Fluidesign Blog

The headlines for this week will probably have “Google Chrome” somewhere. Google’s new browser, love it or hate it, is definitely going to change things. Initial likes? The comic, of course, which goes beyond a good marketing/advertising move to something more educational and fun, so you can read it to get caught up with the technical specs on Chrome. I read it and got amped up before installing the app itself. It’s very blue, and there’s no menu bar. Otherwise, it felt like any other, non-IE browser (although the interface at times felt very IE, especially the nav bar). A standout is the new start page, which shows thumbnails of visited sites and used search engines, something I thought smart and useful.

So after using it (not heavily, mind you) for two days, no crashes. Nothing broke. Facebook and all my other web apps worked; even my own site looked right. I’m not keeping my fingers crossed because the app is beta and has bugs. Is it faster? In terms of JavaScript, John Resig says, not really. There is a new task manager-esque feature as well, so windows can be dealt on an individual basis: no more one bad site bringing down an entire browser session. Maybe. I haven’t done anything too crazy to notice a difference, yet. Neither is the new browser a messiah in saving memory, using about 100mb total for keeping open a few web applications, the same as Safari for Windows does. The bottom line: a transparent browser that just (mostly and for me) works, but nothing more than that, yet. The comic was cooler.

But after all this, one question. Why ‘Chrome’ and that logo?

Whilst researching some different video games and open-source communicating applications, I stumbled upon Google Lively. I remember checking it out once before and maybe reading a blog post or two about it.
Now, I like the concept. It’s kind of like a free, un-intimidating, easy to access Second Life. You don’t have to buy anything or spend a lot of time immersing yourself into the world to understand it. So, I thought I would try it out.

Building my avatar and learning how to move were easy. But, I found it unbelievable slow at times- as did many of the users I “spoke” with. It’s still in beta, so that’s to be expected.
To me, Lively appears to be a glorified chat system. I kept wondering, “Is this useful?” Interfacing beyond text can be much more immersive, true. But if I wanted some personal communication with family or friends, why wouldn’t I just use Skype? As for meeting and chatting with strangers, Lively was excellent. There are several active “rooms” and a seemingly huge community at all times.
So if you’re looking for a time-sponge that’s easy to use, try Lively.

I’m not naming names, but a couple of the ladies here at Fluidesign were joyfully discussing the effects of working late into the night. The caffeine highs/lows, buggy eyes and weird sense of humor- we’ve all been there. Even though the time is in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, it just slips away somehow.

It makes sense though. If you’re staring at a lit screen all day, your brain isn’t getting any natural clues to switch on it’s sleep cycle. Nocturne is an application for Mac created to combat this problem. As seen on MakeUseOf.com, it slowly dims your screen and turns it monochrome.

You can pre-set the time to correspond with the sun or, for nite owls like myself, set it as late as you like. I don’t know if I’ll be downloading this myself, but there are a couple computers I might just sneak it on.

And, you kinda feel like a poser with those dark-framed glasses and Chuck Taylors? Well, I don’t blame you. I do too sometimes. Everyone does.

I was speaking with a friend last night who wants to understand more about technology, the web-o-sphere, new media, and probably just be able to laugh at LolCat jokes. He said he wants to be knowledgeable and up-to-date on what’s out there, but doesn’t know where to begin. Checking out the right blogs & bookmarks only make him feel like it’s all some kind of secret language mixed with inside jokes.

Well, I was not prepared or qualified to give him a comprehensive history of the internet followed by a overview of the current trends… and I was about 3 glasses of pinot noir deep. So, I recommended a TWiT cocktail with a twist of Google:

TWiT stands for “This Week in Tech” and is a weekly podcast hosted by online media guru, Leo Laporte. It’s available for download on iTunes, directly on the site or press play on the site’s media player; it couldn’t be easier. And best of all, Leo is extremely entertaining as he and his with tech-savvy guests discuss the latest advances, news and speculation about all things webby.

But, how do you know what they’re talking about? Pause it and Google any names or words you don’t understand. You’ll surely be directed to wikipedia or a relevant search page. Yes, it’s a bit of a process, but after a few episodes you’ll probably be “pwning the newbs” with the rest of us.

I know how much you like to track your time. I also know how much you like to tweet every heartbeat and breath of your life. Now you can combine two of the world’s previously mutually exclusive activities into one bursting barrel of fun.

Track your time via Twitter in Tempo!

For me however, nothing beats the painstaking process of firing up Netsuite, wrestling with the counter intuitive form controls that disallow me from entering in any useful information, and logging my grief stricken hours of fixing Internet Explorer bugs and handling the desalinization of Fluid’s drinking water.

It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s simply got to do it.

Brand Tags is a site playing off the idea that whatever it is people say a brand is, is what it is. All tags are generated by people like you, so have at it.

For example, here’s what people are saying about Nike.

Because Fluidesign it’s not only about design…

In current projects we working on, we’re using more and more modal windows to show data or login form.

But I experienced many problems regarding the customization and the debugging.

That’s why I developed a jQuery Plugin which provide many callbacks and the ability to redefine every animation functions.

Everything is documented and you can start use it in your own project.

Don’t wait, check it out and let your feedback here.

AdClustr looks like a decent resource to help with ad integration and increase CTR, although it looks to be suffering from site neglect. Does anyone know of any other resources to help combat ad blindness??

Our friends Ophir and Ari from GumGum get a nice review on Techcrunch.

If, for any reason in the future, you need to see the history of a domain name, including all DNS changes and WHOIS updates, this is a great resource:

http://domain-history.domaintools.com/