SCLUG site redesigned

21 February 2010

The South Coast Linux Users Group (SCLUG) website has had a lick of paint by yours truly.

The old site didn’t look bad (in particular, I liked the penguin header image), but was getting a little long in the tooth, had a few issues (such as broken category styles, and images being linked to the wrong domain), and didn’t really reflect much about Wollongong, which is where we are based.

So a little Inkscaping later, I came up with this:

SCLUG site in Wollongong livery

Check it out. No, like, seriously. Check it out. A bit more polish to come, but the idea is there.

Insert Date Here

18 July 2009

Somehow, I think all’s not right with this publication — Highlands Post, 16 July 2009.

Insert Date Here

Hint: Look at the blue bar.

So, what do you think?

10 July 2009

I’ve updated the design of this blog — again.

If you’re reading this post via a syndication feed, then you’re missing out on my sUpEr l33t aRTiSTIC skillZ! The visual design is based on a design mocked up with Inkscape. It’s strikingly similar to a header I drew back when I used the K2 theme.

And yes, if you’re viewing this with IE6, you’re probably wondering why it looks like complete crap. But, then again, if you are using IE6, you’re probably not going to be remotely interested in what I have to say on this blog either. Go back to your daily routine.

The main goal of this redesign was not to liberally apply alpha-blended PNGs; nor to create the yes-I’m-annoying-you-on-purpose-Coolvetica header. It’s the Identi.ca and Delicious integration on the front page. (Yay!)

Another goal was to make the site a leetle more presentable. I’m a big fan of minimalism, and while I put lots of effort into my previous design, it used simple shades of grey, and, I have to admit, it was a bit drab. So, I’ve brightened it up with the Tango palette.

After the demise of Mugshot, my blogging, bookmarking, and microblogging were no longer being aggregated into a single stream. So I brought them right here, inline with my blog feed. I often see people’s Twitter or Delicious widgets on their blog sidebar, but never have I seen it displayed inline in the blog feed before; nor could I find a WordPress plugin to do the job for me.

Don’t ask how I implemented it, by the way. It’s not exactly elegant. (*cough* output buffering *cough*)

Two more things: If you’re using a browser that doesn’t contain the substring MSIE in its user-agent ID, you should be getting served by the application/xhtml+xml mime-type. Let me know if you hit any XML well-formedness errors. Also, comments have been made a little prettier, and I enabled two-level threading (which means you can reply to a comment, but no replies to replies).

So, what do you think? Pukeworthy? Let me know.

Some logos

31 December 2008

Okay, what do these logos have in common?

They all use stripes, and they’re ugly. Ugly, I tell you. I don’t know why, but I hate logos that use stripes like these. Please, just use gradients, drop shadows, or just go psycho with the gloss.

OpenOffice.org Draw: the forgotten gem

8 November 2008

I see lots of people using tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint or OpenOffice.org Impress to easily create simple drawings and layouts. Sometimes, when I tell these people that they are actually designed to give slide show presentations, not for drawing, they are actually surprised!

As you might imagine, PowerPoint and Impress are not actually as apt for the job as they could be if all you wanted to do is drawing. For that reason, you should give OpenOffice.org Draw a try. It’s very similar to PowerPoint and Impress in terms of layout and ease-of-use, but it is actually designed to be used as a drawing tool.

I used to dig out PowerPoint or Visio to do flowcharts and things like that. Now, I use OpenOffice.org Draw exclusively, because it is a much simpler tool for the simple jobs I throw at it.

So, next time you want to do a flowchart or simple drawing mockup on paper (maybe a photo collage), give OpenOffice.org Draw a try. It might just impress you.