Entries from June 2006 ↓

It’s a common theme, every design thats supposedly web2.0 is jumbo, large fonts, big boxed lots of space and I think I’ve figured out why.

Designers use souped up PC’s working at high resolutions in order to fit multiple applications on the screen at one time. the up shot of this is that when designing, fonts and elements need to be larger to appear clear at these high resolutions.

So, when average users view a design at 800×600 or 1204×786 they get a jumbo design. Im sure that all considerations are taken to ensure elements are positioned above the fold (above 420 pixels at 800×600) but this still doesnt excuse the jumbo nature of the designs!

Firstly I have to say that I used to love firefox, with a few tweaks like stackable tool-bars it used to beat other browsers hands down. With this latest version i’ve noticed a massive change in speed… it’s SO SLOW! you click to enter text into the address bar and have to wait a few seconds for the carat to move, clicking between tabs is annoyingly slow and it seems to pause for no reason…

Needless to say that despite the security holes, I’m moving back to Avant, a browser based on MS IE. Many of you will say that Opera is a viable alternative, but in my experience its buggy and crashes a lot. It maybe just my PC, but thats my experience.

I’ve been compiling a CD for a friend wanting to expand their knowledge of MS Windows enhancements after completing a PC Build & Networking course at college (Hi Neil). I thought that VNC, the popular remote desktop application would be worth a try… unfortunately its slow… However, I have discovered that MS Windows XP has remote desktop capabilities built in. So if you’re looking for a cheap (i.e. free) way of working via remote desktop and aren’t happy with VNC, PC Anywhere or any of the other remote desktop apps out there, give MS Windows remote desktop a try. Theres also a free stand-alone client for non XP machines so you can connect to Windows 2k etc machines too!