Web Designers, graphic designers, and all designers are face with Design Challenges. Let's dive into the world of web design, graphic design, usability, information technology, and look at life and the work place. Come back often to see what I see. View my world and the Design Challenges that I'm face with
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
New Age Drug Dealing
Cell phones are now the new age way to buy and sell drugs and drug paraphernalia according to reports. Apparently, teenagers are able to send and receive text messages with photos attached via their cell phone.
Is technology to be blame for and how people use and misuse their tech gadgets? I think not, the root of the problem lies within the parents. First and foremost, I have a problem with the whole teenager need a cell phone. As a parent of two teenagers, now entering adulthood, I was faced with these dilemmas a few years back. I didn't see why my sons needed to have cell phones, I have always been a tech junkie, but I found that their wants and needs where not the same when it came to the technology. They craze the cell phone as a way to stay in touch with their friends, but I never cave in, instead, I worked a deal with them by which they both were given prepaid phones which they had to pay out of their allowances, if they overuse their minutes too quickly they lost the phone for the time period. They also were constantly asked about the usage of the phones, who they were calling and socializing with. I encourage both my boys to bring their friends/girlfriends home for their mother and I to meet. This way we were able to offer advice on the relationships.
The bottom line is that most parents are thinking that the cell phone companies should be providing a way for them to spy on their kids. Perhaps expand their cell phone homepage to show whom they called, the messages that were sent and received, etc. Where these utilities are great, but missing the bigger picture, parents need to go back to parenting. Don't be afraid to talk to your kids, remember you were a kid once and you have already been there and done that, share your experiences and your kids will share theirs.
Fox television networks has got to be one of the worst TV networks. They start shows, develop and audience and soon thereafter leave that audience out to dry. Who is running this network? I recently found out that they done me wrong once again.
First there was Firefly, awesome show about live many moons from now under which the universe has become connected and heavily populated but us, kinda like a China or India, but in mass production, leading to a universe Civil War. The show, written and created, by Joss Wheadon was excellent and became the next big thing for the man after Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The show was well into its first season when they left off hanging. They finally finished it off for us by releasing Serenity, a 2 hour movie, which explained and finished the season. The movie grossing a whopping $38,471,845 worldwide became a hit opening weekend with 83% of its total audience rating it as a must see.
Now, Reunion, a poorly acted show with an awesome story line has been canceled midrift. Fox has decided to leave its audience hanging an a great plot unfinished. The show about a group of high school friends is set to uncover a murdered that just occurred by looking at the characters live over 20 years with each episode flashing back to a one years time spam within these friends. This show almost as suspenful as 24, guided you through these people's lives, and simply had the most awesome soundtrack. I urged you to login to http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/reuniontvseries to sign the petition to keep the show going.
The bottom line is that FOX needs to look at their executives, $38 million dollars cannot be wrong, millions of people tune in every week to watch these shows and they pull the plug without even taking a poll. If they keep doing what they do they soon will find themselves without an audience.
Most stores and retail chains are anticipating tomorrow to be almost as good a shopping day as the day after thanksgiving. They say they expect sales to be above 7% of last years, with an average of 18 million dollars in gift cards redeem. I, for once, am siding with the media and will believe this hype as I have reserve this upcoming week in general to do some last minute shopping for those relatives and friends that I am yet to see at the end of the week as the New Year rolls around.
I figured that the stores should have lower prices as incentives for purchases after the biggest shopping scam of the year has come and gone. The bottom line is that I was very happy with my holiday presents today, both those I gave as to those I received. I guess this year was truly the most wonderful time of the year.
Now that all the presents have been wrap, dinner has been serve, and cookies are ready and freshly baked, the only thing left is for Santa to arrive. Every year is the same routine, get presents, make dinner, and expend time with the family. Although it might seem monotonous, it is still the best routine to follow.
There is nothing I would trade this joyous occasion for, or anywhere I rather be than right here right now, with family and friends sharing the holidays and gearing to celebrate yet another year that has come and it is now on its way out ready to go.
Tomorrow morning millions will rise to see what's under the tree, but for those that can't wait here is the site to track where in the world is Santa Claus tonight.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, and Happy Holidays for it does not matter what you celebrate, as the bottom line is that you enjoy wherever you are and who you are spending the time with.
It seems all big ISP and search engine companies want to make sure they have your business. Therefore along with the service they are providing they are all offering personalized and customizable one stop for all Web pages. Recently I, like many others, decided to take the plunge and sign up for the personalized google page. I was leary to do this, because I didn't want to have yet another email account.
I'm really glad I did, turns out that google, like everything else so far, is the best at this. Not only are they number one at providing Web searching, providing a free blog service (which I'm using to express my views here), but they are also the best in producing the one stop for all your needs.
