Darice de Cuba

Finally I’ve come up with a new design. The previous one lasted for a year with is pretty good but it was time for something new. This new design is inspired by books, I chose a page holder as it is more practical for the design and my photoshop skill level. When I think about books I think: brown, serif fonts, page holder and content.

The biggest change is the shift from 2 to 3 columns and the width of the design. I chose for 3 columns because I was getting tired of the extra long sidebar which didn’t present the content on a practical way. Now there is a better overview of the content. And it’s more easy to shift between the columns content on different levels of the site.

The big discussion, design for 800×600 or 1024×768? Well thanks to Mint I can say for my own website that 800×600 is the past, 1024×768 is the new black.

1. 1024 × 768 — 34%
2. 1280 × 1024 — 24%
3. 1152 × 864 — 7%
4. 1280 × 854 — 6%
5. 1680 × 1050 — 6%
6. 1440 × 900 — 4%
7. 1280 × 800 — 4%
8. 1600 × 1200 — 4%
9. 1400 × 1050 — 3%
10. 800 × 600 — 3%
11. 1920 × 1200 — 2%
12. 1280 × 960 — 1%

Validation and Compatibility

For the first time I didn’t bother to validate the website, mainly because there are a lots of errors in the content itself. If some pages validate, great, otherwise they’ll have to wait till I get time to go through the code. And for the browsers, considering that this was designed on OS X it’s displayed best on it in Firefox and Safari. On Windows Firefox it displays good also but IE has some ugly mishaps. But to say truthfully, this being my personal website I couldn’t care less if IE is not supported.

For the contact page I tried some AJAX from JeffPipas.com. While the form does work more or less I still have to really dig in AJAX to understand it better. If there is on thing I always struggled with it is Javascript. A good book on AJAX will be my best bet to learn it. And hopefully this new form will stop the spams I’ve been getting once a while.

I have been really out of practice with CSS/XHTML, luckily I had the fellow members of 9rules to help me out. I must do my best to keep coding regularly to raise my skill and keep it on level. And while I’m no core designer this is the design I most like up until now. It’s simple, nice colors, and holds the content well. Hopefully you’ll enjoy this design…

Putting off buying one the most used gadget finally paid off. Since the iPod was first released I wanted one, but the price was simply to much. While I like listening to music I’m not an audiophile who can fill even 10 GB, let alone, 20, 40 or 60. Then came the mini which I liked but still not enough to spend lots of money on. Then I thought I’d just wait for a mini with color display, that would close the deal.

I missed the Apple announcement being at the hospital for eight days, eight long days without anything but a TV without good volume. During those 8 days I wanted so badly to have an iPod so I could listen to music that this time I didn’t have a doubt about spending money on an expensive iPod. So when I was back home and saw the iPod nano I was sold, the only question was: 2 or 4GB, black or white.

Off course I couldn’t just buy one right away, while in the States all stores where fully stocked with new iPod nanos here in Holland nobody new when the first shipment would arrive. I didn’t want to order because if I get a defect one I would have to ship it back instead of just going back to the store. After a couple of days the first ones arrived, like 5 pieces of the black ones. I wanted a white initially but being the impatient person that I am I went for the 2GB black right away. After all a good idea because I use black Sony standard headphones which goes nicely with the black nano.

It was a joy unpacking the nano, then it was a question of learning how to use it. I started with the iBook first but my songs archive is on the Windows machine so I had to switch and reformat the iPod. But then my Windows machine is old, thus has USB 1. So it took too long to upload songs and then boost up the volume of all songs at once. Today I transfered all 3.8GB from the Windows to my iBook, which took like half a day to transfer through my home network. Now I have my library set up on the iBook which makes it much easier/fast to upload and manage songs, photos and contacts.

I just took of the protective foil from the iPod a few hours ago. A negative side of the black one is that finger prints are much more noticeable then on the white one. Also the surface scratches fast it won’t be long before the shiny turns into a worn look. But the iPod itself is very firm for such a small thing, I pu it into my jeans front pocket today when I went to the city, I barely felt it. If only I could get a phone that thin.

The sound is also too low for me, so when the songs are on the iPod I just select them all hit Apple + I and boost up the volume and add the equalizer settings for all songs. Now I don’t have to turn the volume 100% to listen to it. Although I’m sure people sitting close by when I’m listening will be able to listen too.

To complete it all I just need some new CD’s to put on the iPod, some jazz and classical piano would complete my music archive.