Neil Duffin Blog

Apple have posted a list of the Apple Design Award winners (and runners up) for 2007.

There are some interesting applications on here and it’s definitely worth a look if you own a Mac.

I’ve only recently downloaded the latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer but it’s a typical Microsoft experience.

First off, it doesn’t seem to solve much. It’s still massively worse than Opera, Firefox or Safari at standards compliance.

First off, it doesn’t solve every issue. It’s still not as good as Opera, Firefox or Safari at standards compliance.

Secondly (and I find this an amazing oversight) once you install IE7 it locks out all previous versions…

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Ecto 3 is nearing completion and it’s a good thing. I’ve been using Contribute CS3 (this is written on it) but it’s not exactly my favourite program in the new Creative Suite.

I’m looking forward to Ecto 3 and I’m going to put it through it’s paces in comparison to Contribute CS3. I strongly suspect I’ll be going back to Ecto given the number of fairly major issues I have with Contribute - more on…

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Well, Contribute CS3 is now on my Mac and it’s time to compare its blogging capabilities with Ecto. At this time Ecto 3 is (still) not out and so I’m comparing with v2.4.2.

This is just a preliminary comparison and I’ll update when I’ve used CS3 more.

So that’s the first thing. I can actually use Contribute CS3 with WordPress 2.1. Adobe have fixed the issue with communication and overall connections are faster and smoother than with…

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In the process of moving I’ve updated the blogs to use WordPress version 2.1. There’s a number of updates in this version and it seems pretty good. There is one problem though - I’ve had to stop my tests of Contribute (version 4) because it just won’t work with it.

I’d originally though it was my new server. However, I tried uploading the old version 2.0.x of WordPress and that works fine. It’s only when I…

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More catching up after the server move…

I found some interesting tutorial video sites / podcasts on a wander around the ‘net a few days ago.

The first set are for Adobe’s new Creative Suite 3 but they also include some Lightroom videos too. They can be found on the CreativeSuite Podcast website or subscribed to in iTunes (if you have it installed). I’ve copied the link to here. They are produced by Terry White.

There’s also a…

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I’ve been using Captcha! to avoid spam on my blog for a long time and it’s performed it’s task very well.

The problem is it also makes life difficult for any non-spammer trying to leave a real comment. It’s technology is very heavy handed and it contains a few flaws too. If your comment was too long and you read the password wrong (they are sometimes difficult to read) then it would simply delete your comment…

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There’s been a lot of online debate about the pricing of Adobe’s new CS3 software. Nigel Moore has produced an article on this which looks at the price of Adobe’s software in various territories.

His price comparisons are before local taxes are added and show some pretty large differences. Adobe’s official stance seems to come down to a matter of the cost of running the business in the various areas of the world and, for the…

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I’ve been trying out Adobe’s (Macromedia’s) Contribute 4, there’s a 30 day trial for download. I’m doing this because I’m interested in the new CS3 version but it’s not available yet. So, I’ve plumbed for a test of version 4 in the meantime as several reports say there’s not a huge functional difference between the two versions. Only time will tell how major the update really is.

Unfortunately, I’m undecided how good it is.…

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I’ve never heard of Adobe’s Kuler web site until a piece on PhotoshopNews stating that they’ve released a widget for the Mac to allow automated updates of the latest colour schemes.

There are literally thousands of 5 colour schemes on this site - all can be downloaded, rated and commented upon. It’s even possible to upload with associated keywords to allow for searching. Definitely worth a look if you want a new colour scheme.