Posterous. First Impressions

I've noticed quite a few people using Posterous of late, so I thought I'd see what the buzz was about.It's a very cool idea. Post something once, by email, SMS or web, and publish to your Posterous homepage, Twitter feed, Flickr stream, Facebook profile etc.

So, here goes. My first posterous post. Overall, I'm impressed. Lot's of really nicely done interface design, with a bit of Prototype goodness thrown in. It was easy to setup an account, it's possible to be up and running almost instantly, but I opted to go through the signup process so I could customise my posts and setup publishing to Blogger etc. I'm hoping that now I have the means to post once and publish everywhere in one hit, I will be able to post more often, as I usually find myself too busy to sit and write long posts. Fingers crossed, you may even see proper regular posts.

My one gripe? It's a biggie I'm afraid.

Posterous allows you to import from your other blogs. I thought this would be a great idea, being able to put everything in once place so I have some historic content from the off, but in practice, it seems a bit flawed. As you can see, I have quite a few posts here already, but the import process has truncated them all! So, you can read the first paragraph, and that's it. Not even a link through to the original blog article. Arrrgh. For the time being, bear with me while I go back and manually add the missing content.

Other than that, very cool. I'm definately going to try to post regularly and see how it goes. Watch this space!

Posted via web from Mark Kennard's Posterous

So, you need a typeface?

My collegue Sarah just sent this to me, very cool, so I'm sharing....

Posted via email from Mark Kennard's Posterous

Site of the Moment, - Carsonified

Carsonified have a genuinely eycatching new site. I found this by accident a couple of days ago, and it really made me smile. Colourful, playful, and really confident design, really well thought out, from the guys behind the Future of Web Design and the Future of Web App events.

I really like the way each page is a different colour, with white text and illustrations. Funky indeed.

Well worth having a look around.

A fresh new look from the Blogger Template Designer

Well, those of you who have been here before will probably notice new fresh new look., which is the result of me spending an hour or so experimenting with the new Blogger Template Designer, which I found over at Blogger in Draft.

It’s a very nice web application, and it’s a huge improvement on the current template tools available on Blogger, and has some very cool touches, such as theme suggestions to match background images and text colours, a live preview of your changes, and some really nice new starting point templates.
I’ve only spent a bit of time playing on it so far, but I like what it can do some much I decided to apply one of the new templates, instead of my old custom template. I'm not the greatest designer in the world, so it's great to be able to come up with something that looks fresh without having to spend hours in Photoshop and Aptana.


A couple of things to note though. Firstly, the new templates aren’t built with IE6 in mind, so users who choose to punish themselves by using IE6 may not see your page as you intended. Secondly, as far as I can see, you are limited to the background images provided by Blogger, rather than being able to add your own. I’m going to have a play with the template XML and see what I can come up with to workaround this. If I succeed, I’ll post the details.

I've also added a new template based design to my other blog, just to give it a bit of a makeover (note to self: Post on Sidetracked sometimes huh?)

Other than that, give it a whirl, see what you can come up with!

First Impressions of the Dell Studio 1558 Laptop

Well, after being a loyal Toshiba user for the last 7 years, I was tempted into buying a Dell when upgrade time came around this again.

Despite appalling post-order/pre-delivery customer service, having my order cancelled, then replaced, and waiting 7 weeks instead of the original 2 weeks promised by Dell when I ordered, my patience paid off today when my new Studio 1558 arrived!

My job demands that I have a fast, reliable machine, and with that in mind, when it came to configuring the machine to my specification, I ended up almost doubling the base price, which gave me the following spec:

• Intel® Core™ i7-820QM Mobile Processor (1.73GHz, turbo up to 3.06GHz, 8MB L3 Cache)
• Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit
• 8 gigs 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM
• 500GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
• GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470 Graphics Card
• DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
• 15.6in Widescreen Full High Definition (1920 x 1080) WLED with TrueLife
• Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard
• Intel® Wireless LAN 6200 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n card
• 2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
• Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Module
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi MB

First impressions are great! It feels well built, and looks the business. I’m particularly pleased with the optional back-lit keyboard, which makes life a bit easier in poorly lit conditions, and the performance monitor in the task manager shows 8 (yes 8!) processors, which I’m assuming means that each of the quad processors are dual core – I’m looking forward to see how this speeds things up when running applications like Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere!

