Monday, December 18, 2006

good wallpaper site

check it out... i'm always looking for new wallpapers for my desktop and laptop computers (my desktop has 3 monitors and my laptop is a wide screen at 1680x1050). so, while browsing around this evening, I found this site: eWallpapers.
this is one of the best wallpaper sites i have seen. they have a really nice "web two point oh"-like design with Ajax style star ratings like Netflix started years ago.
i definately recommend this site to anyone looking for wide screen wallpapers, though not necessarily multi-monitor images, though.

one very notable thing that loved to see on this site was how they put banners over their images as layers with transparent images over other images. it's a very simple concept, but places like Amazon use server-side image processing to get their banners to overlay their product images. i guess i just like to see how people can keep moving things away from the server and onto the client more.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

fisheye

i love this article. titled "Development Diary: Taming the Fisheye," the article outlines the development of a coming web UI control/"widget" that the development team for the company nitobi built modeled after the Mac OS X dock. it's a really cool article. i've seen a few different implementations of this, one of them being in the Dojo toolkit. The thing i like best about this article is the reference to University of Maryland's HCI Lab. this blog article is a good example of HCI and UI research and the positives and negatives that result from this type of interface "widget."

Monday, December 11, 2006

superbikes...


ducati, yamaha and suzuki came out with some insane bikes for 2007. the two i am really impressed with are ducati's 1098 and yamaha's r1, which has once again outdone last year's r1.

the ducati 1098 to the right has an impressive 160 hp @ 9750rpm (ducati.com)

the 2007 yamaha r1 has a crazy amount of power: Without induction,132.4 kW 180 hp @ 12500 rpm / with induction, 139.0 kW 189 hp @ 12500 rpm (from http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za)

check out this promotional video from yamaha:


firebug

so ever since I started developing web applications that utilize Ajax technologies, I've been using Firebug to debug my client-side code and pages. i must say, if you have not used this plugin for Firefox, you have to get it! it's such an awesome tool, even if you're just designing pages. it really shines when it comes to Javascript and the XHR. the tool allows you to view the individual HTTP requests that are made when loading a page as well as the XML HTTP requests that are made during the experience on a page. It also allows you to interactively view the current page's DOM, view/edit the CSS from the page and view the loaded Javascripts. This is a must-have tool for any Ajax developer (in addition to having Firefox).

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

casino royale

i went to see the new Bond movie last night - Casino Royale. it was surprisingly good, i must say. a lot of good action scenes, especially the opening one.

i was reading Engadget the other day, a new site about new technology that's coming out, and they mentioned that James Kim of CNET is missing. it's a terrible thing i hope that everything will be okay with the family.