deconstructing purpose TC 448

Post Mortem

2005-04-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

I feel that this was a very important class for me here at msu. Web design may not be my sole form of nourishment; however I feel that it will play a big part of my success in the future. So polishing my skills in the area is of up most importance. And understanding the need and the techniques for a usability conscious site is a very important aspect of web design. Although I had a basic understanding of the need for accessibility the depth of its reach was unknown. I now understand the need for usability testing on a regular basis I no longer think about accessibility as only being needed for the old, decrepit and handicapped. However having a usable website is a key feature and testing should be done for every design, to be tailored to the specific intended audience. One of the most important myths dispelled in this class was that "A useable website not only means that it is accessible to the broadest variety of users, but that the site works the way a persons mind believes it should." Meaning that links go where the users think that they will take them, a paragraph of text is titled to give an appropriate understanding of what will follow, and that a user will be able to navigate and find information quickly and easily. I feel like this class was very successful in emphasizing the importance of accessibility. My only improvement to the class would be to add a bit more of on hands instruction, to allow for the students to stretch their legs... and expand their skills on implementing theory.

Yahoo domains

2005-04-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

It has been brought to my attention that the keywords domain Yahoo and Yahoo domain names are the highest paying keywords for adsense... followed by domain Yahoo, Yahoo web hosting, Google affiliate

www.yahoo.com
www.google.com

www.fishmarketing.net

2005-03-22T22:47:00.000-08:00

Reviewing www.fishmarketing.net/

This type of template is quickly becoming one of the most favorable for me lately. I really enjoy the creativity put into this site. It is carried out to the fullest extent. All the writing is based upon fish, and fishing vocabulary. The background image... can not even be regarded as a background image, it is a gorgeous piece of artwork, it adds a sense of placement for the site... it does not just float out in cyberspace, it is memorable. I love the image... it is extremely high quality... uses extremely attractive color combinations, and adds just that touch of detail, the sprig of parsley, the wedge of lemon... its wonderful.

This page also uses the single page format... to cut down on navigational failure. Thus allowing the user to foucs on the content... and not be distracted by any potential problems with branding, location, or useablilty. However this design idea, does make a potentially extremely long load time on dial up... however, once the page is loaded... you can access all information instantly.

I really like the way the gallery is displayed... The page is broken up nicely by the use of the book, used to signify the gallery section. I also really enjoy the screenshots being displayed with a wooden dock type background image. Once again that little spice of detail that just adds that extra touch.

However I do have a few complaints with the gallery itself. First of All this company seems as though it has been around for quite awhile. And they boast about their clients... however, there is a very sparse selection of works to view. I would really like to see a broader range, of projects. Also there really is no expanded view of these projects available. No link to a website, no "click to enlarge" nothing you are stuck with the two or three small thumbnail sized images to get an idea of what they do.

And in recap, I would just like to emphasize the extent of the creativity gone into the design, and copy of this website. Starting with the giant dead fish used for the header, all the way down through the witty fish inspired titles to the shipping label at the bottom, displaying the brick and mortar contact information. This site does have its small problems... but overall I think it is a great approach to catching the viewers attention... (no pun intended), and displaying their ability to think different.

JKRowling.com review TC 448

2005-03-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

This review is not due for another week and a half, but Im my new goal is to keep working, nonstop, make every deadline, early if at all possible, and don't rest until everything is done. So far the past few weeks i have been doing amazing. So keeping with this new me, here goes the review.

www.jkrowling.com

I type in the address, not exactly realizing why the name sounds familiar. The main page, splash page opens. The first thing I see is "text only" version, I am on dial up at home, so I think to myself "Oh great what I have I gotten myself into. Im going to be here all night." But I stuck with it as a small screen pops up below and a signature is scrawled across the page I still have no idea what type of site I am going to.

Then at the bottom six flags pop up, and I recognize Japans Immediately... the big red dot, who can miss it. But as I quickly scan for the USA flag, I am lost, and confused its not there... and being the typical American that I am, I am instantly upset, "why have they not catered to ME" I mumble under my breath. So I scroll through the flags reading the different languages, that I suppose are displaying "enter" just above, and finally fall upon a flag that after looking at, I realize is the U.K which would mean English.

