Our advanced systems detected you're trying to access porcupine colors by an old and deprecated browser like Internet Explorer 7 or even 6! This website uses some technologies which can't be detected from such an outdated software.
There are a lot of great blogs on the air. Most of them (almost the 90%) are blogger blogs but there is excellent content in there. For several months I have been trying to find out the best ones. There was not an online tool which could help a greek user to explore these blogs so I decided to create one.
So this is MindBlog: a catalogue of the best greek blogs. All the website is in greek and it contains several blogs divided into categories according their content. What I wanted to do wasn’ t to embrace all greek blogs but to help anyone who wants to find easily the best content. MindBlog also includes part of the last post of each blog presented in there.
The main issue was how to convince people get indexed. After a while it was obvious to me that greek bloggers thirst for such a tool but they trust you only when you prove them that you really care about their intellectual property. It sounds simple and it is but people have been cheated before and they can’ t trust you easily. I ‘d do the same.
MindBlog begins its journey by including 26 great blogs. More to come.
Time passes, you ‘re getting older. I couldn’t put it a better way.
Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begun
Along the long road and on down the causeway
Do they still meet there by the cut
There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground To a life consumed by slow decay
The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder
Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some inner tide At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world
Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There’s a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
go down this road we’ve been so many times
The grass was greener
The light was brighter The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river
Macs once were the absolute computing machine for designers. Graphic designers, web designers or even developers and programmers. Now we know well that a typical PC can do all the dirty work for you. My Athlon does. No questions about that.
I still want to buy a Mac. It may be an obscured obsession. It may be silly. I know that I will have to spend some time in order to learn how to deal with it. I will meet compatibility issues. No problem, I ‘ll handle with them. Games? Who talked about games? If I want to play my favorite Civilization I will turn on my PC. But then I don’t play so much anymore.
It mostly has to do with the elegance of the machine. I don’t care about the processor or the RAM. It doesn’t have to do with the stability. Windows XP is quite stable. The Mac environment is so smooth. I envy the Dashboard of the Tiger and the icons too. I want to play with the iLife package. My iTunes will live in its proper environment.
There is a new world out there and I want to reach it. After all how am I going come back to Windows if I have not used a Mac for some time?
When you build .css files you begin with an empty document. The problem is not how to fill it but how to keep it simple and easily editable. Which means that you have to be very specific when naming divs and typography styles (especially when it comes to classes). Here there are some guidelines which are very useful for me. You might find them interesting too.
Fisrt of all work with a good editor. Dreamweaver is OK, but I prefer TopStyle or AceHTML. Tip: TopStyle enhances your work by including a color palette which shows you all the colors you use in your .css file.
Start with the basic layout and use common name conversions for the building divs. Use the words banner, top, wrapper, content, navigation, extras, footer etc. instead of stripe, left-column, right-column etc. Be as specific as possible.
Color the background of your basic divs in the very beggining in order to check that the building blocks have been set correctly. Then remove the background colors.
Treat the similar blocks of code as a group e.g. have all the styling for your forms together
Comment all the previously mentioned groups of blocks
Do not build general typography blocks of code. Remember that each area of your website has its own needs. It is much easier to work with #extras h1{ font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; ... } instead of a too general h1{ font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; ... } which you will probably going to alter it at a later time.
Add .css which include styling for different parts/pages/areas of your website. It is easier to keep track of your work when your work with more than one .css files. However, more than three .css files could complicate your work very much.
Do not forget to validate your .css files every once in a while.
Last but not least: do not avoid correcting your stylesheet on time. Leaving it for later is the best way to get confused with your own work!
After using Firefox for ages I have ended up with the following absolutely vital extensions:
ColorZilla: it is wonderful because you can pick any color you like in seconds
Image Zoom: it just does what it is supposed to do
Tabbrowser Preferences: I use this extension mostly because I want to open files in the same window. According to the Firefox 2 Release Notes this enhancement will be among the defaults in the next version of the browser
You are at the beggining of a new project. You are excited. You are about to dig into the design phase. Wait a minute. No project is as clear as it looks.
