Design Challenges: July 2007

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Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Dell Precision M90 Browser and Image Problems

So I just got my new Dell laptop courtesy of my new employer. These guys really rock. They have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome.

As part of my new deal, my employer gave me card blanche to order which ever laptop I deemed suitable, the only restriction is that it had to come from Dell. Dell really has cornered the small business market. They designed a great site and a great service program that seems to attract the SMB and the consumer market.

Anyways, I love the new pc, it has a 17" widescreen with 2GB of RAM and a 2.33Ghz Dual Core processor. Needless to say, this is a great desktop replacement especially for a Web designer or gamer. I was surprised that after I customized it, the price tag was still reasonable, and trust me I left no feature unselected.

I have only experienced one problem thus far and that is that when I first launched Internet Explorer (IE6 then upgraded to IE7), images seemed blurry, jagged and pixelated. I was worried as I first thought it was the AT&T GSM card doing it, but after much research and thanks to the dellcommunity.com site I learned that this is a microsoft issue. Apparently the IE developers have gone out of their way to customize and best fit Web graphics on very high resolution screens, the problem is that this little layout fix causes the jagged, pixelated images to appear.

You can find the fix on the dellcommunity.com site, but for your convenience I'm pasting it below:

Copy the Text Below into Notepad.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"UseHR"=dword:00000000

Call it antifuzzy.REG

Save it.

Then Double Click it to Import into the Registry.

The bottom line is that when you encounter a problem, whether PC related or otherwise, it is important not to get frustrated or give up, but instead to turn to the Web for your answers. You will find that others have experience the same or similar situation and many communities are available to help. If you can't find an answer, don't hesitate to join in the forums and post away. You will then have an answer soon enough.

Labels: jagged images, pixelation, Web Design

Monday, July 23, 2007

Coming to you live from JAX

You may have noticed that I haven't blog for a while now. The reason is that I was in the process of relocation. That's right I now call the sunshine state home.

I drove down from Connecticut to Jacksonville, FL this past weekend. I remember doing the drive about 15 years ago when I drove to Orlando. Orlando is approximately 2 and a half hours from Jacksonville. The drive then seemed longer, but it might have been because I was with my immediate family at the time and you know how family trips could seem endless.

This time I was by myself although it didn't seem like it as relatives were calling my cell phone what seemed to be every 10 minutes. Geez, I have a lot of relatives and it is nice to know that they cared enough to keep me company during my travels.

I did have some breaks from the cell at which time I enjoyed taking in the scenery. It is funny how it seems like every where I turn now a days, everyone is speaking green this and green that. Obviously these folks haven't done the same drive I just did as once you get past Virginia and DC, it seems like there is nothing but green all around.

I enjoyed the time and had plenty of it to think about my new job and responsibilities that are soon to come. You see, I am now the Director of Web Operations for a Magazine Publisher in the Jacksonville Area.

Though I haven't had a lot of time to explore, I really like the area thus far and the places I have visited.

Granted, I have only visited some local restaurants and shopping areas, but the people are much friendlier than up in the Northeast; and they truly seem to enjoy what they do and ensure to emphasize that customer satisfaction is number one.

For example, today I visited Publix, one of the local supermarket chains, the forecast called for rain, but I hadn't seen any. On my way out the sky opened up and it pour cats and dogs, almost literally. The grocery bagger offered to carry my groceries to the car as well as provide umbrella service. I declined, but it was quite a different experience from what I ever had. While I waited for the rain to subdue, I noticed many other baggers offer the same to other customers. After all, I am quite handsome, but I knew this wasn't just the younger girl trying to pick me up.

The bottom line is that so far I am quite happy with my Florida experience and although I have started work, I still feel like I'm on vacation and living in paradise.

Labels: Customer Service, Florida, Jacksonville

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

SunRocket is Out

Last year I hooked my mother up with Vonage. She is outside the USA and wanted to have a US Phone Number. Thanks to VoIP (Voice Over IP), folks in other countries can have a US number and vice versa, provided you can find a service provider that will allow this flexibility.

Originally we started out with Packet8, but at the time they had speed requirements and unfortunatelly her internet access was too slow to work with the Packet8 service. Packet8 has since changed this, but we had already signed up with Vonage and she is very happy with it.

Vonage is the largest consumer VoIP Service Provider in the US and is ever growing. Everyone I know who is on Vonage has only but great things to say about them, though Vonage Forums report otherwise.

Sun Rocket is the second largest provider, but they reported bankruptcy this past Monday and have since discontinue service to all their customers. Amazingly enough they did this without notifying their customers, who are now without service. I hope Sun Rocket has lawyered up as I see a massive Civil Action Lawsuit coming. To leave people without phone service is rotten enough, but what if someone needs 911 service, they can easily have cause harm to their customers.

The bottom line is that if you are going to go out, go out in style. Give folks enough time to switch to another provider, after all they trusted Sun Rocket with their phone service, the least they could have done is notify their customers of their financial situation. Oddly enough, the Sun Rocket Web site is still up and running and even allowing new folks to sign up. However, if you call the customer service line, there is a recording stating that the company is now shutdown.

