Viewing entries tagged with 'me'
The Right Number
Chrome is the new browser developed by Google. I just tried it and well, it's really fast. It also promises to be very secure and to have a good memory usage/garbage collection model and to be better equipped for up-to-date web applications using Javascript and Ajax (such as Google Mail).
A very good (yet still very geeky) introduction to the Chrome browser was done in comic book form by Scott McCloud, better known for his awesome comic books Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics. I read the first two, the last one is now on my list of books to read. He also made some online comics, based on his own suggestions in Reinventing Comics about using comics in a different medium in an appropriate way. The Right Number looks pretty good.
Six Browsers You Don't Need (but Can't Avoid)
It's always the same ... you create a neat web design with clean html and CSS and it looks just the way it should, then you test it on Browsershots and realise that it looks absolutely perfect except (and without any exception) in all versions of Internet Explorer prior to IE7. I wish I would not have to burn my lifetime with these kind of problems – even a grey, cold and rainy Monday in November is more fun than to find workarounds for Internet Explorer.
Even though Browsershots is probably the best free service available for cross browser webdesign it does not help much to actually work on a CSS file and check it in real time. Fortunately I found a multiple IE installer that installs IE3, IE 4.01, IE 5.01, IE 5.55 and IE 6.0. You still need a Windows PC, but it's probably a good solution for a lot of web developers/designers.
I really don't like IE hacking, but from my experience it works best to make a clean html/css template that works well in all other browsers plus IE7 and then apply a conditional IE style sheet or make a few adjustments in the original CSS file if it requires just a minor tweak.
While I really would not bother too much with anything below IE5 (especially if it's a pure CSS design) I now still have six browsers installed that I don't need and IE8 is on it's way – I wonder if Microsoft will ever bite the bullet and go with the standards it so successfully ignored for more than two decades.
Nugob on YouTube
Some of my animations can now be found on YouTube. I put quite some effort into these short films so I thought I can as well make them avaiable to a wider public. Please enjoy!
The Robbery
Those and other short films can still be found and downloaded in Quicktime format in the animation section on this website.
I think it's really about time to make a new animation. It will take time but I really feel I want to make a new animated short film. Preferably with a different style this time; but as always: the story must be right in the first place.
Photo Overdose
Kayaking in the Abel Tasman National Park on the New Zealand South Island, just a one-hour drive from Nelson, my home town in 2006.
Get your photo overdose right here on nugob.org! I love the Silverstripe photo gallery module! I could finally upload a large amount of photos from the last 5 years to the new gallery section on this website in no time: about 500 photos in 19 galleries.
I know this is complete overkill, so below is a small(ish) selection.
Selling My Soul
It seems that I sold my soul to Google yesterday - on a trial basis. I signed up to Google Apps. I pushed this step for quite a while because I was (and am still) not sure if it is a good idea to have Google handle so much of my stuff, but eventually the comfort of Google Mail and other applications just overpowered my resistance.
Nugob.org is Dead, Long Live Nugob.org!
Welcome to the new face of Nugob.org!
This is my first major update of this website since 2000. Nugob.org is now powered by the Silverstripe Content Management System and Framework and had a complete makeover.
May the old site rest in peace. I still like the previous design, but after 7 years I thought it was time for a change.
Metaplace
Now this sounds interesting: Metaplace. Still under development with not much information yet. But the little information that's available for only 2 days now sounds promising. Metaplace is
- a virtual world platform
- massive multiplayer out of the box
- easy to set up
- heavily customisable for people with programming knowledge (rumours say the programming language is Lua)
- different virtual worlds can connect
- based on web technology (low minimum system requirements, even possible for mobile phones)
- can be implemented into a website
- different styles: 2d, 3d isometric, 2d, 2.5d heightfields, 3d
- interaction with the web (such as RSS feeds)
- created by a team of former Ultima Online developers and others (Raph Koster, ...)
- etc ...
- and it's free!
As I am currently working for an educational institution it is just obvious to investigate Metaplace for educational purposes such as distance learning or online components for face-to-face courses - as soon as it is available for the public.
It might beat other systems such as Second Life in terms of the ease of use for the not-so-computer-literate (i.e. the majority of all computer users) and the common problem of minimum system requirements.
It's still all rumors; however, I am looking forward to test this thing.
Here is some more insider information.
Rapid-O-Mat
I updated my portfolio with my latest projects today.
Just online: the website for the yachting club »Ammerlander Segel-Club e.V.«. It comes with my all new content management system »Rapid-O-Mat« (PHP and MySQL), and a member login. It will still take some time for the authors to add content and for the whole site to get alive. I am looking forward to see it growing.
»Rapid-O-Mat« got a lot of improvements compared to my old content management system. It got more functionality, is more userfriendly, got less limitations, is easier to customize (which was the main reason for me to write it completely from scratch instead of just updating my existing system), and it finally got a name! I really want to update this homepage to the new system (once I got some time left). But that's gonna have to wait.
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