I’m not entirely sure that I feel entirely comfortable with my new random display of images (above). I mean – I love it, but it seems that people are refreshing the page to get a different set, which is completely artificially upping my stats. How is a boy supposed to keep track of what’s going on in the world, I ask you – I mean really?! [This behaviour is particularly frowned upon: naughty Prol!]
How cross would you guys be if I decided to start designing for a baseline of 800×600 screen resolution and above? I mean I know that around 10% of you still view sites at that resolution (Global Statistics), but that means around 90% of you don’t. I think this deserves a poll. Is it OK to design for 800x600px resolutions?
While at work today, I was rung up by an old University friend from Bristol, who was stopping off in London for a minute period of time between his epic jaunts around the world promoting his internet empire. He’s heading off to California in the next few days – San Francisco via Los Angeles – where he is likely to stay for at least a month. And he’ll be going back again around a month after that. He kept tantalising me with stories of the exciting world of internet start-ups and huge salaries – tempting me with the possibility of interesting and varied jobs for a young web coder/editor/producer like myself. And I have to say that I am beginning to think that he might be right.
If you are ever on for a laugh, check out the descriptions of films at the Hollywood Stock Exchange. Ignore for the moment the tremendous fun of investing in stocks based on the performance of films and stars at the box office, and concentrate instead on gems of inspired summary like this:
“Fast Flash to Bang Time is a drama that will star Wesley Snipes and be directed by Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls). The story is about a drug-addicted FBI agent and his sex addict female partner who fall in love and try to stop a terrorist attack.”
Funny as that is, however (and trust me, I shall be first at the door of the cinema for it) , it cannot compare to a film that I have actually invested in. Called Munchies, this film is currently in development. And it’s plot? While hsx says nothing, I know for a fact that it is about anorexic teenage girls who end up as cannibals. I mean, how cool is that?
In the UK at the moment there is this whole debacle about Rover, a company that makes cars that very few people buy, even though they look rather nice. The company, which has been owned by BMW for a while, has been making savage losses and has finally been sold to another company called Phoenix for the nominal price of £10 (approximately $15) [BBC].
Now normally this news wouldn’t interest me in the slightest – I am afraid that I hold little hope for the future of British manufacturing industries and don’t see the point in investing in heavy machinery which has the sole purpose of pouring even more money into a large hole in the ground.
However on this occasion, the huge amounts of legal and administrative work that has to be done by people close to the whole enterprise is really impacting on my social life. Entertaining and charming dinner companions are being captured and locked in small rooms to check contracts, leaving me without anything to do in the evenings but drink too much and watch the South Park Movie. This state of affairs must come to an end! So I say to thee, oh law firms of London – LET MY PEOPLE GO!
Congratulations are due to Derek Powazek, who has been named Creative Director of Pyra, the young team of web scamps and entrepreneurs who are fighting corporate evil in San Francisco. Katy is completely right though – in about three months there won’t be anyone who isn’t working for them…
I’ve been meaning to do it for ages and now it is done – the photo bar at the top of the page rotates the images, thus making the site infinitely more interesting than it already was. Will the excitement never end?
Oh the power! Oh the sheer undreamt-of power! Watch in stupified awe this weekend as Katy and I assassinate Mark and take over Riothero. No promises that Katy will take all her clothes off or start a big fight with women (sorry guys), but we will try to emulate our young host in every other way possible. I am so looking forward to this…
I have been using an Ultimate Bulletin Board for ages at the nexus. I have always been really happy with its functionality (although it is pretty heavy on the old bandwidth), but less comfortable with it aesthetically. It’s highly adaptable, but never really adaptable enough for my tastes. But then I stumbled upon dreamless,org. Not only am I astounded by the look of the pages, I have absolutely no idea how it has been done. For me to get the nexus looking like that would (as far as I can tell) require considerable amounts of engineering in the code behind the scenes. Can anyone explain to me how this has been done? [Explain it to Tom]
Wow. Woke up this morning and read this on prolific.org:
“I started reading Barbelith because it was a relief to find a ‘British’ voice in the ocean of mainly Yankee blogs. But I wouldn’t have stuck with him if it hadn’t been more than just being British. Being personal, insightful, and perhaps being queer too. I don’t know, I’m vaguely interested in gender issues, always have been. Then of course came the famous redesign, the colours and realising that for the first time, ‘web design’ had made me feel ‘happy’… drawing emotions I normally experience listening to music, or being with someone special.”
I’m all glowy!