I guess I don’t follow these things close enough. I was pretty surprised this morning when I woke my computer to find a “Download Firefox 6″ dialog on my display. Seems like only yesterday, version 5 came out–it was actually June 21, 2011. and version 4 was released on March 22 of this year.
Compare that to the release of 3.6 in December, 2008 and releases or 3.5 and 3 in June, 2008.
Here’s an article explaining it’s part of Mozilla’s strategy to compete with Google Chrome:
The first of five free non-design tools for web designers is Dropbox.
Dropbox creates a folder on your desktop that is instantly backed up to the Internet. This folder is also accessible via smartphone app and web browsers by logging in to Dropbox so your files are available anywhere you have Internet access.
You can invite others to share specific folders in your Dropbox folder, making it a great way to transfer and share files with clients and partners on projects.
Best of all, the first 2 GB are free. And their refer-a-friend program allows you to add 250 MB for each person you refer up to a total of 8 GB for a total of 10 GB free for your account.
Tim Burners Lee, Inventor of the Wrld Wide Web
The web turned 20 years old yesterday. It’s hard to remember what life was like before we had on-demand access to almost any fact or opinion. If you’re old enough, you may remember:
The list goes on. Here’s the article on Wired Magazine’s web site.
I’ve been signed up on the waiting list for Google+ for a month now. I have the Google+ app installed on my phone. I’m ready. But none of my non-web friends and family (“norms”) know about Google+.
My question: What happens when I get my invitation and find no one else I know has received theirs?
You have less than 22 days become a member of the Chicago Pixelworkers Union Local 312–and for only $20. There are no fringe benefits, no collective bargaining for a better contract that come with membership. All you get is a cool t-shirt.
If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, a friend of mine just alerted me that the Chicago United Pixelworkers shirt is on sale now. Emblazoned with Chicago’s six-pointed stars, bearing the fictitious “Chicago United Pixelworkers Union Local 312” name, this is a must-have for any proud Chicago web designer or front-end developer.
But on August 3, they stop taking orders. Check it out.
My rating: 
This book received good reviews on Amazon.com: One reader hated it; fifteen gave it a perfect score. It averaged four stars. So I decided to download the Kindle version and check it out.
I’m somewhere in between. I liked it: It was not amazing, but worthwhile.
This book isn’t about web design in the strict sense: Classic matters of Information Architecture and Usability aren’t covered in significant depth, nor is there any discussion of HTML or CSS. Instead, this “web design” book is about persuasion architecture and consumer behavior.
Weinschenk has done a good job of pulling together relevant information from disparate sources such as psychological studies, usability tests, and consumer research. She presents it in an easy-to-understand manner that makes for an interesting look at psychological factors that drive consumer behaviors online. While it doesn’t feel like a comprehensive recipe for total persuasion architecture, it is a practical, fast-reading collection of principals and tactic that is accessible and actionable.
Anyone working in online marketing—designers, writers, information architects, and marketers—would find this book of some value. Much of the material has implications for off-line marketing too. The paperback is a little overpriced at $19.79 (Amazon.com). But for $9.99, the Kindle version is worth it. And it’s a quick-and-painless read. There are some good nuggets in here for almost anyone in the field.
Chicago—The miracle that sprang from the mud where “the river” met “the lake” a little over two hundred years ago. It’s the only place in the world where a truly cosmopolitan viewpoint meets the modest, hard-working sensibilities of Midwestern values.
We quietly go about our business with small-town humility–barely cognizant of the fact the Chicago has the forth largest gross domestic product of all metropolitan areas in the world. We beam with modest pride when Chicago is mentioned on TV and in the movies, even though Chicago is #6 on the Global Cities Index and an Alpha world city (in both cases, just above LA). We feel the inferiority complex of living in “Flyover Country” despite the fact that the world’s second busiest airport is only one of two of our major airports.
Yes, Chicago is a unique dichotomy of the cosmopolitan and the Midwestern. Chicago is where daring vision and put-your-back-into-it work ethic produced the world’s first skyscraper. This unique balance was the perfect incubator for a “New Bauhaus“. Chicago is the only place in the world where Leo Burnett’s “sodbusting corniness” could take root and flourish, flying in the face of the slick, Madison-Avenue mainstream of advertising in the 1950s. And in the 1990s, the work of Chicago graphic designers like Rick Valicenti and Carlos Segura helped to usher in the aesthetic of the digital era.
The Internet will provide new opportunities for Chicago to extend it’s heritage of design and advertising innovation. In this new user-centered world, there is plenty of room for a city with Chicago’s unique perspective to continue changing the world.
©2011 Mommy-Schmommy. All rights reserved.