But the point was already driven so deeply into my head, that even the smallest deviations from normalcy can confuse the hell out of someone browsing the internet. I know what the U.K flag looks like, I mean come on BILLY IDOL was the man, and I know that they speak english... regardless for those few quick moments, I was confused.

So I finally enter the site, the page opens up full screen. I hate that idea, I do not see the reasoning behind it, what could possibly be so harmful to the design if you can read the url at the top. I like to use tabbed browsing, and this just wreaks havoc on that process. Moving along I am again greeted with a "loading" prompt only this one is not as kind as the last one, after sitting contently for several minutes I realized that I should have just chose the "text only" option that seemed so intriguing to begin with, I now understand why the designer decided to present the option. So after a few strings of explicits, and deciding that I had come so far, it would be pointless to turn back now, I watched an overhead view of an animated desk full of trash, bugs, food wrappers, and a myriad of other crap load up on my screen. If I wanted to see that, I could have just stood up slowly and look down upon my own desk, I would have saved five minutes of my life.

But needless to say it is an interesting way to go about navigation, and I am sure that her intended audience, little kids, love it. As long as they can afford high speed, or do not have an extreme case of ADD and can sit patiently in front of the computer screen while the page loads, (HIGHLY DOUBT IT) So I perused the site a little bit, hovering over objects that would seem appropriate become links, and a nice little cursor prompt gives a title for each of the links, however it took about three passes to find all of them, (adding to the mystery and fun of Harry Potter im sure) but I just wasn't in the mood for the searching. It was all very professional, the animation was very precise, smooth, and obviously someone put many many hours into creating it.

The first link I clicked was the small Bio "portfolio" on the desk, another loading symbol, this time it was fairly short, I'm sure it would be almost unnoticeable on high speed, but nonetheless. I was now viewing a book, that again had great animation a little age curl at the bottom when you hovered, showing you that the page could be turned, however the book was tabbed at the top, as though these were the important pages, so I tried to click on them, nothing. The way that many websites display navigation, and it doesn't actually do anything, weird.

So after about 30 minutes spent on this site, I have only viewed 3 pages, much too long, for a topic that I do not quite care for. I suppose if I had the devotion to Harry Potter and the series I would have thought otherwise. But I decided to just check out the "text only" version that I had commented on earlier.

HIDEOUS, absolutely hideous, is all that I can say to describe it. First things first aside from all of the beautiful animation, nice usage of color, and creative design theory on the main pages, you would think that the text only version would at least carry some of these "professional" characteristics along with it. But the page is a black background, with yellow text, pale green/blue links. It is like puke in website form. Some links are complete sentences, and others that are obviously supposed to be links, are not. This was obviously an afterthought, did not have anywhere near the thought time, or effort put into it as the main, which is understandable... but some continuity throughout would be nice.

Aside from all of my other boggles with the site, I was able to put up with it, and I actually had some respect for it, it was obviously well cared for, and was a piece of art. However it was this text only page that finally broke the camels back, it looked like no pun intended, "the blind leading the blind" like someone just randomly chose hexcode, to represent color for the various objects, and then copied and pasted some text in original form into the files. All in all the site has potential to appeal to the truly hardcore, but I believe anyone else will be scared away, and not receive the information they were looking for.

448 Blog Post Weightshift

2005-03-02T14:02:00.000-08:00

Todays Post comes from weightshift.com

I have actually been to this site many many times over the history of my web browsing days.

I really love the color scheme of this website, Brown is the new Black, Brown is hot. It is very difficult to employ a great monochromatic color scheme and Weightshift does a very good job creating a design that looks appealing with only slight variations in the hue and intensity, however Weightshift pulls it off nicely. I also really enjoy the "floating" window... with the static background image behind... it gives the site a different feel... something differnet a stride away from normality, it adds a nice touch.

