Why No News?

Although I'm sure my list of loyal followers is small to non-existent, I do want to apologize for my silence over the last few weeks. Work has kept me coding 9 to 10 hours a day, so by the time I get home I'm not too interested in programming (if I even have time before I have to hit the sack). Once I get back in the groove I'll be working on the following topics:

  1. Transparent rounded corners for images - Yes, I think I know how to do it now
  2. BlogCFC Theming Updates - There are new versions of BlogCFC, and I want to try to see if Ray Camden is interested in incorperating theming into the core BlogCFC

 

Userability Podcast #2

I was lucky enough to get to be the guest a podcast with Jared M. Spool of www.uie.com and Robert Hoekman, author of Designing the Obvious and Designing the Moment. Userability is all about the world of design for the web, and Jared and Robert are experts in that field. Given that I've developed a strong passion for web design and usability, I put the question to them: How would I make the career jump towards design? Listen and find out why I now want to be an interaction designer.

 

Microsoft Virtual PC for IE6 Testing

Windows Vista Logo

Just in case you didn't know already, testing websites in Internet Explorer is annoying, especially given that you can't have IE6 and IE7 installed simultaneously. Enter a free tool from Microsoft: Microsoft Virtual PC. This program is a decent VMWare like setup, but it gets better because Microsoft has actually released images for you to use with them. You can find images with IE6, IE7, and even IE8 beta all on their download page.

I know, a free tool from Microsoft that makes your life a little easier. It's weird!

 

Shortcut to My Hosts File

I don't know how often you need to edit your hosts file, but it seems like something I have to do on a daily basis, and its a pain. First the file is buried in Windows subdirectories, so you have to find the thing, and then when you do, it doesn't have an extension, so you constantly have to tell Windows what to open it with. Today, I finally managed to make a shortcut to launch it in Notepad.

  1. Create a new shortcut.
  2. Paste the following into the location:
    %windir%\notepad.exe %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
  3. Use the wizard to name it, and be happy.

That should work for almost everyone, unless your host file is located somewhere else.

 

Vote!

Go out and vote. I don't care who you vote for, I just want you to vote.

 

Google Chrome Themes

Just a week or two back I was bemoaning the fact that Google's Chrome browser clashed with my shiny black Zune desktop theme, and now I can fix that too:

http://www.itsalee.com/download-google-chrome-themes-skins-fre

Has several skins and instructions on their installation. Look at the links off that post too, as there are 4 or more posts with skins. Right now I'm rocking a nice dark grey theme that looks just pretty with Zune.

 

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Jon in Chicago, July 2008

I'm Jon Hartmann and I'm a C# .Net developer by day, a ColdFusion guru by night, and all around Javascript fanatic. Stay right here to read my technical posts as I grapple with mysterious error messages, user interface design questions, and all things baffling and irksome about programming for the web. Learn more about me.

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