It is always difficult for me to explain to my students why they should begin by using pen and paper. Probably because neither I used to believe in analyzing a project. However you need to break it down.
Let us say you are at the beginning of new website. For me it is more important to decompose the parameters which have to do with what you want to achieve with this website. Not the design. The design analysis comes next and most of the times it has been already set by the requirements of the project.
Have you heard about the Dont’t make me think book? This excellent book explains why we, the designers, should care most about how to make our users’ life easier. So if you really need to make your users register in a website, tell them so! Show them the way how to do it and if it is possible don’t let them click more than once (when they push the Submit button). In this case apparently you are going to have the Register Form at the frontpage of your website.
You see now? Part of the design phase has been set automatically. You are going to save a region in the front page which will hold the form. Do you need to have this form always visible? Prepare to place it in a second column of your website which will remain the same (or at least part of it) everywhere.
Without proper analyzing before the design you would probably miss the importance of this form. Each project hold its own goals which they should be achieved. Learn how to deal with them in the first place.
Fluid layouts offer great advances. The most interesting aspect of fluids as far as it concerns me is the adaptability of the system to user’s screen. However I admit I am afraid of fluids.
First of all there is no doubt that designers cannot rely on browsers yet. It ‘s no secret that browser acts differently in many cases. How does IE treat to ems or percentages versus Firefox? Or Opera? I sincerely have not clarify this.
Fluid layouts are a pain in the ass not because I hate experimenting with design, but because I have to put an extra amount of work before the actual design. All this comes for the reason that I need to take into account aspects never met in fixed design.
Let’s say that I have determined that all the users with a screen resolution less than 1024X768px have been already left out of the story. When the pioneers at A List Apart does it why shouldn’t I? What happens when you turn to fluids? You come back and you reconsider these users. How can you then excuse yourself for letting them out of the story?
There is something else too. Have you considered how more you need to work in order to prevent image stretching in a fluid layout? Who can afford a Jakob Nielsen’s design layout? OK, images can be controlled with some effort. What is going to happen to my perfectly balanced columns when I decide to work in a fluid design? Nightmare!
I never liked a screen full of info anyway. There is no space to breathe.
Instead of a fluid layout I do like tricks like the one applied in UX Magazine. The first row covers the whole screen. This black ribbon (which is not empty - instead it includes valuable inforamtion) embraces the page so nicely! There is space for the logo as well. The same technique could be applied to the footer too.
However I haven’t played enough with elastic designs. Added to the todos.
Web standards are intended to be a common base… a foundation for the world wide web so that browsers and other software understand the same basic vocabulary.
The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and other standards bodies have established technologies for creating and interpreting web-based content. The actual standards are:
deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users
ensure the long-term viability of any web document
simplify code and lower the cost of production
deliver sites that are accessible to more people and more types of Internet devices
continue to function correctly as browsers evolve, and as new devices come to market
For web designers and developers, Web Standards are about using standards (Structural, presentational, Object and Scripting languages) and best practices (valid, semantic and accessible code) to benefit your users, your clients and yourself.
A mindset change
Traditional website
Traditional website development is an extension of the printed media - designed to make sites look pixel-perfect in the 5-6 main browsers. Common characteristics include:
Table-based layouts
Presentation within the content (font tags)
Invalid code
Inaccessible code
Semantically incorrect code
“Web Standards” website
Web Standards are about accepting the web as a broad communication tool that can be accessed by a wide variety of users and a variety of devices. Common characteristics include:
Semantically correct markup uses html elements for their given purpose. Well structured HTML has semantic meaning for a wide range of user agents (browsers without style sheets, text browsers, PDAs, search engines etc.)