The website is extremely straight forward, its goals are clearly defined and I feel that it does a very good job. The navigation is very easy, and only the bare essentials are left at the top for the main navigation. This is the way it should be, I hate to see the main navigation cluttered up with erroneous links that just make moving around the site more difficult. Another key aspect of the navigation is that it only uses a single rollover, on the "memo" heading, most people understand that a memo is a series of short notes on a certain subject, but when you mouse over the link it turns up a short description of what is on the memo page "a design blog", which is nice, because it clarifies a possibly slightly "cutsy" heading, but it does not get in the way.

Another nice subtle feature is the random image rotator, in place on the main page, that will reload a new image everytime you refresh the page, and it will rotate through those images while viewing as well. Its a very nice feature to constantly add a slight refreshment to the page.

Moving on to the Work Catalogue they display there pieces very nicely, it looks almost like a group of slides, it is a familiar site, carried over from the non digital world, into the web, providing a quick familiar feeling. The Catalogue also does a great job of placing the projects in separate categories, by dividing up the images and text links into different sub categories. Providing for easy access to a specific type of work that you are interested in. There are about five different ways to access a particular piece of work, which maybe slight overkill, however it uses very different ways of doing so, catering to the different ways users, prefer to access information.

All in all a great site, good design from the ground up, obviously a lot of thought was put into the sites design in terms of usability and function as well as creative display. This site is a great example of how the two very differnet design features can be brought together into one harmonious design.

Reason Number 1 Not To Use Windows

2005-03-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

I was just casually surfing the internet this morning... and figured I would do a side to side comparison of Apple's homepage and Microsoft's homepage. And I think I found the first reason not to use windows...

When I open Apple's page I see beautiful new products on display,, however Microsoft right dead center and Bold "HELP PROTECT YOUR PC, AGAINST VIRUS'S HACKERS, AND WORMS."

I think that if you have to make an announcement in such a valuable piece of real estate on your homepage. There is a problem. On top of that... there is nothing on the homepage that is inviting... saying "come look at me, Im new and improved, I am going to work well, look at my new product line!" Just a bunch of text... and big bold "WARNING SIGNS"

Website Review Jason Santa Maria

2005-02-25T10:44:00.000-08:00

Todays review is on JasonSantaMaria.com

I think that this is one of the better "personal/portfolio" sites that I have been to in quite awhile. It has a very defined theme, a great color scheme, and a very useable navigation.

I like the usage of the home page as a "blog" it contains all the recent news and happenings relevant to the site as well as other random personal "bloggy" type things. But it is a great combination of the new web medium, blogging, and traditional webpage.

The navigation is clearly labeled, and easy to understand... there is no weird popups, no lines to follow, no un labeled buttons, its very simple, and easy to use. Each page has the navigation in the same spot, and highlights the page that you are on, like tabbed navigation to allow for easy awareness of where you are in the sight.

The content on the site is also very fitting, and is very focused. All content is about Jason, or deals with Jason, and does a great job of selling him. It is his personal sight, there is no added BS, nothing else but what pertains to him. I think that the focused content does a very good job of portraying him, helping sell him to potential clients.

I am a photographer, and many times when you see a fellow photographer display their work online it is very cluttered and filled with a lot of unneeded content. Jason however uses a straightforward clean and simple display type... that comments his photography style, perhaps my favorite part of the site if it were not for the Bbne. Which is kind of random, however the Best Brand Name Ever section of his site, is a humorous addition that I liked perusing, and added a little spice to the oh so regular personal page.

Robots and Monkeys Website Critique

2005-02-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

This weeks website critique is of www.robotsandmonkeys.com

This is sort of a weird site to critique in my opinion. Because comes off as more of a fun, playful, filled with flash movies, and animation, waste your time, site. (pwwwhuuee thats a long web site genre) I am not really sure as to what function this site is trying to fulfill.

The home page is a large flash movie of a robot and a monkey, as the name implies, and it has a large "navigational wheel of fortune" that I would have to say is not the most recognizable form of navigation but I figured it out quite quickly, by use of the arrows on the "thumbnail" by image of the wheel.

