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Inspired design?

Sorry, poor title for this blog post! I just wanted to put an evangelistic web post up, by evangelistic in this case I’m meaning for both ‘standards based’ web design and also just good quality design.

If you’re involved in running a church website, or a site for any kind of Christian organisation or are involved with any kind of graphic design etc for church etc then you really should check out the next couple of websites.

The Godbit Project

Firstly, the Godbit Project, the mission statement of this site is:

The purpose of this site is to help the Church catch up with the rest of the world in adherence to standards given by the World Wide Web Consortium, the governing body of best-practices on the Internet. The majority of Christian web design agencies are using outmoded methods of coding to create websites that the rest of the world would scoff at. Basically, they are stuck in the 1990?s.

That kind of says it all really, and it’s why I’m posting it here. A bit of a call for Christians to be at the cutting edge of things. Hey, I know we’re all ‘followers’ but sometimes we gotta lead too! ;) Go checkout the site, there’s some interesting stuff, I hope you’ll ‘catch the fire’ of standards based design.

Church Marketing Sucks

This next site is one I found linked from Godbit.com, ‘Church Marketing Sucks.com‘ has a broader overall focus of marketing, their mission statement says:

Our mission is to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ…

…We love the church, but it needs some help. Typos, cheesy logos, and bad clip art aren’t helping the cause. But snazzy marketing won’t save this ship, either. It’s not about being perfect, but there’s a better way to communicate. It’s authentic, it’s loving, and it knows how to spell.

A lot of food for thought here whether you’re a designer, editor, writer, blogger, publisher, PR dude, whatever. Go check out the site, be challenged, surprised and inspired.

Oh yeah, thanks to those who visited this site recently after visiting Alyn’s blog, glad you could make it!

~Rick

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My wife can no longer be referred to as a ‘MacWidow’…

UrbanDictionary.com defines a MacWidow as:

This is what you call the wife of an Apple Macintosh user. He ends up spending much more time on his Mac than with her!

Well, we recently gave away our PC to some friends so I have been keeping my now slightly ageing powerbook at home. Since then Annie has been getting into using it more and more, once she realised that you could do a lot more in GarageBand than just loop a few sounds together she’s been producing quite a lot of songs with it.

Now, the final evidence that Annie’s no longer a ‘MacWidow’ is that she went to an Apple Seminar called ‘Guitarists and the Mac‘. She came home all excited telling me that she found out:

“How the Mac and Apple?s audio creation software along with some amazing third-party products gives you access to thousands of amplifier emulations and pro-quality effects for rehearsals, studio and stage…”

and also:

“How recent developments in guitar technology turn your favourite axe into a virtual orchestra by giving you access to thousands of sampled sounds, virtual instruments and synthesizers…”

Mmm, if you ask me, she sounds like she’s getting a little bit fanatical about this Mac stuff, next thing she’ll be telling me how “she can’t wait until January for Macworld San Francisco as ThinkSecret says that there will be a new Mac Mini – the first to run on Intel chips – and that it will be part of Apple’s move for the Mac to be the center(sic) of the digital hub in people’s homes…“

I guess I shouldn’t have gotten her that iPod shuffle, seems like I’ve started something… ;)

~Rick

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Turning Japanese…

I just read some interesting stuff on an Italian Mobile phone blog:

Japan is the world’s #1 in the mobile business with over 90 million mobile subscribers, of which 78 million are using mobile Internet services and 40 million 3G users, with DoCoMo and KDDI increasing at a rate of 1 million a month each. The 3G has services with speeds up to 2,4 Mbps and next year, the 3,5G services will be live with speeds up to 14 Mbps.

It’s interesting because 02 have just launched their ‘i-mode’ service over here in the UK and it’s something I’ve looked into for a while due to the fact that you can use Flash to build applications for it.

Read the whole article on MobileMonday.it

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Essential Reading for Web Designers

I’ve been busy finishing a few projects so I haven’t blogged much recently I know but I’m going to try and pick up the pace a little bit.

