Brain Freeze

Updated!!!

I’ll keep updating this page as I find more tools since this seems to be one of the more popular pages on this blog.

Thanks,

Jason

One thing programmers don’t generally know is good design techniques. You can usually tell when a programmer has created a UI because they’re ugly and difficult to use. There are exceptions to be sure (Romain Guy for one). For those of us that aren’t as blessed I present here a list of color pickers that allow you to pick harmonious color combinations for web sites, etc.

• Added 03/06/2007:
  Kuler
  From Adobe and pronounced “cooler” this is a fantastic color chooser. Not only can you create your own color scheme using a very intuitive color wheel but you can also search on the hundreds of color schemes people have already generated to find something quickly. This is a fantastic resource.
• ColorJack Sphere or more generally ColorJack.
  This is another fantastic color resource. Sphere is another easy to use color wheel with options for both the traditional RYB color wheel as well as the standard RGB model. There are many algorithms to choose from (triad, complementary, etc) but the really unique thing about this tool is the ability to see how color blind people interpret colors. Very cool stuff. ColorJack also offers a service similar to Kuler where you can see color schemes others have created using the Studio tool on the website.
• Colors on the Web
  This site is more than a color chooser (one is available from the Color Wheel menu option) as it also gives user-created color schemes, forums, writing on color theory, etc. It’s a fantastic resource for those who want to learn more about color.
• Color SynthAxis
  OK. This is a real designers tool and complicated but damn is it cool. I believe it is best explained by the tutorial.
• Added 11/25/2007:The Color Wizard

The interesting thing is that tools such as these are coming out of the woodwork these days. At one time Harmony, a Photoshop plugin for the Mac from Hot Door, was the only thing available. They now recommend Kuler and their own application hasn’t been updated in years. My how things change.

I’m being forced to run CentOS 5 at my new job and there is a bug in the graphic boot screen where once the boot process is complete instead of getting the graphic login screen you get dumped back to a virtual console. Hitting Alt-F7 brings up the graphic login screen. This bug is documented here.

The fix I tried was to install the Fedora Core 7 version of the RHGB package which fixed the issue (and caused another one…more on that in a second). That fix is located here at rpmfind.net.

In CentOS 5 the graphic boot process itself is glitchy on my Dell laptop (Precision M6300). However it doesn’t cause any problems and I do get the graphic login screen as I should.

If you’re a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and have been living under a rock the original cast of MST3K is doing a new thing. Same idea, same people, different title. Cinematic Titanic.

Check it out.

I love using AOL’s radio website. The player has a fantastic lineup of channels to listen to and the sound quality is wonderful. I never look at the AOL.com site for the most part. Until tonight.

The only thing I can say is damn. How much more obvious do they have to make it that they’ve totally poached the UI from yahoo.com. NOT only that website but AOL’s webmail client is almost a direct rip of the new Yahoo Mail UI, but it’s uglier.

At least AOL didn’t copy Yahoo Calendar (which is awful these days) for their own web calendar. They poached the UI from Google Calendar for that

I keep coming across people using “learnings” as a word in documents. Here is an example (scroll down to the bottom and you’ll spot it). Just a note for the incompetent: “learnings” is not a word. Go look it up in the dictionary…I dare you. See what comes up? “Learning”.

If you want to sound like Borat then keep using “learnings”. If you want to sound competent try “lessons learned”.

Jeffrey Zeldman really does have a wonderful way with words. Check out his recent iPhone experience.

I’ve been having an issue for the last several days where I have not been able to multi-select files in Explorer in Vista. Keyboard shortcuts didn’t work either nor did the Select All menu option (grayed out).

It would appear that this is a known issue and the problem is that the defaults for certain types of file dialogs where you should only be able to select one file are getting set for all folders. Unfortunately none of the fixes worked. Those fixes were:

1. Remove the Bags registry key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell
2. Do a reset folder options under Folder Options->View in Explorer

But I did find a fix and it is listed here along with the script that fixed the issue:
Can’t select multiple files in Explorer

Incidentally I do not have Vista 64. This problem can happen on the 32 bit version as well.

Here is the script I used to fix the problem. It is the same one referenced in the link above but I had to rename the file to have a .gif extension. Please rename to .vbs to run it.

Fix Single Select

I’m used to using WordPress and occasionally I’ve checked out Blogger to see what their setup is like but usually it left me feeling pretty empty. That was until yesterday.

In fact I was left really impressed. So impressed in fact that I just finished moving my other blog, Greenability over there. Here’s why.

1. Free custom domain name
   Gotta pay $10 a year for that with WordPress.com
2. Google Analytics
   ’nuff said.
3. Ability to edit templates (HTML *and* CSS)
   Again a pay-for feature with WordPress.com that isn’t anywhere near as flexible.
4. Ability to use JavaScript

So item 4 is really, really fantastic. With JavaScript not only can I use Google Analytics but I can use Sitemeter more efficiently since that requires JavaScript. I can use Google Gadgets as well. I can create my own widgets or use widgets that others have created. I actually just did that with a tag cloud. Very cool stuff.

I realize that Blogger is owned by Google and that Google has nearly bottomless cash reserves but quite honestly I don’t see why the WordPress.com guys can’t do the same things. At the very least open up JavaScript to open things up a bit. WordPress certainly is far better in other respects. The admin UI is much nicer and it does give a hell of a lot more flexibility in many respects (static pages, etc. since it really isn’t just a blogging platform but more of a content management system) but I have my own website for that type of stuff. I really just want blogging.

Anyhow…I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point this blog moves there. That stuff is almost to good to pass up. However since I just paid $10 for using my custom domain here I’m going to get my money’s worth for awhile

I probably shouldn’t be posting this but it is just too funny. Very Web 2.0…..

http://www.hosanna1.com/AAAWWW/

GoDaddy.com recently raised their prices pretty significantly and I’m not too happy about it. I have several domain names with them and the privacy options plus the domain registration itself is getting pretty expensive so I decided to look elsewhere and came across 1&1 Internet. .COM registrations there are only 6.99 a year and you get free privacy options plus email, etc. Hmmm….do I pay godaddy over $9 or 1&1 6.99. Not a tough choice I’ll be transferring my other domains to them when they are up for renewal.