Thursday 30 November 2006

You want hundreds of web2.0 XHTML/CSS Designs?

Here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/splat/sets/981332/

Design Electronic Products the Web2.0 Way


This new site is all about designing electronic products (sub $190) as a group:
http://www.crowdspirit.org/

Is there any problem web2.0 can't tackle?

Wednesday 29 November 2006

Spaceballs now only £30 NEW


This is the new 6-axis 3D controller (spaceball/spacemouse) from 3dconnection:
http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/3a1d.php

It's called the 'SpaceNavigator' and it looks like a massive price breakthrough for this class of device (previously they retailed for around £200).

What is a 3D controller? Check this link:
http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/3aaa.php
Basically it is an input device used in the opposite hand to your mouse hand. It is used with 3D design software to rotate and zoom a 3D model or navigate a 3D environment.

It is currently windows XP and USB only. It looks like 3Dconnection is now supporting the popular Google 3D applications Sketchup and Google Earth. A full list of supported applications can be found here:
http://www.3dconnexion.com/solutions/cad/2aa.php

UPDATE:
Here is Google Earth being used with the new controller:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XncGAGdqv9E

Adobe Kuler - Colour Palette Utility

This is a great new online colour tool from Adobe:

http://kuler.adobe.com/


It gives you lots of cool 5-Colour palettes that are perfect for web and print design.
You can customise the palettes online or create new ones. Palettes can be found using a keyword search or browsing the 'recent' or 'popular' categories.

Registered users can download palettes in .ase format for use in CS2 Adobe software products.

Monday 27 November 2006

ConceptShare - share designs online

This is a cool new app for sharing designs online with customers and co-workers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5CXHOEfFJc


UPDATE:
conceptshare is now live:
http://www.conceptshare.com/

Sunday 26 November 2006

I'm a MAC... and I'm a PC

I love hating on Mac's and Mac users. However what few people seem to be talking about on the PC vs Mac front is that new Macs with intel core duo cpu's and Nvidia or ATI graphics ARE PC's ! Yes Macs ARE PC's.

Look, here is half-life2 running on windows XP booted on an iMac with ATI X1600 graphics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v6knSCXMQM

And here is Windows XP running inside Apple OSX using the new 'parallels' emulator (Parallels on intel Macs runs windows much faster than emulators on G3,G4 and G5 Macs):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI33A76n4Ok


These aren't hacks. The 'bootcamp' software that boots windows on macs will be built into the next version of OSX. At the moment you have to download it from Apple here: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

The Parallels emulator can be download here for £40:
http://www.parallels.com/

Thursday 23 November 2006

Audi TT Rhino Rendering



Audi TT Modelled and rendered in Rhino.

more cool stuff from this designer:
http://phil-w.blogspot.com/
http://heresmy.com/

Monday 20 November 2006

Video Podcasts

Forget YouTube. The hottest media on the web at the moment are podcasts and the hottest podcasts are video podcasts.

These are my two favourites:

Geekbrief.TV:
http://www.btpodshow.com/shows/?mode=current&show_id=365

and

Diggnation:
http://revision3.com/diggnation

Even Wesley Crusher is getting in on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wil_Wheaton
http://revision3.com/indigital/2006-09-26

Check them out !

UPDATE - this is my new favorite:
http://www.tikibartv.com/

Wednesday 15 November 2006

Adrian's Mega Tips - Number 1 - usb wi-fi adapter problem

PROBLEM: Do you find that your Wi-Fi USB adapter does not automatically connect to your network after a reboot or return from Standby/Hibernate in Windows XP ?

ANSWER: Go to control panel - 'admin tools' - 'services' and make sure the following start automatically:
DHCP Client - Network Connections - Network Location Awareness - Plug and Play - Remote Access Connection Manager - Remote Procedure Call - SSDP Discovery - Workstation. To change the startup type to 'automatic' for these services just double click on the service and select 'automatic' from the dropdown.

Sunday 12 November 2006

Tom's Hardware Guide

Want to know the relative performance of all the latest PC hardware?

Then Tom's Hardware Guide should be your first stop. The site has interactive performance charts for CPU's, graphics cards and harddrives.

All charts are aranged so the fastest/best hardware is always at the top. There is a large choice of real world benchmarks that can be used to compare hardware. Just select the benchmark from the dropdown list and the chart is redrawn.

Saturday 11 November 2006

Webware.com - cool new web 2.0 blog from c-net

Check out this cool new web2.0 blog from C-Net:
http://www.webware.com/

There's a shift underway in how people use computers and the Internet. Every day more utility is being delivered over the Web. Full applications can now be run in a browser, accessible from any computer. Software? It's no longer required. Software is becoming Webware.

There are different types of Webware.

  • Productivity applications. Microsoft may own the desktop, but not the Web. Online, Google has solid productivity apps. And there are dozens of upstarts in this market too.
  • Data-driven applications. Many new online services rely on real-time data that simply could not be encapsulated into software. Examples include Google Maps, Zillow and Farecast.
  • Community services. Webware enables people to network, share their lives, and work together. Examples are MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, and SmartSheet.

Webware.com is the site where computer users can learn about new and useful Web applications.


Friday 10 November 2006

Want to create and host websites in just a few minutes ?

These new web tools give you the power to create full hosted websites, for free, in just a few minutes.

Wetpaint lets you create community/wiki type sites. Customisation options are limited to changing colours, backgrounds and header images:

http://www.wetpaint.com/

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With Weebly you can create a small static website with a choice of templates. Once created sites can be hosted for free or download into a zip file for further modification:

http://www.weebly.com/

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UPDATE:
Yet another website creation/hosting system:
http://www.squarespace.com/

Next Gen 3d Photo Worlds from Microsoft

This looks like a killer next gen photo app from Microsoft:

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/default.html

It was a hit at the recent web 2.0 conference.

Check out the video:

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/videodemo.html

Click the 'try it' link for a demo in IE 6 or 7.

AVG Free Anti-virus for Windows

A new version of AVG free antivirus software (7.5) has been released:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

It replaces version 7.1 that will be discontinued after January 2007.

This is a great anti-virus product that I have been using for over 2 years. It is free for personal use and virus definitions are updated daily. Plus unlike many anti-virus systems it does not slow down your machine too much.

However for adware/malware detection I use lavasoft ad-aware. It is free for personal use and has online updates of its definition files:

http://www.lavasoft.de/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

Microsoft is now telling us that Vista wil not require any 3rd party anti-virus or anti-malware software:

betanews.com article

We will have to wait for Vista to see if this is really true.

Thursday 9 November 2006

Killer Robots

One day soon robots will take control and turn us into their slaves.

I will be the first to bow down to our Cylon overlords.

http://www.techeblog.com/

My first post

Welcome to my new blog !

Photoshop Tutorials

phil"s blog

ThinkGeek.com Random Product

Google Map