Moving deeper into the site the navigation changes... there is no consistency throughout so the user must now move down to the bottom of the page to get back to the home page navigation. This page acts as a jumping off point for half of the content within the site... meaning you can not navigate directly from one part to the next, you must click back to "main" using the bottom nav, in order to view many of the pages. There are also many instances where the animation just seems to stop, but the music keeps going, so A you are not sure if the animation has completed, and you are unable to turn off the music.

So now the second portion of the website is viewed by navigating through the bottom links, that are common throughout all pages in the site. Which actually separates its self further by opening up in a new window... It is a complete separate entity from the rest of the site... there is nothing tying the two pieces together, no navigation no logo nothing. However I feel it is an interesting approach to the display and navigation of a portfolio, one that would not be duplicated anywhere... reverberating the complete random, and oddity of the site echoed throughout, such as the domain name, the odd animations, and its unusual choice of navigational schemes...

I believe this is a good "waste your time trying to figure out what the heck the designer was thinking flash animated" websites. Not so good on the portfolio, display of works end.

TC448 Website Crit

2005-02-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

Not five seconds ago my entire post just somehow disappeared into thin air. Stupid Cyber Space. So anyways here comes attempt number two.

This week's website critique is on www.nelson-atkins.org/tempusfugit

This website is an "exhibit" for a Museum of Art, and it displays this professionalism with its choice of clean and crisp graphics, and font choices.

Museums are usually in the public realm so you would expect that the website would be held to the most strict of usability regulations. So that every single user no matter the disability would get a fair shot at viewing the page. However even at the first page, some confusion begins. There is no "start exhibit here" text link, and it is unclear that you are supposed to click on the image to continue until you mouse over the image.

I also understand that in keeping with the spirit of art, a flash based website would be a good choice, however this makes it extremely difficult to create a page that is accessible to users with visual disabilities, because it is very hard for a screen reader to "view" the content. Flash also makes it more difficult for search engines to seek out the page, and add it to their results.

And until just a few seconds ago I didn't even realize that there are two options two choose from at the front page. You can click on the left side, "World Times" and you can click on the right, "Conservation Time". After clicking one of these links there is also no way to get back to the front page if you happen to close the main black launch page in the background. Ahh I just noticed that at the top there is a navigational bar, that can be used to choose between the different topics. So either I am a completely incompetent fool, or else this site has not done a very good job in testing.

The site does have a few nice features, such as the navigational map, that allows a visual connection to the subject being linked to. It also has a convenient slide-able bar that allows you to hide the map to open up a larger viewing area. Every topic also has link to view a related classroom idea.

I believe that even though this site may not cater to absolutely 100% of the possible users that it encounters, it is still a very good site. I have since determined that I am just a completely incompetent fool, because my brain does not seem to be functioning correctly at this hour, and that the navigation, and layout of this site is well within the boundaries of good design. It has great content, and the design is fairly simple, creative, and even though it employes a slightly unconventional navigational theme, it is still very usable to the everyday user.

The Apple Microsoft War Reaches Comic Porportions

2005-02-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

This Link was sent to me the other day, after years of arguing over Apple and Microsoft.

The Comic is brought to you by Ctrl+Alt+Del

The Comic seems to go on infinately but this section is about the ever present Apple Microsoft wars.

On an interesting side note, it seems that the mighty Microsoft empire is starting to crumble, as an entire sub folder is now being dedicated to the Apple computing community titling it a very suiting Mactopia as this is the feeling one gets while using an apple computer. I never thought that I'd see the day, oh glorious day.

Free mac mini conga.....

2005-02-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

This blog is dedicated to the idea of scratching each others backs... Sign up under the "main link" and your name will be added to the data base that will eventually get added to the "main link" the idea is that it will give your link much more exposure.

Check it out

freeminimacconga.blogspot.com

Microsoft Lovers Eat Your Heart Out

2005-02-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

Here are a few links that I would like to share with you fool hearty microsoft lovers.

Both of these come from www.apple.slashdot.org

Ipod Most Popular Music Player on Microsoft Campus

and even better, the answers to the question that so many of us Apple users get so often.... "Why doesn't it have a two button mouse?"