I just got a couple of new books from Amazon this week and I’ve now found that I have four books that I look to for cool solutions for the challenges presented by Standards Compliant website design. So I’m putting a little mini-review here of them, despite the fact that I’ve only just started reading one of the books I got this week, it’s just I can tell it’s worth recommending them!

Designing with Web Standards
By Jeffrey Zeldman

Picture of Designing with Web Standards book jacketThis book is the one to read if you don’t know anything about Web Standards at all, it’s intended more to explain the benefits of Standards compliant web design rather than being a how-to manual with extensive code.

It does have some code examples but it doesn’t go too deep so it serves as a great primer for those beginning to get a feel for CSS and XHTML.
It’s written well and is not a dry technical manual but interesting to read.


Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook
by Dan Cederholm

Picture of Web Standards Solutions book jacketFor those who’ve read the first book and have gotten hooked then this next book is a great way to move forwards. There’s lot’s of practical code examples which relate to real world usage, it gives solutions that can be applied to give great results.

Like the book above it’s well written and fun to read with simple explanations, perfect for extending your Web Standards knowledge.


Bulletproof Web Design: Improving Flexibility and Protecting Against Worst-Case Scenarios with XHTML and CSS
by Dan Cederholm

Picture of Bulletproof Web Design book jacket The next book follows on from the previous book and focuses on ‘bulletproof’ techniques to use in building your sites.

Lot’s of clear code examples that compare traditional methods of site design with the benefits of creating the same layout using Standards compliant techniques. It’s written well like Dan’s first book and really gives a great overview of some brilliant techniques to apply to the website that you build.


DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model
by J.Keith

Picture of DOM Scripting book jacketThe title of this book might sound a little ominous, maybe all of them do?!?! This book is a great companion to the rest in that as the other books deal more with Standards Compliant CSS and XHTML this book focuses on Standards Compliant Javascript coding.

It’s a great book aimed at web designers rather than programmers so it’s an excellent way to get into the power that the DOM and Javascript can offer.


These are all great books that I regularly dip in and out of, they’ve really helped me get a better understanding of all the benefits of Standards Compliant website design as well as how to practically put it into practice.

~Rick

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“It was like totally random!”

Yep, we’re back from our holiday, well, we got back on the 23rd of October but I’ve just been busy this last week and hadn’t had an opportunity to post a new blog entry.

We had a great holiday down in Wales, we stayed in a really nice cottage called Tyddyn Cottage (pronounced ‘tithin’) near a place called Builth Wells. It was nice just being in the middle of countryside and not having to work!

Here’s a few photos from the holiday with some comments:


Our rental car was a Ford Focus Zetec. Nice!


Tyddyn Cottage


Natalie and her favourite tree.


Natalie listening to rain falling on the roof of my Auntie’s barn.


Natalie smiling for the camera.


Natalie and her Grandad.


Natalie kissing one of my Auntie’s goats!


Inside Cardiff Castle.


The ‘flamily’ in the ball pool at ‘Quackers‘!!!


Left to right: My cousin Melanie, her son James, my Auntie (in the red), Natalie, Annie, me, my Dad, my brother and his wife Maureen’s knee!


Four Generations of the Curran family!!!

That’s just a few pictures from our holiday, we all had a really nice time away.

Geeky stuff:

Well, what can I write for my geeky bit? Mmm, well, today I got a chance to play around with one of the new iPods, the ones which can play video it’s so thin compared to my iPod, a very nice piece of kit.

Oh, a really cool thing was that someone gave me a Canon 10D digital SLR camera and two lenses, I was pretty blown away, I’ve really wanted a digital SLR but couldn’t afford one. I’m really looking forward to getting back into photography again, I haven’t used my film-based 35mm SLR for years, once you use digital it’s hard to go back!

What else? umm, oh yeah, Annie and I made a song, well, more Annie really but we both had fun! I’d describe it as being a mixture of Jefferson Airplane meets Madonna and the ‘Lost’ polar bear!!! Also, once you listen to it the title of this blog post will make sense, well kind of!

Download ‘Selah’ in MP3 format…

Lastly, thanks to Annie’s Mom for sending us ‘Lost‘ Series One on DVD in the mail, without this we’d be just like the rest of the UK having to wait another 10 weeks to find out what happens!!!

