d’bug. aka Brian Reindel (whom I had the pleasure to work with at Campbell-Ewald and Rare Medium) has some really excellent articles on javascript and the such there. If you are looking for concise and to the point articles about web development advice, including CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Java, .NET and Ruby on Rails d’bug is the place.

I’m happy to announce that I have finally updated the site to WordPress 2.7 and I’ve also moved to my new host Mosso. You will find many new features and enhancements to the site (check out the related posts). I’m also using an open source template called “Aeros” (switched to the lovely holiday theme from the folks at instantshift) as the base for the site. If you run a WordPress blog I recommend it as a starting point, it is well documented and easy to use. Finally, I can’t say enough good things about Mosso … unlike other “grid” based hosting systems theirs is based on the award winning RackSpace (the parent company) … so it’s “cloud” hosting that actually works. If you want to kick the tires it’s well worth a try. Use my referral code to give me a little love. “REF-AIRGID” Have a great New Year everyone!

While reading about Apple filing for a patent application for a 3D desktop I started to wonder if all the interface designers from the 1980’s have some how made a come back? I mean really, you would think after having 3D UI’s fail spectacularly on horrible Flash sites that someone would figure out that adding more crap to a interface isn’t the answer. I once worked with a programmer who who got it right: “Our job is to make the end user NOT notice we have been here.” I can only imagine a 3D interface getting in the way of everything I do everyday. The first thing most power users do when they fire up a fresh new OS is turn off all that “eye candy”. On OS X I turn off the “Magnification effect” and in Vista Aero goes bye bye. Man what are these people thinking?

At this time of year my business always starts to slow down a little. I can look back over the past six years that I have run Airgid Media and see that the end of Q4 has always been historically slower. Clients have spent the remainder their budgets for the year, and vacations are starting to kick in. But during this “breather” as I like to call it I started to wonder what next year will be like.   Certainly next year will be slower than 2008 seeing we are headed into a economic melt down the likes of we have not seen since the 80’s.  

When it comes to the Macintosh platform, users options for email clients are somewhat limited. There are several open source programs, but many of them are seriously lacking in robust business features.   I guess you could say that I “drank the Kool-Aid” about open source applications. I love Firefox, and it’s amazing array of extensions, so I assumed that this love fest would also apply to Thunderbird. To an extent Thunderbird is the best open source email client one can get. From a business standpoint I find Thunderbird to very limited for many reasons.

I recently made the switch back to Mac. My last Mac was a 1600 (aka the Pizza Box) running OS 9. I am now working in a mix environment. I still use my "old" PC for 3D Studio Max, but my primary development platform is Mac OS X Leopard, on a shinny Mac Pro. A few things I have notice in the 2 weeks I have been working with OS X is the fact that Photoshop seems much more snappy. Even though this machine has only 2 GIG of RAM (compared to the the 4 GIG on my XP machine) all the things I do in Photoshop seem faster. The system as a whole seems more responsive. When I try to do several things really fast OS X never seems to try to catch up to me. Often on Windows XP the system would slow down as it tried to process several things at once. Another big difference is just how fast Photoshop launches. I swear it takes 1/2 the time on Mac compared to the PC. Now keep in mind these are exactly the same copies of Photoshop (CS3 Extended).

If anyone knows of any benchmark tests comparing equal Mac hardware against PC hardware I would love to see them. So far I have yet to find a shoot out online that compares apples to oranges (no pun intended!) 

Recently I purchased at Wacom Cintiq LCD Pen Table (12WX). I have broken my review down into 5 points, but basically I think the Cintiq is the best thing since sliced bread. I must tell you that I am in no way affiliated with Wacom, nor have I been paid to write this review. I think this is such a great product I think other designers can benefit from it.

Apparently there is much need of good Flash content management systems. My article on Flash CMS is in the top search strings at Google, and it is one of the most comment threads on this site. I hope in the future to do a review of some of these Flash CMS products. I have heard rumors that Adobe Contribute will soon be able to update Flash sites. This would be the perfect solution for small Flash sites needing content updates. I’ll keep you posted.

A few years before I began freelancing full-time, I had the good luck to become friends with a financial planner. At the moment I was working full-time for a world-renowned advertising agency and I was pulling in a good salary. Financial problems were the furthest thing from my mind, but my friend insisted I apply for a line of credit for a rainy day emergency. His advice paid off because a few years later I used that line of credit to help jump-start my full-time freelance business.

According to ComputerWorld Mac market share broke 8% in 2007. I imagine that in 2008 it will reach over 10% which will make it a serious platform for companies to consider as they develop software. One of the largest problems facing software vendors in regards to the Mac is the lack of install base. This shouldn't be as much of an issue going forward. I know for my self I plan to switch back to the Mac in 2008. My next computer hardware upgrade will probably be a MacPro, and I know many other designers / developers who will be doing the same in 2008. Basically Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with Vista. Why would I "upgrade" to an OS that runs 20% slower than XP. Although on the down side with more market share will come more security concerns. I bet dollars-to-donuts that we will see more Mac viruses due to this increase in market share.