Why Apple Makes a One-Button Mouse

Website Review juxtinteractive.com

2005-02-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

This is a the third website review I believe for TC 448.

juxtinteractive.com

I actually like this website for its flash styled graphic design usage, and unique approach to designing the site... It has a new age, media art feel to the website that is very easy to abuse, and ruin many websites. However I feel that this website is slightly off when it comes to usability and overall design.

The website actually has a fairly unique navigation as well, in that it appears to be absent. There is no navigation, no extra pages... other than direct links on the front page. However this creates more scrolling than is needed. Instead the website is divided horizontally into "seperate" pages, with their own respective headings... I think that this way of navigating is brought to the simpelist form. Very easy to use and understand. The biggest drawback I see is the use of small text, without very good contrast.

The website is fairly void of contact... there are only links to recent projects, portfolio projects, and then a small news bar. Aside from that the site is basically just a jump point to view content created by the company.

I feel that if this sites main goal is to provide a user with a portfolio view of the company it does a great job. However, if its goal was to provide users with information, about anything more than the works created, such as the companies background, or clientel, area of expertise, ect, the site falls slightly short.

Just noticed something quirky

2005-02-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

I just noticed today that with a single transposed letter in the URL
www.deconstructingpurpose.blogspot.com to
www.deconstructingpurpose.blogpsot.com you find yourself at a completely different website without being able to tell how you got there I was confused for at least 3 to 4 mins be cause of my dislexyia...

Thunk Design: Review

2005-01-28T13:21:00.000-08:00

Assignment number two

Reviewing Thunk Design

At first look, I thought to myself, “This is going to be a pretty good website." But this website does however fall slightly short of the mark. The first "splash page" does not represent the content inside. The first few lines of text are spunky, creative, and inspiring... and after clicking on the Enter Here arrow, A fairly decent looking page loads up. A nice looking color scheme, seemingly good design layout... with some links to portfolio items on the right side. But my hopes failed shortly there after.

From that point on, the sites potentially limitless possibilities with flash, turned into a text based, non-graphical presentation, with a confusing navigation to boot. Even the portfolio, where you think a straightforward graphical based display would prosper, seems to be brought down by the use of an extremely small, and "hidden" navigation.

The company that this site is designed for is a website that deals with branding, logos, icons, and design... but this website does not represent any of that ingenuity and design. TOO MUCH TEXT... Granted the gallery does a nice job of displaying other works that the company has done... However their very own website does not reflect this creative design.

There is a weird two part navigation all across the site. Like under Services... There are two navigational headings overview and descriptions... that are very small, have very poor contrast and are sort of tucked out of the way, not provided, the user with good opportunities to "see" their way out of that page and onto another.

Needless to say I am unsatisfied with this website in its entirety. The company looks as though it does good work, they just need to carry that work onto their site.

Mac Media Center: Open source project

2005-01-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

Turning a mac mini into a devout media center is in the lifelines of many new minis, just now making there way into consumers hands. There are hundreds going through rigorous training sessions as we speak. Beefing up hardware, with external drives, more ram, and add on capture devices such as those from www.elgato.com But the diminutive mini will be no match for the media center title until its final intensive training session can be completed, which will end with the great functionality of an open source software development.

I introduce to you the Mac Media Center This is where the Apple world will really shine in the media center race. Linux has built its empire on this idea of open source development, and now has been taken more seriously as these movements spring up all over the globe. Such as the Poisoned Project, Rendevous, and of course the well known Mozilla Firefox thing.

By not dictating to the public, but by actually allowing the end users to decide, and develop ideas about the product , the Mac Media Center is positioning themselves for a very successful, movement in placing themselves at the forefront of the digital world, in this period of convergence.

First TC 448 Blog Post

2005-01-20T20:42:00.000-08:00

So I was confused on the last post, that was just supposed to be turned in not posted. Anywho we are supposed to look at www.smalltransport.com and make a post about it. But again either I missed what we were supposed to "blog" about it or else I am just confused about something. So here goes I guess I will rely my opinion of the site.

At first glance this site seems to be one of the "new age" standards compliant grid based websites... it has all of the key features, a columnar layout, great usage of white space, clean un cluttered real estate, nice graphics, a good use of branding, and a modern color scheme, with very nice complimentary colors.

