February 24th, 2009 Development
When it comes to designing and developing your own custom Wordpress theme it can be a little tricky. You have to learn how the Wordpress theme files work, while trying to make your vision of your site come to fruition. But instead of installing Wordpress on your live site and then rushing to get your design completed, try installing Wordpress locally.
By installing Wordpress locally on your computer you are able to spend as much time as you want designing, developing and tweaking your theme without the worry of breaking your live site or having visitors see a half completed design.
And the best part is that installing Wordpress locally is actually very easy to do on a Mac running OS X 10.4.x or later, and you don’t need any programming skills.
Read the rest of this entry »
January 9th, 2009 Design, Resources
If you are looking for some Photoshop layer styles that are not only free but useful and actually nice, then check out the 220 Amazing Free Layer Styles that you can download here. Awhile ago I was looking for layer styles and came across an earlier version of this pack. These layer styles are really useful for creating web buttons and titles, and help speed up design time.
Layer styles are really easy to install in Photoshop. Once you download the .ASL file simply open the “Preset Manager” (found under the “Edit” menu), choose “Styles” from the drop down and then click “Load” and find the .ASL file. Then view your styles palette (under the “Window” menu) and start making awesome web designs.
January 9th, 2009 Technology
Rejoice! Apple have finally updated the 17-inch MacBook Pro to the new aluminum unibody design.
The big advancement that Apple is all excited about is the new long-lasting, non-removable battery. The new battery will apparently last up to 8 hours, which is pretty amazing. By making the battery non-removable they were able to make the battery bigger by using the extra space that was used for the casing etc.
The 17-inch MacBook Pro has also received the same upgrades as the 15-inch version that came out a few months ago, like the new style keyboard, the LED-backlit widescreen display and multi-touch trackpad. One extra they have added for the 17-inch version is the upgrade option for a 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display (for an extra AU$90.00). I will have to see what the reviews are of this option, but I would probably get it. I use my MacBook Pro for work, and while glossy screens do look pretty, the non-glossy screen that I have on my current 17-inch MacBook Pro is so nice and crisp and clean to work on.
Read the rest of this entry »
December 23rd, 2008 Technology
I have not been having the best of luck with tech lately (the whole MacBook Pro saga for example), and now one of my favourite little pieces of tech has decided to keel over. My Logitech NuLOOQ Navigator no longer works 
And to make matters worse, Logitech has discontinued it.
If you don’t know what the Nulooq is, Logitech call called it a “design controller”. You still use a mouse, but with your other free hand you control the Nulooq. It has a moveable ring around the middle that would scroll pages when pushed up/down or left/right, and would zoom in and out when twisted. On the top was a touch sensitive ring that could control other adjustable things like volume, and multiple buttons that you could assign different tasks to.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 24th, 2008 Design
I use Gmail for my personal email, and I have it open every day. I’ve found it to be the best web based email around, the spam filtering is great and it has a nice, easy to use interface and functionality.
A few days ago when I logged into my Gmail like I do every morning I saw a little notice at the top announcing that there are now Gmail themes that I can use. Cool! So of course I tried them all, there are a number that are just different colour combinations of the standard Gmail layout. There are also a few more fun and funky ones.
Read the rest of this entry »
