A Ripple

Taking a moment away from design, I thought I might draw my attentions to something that a friend of mine has linked me. It is a blog by a person by the name of Sanjay Ghosh, and centers around bringing to light the racism present in our world, a blog by the name of Brown Discrimination. Namely, a post concerning the terrorist attacks on Mumbai this past November.

I found it interesting how this writer points out the differences between US Senator McCain and what I feel will happen - that is, I feel that India is a much wiser country in that there will be none of this which Senator McCain has prescribed.

I feel that the lesson that can be learned from current political events is a difficult one to partake in, which all have (note, world economy) and which I hope is of the type of lesson which will run deep. Quick actions and hot heads lead to a world of trouble.

Either way, this read is certainly very thought-provoking, no matter which side of the world you may reside in or what sector of the global community you may find yourself in. It is certainly worth a read.

The real brains behind the operation...

Name: Haxx0r
Age: 5 months
Birth date:: July 3rd, 2008
Favorite food:: Mango

Oh, Haxx, you are such a great vector illustrator, HTML/CSS professional, and.. well, all right, just wanted to share this snapshot of him attempting to help out with some illustration work I'm doing.

With Hopes I have not Royally screwed up..

I quit my job.

I made a few mistakes along the way...

For one thing, I quit it very abruptly. I did put away savings, but I did not put in 2 weeks notice, as I would have preferred to. By doing this, I have most likely lost a few contacts, as well as a decent reference. Why did I not give 2 weeks notice? My management has a history of sending people home when they do so.

For two, the only real thing I have lined up is freelance design gigs. Of course, I can now expand my search and include other agency jobs, but the fact remains that with the economy the way it is, it is going to be difficult.

In the end, things tend to work out, and I hope that this decision will turn out better than it feels. If anything, I can at least work on the composites I've been meaning to...

Firefox Too Crashy? Unable to print from Firefox?

Are you one of those people who is tired of the constant crashing of Firefox?  You love the great rendering engine, and the fact that it actually supports the Internet, but have issues with it taking up too much memory and crashing.

Did you know that you can install some of your same Firefox Addons on the Flock browser?  Flock is based upon Firefox and uses Mozilla's rendering engine; the major difference is that Flock is tuned more toward social media whereas Firefox is tuned toward development.

Now, note that you will still need to manage your memory.  After all, having 20 tabs open is the same as having 20 windows open, and eats up about the same amount of memory - so if you are crashing on Firefox with more tabs than your huge resolution could fit, therein may lie your problem!

Nevertheless, Flock is certainly rising in my eyes!  Not only can I post to my multiple blogs with the click of a single button as well as to Twitter and other places, I've found that it simply has not crashed on me to date.  Oh, and I can actually print with it!  The security restrictions of Firefox were giving me difficulty; for unknown reasons, as soon as I installed Firefox 3.0, I was completely unable to print anything (which was a bad thing).

Exploring other browsers is a capital thing as a designer.  Sticking with simply one browser is, well, sin.  Why?  Because then we have a one-sided view of the internet.  Plus, we aren't expanding ourselves by doing the same thing over and over again!  Remember, the definition of insanity is to perform the same action multiple times and expecting a different result every time!

Don't just rely on Firefox to view your Internet!  There is support for seemingly all browsers for PCs; even Apple knocked their heads together and put together Safari for Windows, which, in my opinion, was a great thing, given that it allows developers and designers on Windows to see the Internet from another set of eyes.  And Opera has a free download now - so check that out, too!  I highly recommend it for casual browsing.

And while you are at it, refer your clients to other browsers as well!  It is a wonderful Internet out there - and it is sin to have the Internet rely completely on Firefox and Internet Explorer!

It's thirteen minutes past midnight...

I'm working on a design that I've had for a few months now.. Far too long in my opinion, but the owner's had some issues concerning their franchise and ended up creating a new logo recently.

I'm trying out a CSS grid for the first time, namely, 960.gs. It's pretty good.. Very easy to set up and use. I do believe I can get the site done tomorrow afternoon, simply because the hard coding is essentially finished for me.

The main issue I'm having right now is that I forgot my tablet at work... And well, I'm realizing more and more how much that is worth to me. The issues I'm having right now with using a mouse to do this job:

• It's not ergonomical. My wrists hurts after only a few hours of work, whereas with my tablet, I can use it all day and not feel any pain from the possible carpal tunnel that I'm developing.



• Lack of real control. My movements are jerkier, and just don't feel as natural as when I utilize the tablet for drawing.

It's a short list... but it is really beginning to bug me to not have my trusty Wacom 6 x 4.