I looked a little deeper, well into the code, and found out that the site is actually designed using tables and only using "standards" or css tags for basic font formatting. And quite frankly, at this point this still... may be the most useable way of coding ( although that is changing quickly with the extreme, and much needed decline of Internet Explorer), because today there are still massive amounts of people not using standards compliant browsers. So to reach the greatest audience with the most predictable outcome would be to still use the full set of html tags.

Beside the fact that this is a very well designed site, it does not strike me as standing out all too much. There are no extremely innovative features, it uses a fairly standard layout, and the colors are widely used across many design websites. It does however have a cute little bird that is used for branding, in its logo, and all across the site, however in my rendered version of the site (Safari v1.1)... it actually is on top of all of the titles, a malfucntion of the css rendering, not being completely standardized among all browsing platforms yet.

Overall I think this site is quite successful in its quest to design a good page, and display himself (the designer) along with his works. By being personable, as well as professional he is able to create a friendly open atmosphere for his site to thrive in that seems to help build upon his content, and this site could be used as a reference guide as how to build a personal portfolio.

First actual TC 448 post GOOD Bad and the Ugly

2005-01-19T13:46:00.000-08:00

So the assignment was to search the web, which needless to say is an everyday all the time activity for me. So needless to say I have a fairly good idea what I do like and dislike on the web. However the assignment was not too specific as to what type of websites we should be looking for as there are millions and millions of types styles, and then also why I could enjoy them, or well dislike them. However I am guessing that since the first lecture we had, was all about page design that I would critique sites based on design.

So here goes.

The first site I chose to review is www.alitsapart.com

This site is one in which I used to frequent quite often. It basically boasts itself as an online publication about web development and accessibility. So with those topics in mind it is an easy connection to make that the site uses a very simple, and aesthetically pleasing layout. I really enjoy the dynamic header at the top of every page that uses a very cool charcoal effect. It adds a more of a printed publication feel rather than an online production. Which ads to the "publication" style content, and idea behind the site. The site also has a very good color scheme, and use of fairly simple and easy to remember branding.

However the navigation is slightly confusing at first glance, yet is easily understood shortly there after. There is also quite a bit of scrolling on the site, which is made slightly less annoying by its large amount of good context. The use of white space also focuses the eye on the content with the use of the "columnar" layout.

The second site I am reviewing that I enjoy is Aninda Basus Portfolio

I have traveled to this site many times for inspiration. My favorite part about this page design is the half splash that sits directly in the middle of where your eye would normally look at first glance. This half page splash also doubles as a functional display of her works with a very nice flash design. The color scheme is fairly bland yet still pleasing... which actually works fairly well as not to distract from the "main content" of the page which is the flash movie.

The layout of the page however does not do very much to help build upon the design. and the careless use of lists below the splash looks unfinished... and does not follow the extremely modern looking splash above. There is a poor attempt at branding in the upper left that is almost unnoticeable unless you are searching for it and the navigation is almost passed over unless you realize that that is actually what it is.

And the final site I chose to critic is www.sxsw.com

South by south west is a group that sets up music/film festivals and conferences to help young artists, learn what it is like to become a professional. I pretty much dislike this site in its entirety which is fairly odd, because it uses a lot of pieces of design material that should and would be successful on other sites, but seem to be used incorrectly here. the first major upsetting feature is the color scheme, it just doesn't seem to work for me with this site. The other thing is the usage of icons, but the icons just sort of seem out of place, and not at home on the page. The site is also set up much like a printed publication as I had mentioned earlier like www.alitsapart.com however this one doesn't make the transition as elegantly. There is too much text and scrolling without enough white space to break up the body of the page. And last but not least I wish that I could say that the quirky polka-dotted background ties the whole page together, or does something constructive yet it falls short, just as a symbolic reminder for the rest of the page.

Transmit 2 great little ftp manager

2005-01-19T01:25:00.000-08:00

I just tried out Transmit 2 a very small fast, and extremely easy to use ftp manager... it has a good layout that was simple to understand with "your stuff" on one side and "their stuff" on the other aka local and server. This app coming from www.panic.com hosting a varity of neat "lil apps" as well as Unison a multimedia p2p "capture" device. The coolest thing I see from this developer is on the front page where you can "instantly download" any app by dragging the icon to a download button. Try it for yourself.

