This past week, Adam’s Dad and his brother Eric stayed with us for Thanksgiving. We spent the time enjoying good food, conversation, winery tours, and other frivolities. We also stopped by the Cleveland Museum of Art which just reinforced my angst at the fact the construction is still no where near being finished.
I really enjoyed having them both here to visit, we don’t get to see them enough.
As is tradition, we began our Christmas decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving. While we’re almost done with the inside, I still feel like we need something for the front porch outside. Of course owning a home puts all sorts of competing interests into play for your limited budget. Maybe next year.
Published by Bryan 5 months, 3 weeks ago
in Life.
Somehow my phone knew it was Adam’s birthday today…
Ok, my last blog entry on the MSNBC redesign was a little harsh. It is much better than FoxNews.com, but I still miss some of the old design.
However, I will give them credit for building the new site from the ground up to support Safari and Firefox.
When the redesign efforts began in earnest over a year ago, however, we decided to rethink that approach. We started by retooling our browser support matrix to include both Firefox and Safari as “top-tier,” meaning that if our work didn’t work in those browsers, it didn’t get released. We armed ourselves with an arsenal of 17-inch Macbook Pros, not just for testing but for actual development work (much of the HTML and CSS was initially written using TextMate).
That is very commendable.
Currently playing in iTunes: From Where You Are by Lifehouse
What have you done MSNBC? Your news site used to be one of the most pleasant to use, but now things are different. Today you unveiled your “new and improved” design, which in my opinion is a usability nightmare. Too much scrolling, clicking, digging to find what I need. I’m guessing you must have used the same designer who put together FoxNews.com. And what’s with the truly hideous rainbow title banner at the top?
Why do US news sites suck so bad? Why haven’t any of them truly figured out how to design a visually pleasing, easily navigable design? CNN.com’s recent design update is a step in the right direction, but it’s far from being good at this point. I think the US news sites need to look to the BBC or Google News for guidance.
One major suggestion for “the big three” of American online news services, tone down the ads a bit. When one-third or more of your page is dedicated to giant, moving, flash based ads it gets a little busy. When I can’t easily tell the difference between an ad and a story, you’ve got a major usability problem.
Currently playing in iTunes: Don’t Fear the Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult Acoustic Cover) by Him
I’ve been using Pownce for a few months now. and it become rather addicting. It’s such an easy way to share messages, files and links with your friends.
For those of you who may not know what I’m talking about, let me quote from the Pownce website:
Pownce is a way to send stuff to your friends. What kind of stuff? You can send just about anything: music, photos, messages, links, events, and more. You can do it all on our web site, or install our lightweight desktop software that lets you get out of the browser.
Pownce, which is somewhat similar to Twitter, is the brainchild of Kevin Rose of digg.com fame. If anyone wants to join, I’ve got about 26 invites for anyone who needs one. Or if you already Pownce, add me as a friend.
So I’ve been taking for years now about wanting to get a digital SLR camera. I’ve felt that my inner photographic genius was being hindered by my simple point and shoot Kodak. I need to a bigger outlet, something with more functionality.
Then while I was at Costco, I noticed they had two different bundles, a Nikon and a Canon, that were just two good to pass up. I’ve being doing alot of research over the last year on which companies made the best digital SLRs in the range I was looking at and both Nikon and Canon received rave reviews.
In the end I decided to go with the Canon Digital Rebel XTi kit not only because of the great reviews it received, but also because several great photographers I know use it and recommend it.
The bundle included:
- The Digit Rebel XTi
- EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II
- EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III zoom lens
- 58mm Canon UV filter
- 1GB CF Card
- A 90 minute instructional DVD
- Canon gadget bag
Of course I’ll be the first to admit I barely know what an ISO setting is so I have a great deal to learn about the world of photography. But so far I’ve been having fun.
Currently playing in iTunes: Piano Concerto No. 5 In E-Flat Major (Emperor) by London Symphony Orchestra
