Myjive Word Cloud
Posted November 14th, 2008 by Albert Banks
Here’s a word cloud of terms we use on our website (www.myjive.net) courtesy of Wordle. Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text or a url that you provide.
Filed under Blogs
Give Your Comment a Gravatar
Posted October 3rd, 2008 by Albert Banks
Many of us peruse blogs across the Interweb. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by the need to comment on a post or comment.
When that urge hits you, don’t be caught unprepared. Make sure your gravatar is ready.
What the heck is a gravatar? From the gravatar.com website: “A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?” Your gravatar is tied to the email address you provide when commenting.
Sign up is easy. All you need is an email address and password. Once your account is active, you can setup multiple personalities email addresses and a different image for each.
Filed under Blogs
Remove the iTunes 8 Store Arrows
Posted September 10th, 2008 by Albert Banks
Just when you thought it was safe to upgrade, Apple’s new version of iTunes turns on one of it’s most annoying features – and removes the option of disabling it. Yep, I’m talking about those nasty gray icons in your song list linked to the iTunes Store.
You used to be able to uncheck “Show Links to Music Store” under Preferences -> General. I guess Apple really really wants you to buy buy buy!
After a few Google searches I discovered threads about removing this “feature.”
MAC: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080909130752871
Windows: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8049293#8049293
It’s a shame that must revert to these kind of fixes to customize the user experience…
Filed under Software
Dreamweaver FTP Frustrations
Posted August 20th, 2008 by Albert Banks
Here at Myjive we utilize and for the most part enjoy Adobe’s Creative Suite. We have used the various versions for years. In fact, I originally started with Dreamweaver 3 back in the day.
Dreamweaver is great for coding, visualization and design previews. But what continues to frustrate us is the FTP functionality of the program. We are currently using CS3, but this goes for past versions as well.
We are often plagued by “timeouts” and “unable to connect” errors. It doesn’t matter the location, IP or operating system of the server we’re connecting to. I’ve even had problems setting file permissions. We’ve tried all the tips, increasing the timeout to 40+ seconds, using Passive FTP, etc. But the program continues to have issues.
At some points we are forced to use Filezilla or Fetch – and they have no problems. Each new version of Dreamweaver we keep hoping Adobe will make the effort to improve the FTP functionality. Maybe next time… CS4 anyone?
Filed under Software, Web Design
We Love design:related
Posted August 6th, 2008 by Albert Banks
We here at Myjive love the social networking site design:related. Not just because we’re friends with Matt Sung, Director/CEO…
Started less than two years ago, design:related has blossomed. It has always been a social networking site with a creative slant featuring Inspirations and Portfolios. Now the site now also includes a news section, featured interviews and articles, job listings and podcasts.
Simply put, it is THE place for creatives to connect, inspire and be inspired. Join Now!
Filed under Web Design
iPhone Calendar is Worthless
Posted August 5th, 2008 by Albert Banks
As an early adopter of the iPhone I have suffered through the perpetual annoyances of missing features in the iPhone software. Some of them have been added, mostly via the recent 2.0 software update.
But there is one application that continues to be, well, worthless. The Calendar application that comes with the iPhone simply is not functional. I’m not referring to the interface on the phone. My primary issue is how the calendar gets events.
Sure, you can now use a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync or the buggy new Mobile Me for push. But what about the rest (most) of us?
Filed under Gadgets
Web Layouts – Where’s the Beef?
Posted August 1st, 2008 by Albert Banks
men.style.com Blog
I check out a diverse range of websites. Recently, I stumbled onto the blogs on men.style.com. As I viewed an article I was stunned by the layout of the blog.
The actual content of the article was squeezed into a tiny column. The blog layout is 1000 pixels wide. Yet the main content is tucked into a 355 pixel (including padding) column. Why so small? Even the oldest monitors have at least a 600 pixel viewing width…
This is a result of an ever increasing trend of cramming as much “additional content”, and more specifically advertisements into a layout.
Yes, users can use ad-blockers in their browser, but they can’t regain the visual real estate lost by such layouts. I believe we’ve reached a point where sites are going to loose visitors.
That certainly won’t improve ad revenue…
Filed under Web Design
