Posted on July 24th, 2008%
From time to time, clients ask me if I’d include a “splash page” for their web site. In every situation, I try very hard to convince them not to do this.
I just had a client ask me about having a “start page link to the home page” (in other words, a splash page), and here’s my response…
. . . → Read More: The case against splash pages
Posted on July 22nd, 2008%
OK, it was about a week ago, but it was an experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
. . .
→ Read More: All-Star Game 2008
Posted on July 21st, 2008%
Defragmenting hard drives is something that is often unnecessary, but when it is necessary, most people run the built-in Windows “Disk Defragmenter” utility. It’s serviceable, but there is a better option: JkDefrag.
There’s a few things that make JkDefrag an improvement over what Windows offers:
It runs on anything that mounts like a disk drive — including USB drives and memory sticks.
You can run it from Windows, from a command line, or as a screen saver.
It offers several different optimization strategies.
It can be configured to defragment specific drives, files, or folders, or to exclude defragmenting specific drives, files, or folders.
You can run it in the background and tell it to run at less than full speed.
It’s continually developed by a person who you can actually talk to via an online forum.
There’s no installer — just extract files from a ZIP archive into a directory and run the executable.
It’s free, as in free beer, and open source.
Hats off to Jeroen Kessels . . .
→ Read More: A free replacement for the Windows defragment utility
Posted on July 17th, 2008%
It was way overdue, so I’m happy to say that my company, ComputerSims, just launched a redesigned web site, at http://www.computersims.com.
Being a development company specializing in web sites, it’s important that our web site (as simple as it may be) reflect some of the standards we live by: a focus on industry standards, accessibility, and usability. Hopefully those visiting agree that it delivers in those areas.
There’s nothing special under the hood of the site — it’s static HTML with some JavaScript. Some of the tools we used to power it include
JavaScript: Prototype, Scriptaculous, Lightbox (by Lokesh Dhakar), and a modified variant of SmoothScroll (by Stuart Langridge). The SmoothScroll JavaScript was a nice effective way to make sure the content you’re viewing on the Services page is front-and center.
CSS: Blueprint CSS framework (both typography and grid layout). I’ve used Blueprint for typography in the past, but this is the first project I’ve used the Blueprint . . .
→ Read More: ComputerSims website gets an upgrade