You should use standard HTML elements for your markup and avoid styling HTML elements to look like other HTML elements. In simple terms, this means:
for headings, use heading elements starting with H1
for paragraphs of text, use a paragraph element
for lists, use a list elements
What is valid code?
Validation is a process of checking your documents against a formal standard, like those published by the W3C. A document that has been checked and passed is considered valid.
Why use valid code?
Valid code will render faster than code with errors
Valid code will render better than invalid code
Browsers are becoming more standards compliant, and it is becoming increasingly necessary to write valid and standards compliant HTML
Files will download faster (less code, no overall tables, valid code)
Content is accessible to wider range of users (normal users, blind users, vision impaired users, dislexic users, motor skill impaired users etc)
Content is accessible to wider range of devices (screen readers, browsers, text based browsers, hand helds, search robots, printers, fridges etc)
Allows users to customize site appearance (style switchers)
Provides print friendly versions for all pages
How do your CLIENTS benefit from Web Standards?
Easier to maintain (less code, modular code)
Cheaper hosting costs (less code)
Better search engine ranking
Content can be restyled easily without changing code
Provides users with customization
Provides print versions without replicating content
Improves accessibility (essential for Government clients)
How do YOU benefit from Web Standards?
Easier to code (modular code)
Easier to maintain (less code, modular code)
Less device dependent coding (stable across wider variety of devices)
Provides a competitive edge as more of the world moves to using Web Standards.
What are the downsides
Steep learning curve
Browser compatibility issues
Some layouts can be achieved much more easily using tables than CSS
How do you achieve Web Standards?
Web Standards are not a black and white issue. All developers should be aiming to gradually move towards Web Standards-based sites.
The move from traditional to Web Standards based development takes time and practice. Rather than jump in and quickly becoming frustrated, set achievable goals and gradually move towards Web Standards. For example:
Basic changes
Add a correct doctype to all pages
Add alt text to all images
Add meaningful page titles
Intermediate changes
valid code
semantically correct code
replacing inline font tags and inline colour with CSS
accessible forms, data tables and skip menus
Advanced changes
Basic positioning with CSS (padding, margins etc) while using overall table for layout
full positioning with CSS - no tables for layout
Practice CSS layouts
read CSS tutorials and books to get an understanding of practical CSS
set aside time to learn CSS positioning without external pressure
practice a variety of CSS layouts until you are confident
Conclusion
Web Standards deliver:
faster file download
accessible code to wider range of users and devices
user customization
easy implementation of print friendly versions
cheaper hosting costs
better search engine ranking
faster and more efficient site maintenace
a competitive edge over competitors
Web Standards benefit your users, your clients and yourself.
Joomla is a well known CMS which emerged from Mambo CMS. Both systems focus on an easy way of creating web communities and not only. However, after the separation into two different platforms the developers of Joomla seem to be more active than the Mambo ones.
Currently the cores of the two systems look alike in certain cases, but all indications show that that the following versions of Joomla will be more advanced, easier to be developed and maintained. Among the priorities of the management team is how to develop the usability of Joomla. Recently, some hot developers presented a tableless version of Joomla which follows the Web Standards rules.
Alas most of the effort is focused on how the frontpage of a system will include no tables, how the whole style of it will be defined by a CSS file etc. What happens next? Since Joomla is still based on Mambo CMS it becomes impossible to apply Standards in the inside pages. As a result most of the inner pages hold numerous tables, a vast number of different inline styles and many times all these styles confront each other in 3rd party components and modules.
There is no doubt that the core development team will present to the community a tableless, solid and clean cut version of Joomla, according to W3C specifications. Probably soon. This will be a fair step to the right direction. However the power of such a popular platform relies on the 3rd party developers. These people ought to change their way of working. There are many of them and some have provided us great tools. It is clear that when a component is fully tested by thousands of people and it is proven to work well it is very difficult to convince a developer to re-built it from scratch. But there doesn’t seem to be an alternative.
Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
To a life consumed by slow decay
At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
The taste was sweeter
