February 4, 2010

Thanks Microsoft!

Microsoft Expression
Image via Wikipedia

So, Microsoft sent me a complimentary copy of Microsoft Expression Studio 3 today for being a partner.  Kudos to them.

As to Expression Web, it works wonderful for prototyping but, doesn’t really handle CMS themeing that well.  Will be playing around with Expression Blend a bit later to see what geekiness I can come up with.

It has an interesting screen capture utility too (try the demo flash video below full-screen).  Oh yeah, I’m gonna have fun…

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February 2, 2010

Web 2.0 MacGyver

MacGyver
Image via Wikipedia

TV shows like MacGyver and Junk Yard Wars, as well as real world survival and minimalist training [even camping] tell us that it’s cool to take bits of whatever is lying around, and jury-rig it into something useful, and potentially vital to our survival.  Today as I was thinking about the plethora of hacks we need to do something insanely simple…like…embed a flash video and have it work properly in all browsers. This made me realize, anyone who does web development or design is a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants, certified, Web 2.0 MacGyver.

We use CSS hacks to get things to look right in IE, load extra images or add a wack of useless tags to get rounded corners to work.  And, don’t think HTML5 is going to save our butt, it won’t.  We’ll need to make videos in 2 different formats and nest three different video and embed tags and hacks for it to work (seriously).  Worse, one of those formats we’ll need to license and pay for (or, as is the online way, hope we don’t get caught for not).

So, developers, hold your heads high; we’re holding the world together with duct tape and paperclips, and we make it look easy.

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