Adobe Photoshop CS5: Less Is More
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
I wrote on John Nack’s blog about the lack of care taken with Photoshop’s interface a while ago (surprisingly, he is quite the artist himself). Turns out, he didn’t like my comments all that much. Sure, I favour companies like Apple, who take great pride in pixel perfect interfaces, but that doesn’t mean you have to be just like them to impress me. Well, John took that as an insult. Adobe pushes out some really fine products too, he said. Yes, yes they sure do John. I contend that I live in Photoshop. But (there’s always a but) my problem is the changes that have been made over the years to the UI are far and few.
Sure, Adobe really loves modifying the actual shell of Photoshop (they’ve gone from transparency, to opaque in the least two iterations), but neglects to make any real UI changes. Take a look at the Preferences pane, still the same after how many iterations? The majority of filter options have also changed little over time. The layer effects have also stagnated. Hey, how about adding a “snapback to 100% view” feature to the Navigator? Because I’m always zooming in and out (to achieve pixel perfection), this would greatly increase my workflow (GIMP has already incorporated this wonderfully useful feature about a decade ago).
Microsoft Stores Complete with Guru Bars?
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
So you’ve heard of this? Microsoft is proposing to open Microsoft Stores (Apple Store clones, nearly down the the furniture). It’s a good move, but what are they going to line the shelves with? Copies of mice and Windows XP boxes? I kid. But truthfully, they don’t manufacture that many products. Oh, and keyboards—mice, Windows, and keyboards. Maybe X-Boxes too? Have a gaming wing? Anyway, I digress.
Employees delivered a stirring PowerPoint, outlining the plan. Right away, I noticed a big problem: The PC. You know, the thing that actually runs Windows. Apple has the luxury of supporting their own hardware (as well as software). When a Mac user walks up to a Genius Bar at an Apple Store, the Apple Genius has express knowledge about the entire unit. Sadly, Microsoft “Gurus” won’t. There are plenty of PC makers who manufacture hardware—from Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer, Asus, Sony, MSI, and more. While the operating system may be the same on all of them (read Windows XP and up), the hardware won’t be, and Microsoft is in no position to supply a repair. So if your Asus notebook won’t boot, what is a Microsoft Guru going to do for you? Refer you to the device manufacturer? That’s going to upset a lot of people. I mean, I can do that myself. Why did I visit a Microsoft store if they’re only going to transfer my problem to another company? People won’t like that. No one likes to be transferred. It’s upsetting. People want to leave with a repair or a new product, not the run-around.
Sky News Dirty, Repairmen
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
Ever wonder what those guys at Best Buy and Future Shop do exactly when you bring them your malfunctioning computer? A new investigation by Sky News (London) looked at just that. No, they didn’t look specifically at the larger chains (Best Buy is already in a world of hurt and doesn’t need any more bad publicity), but rather at small, independent shops around their region. Equipped with pre-installed security software and an easily fixable problem (loose RAM), an attractive young woman brought in her notebook, complaining simply that “it won’t turn on.”
When the repairmen finally solve the problem, many of them try to overcharge her. Shockingly, others began to root around for anything they might find of value. We’ll let the video speak for itself.
Dropping IE6: Closing a Sad Chapter in Web History
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
After a recent meeting, we finally made the decision to drop support for Internet Explorer 6.0 and its predecessors (IE 5.5, IE 5.0, and IE 4.0). The browser was loosed onto the world on August 27, 2001, shortly after the release of Windows XP. Security firm Secunia lists 142 vulnerabilities, 20 of which are listed as moderately critical. In May 2006, PC World rated Internet Explorer 6 the eighth worst tech product of all time. But the decision to block the browser from our website was not related to security concerns, rather it was strictly to do with its rendering. IE 6.0 consistently broke our layout, and failed to support a number of common protocols that all modern browsers are capable of handling.
If you are one of our very few visitors that still uses this ancient and deprecated browser, you will be greeted with this screen. (Based on our data, less than 1.2 percent run IE 6.0, and no visitors were found to be running IE 5.5 or lower.)
We feel a great weight has lifted off our shoulders. Internet Explorer 6.0 has been around for nearly a decade. It’s about time we here at Szilveszter.ca help put a nail in that coffin. We hope that the one percent of our visitors takes this news as a sign to improve their lives and upgrade to a modern browser. Both Firefox and Safari are two solid choices that adhere to web standards and provide unparalleled security.
Addendum: Interestingly enough, it appears we are not alone. It looks like YouTube and Digg are pushing for the same thing. Why IE Sucks chronicles this and more.
301 Redirects Using .htaccess to Improve SEO
The following article was witten and published by William Szilveszter.
Skip to the break if you just came here to learn about 301 redirects. I frequently check my server logs, looking for problems with my site. But a constant worry are 404s. I belong to several bulletin boards and frequently upload content to a temporary storage repository found on my server. Themes, icons, graphical changes to popular programs and most of what I upload, I don’t often add to my website. Why? Because, quite frankly, I’m too lazy. I also don’t see much worth in packing my portfolio with titbits, or odds and ends. But every now and again, I do manage to put up content and not being one to leave duplicates on my server, pull it from the storage repository mentioned earlier. Sadly, this leaves the links on the boards orphaned. I do go in and try to modify the links, but I’d rather spend my time doing, you know, fun stuff. Yet my concern for my visitors (yes, I love you guys; group hug!) is always lurking, and I don’t want them to be greeted with the dreaded 404: Not Found. So I started to employ 301 permanent redirects.
