While on vacation in Orlando last week, Missy and I surprised our parents by having them experience a 3D sonogram with us. It was amazing to see our little man again. He’s grown so much since the 20-week sonogram and that wasn’t long ago! We had some great takeaways from this precious experience as well. Take a look:
37signals Opens Up to OpenID
They are one of my favorite software companies and they just added support for OpenID to Backpack. If you are a web developer and you haven’t looked into it yet, please take a moment to review how OpenID is changing the landscape of account authentication.
Sean Fleshes Out Coda
In a great assessment of this new software, Sean Sperte opens up his workflow and debates whether or not Coda can work as a full-time development tool. I find myself right in the middle of the same conversation.
Much Needed Kick in the Pants from Jim
While Jim rarely intends to kick me in the pants, he has done so yet again. He has this uncanny ability of saying something that I interpret vastly opposite of his intent and then find myself challenged. In this case, I learned that I need to write more. So I will.
It’s Buzz Week
I think this is where it just gets insane—if I remember right from last year. Oh, yep. That’s it. Crazy week of preparation and excitement! The Buzz Conference is hot this year.
Dave Hill Photography
Dude is good. Check out some of the interesting behind the scenes media. (Crappy Flash-based site with few direct URLs—the only thing I dislike.)
Apple Safari, Now on Windows
The browser is still in beta but seems near a final release. I don’t use Safari on OSX and probably won’t on Windows, but it’s worth noting that there is a new browser to develop for on the PC platform.
HDR Tutorial
I’ve totally fallen for photography. HDR is a post-processing technique that creates images with “high dynamic range” that is normally outside the scope of traditional photography. Jörg Dickmann, one of my favorite photographers on Flickr, sent over a link to this tutorial to help me get started in the technique.
Apple Redesigns
Much more simple approach. I like it much better than the last version.
CNN Redesign in Beta
For a large media organization, this is huge. I’m proud that CNN is taking a step in the right direction—toward a usable, clean, effective UI. I’ve long wondered why Big Media seems to adopt such poor practices on the Web. It’s such a prime media outlet! I hope that other media organizations, especially my news sources, take note of CNN and figure it out.
Captions for Flash Video
I’m constantly hunting for ways to improve the accessibility of the sites I build and maintain. Rich media has always been the toughest medium to accomplish wide accessibility. Flash CS3 aims to change that in fairly significant ways. It’s not that it hasn’t been possible before, it’s just that it is now so much easier.
My Flickr Profile
I continue to invest my spare time and money in photography, studying the technique and the art while trying to acquire the right tools for the job. Lately, I’ve had to slow way down due to heavy workload. But I hope to pick up this summer through Oh Snap!, a photography small group at NCC led by the venerable Joe Portnoy (Flickr). Missy is lovely and she let me buy a Nikon 55-200mm AF-S DX VR lens. It is awesome! I’ll review it soon.
A refuge for Christian web designers who believe in and adhere to web standards.
A meeting of the creative minds of the DC metro area web publishing culture.
A sleek set of icons for use in web development. Free to download.
A resource for web designers, developers and entrepreneurs.
