It only seems like yesterday when I was sitting here writing the last post, but here I am again and on schedule with this week’s installment of Rawkes Weekly.
Like I just mentioned, this week has simply flown by. I think a mixtue of work, rediscovering version control, stress over securing a student loan, and waiting for my iMac to be delivered certainly helped speed things along.
Did I just mention I got an iMac? Well, I just got an iMac! 24 inches of Apple goodness!. I have to admit, this thing is a beast and it’s definitely going to take some getting used to. The only sucky thing about it is that I’ve got a nice green dead pixel right smack in the middle of the screen! Here’s hoping there is something that can be done about it…
Yesterday was an especially busy one as I drove up to Northampton to celebrate Rachael’s birthday. There was a pig roast which was amazing, although I’ve never had one before. All in all I had a wicked time up in the country. Happy Birthday Rachael!
This week’s news
We began the week with (old?) news that Microsoft has kick-started research into the successor to Windows. They call it Midori and they claim it will be centred around the internet, throwing out the concept of a single PC operating system. It sounds fascinating and I can’t wait to see where this project goes in the future!
Mozilla Labs launched their concept series on Monday calling on the industry, educators, and generally everyone to share ideas on the future direction of the web. I think this is an excellent idea and some of the concepts that have already spawned from the process are looking mighty interesting. My favourite so far is the Aurora browser concept from Adaptive Path; definitely check it out.
Another interesting idea heading out of the Mozilla camp is the Snowl experiment with messaging within the browser. The concept is simple: integrate all the various messaging platforms (email, rss, IM, etc) into one interface. It’s certainly an interesting idea, but I’m not sure I’ll be reaching out for something like this just yet. I’m quite happy with multiple applications that do a single function and do that function well.
Flickr have upgraded their reverse geocoding functionality. The basic premise is that instead of guessing the name of a place someone took a photo from (by using the coordinates), Flickr will now provide you with a list of names that have been linked to that particular location – all you do is pick the right one! I think this is excellent because there have been many times where I’ve wanted to find a place on a map, but I only know the local “name” for it, not the address. I do a fair amount of development with Google Maps and they have similar features in their map maker app (http://www.google.com/mapmaker). It’ll be interesting to see how this all progresses.
Links of the week
- How would you link this sentence? – Cameron Moll touches on the often overlooked topic of how you decide what text to use in a link
- FontStruct – An awesome web app for building your own fonts
- Plurking for freelancers – FreelanceSwitch covers one of the latest social messaging services and how it’s useful to freelancers
- 50 Photoshop tutorials for sky and space effects – Smashing Magazine post a pretty big list of self explanatory tutorials
Site of the week
ShiftSpace
Hand-drawn and laid out nicely using a basic grid. I’m love the colour scheme as well.
Lesson of the week
Being impatient only results in bad things.
Track of the week
“Gringo (Ragged & Ruthless)” by Stereo Mc’s. I’ve always been a fan of Stereo Mc’s and I’m really glad they’ve come back with a rocking album.