So, what’s it worth to people for me not to post what happens??!!!!!

~Rick

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Going on holiday, yay!

Yep, going on holiday for a week on Saturday. I’m really looking forwards to it. We’ve got a hire car and are driving down to Wales to visit family, my Dad is over from Australia and my brother Alistair and his wife Maureen will be there too, it’ll be the first big family get together for a long time. Also it will be the first time Annie and Natalie meet my Grandparents and my Aunt & Uncle, so lot’s going on there.

My Dad has booked a holiday cottage for my brother & his wife and Annie, Natalie and myself which looks reaaly nice. So, looking forward to a nice break.

Essential Gadgets

Of course, going away means you have to be prepared so I’ve got a whole range of gadgets to keep me amused and also to help us not get lost driving there. The list so far is:

  • Canon MV600i Digital Video Camera
  • Canon 10D Digital SLR Camera (Borrowed from my friend Dave!)
  • 2.5gb CF card storage capacity
  • Powerbook Laptop
  • 120gb External hard drive
  • Nokia NGage Gaming phone
  • Tom-Tom Satellite Navigation System (Borrowed from my friend Dave!)
  • 40gb iPod (Mine!)
  • 512mb iPod Shuffle (Annie’s!)
  • Various Cables, firewire, USB, AV etc…

Well, that’s the stuff I’ve remembered so far. All completely essential of course! The most annoying thing is that the hire car comes with a CD player and not a tape deck so I can’t plug in my iPod to listen to music!!! A hassle as we keep all our CD’s stored away as we only play music from our iPods nowadays. How archaic having to use CDs!!! ;)

“It was black and about the size of labrador…”

Another little project I’ve started working on is a little Google Maps mashup. Oh, what’s a ‘mashup’ you ask? well, it’s where you take the function of the Google Maps service and link in your own data or functionality to it. So I’ve made my own little mashup.

Over the years there’s been sightings in the local area, and indeed throughout the rest of Scotland and the UK, of ‘Big Cats’, these are not just domestic cats gone wild but cats of descriptions varying from Puma to Lynx, and also paw-prints and animals killed. Recently there was a few sightings of a big black cat in the West End of Dundee, someone even feared their pet had been eaten by it. I came across the site of a charity called Scottish Big Cat Trust and they track sightings of these animals.

So, my Google maps Mashup is a ‘Cat Map’, have a look here, https://qreate.co.uk/maps/. Please note that the first sighting is of course fake! We haven’t spotted anything ourselves! The data for 2004 is real though. There’s over 1300 sightings in the Big Cat Trust database so it’ll take time to add all those but you’ll get the idea hopefully.

Well, Annie’s here to pick me up from work so now I am on holiday!!!

Bye!!!

~Rick

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Geek stuff, Web 2.0, interesting music…

I was watching TV tonight and saw the Orange advert with this unusual music track on it, I googled a few of the words of the song and found out it was a track by Joanna Newsom, a quick trip to the iTunes Music store and I bought the album. It’s called ‘The Milk-Eyed Mender’, you can follow this link to go straight to it in the iTunes Music store, you’ll need iTunes installed to do so of course. Nice album, very quirky sound but I like it.

Apart from listening to music (and updating this blog!) I have been reading a lot of stuff about what has been termed ‘Web 2.0’. What’s Web 2.0 you ask? well, that’s what lot’s of other people are asking too! I’ve been asked to speak at an event called Creative Exchange in Perth next week and I’ve decided that this will be (at least part anyway) the subject of my talk.

Basically Web 2.0 is about the new generation of internet based application, or Rich Internet Applications as they’re known. Web 2.0 refers to the development of the World Wide Web from simply being a collection of websites that can / may link to one another to becoming more like an operating system in itself. Web 2.0 Applications move away from simply being web-browser based content to being separate software applications that draw functionality as well as content from the internet.

