Web Design and Development

October 21, 2009 [Insert Joke Here] comic

October 20, 2009 [Insert Joke Here] Comic

October 19, 2009 [Insert Joke Here] Comic Strip

Here is an easy step by step JavaScript tutorial I wrote on how to make simple animations.

Nicely done animated explanation of how most people use Twitter.

Gotta love (well, some of them) the Google Chrome themes. This one is Star Gazing. (yes, fwiw, that is “I’m MG Siegler” on YouTube open in one of my tabs)

Mind mapping is a good way to refine your thinking on a subject. There are many software options available. Freemind is a Java based program with an intuitive interface. It’s a good starting point to introduce yourself to the family of mind mapping programs, since it is both free and relatively sophisticated.

The keyboard shortcuts I find most useful are Insert and Enter for child and sibling nodes respectively, Ctr + Up and Ctr + Down for ordering sibling nodes, Ctr + Click for selecting multiple nodes, and Shift + Insert for inserting a parent node. Alt + E lets you edit the edge colors.

(Of course pen and paper is an option as well)

Neat little program. Some bugs, but it works.

In spite of its color scheme selection, Facebook is now more popular than MySpace.

How much more popular than MySpace would Facebook be if it would not have used blue and white as its main branding colors?

Both the Facebook and MySpace logos are blue and white. When Facebook was starting, it should have have picked a different color for its branding. Orange would have been a good color to go with, since it’s complementary to blue, so it stands out and contrasts to it well in the eye and mind.

You generally want to differentiate yourself from the established competition. MySpace was already going strong as Facebook began. This means that initially the color blue, in the context of social networking, meant MySpace to most people. Now it means Facebook…. or MySpace.

It appears Facebook is doing fine as is, but you have to wonder how much stronger the brand would be with a logo that’s not mostly blue?

Bonus Video: MySpace vs Facebook by CNET

While there are some clunky workarounds for tagging files on PCs, it’s not really integrated into Windows.

Tag2Find is working to solve this problem. I’ve found the program useful, though it has a ways to go before it becomes a polished software package. Taggtool is another option I’ve heard about for PCs, but I have not tried it. Tags by Gravity is the main Apple solution, as far as I can tell.

While tagging lets you find files quickly, it is not a completely intuitive solution. The way we remember things is a combination of what they are (tagging) and where we put them (folders). So, eventually there will be a solution that is an intuitive combination of tagging and folders.

I could imagine a program that lets you store tagged files in a virtual physical world. Maybe you could build a “house” for your files. The problem with folders is that one folder looks like another, so they are difficult to remember. If you could custom create virtual rooms that have shape and color attributes, where you can store tagged files, it would make remembering where you put a file that much easier and more fun.