The difference between Art Critics and Artists
When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.
—Pablo Picasso
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Evaluate Regular Expressions online
RegExr is an online Flash tool that allows you to evaluate regular expressions in your browser. A handy tool, considering how mind-numbingly confusing regular expressions can be, although I think I’d prefer an Ajax interface to the Flash one.
This is from Download Squad.
Windows Vista Icons for Firefox 3
The new Windows Vista icons have begun to creep into the Firefox 3 nightly builds.
They look good so far, although I do think they could do a little more to blend in with the general Vista aesthetic. Perhaps they could employ a black-glass toolbar, like some of Vista’s integrated applications?
Download the latest build here, or you can wait for the fourth Firefox 3 beta, due on the 26th of February.
Windows Vista and the Native UI
Overall, I’m a fan of the visual refresh brought on by Windows Vista; I think it has successfully revitalised the stagnant UI’s generally found in Microsoft’s Operating Systems. In fact, the biggest problem lies not with Microsoft’s work (not entirely; more on this later), but with certain developers inability to conform to Operating System UI guidelines. Cases range from the occasional misstep, to a full blown visual nightmare.
Bizarrely, Microsoft does not always conform to its own UI guidelines. The best example of this is the Windows Live family of products. Windows Live messenger sports a non-standard UI border (although, to be fair, this can be changed in the settings); as does Windows Live Mail.
Windows Live Writer, by far my favourite app in the Live Suite (in fact, Writer is my favourite blog editor on or off-line), has an undeniably beautiful aesthetic to it; in many ways it is prettier than Windows Vista’s native Widgets. Regardless, this is a poor move; Microsoft should be leading by example; all their applications, from every department, should use the OS’s native Widgets.
Come on Microsoft: follow your own rules.
Postscript: I knowingly excluded Microsoft Office 2007 from this post; for the simple reason that, although I would prefer a totally native UI if possible, in it’s current incarnation Office in fact benefits from having a distinct UI. Also, I find it difficult to visualise presenting the magnificent Ribbon in any other way.
More liberal fear-mongering about global warming?
If you believe global warming is a great left-wing conspiracy, don’t read any further.
Folks living in Europe may have noticed that summer seems just a bit hotter than years ago. It’s not their imagination.
That hotbed of liberal propaganda, the American…
