cdharrison.com

Fresh from the Adobe Labs comes betas for Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 and Adobe Fireworks CS4. It should be noted that if you’ve been using CS3, there is a new unified interface that’ll be appearing in CS4 that may take some getting used to.

Also, if you tested the Photoshop CS3 beta when it was released, I can’t stress enough that you should not install this software on a machine that is mission critical for your business. This is beta software. It may have problems. It may cause difficulties if you decide to upgrade to CS4 when it’s released.

Caveat emptor.

I made some minor changes to the site this morning. Notably, the site is no longer 640px wide. I opted to increase the overall width to 960px so that I could add a sidebar. As I develop this iteration out further, the reason I added the sidebar will be more apparent. I have done no browser testing as of yet. I would be surprised if the site wasn’t broken, but don’t fret… change is coming. I appreciate your patience.

Recently I started an experiment on Twitter. I know that I’m not the only web/design geek in the area, so I decided to use Twitter to get to know some folks in the area. Using Twitter’s people search, I looked for people in and around Augusta, GA. The result? I’m not alone, and while Twitter use in and around Augusta is next to null, there are some pretty interesting folks that I’m glad I decided to follow.

What next? Well, my hope is that Twitter will grow in popularity in the area and it’ll be a means to growing a real life social network/community here in the area. Right now the tech/creative community is rather fragmented and the only organization that caters (sort of) to us is the Augusta Advertising Federation. Its focus tends to be more traditional media-centric. There is also the newly formed Augusta Developers Guild, but it’s focusing more on Software Developers/Programmers.

I’m getting closer to being finished with this iteration of the site. The cool thing is that I am using this theme to power our company blog, so all of the changes I make here benefit it as well.

• I cleaned up the comments area of each page. Comments should be considerably more usable.
• The search field up top and on the Archives / Search page use some Safari-specific code which add additional functionality. (If you’re using Safari for Mac or PC, your recent searches are saved.)
• A number of backend/admin things were fixed which will make maintaining the site easier.

A few things are still lingering out there…

• Search results page(s) need stylization.
• Create Portfolio section.
• Enhance Theme section.

UPDATE: IE8 Beta 1 is now available for download. I’d recommend installing Virtual PC and then grabbing the latest Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image (Virtual Hard Disk Image for testing websites on IE on Windows XP SP2). That way you can conduct browser testing in a more controlled environment, as opposed to eradicating your local install of IE6 or IE7…

Some people will say Microsoft caved; others, that they listened to public opinion; some may even buy the company’s own explanation, which is that, given a company-wide reorientation away from proprietary winner-take-all competitiveness and toward interoperability, “web standards by default” takes precedence over “supporting all those badly made websites that were created specifically to work in IE.” Jeffrey Zeldman

Did Microsoft cave, or did it see the light? It’s hard to imagine a company as large as Microsoft “getting it” all of a sudden, but stranger things have happened. Zeldman’s post gathers many of the arguments for and against IE8’s proposed version targeting. It’s definitely worth a read. I for one am glad that Microsoft has chosen to go the more difficult route and support standards first.

I started a live design a week or so ago, but wasn’t happy with where it was going. That’s why - if you’re visiting the site, and not reading this via RSS - there’s a new design. It’s not quite there yet, but it’s a lot better than what I previously had. The header image comes from the new Ghosts I-IV album by Nine Inch Nails. (If you haven’t bought a copy of it yet, it’s quite good.)

(As of right now, the site probably looks best in Safari, but I’m working to improve compatibility with other browsers. CSS stuff like text-shadow is only going to be available in the most modern browsers that support it, though.)

Typically I wouldn’t do this… but Nick McMillan is someone I’ve known since high school and he just took the bold step of starting his own business: CreativeTantrum. Based in Northern Virginia, CreativeTantrum specializes in web design, identity, print design, you name it. Nick’s done freelance work for me in the past through PowerServe, and I was extremely pleased with his level of creativity.

Nick, I know this is something you’ve wanted to do for some time. I wish you the best of luck with this chapter in your life!

What the Web Standards Project did for the web, the Email Standards Project hopes to do for email. This new initiative, which launched today (11.28.07 @ 10am, Sydney Australia time) is one I fully support. HTML Email can serve a legitimate purpose, and it’s about time this sort of advocacy took place. I hope you’ll join me in congratulating the ESP team on their launch and in supporting the ESP any way you can in the future.

Wondering why we need standards support in HTML email? Learn More…

Locations and a few dates have been announced for An Event Apart 2008:

• New Orleans - March or April (date TBA)
• Boston - May 19 & 20
• San Francisco - August 18 & 19
• Chicago - October or November (date TBA)

Depending on when the New Orleans AEA occurs, I may try to go to it. (I’m going to Disney in April.) I attended the AEA in Atlanta in 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If I get the go ahead to go, I’ll definitely announce it here. If you’re planning on attending, let me know!

Let’s face it, Adobe Photoshop CS3 isn’t ideal for every task. It’s great at a lot of things, but often I find that it’s too much software when it comes to handling basic tasks.

For red eye removal, cropping basic image tweaks/adjustments, I use Google’s Picasa. Its tools are easy to use, provide pretty consistent results and automatically save backups of my original files when I make changes. The fact that it doubles as a photo manager is a bonus. You can easily send photos via, post them to Picasa Web Albums, make cd backups and more. And did I mention it’s free? The only downside to Picasa is that it is PC-only.

For online image editing I use Picnik. It works with Flickr and Facebook, so I was able to link my accounts on those sites with my account in Picnik and make adjustments to pictures I’ve already uploaded to those services. The site is a little slow, but it’s great when you’re wanting to make basic adjustments to photos. Right now Picnik is still in beta, but eventually they will be offering a pro version of the site that will let you do a lot more with your photos.

For everything else I use Photoshop.