I have already run into a couple of issues associated with moving from 32 bit to 64 bit however. I guess I should have done a bit of research up front, but anyway…

1. Cisco VPN Client is NOT supported. If you need VPN access, you need to find an alternative method, such as NCP Secure Entry Client
2. Adobe Flash Player – There is no support for 64 bit browsers, so you have to use 32 bit IE or 32 bit Firefox if you want to view Flash based content.
3. Aptana, my JavaScript, CSS and jQuery weapon of choice, doesn’t yet have full 64 bit support. You can install in into Eclipse, or install the 32 bit version only.
4. So far, I’ve had no joy with a 64 bit version of Firefox, but have got the 32 bit version installed instead.

I’m sure I’ll find a few more problems, but so far, so few. Fingers crossed that none that arise are deal breakers!

More to come as I use the 1558 more, but for now, I have to stop writing and carry on installing software, so I can use my new toy at work tomorrow.

jQuery has taken over my life!

Firstly, an apology. This is my first post since June. Since then, I've been working pretty much non-stop, and as a result, I've not had much time to post. I intend to post more often, but I keep finding myself "on a mission" with some work related code. Call me a geek - I love my job!

Anyway, onto my post...

I love the web. I love seeing what can be done, and if I don't know how to do something, I love sussing out how it's done. I also love how much things have changed with web interface development over the past few years, specifically with client-side interactivity and web application design.

I've been working as a "web designer/developer" since 1995, so I've been lucky enough to have witnessed quite a few trends and developments, including being blown away by the original Flash 3 Gabocorp site (well, it blew me away anyway!), fighting in the "first browser war" (multiple versions of sites for different browsers anyone?), and writing a Flash video player, using SWF format flash video (FLV was a true godsend!), and I've always put as much effort as possible into learning the "latest thing" if it was in demand.

As a result, I've always been able to work on interesting or "cool" projects, from price comparison engines, online casino projects, personalised flash video management systems, and online travel booking applications. Most recently, I've been working as part of the Jobsite development team, on a new recruitment industry tool, soon to be released into public beta (Come back soon for more info).

Much of the aforementioned project is jQuery/AJAX based, and as a result, I've had the perfect opportunity to benefit from the incredible power of the jQuery library.

Words of Advice For Young People.....

Real World Advice for Fledgling Web Developers

Baz Luhrmann's Sunscreen is one of my favourite tracks of all time, not for the music, but for it's message. I'd recommend everyone to take the time out and listen to it at least once, and to try to take a bit of it's advice onboard.

In a similar vein, I found this article today, and after reading it a couple of times, smiling to myself, I read a few snips out to my co-conspirator Nick (Head of Design @ Jobsite), it occured to me that it's one of those things I would recommend everyone to check out (well, everyone in web development anyway).

Maybe this is another of my "geeky" posts, but if you only read one article on what it takes to shine as a web developer, read Real World Advice for Fledgling Web Developers. Then when you've read that, take a while to read more of Isaac Schlueters brilliant blog!

Ubuntu Update

Its been a while since my last post, been very busy at work, not to mention the fact I have become addicted to Fallout 3, but in the interests of trying to keep to my intention of regularly blogging, I thought I'd write a quick post about my experience with leaving "the evil empire" and becoming a 100% Linux user.

So far, I have to say, it's been almost totally painless. I have managed to find software and/or solutions to almost all my professional requirements, as well as having a decent OS for home use.

For those of you who are tempted, I'd say go for it, take the plunge, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And, to help, here's a breakdown of some useful links and tips to get up and running quickly and easily.

