Archive for October, 2008

On the twenty sixth of October 2008 my dog Ellis, a Weimaraner, suddenly past away. On this day in the UK the clocks went back (DST) to indicate the approaching winter however to me it felt like the clocks stopped altogether.

02.11.94 – 26.10.08

Apple Notebooks 08

Today at 6pm (GMT) Apple announced their latest line-up of notebooks. Unlike other blogs I’m not going to post stats about them, I’m going to go off on a little rant because if the truth be known, I’m not really sure what to think about them. Please note I am by no means an Apple notebook expert, that is where you lot come in.

Unfortunately I’ve never owned a laptop before, let alone an Apple laptop, so I had been eagerly anticipating this refresh for quite sometime. In fact, it has been just over two years since the thought first crossed my mind about buying a Macbook Pro. But due to University studies I always put the purchase off.

Since early summer ‘08 the rumour mill had been rife about supposed launch dates and as the pencilled date of October 14th drew ever closer the rumours gained in momentum, with mock-ups and ‘supposed sources’ being leaked every few days. With each new source, my excitement grew like that of a little boy awaiting Christmas.

For the majority of late morning and early afternoon, I was emailing Jon Hicks asking about his current set-up. Not because I haven’t researched the matter, far from it, I wanted to find out what the professionals use, the people I look up to for inspiration. After our conversation I was pretty much set on a 17” matte option but as it would later transpire this would not be feasible.

As I sat watching the coverage from engadget I thought back to all the wonderful rumours I had heard over the last few months, particularly those of the last few weeks. Perhaps I got my hopes up? Perhaps I was expecting too much?

No update, thus far, on the 17″ option.
No matte option for screen.
The black border, from iMac and Air has been introduced.
Chicklet keys have been introduced.
Making both the MacBook and Pro similar in terms of aesthetics and technical spec.

I always assumed I would plump for the 17” matte option but now that this is no longer available I’m facing a problem. Would I really miss a matte option if I have never used it, especially on a Mac laptop? Even though the screen is glossy, will it be that noticeable and the hindrance that everyone is making it out to be, especially those in the design community?

I know that I don’t have many readers as of yet but for the few of you out there, what options will you be going for when you head off to your local Apple store?

A New Start

To coincide with my new job I thought I’d get my new site sorted out once and for all. For the last year or so it had always been my intention to set myself up with a blog which would run in parallel with my online portfolio. However, due to the fact I was sitting my last year of University with a seemingly endless list of deadlines to meet I always had to put that idea on the back burner.

As previous visitors, all six of you, can see the site has incorporated a few of the older features from the last site but overall it’s a pretty new look, one which I am very happy about as I shall explain later on. During the conversion of this site, into a wordpress theme, I decided that instead of running two seperate sites, blog and portfolio, I would amalgamate them together with the blog showing on the frontpage of the site and all older blog entries being found in the articles section.

When browsing the site you will also notice that the about page has undergone a transformation. Before visitors would be able to read a little bit about myself and the site however I’ve expanded this further by incorporating a book section where readers can find out which books have helped me learn more and a css tips section. Since making my first web site in notepad a few years ago I have been totally absorbed in the css of websites and as a result I’ve decided that this section will hold some of the pieces of information I have found handy over the years coupled with my interpretation and opinions.

Now back to the new look, as I have previously mentioned the site has undergone some subtle changes. I decided right at the very beginning of the re design process that I was going to focus on a more content centred approach. As a designer I believe that it is vitally important that you let your work do the talking (excuse the poor analogy) and by stripping each page down to it’s bare minimum I hope I have achieved this. Although each page has it’s own simplicity I genuinly believe that the way elements have been laid out the design shows the type of person I am and the type of work I can produce; simple, clear and effective.

Last but certainly no means least, I would like to offer a big thank you to Marty, for all of his help during the convertion of my old site into a wordpress format, whenever I had a question he always had the solution. Check out his blog for various different aspects of technology from php coding tutorials to the latest xbox updates.