An inflatable booth for you to work in [rolls eyeballs]

XPAND your mind for a moment and imagine working everywhere. Imagine being able to grab your office (probably computer) everywhere you go.

If the thought seems pleasant, look no further. I have just come across what I can only describe as an inflatable igloo. Frankly, I doubt it will ever become a success. People go outdoors in order to escape, rather than pursue work in a disconnected, mobile environment.

Also see: Server in a Bubble

CSS analysis with The Web Developer extension (click to enlarge)

TUART Nicholls has been doing some stunning work on cutting-edge cascading style sheets (CSS). I first noticed his work roughly one year ago. More latterly I came to discover that he had implemented pure-CSS fonts! Imagine the complexity. Have a look at some time-consuming illustrations of the power of CSS:

• CSS font
• Snooker Cue (requires a Mozilla-based Web browser)
• Opaque, overlapping circles

No images are involved in creating any of the above, among many more which you can find in the site.

Also see: Barcharts using CSS

The front page of Slashdot on April 1^st, 2006

FTER Slashdot’s transition to proper CSS-based layout (it used to be heavily based on tables), a contest is run to select the new, permanent site design. Here are some of the latest design contenders. Some of these designs are included as actual Web pages, whereas others are appended as PNG-formatted screenshots. Shown above is the Slashdot front page as of April 1^st this year.

Screen-shot of Metisse for FVWM

MAGINE to yourself a world (or a desktop environment rather) where everything lies in 3-D space. Imagine interaction with objects, which takes into account the ‘depth’ Z of one’s arm, rather than just the (X,Y) coordinates — those that are delivered from the conventional mouse.

Croquet is an intersting project that provides an SDK for 3-D environment. It could potentially make it all a reality. Pseudo-3d (stereo imaging) displays exist already.

OME numerous weeks ago, a film was released which was created using nothing but Open Source software. Whether its content (graphic objects) and source code were published under the GNU GPL, it is hard to tell, but it could raise intersting questions and lead to ideas. Apparently, it was the Creative Commons Licence. More details can be found in the official site of the film.

Why is it all so intersting and worthy of a mention? Think about downloading the source code, which was used to render the film. One can then tweak it, re-genrate the film, and release what becomes a quickly-built derivate. Open Source films and their high merit can be illustrated by looking at re-use made by Disney. Although this latter site is in Russian, the pictures are self-explanatory.

Probably the most ubiquitous wallpaper nowadays

ACH platform (including its distribution and/or version) can often be characterised by its default wallpaper (background picture), among other visual signatures such as the login screen and icons set. Here is a nice and fairly complete gallery of default wallpapers . It contains wallpapers many of us have seen in Mac OS, Windows, and Linux.

This is a testimony which I could not help quoting. It speaks of the rotten state of Web design courses.

I asked the teacher to direct me to a real website in the real world that he has developed. He told me his job is to teach, not create a site. I then asked if he could accurately describe the use of the [a href] tag and how to make it open in a new window. Total silence. I then asked if he knew what “CSS” stood for and its place in web design. Once again, silence. I asked what PHP is. I asked about asp and its purpose in web design. Still silence. I was sure he hung up on me, but I was wrong.

After 10 seconds of stammering his way through the css question, he summarized his comments by telling me that CSS is a very specific programming language seldom seen in the real world. He admitted he was not familiar with asp and phc (that’s right, ph”c”). He feels that since it is seldom used, there is no reason to teach it to the students.