer.gif?
Do you still detect font tags?
I know we all do. If you ‘re wondering what to do with such bad designers, there is a solution actually.
This April fool’s day WaSP introduced some awesome labels to help us cope with bad designs. You could stick them on a laptop. Yet I’ m wondering on which side of the screen.
I don’t buy the joke, I can’t see a joke. I could use these labels everyday. It would be even better if we could stick the labels on websites. (This must be an outstanding idea. I need to copy-write it.)
The truth is we have told many bad things about you and your company. Bill, you ‘ve got to understand that he had our reasons. On the other hand, dear Bill, you never stopped being one of us, a geek, and geeks love intriguing each other. Now that you ‘re leaving the scene it seems so awkward to us. I know you have achieved a lot in your life and really I am happy about that because I think you deserve it.
The book is divided into two main chapters. The first one has to do with the basics of typography e.g. differences between fonts and typefaces. It also covers the evolution of typography through time. 
I am really impressed by the public transport system of Prague. Countless trams can take you practically everywhere in minutes, there is an effective, though relatively old, metro, and a lot of buses which move silently through the city. 