Computer Software for Course

A number of students have been interested in purchasing Dreamweaver and Photoshop for themselves. Either they want the packages or they have trouble getting to the lab to do the homework.

Pricing is exhorbitant at full retail, with Adobe Creative Suites 4 Web Premium listing at $1699 (students can get it for $599). You get a lot for that price, but you'll go hungry trying to make the payments.

Here are some much more affordable options:

1. Don't buy the "latest" version. Grab a not-quite-the-latest set of Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop disks off eBay. It's legal, and vastly more affordable. I have 2 machines with 2004-era versions of Dreamweaver and Photoshop. The programs work JUST FINE, and there are no real compatibility issues. Dreamweaver 8 (circa 2006-8) can be had for under $100 (Dreamweaver MX 2004 is also good), and Photoshop 6 (which works just great!) runs just over $100 on eBay. Make sure that you're not buying a "training dvd" or a book, that you're getting real versions with codes (not "upgrade" disks), and that you buy for Mac or Win, depending on your home computer.
2. Go Craigslist.org and ditch eBay. I did a quick search in my "area" and found a guy selling Adobe CS3 (the software in the lab) for $100. That's an INSANE price. On eBay that package is still going for more than $300. You get Dreamweaver, Photoshop, ImageReady, Illustrator, Flash, Acrobat, and a whole, whole lot more. Crazy. If you search in New York City you'll find it for less. Just use caution and get real disks with real activation codes.
   
3. FREE! Go OPEN SOURCE. We're using Dreamweaver and Photoshop, but you don't have to. There are really good html editors (with a visual interface) available free, and Gimpshop is an open source graphics editor that has menus laid out just like Photoshop. (Why do this? You have to review some software or interface tool as part of the course. Why not get some decent software on your machine, use it, and then do your review. It costs nothing but a little hard drive space, and some time.) I'll work with you if you choose this option.
   
4. Put Adobe's free 30-day trial to use. Download Adobe Creative Suites 4 Web Premium and try Dreamweaver and Photoshop for 30 days. After that you'll be locked out unless you buy the suite, but you can uninstall at that time.
   

Those are the only recommendations I can make.

Got a Minute for Andy Chen?

http://www.andychendesign.com/

You have to like this. Ok, you don't. I like it. I especially like what Andy has done with the Student Design Agency.

Assignment:

1. What is the Student Design Agency?
   
2. How might York create its own Student Design Agency (SDA)?
3. What's stopping you from doing it?
4. If you don't care to engage with the SDA idea, write about Andy's website and portfolio.
   

Recover a Deleted File

If you happened to delete a critical file for which you have no backup, there's a good chance it's recoverable even if it's no longer in the Windows Recycle Bin. Follow the steps on retrieving a deleted file from PC World Magazine Video and try to get those important files back.

Got a Minute for E.Webscapes?

Elite by Design has a blog post entitled, "Getting Inspiration Wrong: Website Rip Offs," in which the author offers paired comparisons of possible rip offs. I open our Got a Minute for E.Webscapes with the EbD link to get you thinking about the boundary between inspiration and rip-offspiration.

Assignment:

1. Take a few minutes to read through that post.
2. Head over to E.Webscapes.
3. I don't think that E.Webscapes is exactly "ripping off" some other design, but there's a very close family resemblance to design elements used by some big company whose logo is a piece of forbidden fruit. Steve Nojobs has compiled all 27 of this company's ads on his blog page, for those of us who need help figuring out the design "inspiration" for E.Webscapes. Is this out of bounds?

Think that "borrowing" a silhouette logo idea and repackaging it in a different format means it can't be a ripoff? Check out youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com and think again.

Need to create silhouettes for yourself? Check this out!

My life as a college student

It took me a while to make my mind in choosing a major , I finally did choose a major at the beginning of this semester. I believe I am on the right field but i am a serious problem putting my schedule together. This semester is taking mad long , but we almost getting to the end.
let' talk about life in general, all I know is that life is not a joke the harder you build it the the easier it will bw for you at the end.

Online Pricing

While you are shopping online prices may fluctuate. If you want to get a good deal online download Amazon Price Watch at http://www.nukeprice.com/download.html . This is an IE/Firefox plug-in, it monitors an item you're interested in and alerts you when its price falls below an amount you specify. Another great tool is Price Protector you can find it at http://www.priceprotectr.com/, this tools warns you if the price of a product that you recently bought online is reduced, so you can claim a partial refund under the store's price guarantee policy. As always do not forget to clear you browser cache after every purchase, it will make your online shopping a lot more safer.

Tough Class Today (3/10)

Today didn't go well.

We had to bump the discussion of Williams and Tollett, and the planned workshop on web design ideas because too few people had done that homework. Then the brief tour of Dreamweaver got ugly and people experienced about 6 different things that can go wrong. Things were slow at times, too fast and confusing at other moments. No one left class with a clear sense that they accomplished "real" work on the personal website.

I spent a couple hours tonight reflecting on the class, and have come to the following decision:

I'm going to shift the WIKI part back to the last portion of the class and move more personal website work into the middle. This will enable us to make good progress on our sites.

Don't feel too frustrated if you're lost. You poked around in Dreamweaver, tried a few things (links, modify a template, make new pages based on a template, change some colors in the stylesheet, etc.) And you got a general look through some key parts of the interface.

I do have Dreamweaver screencasts to help with each part of the interface, and with making key modifications to the templates. These will be helpful in the coming weeks.

Let's come to class with our work ready to go next Tuesday, pick up the pieces, and carry on!

We'll talk about Williams & Tollett, Krug, our draft website content, and our designs. We'll also put our content into 4 pages on the website and actually upload a "draft" personal website. Bring your feedback for your peers so they have something to work with as they revise their own content.

Got a Minute for One Hat Designs?

One Hat is a studio that offers integrated media solutions. I posted the studio in Got a Minute because they include video projects in their portfolio. I like the limited use of Flash on the site. It adds some animation and dynamism to the home page without distracting the reader from the real content on the site.

Assignment:

1. Take a look at the effect on the buttons and the graphic effect at the bottom of the key images on each page. What do you think?
2. Look at the key images again. Why do you think they chose to put a red border across the top? What about the black border at the bottom?

Life..and death

I've recently have been thinking about how fragile life truly is. This past weekend my friends mom passed away in a car accident-she was only 49 years old. It is such a tragedy and completely unexpected. The wake was one of the worst things I have ever seen in my life. My friend and her two sisters were completely devastated. It is scary how your life can be over in a flash. It is one thing if you are sick for a while and then pass away (which is still horrible). Then I think about how you can be healthy and everything seems great and the next thing you know, your life can be over. Whether it be from an car accident, or any kind of accident. It is truly scary. My friends mom didn't wake up and think, "oh I am going to die today". It's just not fair. I think everyone should live their life as if everyday is their last, because any day-it could be.

Got a Minute for Bluewater?

Bluewater Web Development has a clean, minimalist website. Take a minute to poke around.

Assignment:

Choose a website you like from the portfolio. Write up a brief interpretation of what works and what doesn't in the site.