The Blog
Join me as I share my experiences from across cyber space and talk about my passion of web design
June 29th, 2008 - 8 Comments
Wow! What a week it’s been. I can safely say this has been one of the busiest times of my life, especially with Rawkes gaining momentum – my feet haven’t touched the ground all week! There are many projects and ideas firmly in the pipeline for the blog – namely a series of screencasts, the first of which is currently being recorded.
I’ve taken a breather from work to bring you this week’s events (and to soak up some of this beautiful weather). Enjoy!
This week’s news
Tickets were announced on Tuesday for this year’s dConstruct conference, taking place on the 5th of September in Brighton. The tickets were predicted to sell out within 24 hours, but due to a hiccup with the booking system (it went down) there are still a few left. I’ll see you there if you managed to get some!
Note taking application Evernote was released to the public on Tuesday, but is is all it’s cracked up to be? ReadWriteWeb don’t seem to think so. Evernote also released a new Web Clipper which I have to admit is pretty cool! Personally I’ve been using the application quite substantially the last 2 weeks and I’m really impressed with it as a whole. I’m excited about the future of Evernote.
Wednesday saw Moo announcing that they will be offering a new service: Business cards! I think this is a sensible move from Moo as although their small cards are funky, regular sized business cards are still a staple in the business world.
Search behemoth Google has released a new product in it’s maps suite: the Google Map Maker. Think of it as social mapping, where anyone can add and edit places on the map. It will be interesting to see how Google use this data, and if any of it will make it’s way into the main Google Maps.
WordPress 2.6 Beta 1 has been released with a mid-July date for the completed version. There are many of the usual bug-fixes, but my favourite feature has to be post versioning. The new feature allows you to go back and undo previous changes to a post, like a time-machine for WordPress.
Links of the week
Sites of the week
Adit Shukla
I adore the header on this site!
Jason Santa Maria
Cool, clean and sophisticated.
CakePHP
Fun, vintage and quirky – love it!
Komodomedia
Stunning attention to detail.
Lesson of the week
Keeping organised really does help relieve stress! I highly recommend David Allen’s book: “Getting Things Done” if you want to learn how to get (and stay) organised.
Track of the week
“Forget It” by Breaking Benjamin. This track has immense meaning to me, every time I listen to it I’m flooded with emotion. Hopefully it will help others who get a bit stressed sometimes.
June 22nd, 2008 - 7 Comments
It’s time to introduce a new feature here on the blog. Welcome to Rawkes Weekly: a once a week post where I’ll be covering the important things that have happened in the web design world in the last 7 days, as well as listing my top websites, lessons, and resources from the week gone by.
Make sure to add your own resources and websites you found useful during the week in the comments – I’d love to hear about them.
So without further ado; the first ever Rawkes Weeky…
This week in web design
It’s been a fairly quiet week in the web design world. The only major event was on Tuesday with the release of the long awaited Firefox 3 browser. Topping at around 8 million downloads in 24 hours, this browser is certainly showing no signs of slowing down!
Links of the week
- 12 Excellent Websites to Follow if You’re into Web Design – A nice collection of blogs and websites to follow
- Boagworld – Not exactly new but I’ve only recently discovered the joys of the Boagworld web design podcast. It’s great to listen on the commute to work.
- Coda Clips – If you use Coda then you’ll love this website full of clips ready to use
- DateJs – An excellent Javascript date library
- Evernote – A cross platform note taking app with a lovely web interface. It scans images for text so you can search them – very cool!
- FireBug 1.2 – Updated for Firefox 3, this is a must-have extension
- phpFlickr – PHP interface for the Flickr API
- Versions – Shaping up to be the best looking Subversion client on OS X
Eatery of the week
This week I’ve mostly been eating Pizza Hut’s all-you-can-eat lunchtime buffet – you can’t beat a full stomach for a fiver!
Lesson of the week
Never convince yourself that things can’t get any busier
Track of the week
Timewarp by Subfocus – If you’re into any sort of Drum and Bass then make sure to check out this track.
Predictions for next week
My main prediction for next week is that dConstruct tickets will sell out in record timing – within a day? If the line-up is anything to go by then this year’s conference will be awesome.
June 14th, 2008 - 11 Comments
How often are you listening to music? With television, radio, mp3 players, and the rise of iTunes, Last.fm and online radio stations, the answer is very often – if not all day!
Music is a powerful medium, it can evoke strong emotions and reactions. For example, I’ve found that listening to lyric-less dance and trance music with it’s constant rhythm helps me keep pace, while chilled out acoustic music helps me get inspired by letting me slow down and slipping me into another world. It’s not rocket science, but finding the right music to get those creative juices flowing can be tricky.
Over time I’ve built up a solid collection of radio stations and online services that pump out constantly good music and really get me into “the zone” – that place where you don’t even need to think about what you’re doing because it becomes second nature.
Let me know in the comments of your own favourite radio stations, I’d love to hear them!
BBC Radio 1
We’ll kick off with the big boy in radio – BBC Radio 1. Not only are they the biggest radio station in the UK (surprise surprise), but their live, advert free, online stream means that they have opened themselves up worldwide.
My favourite shows on Radio 1 are:
- Zane Lowe (Mon–Thurs at 7pm) – Covering everything from indie to and drum and bass. This show is a must if you want to keep up to date with new music
- Pete Tong (Fridays at 7pm) – Pete is my favourite dance Dj to grace Radio 1
- Annie Mac (Fridays at 9pm) – Annie’s show is all about remixes and ‘mash-ups’
- Dave Pearce (Fridays at 11pm) – Dance anthems, excellent late night listening
- Judge Jules (Saturdays at 1am) – If you make it this far on a Friday night then Judge Jules’ dance and trance will keep you going
Last.fm
If you haven’t heard of Last.fm then let me help you out from under that rock you’ve been living under. Last.fm is a social networking website that concentrates solely on music by showing what you’ve been listening to. The greatest thing about it is the software you can download which shares the music you listen to, while serving a double purpose as one of the best tools online for discovering new music.
Digitally Imported
If you’re into chillout, lounge, house, dance or trance music then you should be checking out Digitally Imported. It runs a huge selection of online radio stations that whack out music 24/7. I’m always finding myself listening to these stations while at work – especially the trance, vocal trance and euro dance streams.
Pulsradio
Pulsradio can often be a bit hit and miss. On a good day it pumps out some excellent dance tunes that really get you motivated. Unfortunately it tends to repeat those songs quite often throughout the day and week.
Shoutcast
Shoutcast is great for finding new radio stations, I tend to use this less and less though with the rise of Last.fm for discovering new music.