Cracking the safe: Mac mini

2005-01-19T01:06:00.000-08:00

And of course before the mac mini even hits the consumers hands... the first mods and hacks have already begun. A video of the mac mini being "cracked" open has leaked out from what looks to be an internal demonstration for apple tech service.

Check out the original post.

Free 10 GB Online Storage Locker

2005-01-18T23:47:00.000-08:00

Thats right... store your photos, movies, and music online.... Free

check out the article from Cnet

10 GB online storage

Why I love Apple let me count the ways

2005-01-17T18:19:00.000-08:00

Well I think that I have stated that I love apple, and that fact is completely understood. However I really have provided no reasoning, nor, valid facts behind my reasoning... so I am going to start with this post. Bear with me... the jewel is at the end of the necklace. ;)

I have been struggling lately with ways to tackle backing up my content. I have an enormous ammount of personally valuable material on my machines. And it would be a colosule disaster to lose my beloved carefully rated and correctly labled music selection, stockpile of family guy, viva la bam episodes, and hundreds of business related files.

I have all of these items stored on my "central unit" a G4 tower, that is stationed at my desk at home. This machine is the one that I use the most, fastest processor, largest hardrive space, and of course, enourmous display capabilities with dual monitors.

However it would be quite a sight to see if I was to tote this entire entorouge to class every day just to take notes. So I have taken it upon myself to pick up a G3 which has taken the place of my spiral notebook in class. I also use this machine as a mobile workstation which I use for menial tasks on the road, display for clients, email, basic capture and editing. This poses another data, backup/sync problem in my ever increasingly complex situation.

So basically my syc/backup situation is two fold I need to do basic one-way storage from my g4 tower just for security issues. However at the same time I must also create a sync between my two computers for the "out of town" work, as well as class related material. But this type of sync is much different, I do not need to sync the entire home account, just certain files, folders and preferences, but the sync must go both ways. As far as I my knowledge extended five minutes ago... this is a slightly more complex set of standards to contend with.

Fast Forward to the present and I have performed a simple google search, discovering that there are dozens of options that could potentially fulfill both of my syncing needs. Within five minutes I have stumbled upon these top contenders.
Syncing with CVS
Subversion
Duover
Carbon Copy Cloner

All of which seem to be great steps in the direction of taking care of my backup needs. So again back to why I love apple, it is only through apples "open source" style of thinking and the enthusiasm of developers, that things like this are possible. This Open Source idea of computing, is what will eventually turn the tides, and change the way we interact, use and enjoy our computers in our everday life.

IX Webhosting: The greatest serving host on the net

2005-01-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

Simply put, there is a money back gaurntee if you are unsatisfied, then you can back out no questions ask... there is also an amazing customer support that provide instant feedback 24 hours aday.

Check them out you will not regret it. IX Webhosting

Google Suggest

2005-01-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

coolest new thing Ive found... it will suggest keywords, and show you how many other people have searched the sme thing... give it a whirl see what im talking about Google Suggest

Carputer: Let the hacking begin

2005-01-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

I ran across this article today Race for Ultimate Car Hacks and the article basically puts a spotlight on a potentially extremely large market that I beleive will be sprouting shortly with the advent of the mac mini, as I stated previously. The minis form and function, are the defining factors for this incredible machine. Not only could these "Carputers" provide you with endless hours of entertainment, and business functionality on the road, but they could also start a revolution in the way that we service, our cars. If we constantly have an onboard computer checking engine diagnostics, revamping fuel oil mixture, timing, measuring gas milage, and so on and so forth. The car will be able to self diagnose, on the fly, run different system proformance profiles for different driving situations. If there are problems with the engine... the computer will be able to tell you exactly whats wrong, not just blink a simplified version of morse code at you requesting that you take it to the shop. The owner will merge with the car, and the car with the auto shop. The revolution is begining what will you do when the apple falls on your head?