Labels: Customer Service, Sun Rocket, VoIP

Monday, July 16, 2007

Video in the Browser

I have been doing a lot of research lately and have come across a multitude of sites that offer training videos. A lot of the videos are created to be viewed on quicktime, which is great because the videos open right on the page. Other sites provide videos in wmv and mpeg format.

The problem is that videos other than quicktime usually prompt me with a save dialog or open this video with dialog box. I decided to look into this deeper as I remembered in a previous pc where all videos where open directly in the browser thanks to the Quicktime plug in.

After a few minutes of Googling, I came across the mozillaZine site which provided a quick an easy way to streamline the process so that all videos now open within the browser thereby saving me a little bit of time and temporary file clean up.

Here are the quick tidbits:

Quicktime browser settings

This is where you enable the Quicktime browser plugins for different types of media. (These settings do not determine which Windows file types are associated with Quicktime Player. That's done under "File Types".)

Open the Quicktime Settings window from within the Quicktime Player ("Edit -> Preferences -> Quicktime Preferences") or by double-clicking "Quicktime" in the Windows Control Panel.

Go to the Browser tab and click the MIME Settings button.
Under each category, select the media types you wish Quicktime to handle in your browser. Do not enable Flash.
Click OK.

Audio

AIFF audio

uLaw/AU audio

MIDI

WAVE audio

MPEG

MPEG media

MPEG audio

MPEG-4 media

MP3

MP3 audio

Images

QuickTime image

Close and reopen the browser so that the changes can take effect.

Important: When selecting the media types you want Quicktime to handle under "MIME Settings", do not select "FlashPix" (under "Images") or "Flash media" (under "Miscellaneous"), as doing so will cause a conflict with the Flash plugin (a Quicktime symbol with a question mark will appear on web pages containing Flash).

Labels: quicktime, video

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Fit Students are Stress Free and Sexually Active

Those of you who know me, know that I'm straight forward and don't beat around the bush. I tell it like it is, therefore from time to time end up putting my foot in my mouth.

With that said, I just read a story in Reuters entitle "Women drawn to men with muscles." First off, all men have muscles. Second, I understand they mean men who are physically fit, but this is no big surprise. Did it really deem a full two page article? This came from the oddly enough news area of the site, again those of you who know me, know I love to read this area of Reuters as it is designed to present funny stories about the stupid/odd things people do.

The story is about a study/research conducted by the University of California Los Angeles which interviewed 99 college men to find out how many sexual partners they had. The study was designed to elaborate on the fact that muscular men were twice as likely to have had more than three sex partners than the underdeveloped types.

The bottom line is that, "a study, really!", if you want to get some action while in college you better get to the gym. Not only will you find yourself fighting the chicks off, but you will enjoy a healthier life overall.

Labels: exercise, health

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Apple's site Redesigned

One of the few things I have always admired about Apple is the way they tie in their Web site to their machine colors. Today I happened to visit the site to see what they had going on and see if I could get some shots of the newly released iPhone.

I landed on the site and had to take a second look to make sure I was at the right URL; where I typically see a silver ridden Web site showcasing the latest iPod and iMac and iSomething, I came across a very dark and gloomy navigation bar with huge picture of the iPhone. Don't get me wrong I'm all for marketing and advertising of a product, but to replace your all for one product is a bit over hype and over the top.

It's one thing to showcase your hot product, but to get rid of all of the others is not something I would have gone with. A homepage is a window into your store, your company, your image, not the newest product not matter how hot it may be. Shame on you Apple. After all, I can't imagine walking into an Apple store to buy some software or the latest iMac or whatever and seeing all products gone and only being able to buy an iPhone.

The bottom line is that every company must remember that they need to cater to all audience not just the ones looking for the latest hype. This move by Apple has gotten me feeling ill.

Labels: Apple, iPhone

Monday, July 02, 2007

Google Adds more Services to their Powerful Offerings

Google's original mission was to organize the world's data. This mission is still the main focus, however, they now have expanded to not only organizing data, but providing many services which complement that mission.

Although they keep expanding and growing by the thousands, they only acquire companies which suit the same philosophy. One of the things I recently read on the Google Blog is that they have expanded their free 411 service to include maps and directions to any location. I wasn't aware that they provided the service to begin with, but it was great to find out that they designed the application to tie in with their free mapping options.

Another company they just acquire goes by the name of GrandCentral Communications. GrandCentral Communications designed a system which centralizes all your phone numbers into one. In other words, their system allows you to receive calls all in one account which can be checked online 24/7. The system is also designed to combine all voice mails received from all of your phones in one centralized web accessible location.

The bottom line is that Google is great and everyone wants to be part of them because they know what their core focus is and they are able to buy technology that further strengthens their suit of offerings. They are also able to provide all of these services and products free of charge to the public. Free is good, but good products are better. No wonder everybody is racking their brains to come up with the next good idea and have Google buy them off. Lotto is just to hard and this might be a good alternative for a well designed product to yield millions.

Labels: 411, Google

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