Blog
Still here! - 16.02.10
Hello there and a belated “Happy New Year”. Today a client asked if I was still in business! In fact I’m still in busy-ness…
At the risk of posting one of those “sorry, no updates here for a while” posts, I’ve been so busy with work that I’ve not had time to post here. Here’s a quick update on what I’ve been up to.
I completed a blog site for journalist Hazel Southam and a Church website for Acomb Baptist Church as well as some custom Expression Engine work for clients old and new. Will try and update the portfolio when I can.
I was alarmed to think that a potential client would look at my website and think I was no longer active. This post hopefully goes some way to allay that fear. I’m still here…
CSS White space property - 5.05.09
A bit of a technical post today, which hopefully will save someone some time (perhaps even me, as I’ve Googled this subject a few times).
Internet Explorer 6 and 7 occasionally include a line break a floated list item (a common technique for navigation), and having tried a number of the usual tricks, it still persisted. I’m not sure why it does this, and I’m not even sure whether it’s acceptable according to the specs, but it is annoying.
In the past, I’ve set a width on an element which can fix things, but it shouldn’t be necessary, then I came across the CSS white space property
which, when applied to the list item, stops the navigation list items from breaking. Good result!
Hope this helps somebody out there!
My new setup - 2.05.09
I thought I’d take a little time to blog about my new setup, in case anyone is interested. I’ve been using it for a few months now, and I’m finding it to be really useful.
I hadn’t bought much since I setup in business in 2005, so it was time for an upgrade.
I picked up a MacBook Pro (the one before the unibody models) which Jigsaw were selling off, and got a Cinema display to go with it. Using two monitors at once can be a bit like watching a game of tennis, but I’m really finding the extra screen real estate useful, and finding it useful to be able to take my machine with me when I get out and about (I’m writing this from the train!).
Backup’s always a concern, and I’ve invested in a Time Capsule to help here. It’s reassuring every hour when it whirs into action…
Parallels has replaced Virtual PC, and is, as you’d expect, a good deal faster. I imported my old virtual machines, which meant that I didn’t need a new copy of Windows. Good result!
A few words of warning:
- It’s taken a while to get Pro Tools up and running on my new machine, being the first time I’ve used an Intel Mac. I’ve lost a few plugins in the process – most of them in fact. Will have to think about upgrading at some point, but I think I may have spent up for a while!
- Migration Assistant is great – I was seriously impressed. All my favourites, emails and even Safari history were moved across, but I found I needed to uninstall and reinstall Creative Suite in order for it to work. Before this, I had activation issues. (Don’t forget to deactivate CS on your old machine before you move it over).
- Similarly, Macromedia Studio needs reinstalling.
I’m using CS2, and under Rosetta performance is acceptable – probably about the same it was on my G5. Since I don’t use half the features of Creative Suite, I couldn’t really justify the upgrade.
So that’s a little about my setup. Hope those of the geeky persuasion have enjoyed it!
Stay tuned for further updates.
File size still hasn’t gone away - 27.04.09
In the days of widespread broadband, it’s easy to think that basic skills like optimising images might no longer be necessary, and I confess it’s not often at the forefront of my mind when it comes to production.
24 bit PNGs with Alpha Transparency can soon add up when there are lots of them on a page.
These last couple of days, I’ve been limited to a few minutes grabbed on someone else’s GPRS connection, and it’s made me realise that it’s important to think about this every once in a while.
Maybe with the continued rise of mobile browsing, we still need to bear in mind our narrowbanded brethren, and spare a thought for them. It doesn’t take much extra time!
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