1. Ubuntu Newbie Guide: First 24 Hours With Ubuntu A useful overview of things to be aware of before you install, different types of installation, and things to do to get started. Well worth a visit.
2. Ultimate Linux Newbie Guide - An interesting site to get started with, it has sections covering choosing a Distro (Linux versions are know as Distributions), benefits, command line commands, and much more. I've spent quite a bit of time reading up and learning here.
3. Getting Stared with Linux - The first of three courses to be found at Linux.org. Well worth checking out, especially if you are interested in really getting stuck in!
4. Linux Virgins - Another good place to start, offering advice on getting, installing, and using Linux.
   
5. Linux Software Replacements. - Not sure if there is a particular tool you need available on Linux? Don't worry. The chances are there are several alternatives out there, and this site will help.

That should get you started. Check back soon for more links and tips (if I get time). I should also confess at this juncture, that I am still having to resort to Windows at times, but more of that in a later post!

Getting into Ubuntu..

I've tried various Linux flavours over the years, but always got to the point of screaming frustration, and then swiftly giving up, but then recently, I tried Ubuntu. I'm pleased to report, that it almost lives up to it's hype. Personally, I think it still has some way to go before it becomes a viable alternative to Windows or Mac OS, but it's getting pretty close.

I've seen a couple of articles around lately, saying how Ubuntu is as good as Win/Mac, but until the setup process is as painless and easy to understand as it's two competitors, its going to have a hard time meeting up to expectations. Like other Linux distros, there is also still a fairly heavy reliance on performing tasks at a terminal command prompt too. So, it's still not the ideal choice for the beginner.

However. There's an awful lot to be impressed with. I'm nowhere near a Linux/Unix expert, quite the opposite in fact, but I have still managed to install Ubuntu (dual boot, just to be safe), configured it to be able to use my workplace Cisco VPN, remote desktoping, and to the point of being able to work pretty much how I would on my Windows box.

Past experiences with Linux have been painful, with issues ranging from completely wiping hard drives and data loss during setup, through to inability to get sound/display drivers and more, but Ubuntu seems to pretty much work "out of the box".

The current version, Jaunty Jackalope (v.9.04) is a great preview of what a good open-source operating system has to offer, but until it's easier to install and configure, and developers such as Adobe get behind it, it's always going to languish in the shadow of it's two main rivals.

Watch this space for articles about my ongoing experiment in Living with Ubuntu....

Playing with the JavaScript Date Object

I've been working on a couple of projects that require manipulation of the date strings in one way or another, and one of the things I wanted to achieve was to show a posting date in a list built from RSS, but this meant I would need to convert ISO Date format used in the Blogger RSS feed to a prettier format.

After a bit of Googling and tweaking code, I found a solution, which I will post at a later date, but in the meantime, here's a list of a few useful links relating to manipulating dates using JavaScript.

1. DateJs - Very useful little JavaScript utility for working with dates.
2. Parsing W3C's ISO 8601 Date/Times in JavaScript - Useful script that uses Regular Expressions to handle ISO Format Dates.
3. JavaScript Date Object -Estelle Weyl's useful article giving an overview of the JavaScript date object.
4. JavaScript Toolbox Date Formating - A useful library contains functions to deal with dates in Javascript, parse date strings, format dates to different output strings, and compare dates.
5. JavaScript Pretty Date - John Resiq's function to convert dates to "web 2.0" style strings, eg Something like "2008-01-28T20:24:17Z" would become "2 hours ago".
   
6. JavaScript ISO8601/RFC3339 Date Parser -Another approach to formatting ISO dates.
7. PHPDate - Jon Combe's jQuery port of PHP's Date function. Very useful!
8. JavaScript Source Date & Time - A list of scripts that might come in handy for some readers.
9. JavaScript date string formatting - Svend Tofte's interesting script. again, based on PHP's date function.
10. JavaScript Date Formatting - An Unorthodox Way -Most date formatting implementations use format strings where format specifiers like “mm”, “mmm”, “HH”, etc. are used for selecting different components of a date. Ates Goral tackles the date object from a different angle.