We had another one of those infamous screen resolution debates at work today, which reminded me that I once made a little javascript that sets the browser window to specific sizes, and reports the current available content area. I copy-pasted this page together a few years back and was quite surprised to find it still works, even in IE7.

Javascript browser resize and size detection

Please keep in mind that setting your browser to a say 800*600 on a 1024*768 (or better) screen will not give an accurate indication of the available space if you’re designing for users with an actual 800*600 screen. Those users will probably have maximized their browser windows. At it’s maximized setting, the margins are slightly different and the windows taskbar comes into play.

Ever since I (and everybody else it seems) read a guide on some blog about about how to write compelling blog post titles, I keep seeing posts like this. One of the tips was to compile a list of some sort. The top 10 reasons to use a PC over a Mac. Or the 20 most popular blogging topics. 5 pop singers who shaved their heads. And it works. People apparently like lists. Here’s one with 50 great website designs from last year. Enjoy!

In my daytime job I’m a Flash developer. But when it comes to creating websites I don’t think Flash is the way to go. Not just because Flash has some serious accessibility issues, but mainly because Flash-only websites are very search engine unfriendly. They usually consist of only one HTML page, and most of those contain no readable content. So Google, MSN and Yahoo will have no clue as to what your site’s about. I’ve been pondering things you could do to fix or at least improve this. I’ve played around with a few of these ideas and techniques, others are still on my to-try list. Please let me know if you’ve come up with other solutions or have anything else to add.
More Making Flash websites search engine friendly

When I occasionally browse themes.wordpress.net it strikes me not only how many themes there are, but also how many of them are rather poor. Many of them lack a coherent colour scheme and offer poor usability. Smashing Magazine has gathered 83 of the best WordPress themes available. If you’ve just set op WordPress and are looking for the creme de la creme in WordPress design, this is the place to look. My personal favorite is Suble, but you can’t go wrong with any of these.

Too bad none of my themes made it in there, I guess I’ll have to try harder with future themes…

I’ve been working on a Flash application at work that interacts with a barcode scanner. The scanner we’re using simply connects to a USB port and acts as a keyboard. No need for complicated Screenweaver stuff or anything. Just give an input field focus and scan. Great fun. Especially when you can make your own codes.

Samen met m’n collega Anko Elzes heb ik meegedaan aan de “Game Rally” van de Nederlandse Game Dagen. De opdracht was het ontwikkelen van een game voor de Cliniclowns. Doordat we pas kort voor de deadline van de wedstrijd hoorden hadden we maar een kleine twee weken de tijd om een spelletjes te verzinnen en bouwen. We moesten dus vooral pragmatisch te werk gaan. Vandaar dat we 110.592 clowns in een Flash movie hebben gestopt. Aan jou de taak ze te onderscheiden.

Spelen kan op de site van de Game Awards. EDIT: Het spel is verplaatst naar spelletjes.nl.

Helaas hebben we gisteren gehoord dat ons spel niet bij de laatste drie zit. Ik wil de genomineerden veel succes wensen.

Zo nu en dan heb ik wel eens een aardig idee. TIME/SPACE is er zo een. Ergens tijdens mijn studie bedacht ik dat je een video-fragment als een soort kubus kunt opvatten, en dat je daar ook heel andere beelden uit kunt halen door tijd en ruimte om te draaien.

Destijds had ik een command line programmaatjes geschreven dat dit effect genereerde door urenlang plaatjes in te laden en dan uiteindelijk een serie nieuwe plaatjes op te hoesten. Met 200 plaatjes van 320*256 in 16 grijstinten was ‘ie uren bezig. En dan had ik nog wel de snelste Amiga die er was .
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