Many websites have ways that allow you to tap into the content or functionality that they provide, Google for instance has methods by which you can search their extensive database and pull the information back into the application requesting it. Many News websites offer you the ability to subscribe to their content using RSS feeds, these can be linked into an application to provide up-to-date information. Another characteristic of Web 2.0 RIA’s is that of being Social applications, linking users to one another, communities based not just around websites as in Web 1.0 but within desktop software applications too.

So, there’s a very brief glimpse of some Web 2.0 thoughts. I’ve set up an account on Del.icio.us (A Social bookmarking site!) with some interesting stuff about Web 2.0 in case anybody feels like reading more, it’s definitely something I’m paying attention to as a web developer / designer. My Del.icio.us site is http://del.icio.us/wideopenspace/web2.0

As one of my old college tutors used to say, ‘Interesting stuff, interesting stuff.’ ;)

~Rick

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The weekend! A few Photos / Videos…

Just before leaving my office on Friday night I noticed a really awesome sky out of the window, the clouds were rippled and it was all red and glowing. We really do get some awesome sunsets in Dundee. Here’s a picture:

Sunset Clouds over Dundee, taken on 30-09/05

You’ll notice the crane at the lower-right corner, there’s actually about 3 or 4 visible out of this window as there’s so much construction going on in Dundee just now.

Saturday morning and it’s nice to be at home with the family. We had an easy start to the day and then helped some friends move into a flat across the road, some more people who’ve moved onto our street!

Then we went to Jimmy Chungs for lunch, Natalie loves going here, plus she’s still free as she’s under 3 years old! ;) We then went and bought some new clothes, I’ve needed new trousers for a while and Natalie needed some new clothes more suited for Autumn (Fall!) / Winter (yup, Summer is over! Night’s are drawing in!).

After that I went to the park to meet up with my friend Daryl to check out and document progress on the new outdoor concrete park being built. The park is looking good! Annie and Natalie came and met us at the park and Natalie showed off her new dress and also to play in the play-park too.
I took a few photos and some video clips, they were taken using my phone so the quality isn’t superb due to the light being a bit low.

Natalie in one of her new dresses

Natalie in one of her new dresses!

Natalie and Daddy playing on the slide

Natalie and Daddy playing on the slide.

Annie and Natalie pose for the camera

Mummy Mommy and Natalie pose for the camera.


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Movie of the sunset.


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Natalie on the slide.

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The Curran Family Singers!

Well, it’s been over a week since my last blog post. I’ve been pretty busy at work catching up on bits and pieces, starting one or two new projects.

Annie, however, has finally caught the GarageBand bug! I’ve now made my laptop a permanent resident at home and we’ve given the PC we had to some friends. So because we’re now a Mac-only household it’s meant Annie’s been able to spend some time using it to make some music.

‘Flamily’ singing

So, with all this music-making going on we thought we’d record a track especially for the blog, so we now proudly present the first ever track from ‘The Curran Family Singers’! ‘Row-Row’ is our rendition of that famous nursery rhyme, it’s in MP3 format so you should all be able to listen to it.

Row-Row.mp3 (750kb approx)

We hope you enjoy it! (Annie wouldn’t let me keep my voice distorted to sound like a robot so you’ll have to out up with my singing voice!)

‘Flamily’ is how Natalie pronounces ‘Family’ and it’s so cute that it’s hard to discourage or correct her!

Home-Hi-Fi-Heaven

So, with having my Powerbook laptop at home now I wanted to be able to hook it up to my stereo so that we could play all of our music. We put almost all of our CD’s away in boxes recently as we wanted to get rid of our CD towers which were taking up space and which also weren’t big enough to hold it all anyway!

I have all of our music in digital form at work and also on my iPod too, so it made sense to have it at home too. So with the addition of an external hard-drive we’ve now got all of our music (over 5500+ tracks, 30gb, enough music to play for three weeks continuously!) and also our Photo archive (Over 3500 photos at least!) in one place too.

We can now listen to all of our music and it doesn’t take up much space! The only drawback is currently we have to hook the computer up via a really long cable, the next addition will need to be an Airport Express base station that will allow the music to be beamed to the amplifier wirelessly!

Cool, that was family stuff and geek stuff one blog post!

Requests for further songs to be recorded are welcome!

~Rick