Google has manage, to via AJAX, allow you to customize and personalize the page on the fly, that is, you can select content, rearrange the screen, all done without resubmitting the page once. Pretty nifty technology, I predict that AJAX is the wave of the future and that by the end of the year all major search engines and ISPs will be using this technology on each and every single one of their portals.
The bottom line is that if you want to retain your users, you must stay ahead of the curve. Google is always ahead tenfold, it is no wonder that not even the software giant itself has been able to make a dent onto the Search Monster.
In the spirit of Christmas I decided to resurrect an oldie, but goodie. These go back a long way, probably to a few months after Windows XP announced its beta availability. I haven't used these in a long time, but I was at work today and wanted to configure the my Places Bar. This is the shortcuts that show up within any dialog box in Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Though Microsoft is due to release its new operating system next year, I was happy to still find this very useful URL of Power Toys. Although, I was really only seeking the Tweak UI program, I spent a few more minutes to discover that Microsoft never dropped the ball on these and pumped out quite a few more toys than I remembered.
The bottom line is that although many companies release products and usually forget about them, I was happy to see that the usual culprit of this policy hasn't stop supporting these small, but very useful tweaks. Enjoy!
VoIP is really getting big now, so big that now you can call Santa free online. I'm not sure how this all works, but you can login to sonyive, Instant Video Everywhere, a product by Sony promising to turn your pc or laptop into a video phone.
From December 19 to the 23 you and your kids can login to the page above and talk directly to Santa from any PC anywhere in the world. So skip the malls and start doing the tech thing, after all, every advertisement this christmas is for technology and technology driven items.
The bottom line is that in this age of technology I'm surprise it took this long for a program like this to come. This is a technology driven world, where more and more people join the Internet superhighway every day. So what are you waiting for, start calling now, Santa is a busy man.
Starting early 2006, congress will meet to re-write Internet laws that govern the telecom industry. You might have heard of VoIP (voice over internet protocol), basically phone over the internet, it is a fast growing industry. The telecom giants, AT&T, SBC, Verizon, among others are lobbying to regulate the speed of the internet. To learn more about VoIP, logon to TMCnet.
What this pontetially means is that you will receive slower connections unless you are part of these telecom giants and are a VoIP subscriber. This is definitely unconstitutional and I urge you to contact both your representative and your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to prevent this flux on Internet speed from happening.
In the tradition of scamming and spamming, a few months ago a young man setup a Web page in which he sold pixel ads. This was done in an effort to raise a million dollars, the page can be found at Million Dollar Homepage. Now following on his foot steps comes the next big copy cat, a person selling both ad space and damage to his vehicle, which happens to be a Dodge Viper.
This person doesn't just stop in promoting damage to his vehicle, but he also has blended the ad idea with sex. For a few extra dollars, you can have a gorgeous model do the damage to the Viper for you. All the damage will be documented via photos and video, all available through the Web site. For those of you who don't value your money and want to contribute to the moronic, yet clever, idea, you can log on to it by turning onto http://www.smashmyviper.com/
The bottom line is that people will pay for just about anything now a days, the proof is on these two Web sites, so get that brain cranking, the dumber the idea sounds the more likely you are to make a million bucks.
Team work is a wonderful thing, as long as, the whole team is involved. What can you do when a project its nearing its completion and you come to find out that you are, the only one within your team, doing all the work?
This is a question asked often by several individuals who have become slaves to corporate America today. The answer is simple yet complex. Have all your bases covered. I hate to say it, but generate written documentation as fast as possible proving that your tasks have been accomplish. Quickly notify your project manager/boss of where the project stands and outline what/who is holding the project up. This is not an exercise of tattle telling, but a way to cover your bases and at the same time let the person in charge know what needs to be accomplish to meet the goals. In a way, it is a way for you to become the project manager, when the project manager is not delivering on his/her share.
The bottom line is that working in a team environment is not always easy, but it is something that we are all faced since the time we enter school until retirement, and sometimes beyond. The moment you start a relationship with anyone, you knowingly or unknowingly have agreed to be part of a team and it is up to each team member to put in all their efforts into making the team a success.
IPTV is schedule to be the next best thing since VoIP. It is no wonder that Apple doesn't want to fall to far from the tree, they have quickly reacted by introducing the iPod Video in October. This has allow the computer manufacturer/retailer to gross 3 million dollars in one month. Even the Apple executives are impress and are quick to admit that these number is beyond their wildest expectations.
They have so far made deals with both NBC and ABC. The latter signing up back in October and NBC close the deal with Apple today. Most shows are retailing for about $1.99, but mini-series and special events are a bit more. All are available via the popular Apple program, iTunes.
The bottom line here is that Apple was able to have hindsight to create a product that would quickly sell many units, as well, they were able to maximize revenue by quickly contracting with two major networks.
