Psyked*

it’s easy once you know how.

BETT 2008

Posted by James - 08/01/08 at 09:01:31 pm

Well, I’m off to the BETT show on the 9th (tomorrow)  I forget what BETT stands for, but it’s an IT exhibition for schools / educational markets.  Dynamic Learning is being shown off there - as well as being shortlisted for an award - and there’s probably going to be a lot of SCORM / LMS related products on display so it should be an interesting one.

…

Although I suspect not quite interesting enough to warrent a followup post.

Identifying link targets with CSS

Posted by James - 05/12/07 at 09:12:19 am

So, you have links that open in new windows, and links that open in parent windows. Inconsistant behaviour is the primary usability nightmare, and your standard web browser doesn’t give you any feedback on just what is going to happen once you click that link. Popups galore? or damn-I-was-reading-that syndrome? If only there was some visual clue we could give about those pesky link behaviours.

Well, this isn’t something I’ve seen anyone do yet, but technically it should be possible. What we should be able to do is transport the same techniques we use for detecting file types - ie. the CSS 2.1 attribute selectors - and link them to the target attribute. Thankfully, this should be a pretty short bit of code, as there’s only really four target options that anyone uses anyway. These would be ‘_blank’, ‘_self’, ‘_top’ or ‘_parent’. So, working on our existing knowledge of detecting link file-types, we simply add the code;

a[target='_blank']

… and we should now be able to automatically attach icons to those links that target a new browser window. (_parent, _self, and _top nearly always open links in exactly the same window) Links to other websites already have a standard icon - pretty much set by wikipedia - but it’s not often that target-based links are seen, so there’s not much of a standard. Or is there?

Sitepoint has a short article on the problem of link targets - ‘Beware of Opening Links in a New Window‘ and also has a pretty simple icon to use for new windows. Perfect! Just like internal links don’t have an icon, and external ones do, so only links that open a new browser window should need this icon. Save the icon to your webserver, add your new CSS, and you’re away.

Pimp My PC - Improving the look, feel and general efficiency

Posted by James - 02/12/07 at 07:12:29 pm

From time to time it’s fun to give your computer an overhaul. Here’s a few simple, and not-so-simple ways rejuvinate your humdrum old Windows machine. And I’m assuming that we’re using Windows XP here - not ole’ Vista.

 

#1 A New theme!

You mightn’t like Vista, but I challenge you to say that the glassy Vista styles aren’t a million times nicer than the playdough style default XP ones. Microsoft it seems, missed a potential killer market by locking down the Windows themes to only Microsoft-certified ones. (Probably because they knew of hundreds of critical security flaws.)
Continue reading Pimp My PC - Improving the look, feel and general efficiency…

Development sneaky-peek

Posted by James - 17/11/07 at 12:11:31 pm

I just had to show off one of Marks’ little prototypes.

Continue reading Development sneaky-peek…

New theme!

Posted by James - 07/11/07 at 01:11:34 am

Well there we are, a new theme. It’s been needing an overhaul for a little while now, so this is phase one - Live implimentation. As usual, nothing is set in stone, and I imagine I’ll be spotting and squashing bugs or tweaking designs for a few more weeks to come.

Why the overhaul? #1 - I was never really happy with the construction of the first theme, being a little… ugly code wise. #2 - A chance to make the theme smarter, with more widgets support, and #3 Wordpress 2.3 broke a helluva lot of nasty hardcoded parts.

Good parts? I’ve cleaned the code up a bit and added smarter signposting. Some new custom pages are on their way, once I figure out all the php niggles I have left. Bad parts? Some of the older pages look nasty now.

So, anyone care to comment? I’m not exactly decided about the sidebar styles and a few other bits - but what do you think?

Aaagh! Hacked!

Posted by James - 09/09/07 at 06:09:04 pm

Sorry for the downtime - it would appear that everyones’ favorate arch-villains did a do-over and knocked us out.

I guess it’s time for more protection…

Missapplication of Terminology

Posted by James - 30/08/07 at 11:08:40 pm

or, When is your CMS not a CMS?

Computer-orientated terminology tends to get thrown around like buzzwords, it seems. Not only by people who don’t really know what they’re talking about - but also by those that should. And, like buzzwords, they convey an idea - not a technical specification. If you haven’t heard of a CMS or a CDP however, you might be left in the dark.

but Buzzwords are cool - they’re easy and indeterminate.

Sure, saying ‘CMS’ or ‘Content Management System’ is easier than describing what you mean all the time - but suppose both parties have completely different ideas of what to expect from a ‘Content Management System’. After all, what does your ‘Content Management System’ do? Does it manage your content for you - or help you manage your content? Does it even do that? Is it just a facilitator for creating content? Drawing up lengthy technical specifications may help, but throw a client-who-uses-misunderstood-buzzwords into the mix and you’re in for a bumpy ride. Chances are you’ll both assume different functionality. Continue reading Missapplication of Terminology…