Apologies, I know, i know, it’s been a few weeks since my last entry. I’ve been on holiday in the great English countryside and had to get back into the swing of things…

It’s important for a freelancer to have some time (either weekly or monthly) to get up to speed with new technologies and learn new skills. It’s something I haven’t done for a while, but for a few months now I’ve been hearing about jQuery especially from the Boagworld podcast. I’ve managed to get a few spare hours to read up and try some basic effects out, and I think I can say it will change the way I think about website creation from now on. The fact that its so lightweight is a bonus, but there are so many fantastic effects which are relatively easy to get going, and require just simple coding skills.

If you’re a web designer and have some spare time, it’s definitely worth getting your hands dirty. It could be the wow factor you’ve been looking for…

So, as Tuesday comes, so does the MRI scan. Still in a lot of pain, and with the painkillers only working for 45 minutes at a time, work is still taking longer than expected. One thing this mis-adventure has shown me is how versatile and user friendly the mac really is. Still, I’m glad to say that I now have a wide and diverse array of work coming in, which in a time of people tightening their belts, I feel quite privileged to be in this position.

i have an exciting web based Vaudeville inspired project which will require a lot of research and thought, but creatively will be amazing to work on. New ventures into affiliate marketing (something I’ve been thinking about for a while) are an exciting prospect and new graphic design opportunities are keeping me ticking over.

I always have room for more, so please feel free to take a look at my site and contact me if you like my work, and require any work done. Until next time, when hopefully I can type a little faster!!

So, with a lot of work just coming in and a big month or two ahead, I’m currently typing this with one hand. Why? A fractured wrist obtained in extra-curricular activities at an Essex Spartans training session.

Any mac-user reading this will understand the issue with only having one usable arm. Ctrl/cmd clicking becomes an issue. Subsequently this morning, my elbow has never had such a workout!

I must say, all the clients I’ve contacted to say their web projects will be delayed a little have been very understanding, and if this should ever happen to you, it’s the first thing you should do the next morning.

I’m signing off now because my arms getting tired already and my sling needs adjusting. Happy designing!

Version 3 of the popular Firefox web browser is going on general release on 17 June.

Wide take-up of the new version would further boost the market share of the browser which is currently used by about 15% of net users.

With the release, Firefox developer Mozilla is attempting to set a record for the most downloads over 24 hours.

“It’s a global effort to make history,” said Paul Kim, head of marketing at Mozilla.

Net gains

The attempt to break the record will begin at 1800 BST.

“There is actually no record for the greatest amount of software downloaded in one day, so for 24 hours from the moment we push the bits live, that’s when the countdown starts,” he said.

Mr Kim said Mozilla had no specific target for the number of downloads it would like to achieve on the day but racking up five million would be “awesome”.

By comparison, Firefox 2.0 registered 1.6 million downloads on the day it was made available on 24 October, 2006. More than 1.3 million people have pledged to download the new version on 17 June.

New features in Version 3 include automatic warnings when users stray onto webpages booby-trapped with malicious code.

Also in Version 3 will be “Smart Location Bar” that lets people return to places they have visited even if they have not bookmarked them or cannot remember the full web address.

Firefox 3 will work with Windows 2000, XP and Vista and some non-Windows operating systems including Linux.

Mozilla is not alone in marking the release of the new software. According to the Mozillaparty website more than 566 celebrations are planned for when the software becomes available.

Market battle

Firefox first appeared in early 2004 and since then has steadily eroded Microsoft’s hold on the web browsing world.

Although firm statistics are hard to gather Firefox is currently thought to be used by about 15-17% of web users.

In some territories the percentage of Firefox users is far higher. For instance, according to market analysis firm OneStat, 27.23% of German web users browsed the web with Firefox in February 2008. Most of the rest (67.63%) used Internet Explorer (IE).

“Firefox is making very steady encroachment in to the market,” said Adam Vahed, managing director of OneStat UK partner Apache Solutions. “It’s a very serious contender to the world domination of IE.”

He expected there to be great interest in Firefox 3.0 because most users of the browser tend to upgrade to the latest version as soon as it comes out.

By contrast, he said, many people were still using very old versions of IE. According to browser stats gathered by Chuck Upsell about 35% of IE users are on version 7 and 35% use version 6.

Mr Vahed said Firefox was generally popular with more “tech-savvy” web users and they turned to it because using it meant more webpages appeared as their designers intended.

“It’s still very much the case that Firefox is way ahead of IE when it comes to standard compliance,” he said.

IE’s lack of compliance with web standards can make some webpages look very odd, he said.

But, he added, IE7 was better at respecting standards and IE8 is expected to go further.

The second test or “beta” version of IE8 is due in August. The improved standards compliance means that anyone using it might find that pages tailored to work with the quirks of IE7 will now seem broken.

Article from bbc

I’ve just finished the brand new Legacy XS site. New features added since the last update include a gallery, video content and forums section.

Design wise, initially there was some trouble with ie6 not displaying floated divs as they should be, but overall, not too many problems to speak of (I must be learning!)

I wanted to bring the XS site up to date, and needed to integrate some new features. Forum integration was relatively painless; phpbb makes things pretty simple. Another main addition is the video content which is run from our server, rather than youtube/myspace or wherever. For some reason Dreamweaver’s additional Flash code makes the site not validate, but hey ho.

Also added in a new gallery with upload feature. The uploads get screened by me, just in case anything not appropriate gets posted.

That’s about it really. As I said, relatively quick and painless process this time. Check out my other sites at www.faciodesign.co.uk/web_design.html