Super Ginormous

Category: Technology

Articles on Technology, Gadgets and more.

  • Getting Local with Twitter

    twitterRecently 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.

  • More thoughts on the changes in IE8

    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.

  • New CS3 Installation Support Number

    If you’re (still) having problems getting Adobe Creative Suite 3 installed, there’s hope. Adobe’s setup a toll-free number – 1-800-642-3623 – devoted to assisting customers with any installation issues they might have with CS3. You can also check out the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Support site for updated information.

  • A step in the right direction

    The news that IE8 will now display pages in “Standards” mode, instead of requiring designers/developers to force it… is music to my ears. Granted, it wasn’t that big a deal to use a META tag to force the rendering, as originally proposed… But it IS nice to see that Microsoft is taking web standards more seriously with this new approach.

  • AIR-powered kuler desktop updated

    If you’ve never used kuler, you’re missing out. If you’ve never used the AIR application, you’re missing out on an additional way to interact with the color harmony RIA. You can check it out by installing Adobe AIR, then downloading the app. (Hat tip: John Nack)

  • AIR out of Beta

    Adobe AIRAdobe AIR – (Adobe Integrated Runtime) – is out of beta. It allows developers to create desktop applications using web technologies like Flash, HTML, CSS, etc. Get AIR here.

    I’m pretty excited about AIR for a couple of reasons… 1) it allows you to develop rich applications fairly quickly using standard web technologies; 2) it’s less intrusive as Yahoo! Widgets (Konfabulator) and similar “widget” applicatons.

  • 500 Million Downloads and Counting

    500 Million Downloads and counting
    Mozilla is celebrating the 500 millionth download of its popular browser Firefox. You’ve come a long way, baby.

  • Piclens: Photo Browsing Enhanced

    PicLens

    PicLens is an add-on for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari that will change the way you interact with a lot of websites. The add-on is currently compatible with Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa Web Albums, DeviantArt, Smugmug, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Google Images, Yahoo Images, Ask Images, Live Images, and AOL Images.

    These screen captures really don’t do PicLens justice. You really have to see it to believe it. (Here’s a brief walkthrough on how PicLens works in Firefox.)

    Browsing PicLens

    piclens_browsingBrowsing is initiated by clicking on a little “play” button that will appear upon hover over images in the various supported services. Clicking this button will launch PicLens full-screen where you can start browsing through your images in a 3D environments. Thumbnails appeared very quickly, even on my Dell Inspiron 6000 (1.6GHz Pentium M, 1.5Gb RAM). In the example to the left, I was only previewing a small set of photos in my Flickr stream, but it worked well when I used it to browse through my entire photo collection.

    Getting in Closer

    piclens_closeup_browsing Selecting an image will create a slightly larger, higher quality thumbnail of the photo you’d like to look at. This is why PicLens is so responsive. It pulls in very low-resolution previews at first, but streams in higher quality thumbnails as you use the add-on, as well.

    A Better Slideshow

    piclens_detail The PicLens photo detail interface is pretty similar to Flickr’s built-in slideshow capabilities, except PicLens runs full-screen natively. Images stream in pretty quickly (depending on connection speed) and you can browse through images pretty quickly using back and forward buttons… or hit play and let it go on its own.

    The Verdict

    Overall, I’m really digging this plugin. It’s unobtrusive and doesn’t effect using your sites regularly… if you don’t want to use PicLens, you simply don’t click on the buttons to activate it. It adds enough additional functionality to enhance Flickr, the rest is just gravy. Check out PicLens for your browser.

  • NewsGator Frees RSS Readers

    For a couple of years, I’ve happily used NewsGator FeedDemon as my RSS reader. I use it to read through a hundred or so feeds that I am subscribed to. (The integration of NewsGator Online with the desktop application is one of my favorite features.) I’ve used Bloglines, Google Reader, and several other web-based RSS readers, and none worked as well as FeedDemon.

    Anyways, onto the good news: FeedDemon is now free. As are a few of NewsGator’s other products: NewsGator Inbox for Microsoft Outlook, NewsGator Go! for mobile, NetNewsWire for Mac.

    View the press release here.

  • Big Day for Microsoft

    MicrosoftToday was a big day for Microsoft. First, IE Desktop Online Web Browser Live Professional Ultimate Edition for the Internet aka IE8 passed the Acid2 Test. Secondly, the Windows XP SP3 Release Candidate is now in the wild.

    I’m more excited about the IE8 news, to be honest. Having IE8 passing the Acid Test could mean less trouble for web designers/developers in the future. Sure, IE6 and IE7 won’t go away anytime soon, but if Microsoft were to push the browser as a critical update, it might see widespread adoption fairly quickly.