With Christmas fast approaching and all xBox 360 off the shelves, it seems that this is going to be yet another tech heavy season. As I browsed through all the circulars and advertisements this past black Friday, I notice that they were cover with yet more electronics and gadgets that we know what to do with. As opposed to every year, I decided that, this year I need not get up at 5am to rush the stores as I'm fully tech equipped.
This was of great value as I got some well deserve extra zzzs and I'm now loosing out of the class action suit brought upon by a Chicago resident against Microsoft. It seems that the lad is a tad upset that after a few hours of gaming he's newly acquired xBox 360 freezes due to overheating. Well turns out that if the money back guarantee or free replacement, with two way shipping included, from Microsoft, all this gentleman had to do was turn to the internet, as most of us do, to find a fix.
I can only imagine what this man is going to do when he finds out that games will soon come with ads build into them and plans for gaming consoles to connect to Nielsen to report on impressions among other private information.
The bottom line is that in this day and age of dog suing dog, the courts should keep an eye on lawyers who bring up this frivolous allegations tying up the court's time at tax payers expenses. The problem lies not within the people, but within money hungry lawyers willing to accept every complaint any Joe smoe has and represent them in a court of law.
Now that winter is here and we are getting snow on the ground, it is highly important to know this fact. This phenomenon, often called the Mpemba effect, is implemented on a regular basis in Ice Skating events, such as hockey and synchronize skating, via the Zamboni . Many of you may think that you can quickly melt that snow and bypass shoveling by boiling some water and spreading it across the white powder, yet many forget that water will freeze causing greater dangers than snow.
Black ice is the blame for many accidents in the winter. This is because ice blends very well with asphalt making it almost impossible to see once darkness sets in, which in the winter, occurs during the late hours of the afternoon.
There are several physical factors that cause hot water to freeze faster, a lengthily explanation can be found from the University of California, but here is a small summary:
Evaporation -- As the initially warmer water cools to the initial temperature of the initially cooler water, it may lose significant amounts of water to evaporation. The reduced mass will make it easier for the water to cool and freeze. Then the initially warmer water can freeze before the initially cooler water, but will make less ice.
Dissolved Gasses -- Hot water can hold less dissolved gas than cold water, and large amounts of gas escape upon boiling. So the initially warmer water may have less dissolved gas than the initially cooler water.
Convection -- As the water cools it will eventually develop convection currents and a non-uniform temperature distribution. At most temperatures, density decreases with increasing temperature, and so the surface of the water will be warmer than the bottom -- this has been called a "hot top." Now if the water loses heat primarily through the surface, then water with a "hot top" will lose heat faster than we would expect based on its average temperature. When the initially warmer water has cooled to an average temperature the same as the initial temperature of the initially cooler water, it will have a "hot top", and thus its rate of cooling will be faster than the rate of cooling of the initially cooler water at the same average temperature.
Surroundings -- A final difference between the cooling of the two temperature water relates not to the water itself, but to the surrounding environment. The initially warmer water may change the environment around it in some complex fashion, and thus affect the cooling process.
The bottom line is that there is no quick fix for getting rid of the snow and it is better to play it safe. Invest in a snow thrower which in the long run becomes a cheaper investment than paying for plowing and will save you a lot of pain and time in the short run.
This time I'm not writing about a JavaScript or flash menu, but an actual restaurant menu. I went out to lunch today with some colleagues to The Cookhouse Restaurant in Darien, CT. I drive by this place all the time, but had never had the opportunity to visit it.
I was pleasantly surprise of the atmosphere and tastesful food. The portions were great and presentation was excellent for the type of joint of course. With such reasonable prices, I was surprised that there was no wait. They have all this hidden jokes within the large menu which made for a very amusing and wonderful time.
The bottom line is that just as in the Web, local restaurants must also keep their visitors in mind, after all designing for print is very similar to that of the Web and you would be amassed as to how many designers drop the ball when it comes to organization and presentation of a menu.
You may have notice that recently your site might have come to rank higher or lower on google for the same key terms you where once using. This has happened because google has once again revise their search engine to weed out all the keyword spammers who dump on the World Wide Web corrupting and discouraging good people like you and I.
Along with this redesign, of the best search engine in the world, they have created a tool to provide web-stats of your site. This tool is similar to that of Amazon.com's Alexa, but it is expected to yield better results as the google toolbar has a wider audience than Alexa. If you are not familiar with either of the tools, they are simply a metrics tool, which similar to the Nielsen rating, rates the popularity of Web sites.
The bottom line is that if you have a Web site you probably want to stay ahead of the curve of Search Engine Optimization. Jagger, the new release from google, is faster and smarter, and it is ready to determine whether you have content worth linking to, if you are a spammer you will quickly loose SEO grounds, so make sure you have a lot of relevant content on your site or be ready to suffer a great demise.
" />
