35 Designers x 5 Questions

I'm always on the look out for great web design and CSS tips. There's no lack of either on the web. I usually stumble over dozens of them - all claiming to be the best thing since sliced images - and they soon become very bland. Here's one that stuck out for me.

Smashing Magazine (which does look like a rather smashing magazine) asked 35 web designers five design related questions. The answers are a wealth of knowledge. The amount of knowledge in the invisible college of web design is staggering, and quite disconcerting to new web designers. The best shortcuts, tips and of course IE bug workarounds are divulged openly. It's a great place to touch up your design skills and add a couple tricks to your toolbox.

How it should have ended ...

I've got to thank the crazy for this one. The guys from How it should have ended just seem to have the same sense of humour that we do. They've taken all of the best movies (and Borat) and changed the endings, just like the title says. For honesty like that I'm going to have to add an extra banana.

My favourite has to be the Superman ending. Maybe that's because I'm a big Batman fan from back in the day.

This one is a 9 banana-er for sure.

AFI - Decemberunderground

Well, it really sucks to go back to work while everyone else is on holiday. Can't say I recommend it at all. Unfortunately I tried to get leave and it got booted so I'm here. Fortunately that does mean that I get to listen to the new AFI(myspace) album Decemberunderground , which we actually got for my brother but has some how landed in my car:), and it is fantastic.

Now I wouldn't ever go and get a "Best Of" AFI, well ... not again anyway. Their older stuff is really not great, actually crap you could say, bad, not good, generally not worth the time - but Sing the Sorrow and Decemberunderground - now there are two fantastic albums. They would definitely sit in my "Best Albums" CD rack (that is, if I was that organised).

It took a couple of listens before I really got into Decemberunderground, but that is standard issue for most new CD's I get. If you're not an AFI fan you may take a bit longer, they definitely have a unique style. Its hard for me to pick out my favourite track at this time, although 3 and 7 do stick out.

Summary: Its a pity that I didn't get to listen to it before I whacked out my pick for 2006 entry (If you've been watching Heroes you'll know you can't change the past). It would have definitely been a contender.

Whilst my brother hasn't heard his CD enough yet to know if he likes it or not, I on the other hand can give it a 9 out of 10. What a band, what a CD.

Deweirdifyer Plug-In for Gimp on Windows

If there's a software application worth paying for its Adobe Photoshop, but at around R4,500 its a staunch price to pay. If you're not going to be making money from it, its an even bigger burden to take on.

A much better option is to use The Gimp. It has all the most useful features of Photoshop, and is surprisingly powerful. All the graphics on this site was made with it and it is my free editor of choice. A really nifty portable version has also be made here. Unfortunately the interface does take quite a bit of getting used to and turns a lot of people away. Thats where the Deweirdifier
plug-in comes in. I found it whilst stumbling (surprise) and tried it out on my portable version. There was some tweaking necessary, so if you get stuck then let me know and I'll help you get it working. For all the simplicity of what it does (just adds a background window and groups all the windows together), it makes Gimp a whole lot easier to use.

I can really recommend this plug in to new Gimp users. 9 bananas. It'll get 10 when the bugs are worked out. Also its only for Windows users - I haven't yet found a Mac or Linux equivalent :(

True Combat:Elite

True Combat Elite is an entirely free game based on another free game Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. Both games are available for Mac, Windows and Linux and can be downloaded here.
Its a FPS (first person shooter) with awesome graphics and physics. No AI though :(

Also, the download process wasn't the best, in fact it was downright horrible - I had to try more than a couple of times to get the whole thing. It was pretty irritating, especially the AusGamers web site which didn't allow more than two download streams. Of course it was only after about 100Mb before they cut you off, apparently for no reason. Eventually I found a small side note spelling out the "Thou shalt have no more than 2 streams" rule. Forget about resuming your download as well. In the end I just got it from another mirror.

Remember to download the 200+Mb of Wolfenstein first, you need it to play TC:E. All in all its a download of 600-700Mb. Pretty big, but the free game is definitely worth it. 9 Bananatjies.