Working on this homepage design for a site that currently is in beta.

Just installed Adobe CS5 Master suite and I’m testing Contribute. I’ve never used this software and quickly added my blog without any ftp info or even telling contribute where the Word Press admin was. I simply added my site URL "www.randyhumphries.com" and told Contribute my log in information for WP admin. Amazingly Contribute new how to connect to the admin of WP and I’m now editing this blog post through Contribute and it basically looks like my website.

One thing I have noticed is it does not tell you if you have a spelling error. I’m sure there is a spell check somewhere, but I’m so use to the red dotted underlines in just about any piece of software or browser adding the dashed red lines as I type if they are incorrectly spelled. Found the spell check button, sadly I wish there was not one at all.

You can add categories to posts that are already created in Wp and enable trackbacks etc. I’m having a bit of an issue with adding an image. I’m getting this error "Contribute decreased the size of the image because it exceeded the size limit set in BlogHub.csi file. To change the size limit modify this file." I have no idea what that means and it’s placing a really tiny image of my jpg. Here is the jpg which i saved out at 600px X 325px.

Contribute re sized the image to 300px X 162px. I will have to play with it a bit more and find out why it’s doing that. But for a piece of software geared towards the non-web-designer/developer/programmer etc. it works pretty well. Ok here I go, going to hit publish and see this thing work, i’ll make any further comments about this experience in the comments section.

Little while ago Apple posted this about why it will not add flash to the iPhone, iPod Touch or the iPad. Now Adobe has attacked back by launching an Ad campaign “We love Apple”. You can see the banners here. Adobe is striking back pretty strongly by running a similar campaign on their homepage even.

I’ve been a supporter of both Apple and Adobe my entire creative life and it’s those two companies that are responsible for creating the tools and hardware that I’ve created the majority of my work on for the past 14 years on.

I can honestly see both sides of the argument, Apple makes some great points in it’s Open Letter. Although I don’t find Adobe’s response as compelling, I’m still a supporter of Adobe.

My wish is that this “WAR” does not go too far. I don’t want to see Adobe software unavailable to Apple hardware, even though Apple has made some of it’s hardware not available to Adobe.

I have not used flash in any of my web projects in the past year but there are times that flash is nice to use. I have used flash extensively earlier (although forced by previous employers to use it, even if not needed), there are times when it’s beneficial and can really create something beautiful.

Maybe if Adobe can address some of the issues that Apple has with the Flash technology things can change, and we can see Flash on the iPhone, iPad, etc.

Here’s to hoping this does not go too far and I’m forced to use a PC again!

This is simply just amazing. As a former magazine designer and currently an interactive designer I’m in love with this. Just imagine how much more content can be displayed through rich media not only for the articles but also for the advertising. Let’s just hope Apple does not block Air on the iPad. This should have been used as the demo for the announcement of the iPad.

Basecamp

This is the hub of it all. Manage all your projects through Basecamp; create tasks, deadlines, milestones etc. Has an open API so there are tons of other web apps that work well with Basecamp. Plans start at $24 a month up too $149 per month. This web app is becoming the application that does everything you need including time tracking, billing and file sharing.

http://basecamphq.com

Tick

This is a fantastic web app for time tracking and keeping you on budget. Tick integrates nicely with Basecamp also. It has a variety of desktop widgets to use that make it easy to keep time or you can just use the website. I use the AIR widget which is very simple and has a great play/pause function. Tick has free and low monthly subscriptions.

http://www.tickspot.com

Dropbox

Need to share files with others? Every time you save a file locally it’s updated on the website and pushed to others that you share that folder or file with. So it keeps you and the people you are working with up to date with the most recent file. Also keeps multiple versions and a history of each file. Which saved me once when I accidently flattened a photoshop file and had to get a previous layered version. Dropbox has free and monthly subscriptions.

http://www.dropbox.com

Blinksale

Easily create custom invoices. Can import clients from Basecamp. Automate billing with recurring templates. Has only paid subscriptions of  $6, $12, and $24 per month. I have a legacy account, which is free.

http://www.blinksale.com

Get SignOff

I use GetSignOff to share my designs with clients and get feedback and approval. Create and manage multiple versions of each design. Integrates seamlessly into Basecamp. GetSignoff has free and monthly subscription plans.

http://www.getsignoff.com/

“To dream that you have rotten or decaying teeth, forewarns that your health and/or business is in jeopardy. You may have uttered some false or foul words and those words are coming back to haunt you.”

I wish I was having the more positive dreams about teeth.

“To dream that your teeth is gleaming, signifies happiness and fulfilled wishes.”

While surfing around I stumbled upon an issue that designers may or may not even think about. How to display dates? In the USA it’s common to use MM/DD/YYYY but in Europe it’s common to display the date DD/MM/YYYY and in Japan it’s YY/MM/DD.

This is something I’ve never cautiously thought about but looking through most of my designs I usually spell out the month or it’s abbreviation instead of just the numerical value. For example I use October 8th, 2009 instead of 10/08/09. The later would be very confusing to most viewers from Europe and Japan. By displaying the month by name, the day and the entire year instead of just 09 any viewer can determine the date.

Some sites decide to drop the year all together. I assume it’s to save space but it’s not very useful to the users. What if they are a new visitor to the site and are going through the archives of your blog posts? They may end up having no reference to what period of time that particular post was made if you decide not to display the year.