Free: mac mini, Ipod

2005-01-16T17:26:00.000-08:00

I followed this link from www.kevinrose.com I promise this works I have many friends who have gotten theirs... I want to join them as well.... The best way to make this happen is to do as I have done, follow my link, and then fill out the credit card info buy gas, which we all need anyways, then payoff and cancel the card, if you can convince 5 people to do this... you will receive a brand new mac mini! Help me out this works for real

for free mac mini

for free ipod

I promise it will work... just do as I say and you too will receive your free products!!!!!!!

Mac Mini: A server for the home, car, or office

2005-01-15T23:26:00.000-08:00

So the mac mini has got me thinking... obviously as well as an un-countable number of others. I have long envisioned a home "entertainment" system... that is a single unit... It plays audio as well as video, and is the central unit for all that happens in the house. It is the streaming "server" to store music, photos, and video on, that would be accessible to all other, "client" computers... it would be the central hub so to speak of a "wired" house hold. However the more I think about it the more this mini seems to fill in the spaces, of many needs. I have been working on a way to set up a mobile photo/video station that I can use to edit, my projects on the road, mac mini I have been wanting to have a central music, photo video, station at home, mac mini, I have been wanting a semi portable ipod like movie player (minus dvds) mac mini. But what I believe is the most appealing to me at the moment is the mobile workstation that I am envisioning. Follow me here. The mac mini is located in the glovebox with a 7.5 inch touch screen mounted in the dash. This will take care of all of my navigation through downloadable maps, and text directions, it will also satisfy my audio needs by using the native Itunes as a music box, no need to mess with $1300 dvd/cd/hardrive headunits that charge extra to add the external support of the ipod. I will be able to play dvds, and MPEG video as well. When I arrive on site to work I will be able to pull out the wireless mouse and keyboard... plug in an external monitor/projetor, and edit/display to my hearts content.. if a client needs a hard copy I can easliy connect to their server via the airpot extreme capabilities, or burn them a dvd/cd via the superdrive. And when I am finished with my work on the road, i can easily unplug the mini, and bring her inside, to continue working on projects at home, with no data transfer, needed, everything is kept in one simple little magic box. Oh and I forgot to mention, with the 1.42 GHZ computing power I will be able to monitor my engine diagnostics all the while, and with the third party sony puppyprint fingerpringting technology will be able to start my car and log into my computer all at the same time using my personal unique finger print.... OH the glory.

Bugmenot.com The newest sensation

2005-01-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

I just stumbled across bugmenot.com

Do you hate filling out useless personal information that will just come back to haunt you in the future, by linking all of your vital information to send countless spam emails, telemarketing calls, and paperwaste mail fit only to start a fire? Now through bugmenot if you ever come across another site asking for personal information, that will undoubtable be sold to these marketing "headhunters", copy and past the URL and head over to bugmenot.com and Boom your in.

deconstructing purpose feed

2005-01-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

Just found out I can create atom/rss fees so here is the link deconstructinpurpose.blogspot.com/atom.xml

note to self need to figure out how to make hypertext links in this blog.

Apple: The Coolest Company On Wall street

2005-01-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

I am so impressed with apple theses days. The company is beyond amazing to me. I have been an complete fanatic ever since elementary school. At this very young age with a fresh mind free for molding... I was able to realize a great product, and its amazing potential early on. I have since purchased 4 apple computers, an Ipod, and have convinced countless number of friends to follow in my footsteps, much to the ridicule of those very same friends early on.

Today I saw something amazing, I saw a company that has changed the face of the Music Industry, with the invention of the Ipod, and the ITMS (Itunes Music Store) debute many items that will continue to change the face of the Personal computing industry, with the advent of the Mac Mini. I have thought to myself on many occasions that I wish that I could become part of this revolutionary company. But when I look back on my history with apple, it is then that I see that I have been. I have promoted my favorite logo to no avail for as long as I can remember, I have stood up in the face of the evil empire (WINBLOWS) and now I am here to enjoy the glory of a revolution from the big grey box to the amazing new apple.

first blog

2005-01-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

my name is kirk this is my blog.