Tuesday, 30 April 2002

Apple’s Newest PowerBook. It doesn’t break the 1GHz chip speed barrier, but even so this is the next Macintosh for me. 6:47:59 PM    Add a comment.

Flash Usability by a Bunbury Boy. Speaking of Usability and Flash, here is an article written by Bunbury-based Flash guru David Emberton, lead author of Flash 5 Magic. Great to see a (almost) local guy doing well on the global scene. He still lives in Bunbury, in between trips to Flash conferences around the world. Note: Link requires you to become a member of the website by providing an email address. 5:51:10 PM    Add a comment.

Apple's 17-inch eMac Education All-in-One Computer. Read all about the new computer for the education market. Cheaper than an iMac but with a bigger monitor. CRT instead of LCD to save costs, but with CRT you get a good range of resolutions: 640 by 480 pixels at 138 Hz 800 by 600 pixels at 112 Hz 1024 by 768 pixels at 89 Hz 1152 by 864 pixels at 80 Hz 1280 by 960 pixels at 72 Hz       Most monitors flicker too much at 72Hz, but 80Hz should be just about bearable, and 89Hz and up is fine. 10:11:03 AM    Add a comment.

The Macromedia Designer and Developer Center. This has recently become an excellent site for all web designers and developers to read up on their favourite web topics and Macromedia products. Plenty of great content. 9:37:04 AM    Add a comment.

Three Articles on Dreamweaver MX Issues. Via Zeldman’s weblog, Rachel Andrew of the WaSP Dreamweaver Task Force has published tutorials on using Dreamweaver MX to generate valid XHTML and create CSS layouts, and an overview on CSS best practices for Macromedia’s Designer and Developer Center. 9:29:39 AM    Add a comment.

Two New Books Just In. These just arrived from New Riders: Hot Text: Web Writing That Works, by Jonathan and Lisa Price. Skip Intro: Macromedia Flash Usability and Interface Design, by Michelangelo Capraro and Duncan McAlester. Both are excellent and I highly recommend them. Just one mystery though—Skip Intro is missing its CD. No sign of a CD envelope in the book but plenty of mention in the text of the CD and its content. 9:17:59 AM    Add a comment.

Zeldman on MX and the Web Standards Project. According to web veteran Jeffrey Zeldman, “WaSP’s Dreamweaver Task Force consulted on the new version’s evolution, though the credit belongs to Macromedia’s engineers and management. Their thoroughness and attention to detail resulted in a visual editor that allows designers and developers to more easily create standards-compliant, accessible sites.”       I did not know WaSP was involved like that! Good on them. Such input into the MX series was badly needed. 9:03:08 AM    Add a comment.

A List Apart on Flash MX and Accessibility. The best web magazine for web designers has two articles on Flash MX today. Essential reading. 8:57:44 AM    Add a comment.

More on MX at Macromedia. Macromedia has published full details about their new MX releases now, and it is rewarding to see that PHP + MySQL is included as a supported web application server. UltraDev is no more—Dreamweaver MX has taken over its functions. 8:49:38 AM    Add a comment.