I beg to differ, Jones represents Mendel Biotechnology, who grant exclusive licenses of their biotechnology primarily to Monsanto (their #1 client -- BP is #2, just wait for that article!). The goal obviously is to further expand Monsanto's market saturation.
All essays published by the BBC editors must go through an "approval" process (one by which I defy you to get an anti GM article past). In addition, the author's credentials only identified him as a Professor, someone qualified to teach us generally at an advanced level.
As you must be aware, Slashdot has a number of GM/Monsanto threads, so I figured that end was covered pretty well. Googling "problems with gm food" provides 1,420,000 results, should you need to rehash.
Yeah, but it's probably safe to assume even you McFortner are infringing on my organic O2 to CO2 conversion process patent. So pay up or cease and desist!
I, for one welcome limiting the rights of corporate personhood, as is done with the rights of children or the mentally incapacitated.
If we must accept the legal fiction, whether introduced without argument by accident or cunning, why not at least legally address the fact that corporate personages are dangerously sociopathic?
Wow. $1.4 million and international recognition for business-as-usual political theater. That's probably more than a dollar a word for anything Obama has stated since he's been in office.
This must be a proactive move to force Obama to back up his talk with actual action - there's no other sensible explanation.
How many other times has the prize given for wishful thinking or for merely saying the right things? I wonder when Obama will start the Iraq war crimes trials? And, uhm, how many more troops is Obama sending to Afganistan to secure the pipeline route and protect the poppy fields?
Gee, can I nominate the Rothschild family for their efforts to establish an earthly utopia for us all?
...btw, I actually did a bit of research into the background, and found major industry ties to one of the authors. That's info not to be found at your suggested link.
With an arts school background (RISD, Pratt, & Parsons) I've been running a one man design studio for over 25 years, have had to continually educate myself to keep up with technology, and have picked up HTML, CSS, Javascript and Flash programming skills along the way. I understand what it's like reaching beyond one's basic discipline, and it can be done. Naturally a programmer is preferred when things get complicated. An eye for design can be innate or developed. The developing path can take a long time.
Someone who has naturally gravitated to the field of IT will most likely have a strong "left-brain", logical leaning that works counter to the development of visual design skills. It is not likely they will be doing the business any great favor by taking complete responsibility in this area. Going the cheapest route is usually one of the surest ways to keep the business small.
Design takes time and good design - which might actually appear very simple - takes longer. Way longer for the inexperienced. I suppose the IT department is a bit slow these days? If not your boss is paying for design whether you do it or not. Probably best to have you keep the machines up while a designer designs.
That said, I see web design as a two part process. First, distill all the various elements until you've found the simplest way to serve the required functionality. You've really only a few acceptable options in terms of location of navigational items etc. Google "Jacob Nielsen" and read up on usability.
For the second stage, collect (and discuss with your boss) screen shots of web sites you like, figure out what is appealing about them. Define a basic design theme, and incorporate some of those ideas gleaned off your screen shots. If your company already has a decent logo and/or professionally developed printed materials use some graphic elements from those. Build a simple palette with a few colors/shades that work well together. Keep everything simple and clean. You don't want a "shotgun blast" of design ideas. Apply styling consistently. Don't jump from round buttons here to rectangular ones there and something else somewhere else. Subtly adapt your theme into several templates so deeper levels are differentiated from your home page. Make some sketches of what you want to accomplish and then figure out how you can create this with CSS and a minimum of HTML.
Most image files are composited and optimized in PhotoShop, but may (in whole or part) have originated in Illustrator or elsewhere.
Final tip: keep your variety of fonts (styles, weights, colors and sizes) to a minimum unless you work for a circus!
After all your efforts, chances are your resulting site will not be "good design", but instead you might pull off a "fair to middling design" - and that should be considered pretty good! If good design was everyone's domain, I'd have been out of business long ago!
Slashdot Mirror
I beg to differ, Jones represents Mendel Biotechnology, who grant exclusive licenses of their biotechnology primarily to Monsanto (their #1 client -- BP is #2, just wait for that article!). The goal obviously is to further expand Monsanto's market saturation.
All essays published by the BBC editors must go through an "approval" process (one by which I defy you to get an anti GM article past). In addition, the author's credentials only identified him as a Professor, someone qualified to teach us generally at an advanced level. As you must be aware, Slashdot has a number of GM/Monsanto threads, so I figured that end was covered pretty well. Googling "problems with gm food" provides 1,420,000 results, should you need to rehash.
Yeah, but it's probably safe to assume even you McFortner are infringing on my organic O2 to CO2 conversion process patent. So pay up or cease and desist!
I, for one welcome limiting the rights of corporate personhood, as is done with the rights of children or the mentally incapacitated. If we must accept the legal fiction, whether introduced without argument by accident or cunning, why not at least legally address the fact that corporate personages are dangerously sociopathic?
Little do they realize, I've already patented all known methods of filing lawsuits! Ha!
This must be a proactive move to force Obama to back up his talk with actual action - there's no other sensible explanation.
Here's a list of all Nobel Peace Prize recipients. http://nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/peace.html
How many other times has the prize given for wishful thinking or for merely saying the right things? I wonder when Obama will start the Iraq war crimes trials? And, uhm, how many more troops is Obama sending to Afganistan to secure the pipeline route and protect the poppy fields?
Gee, can I nominate the Rothschild family for their efforts to establish an earthly utopia for us all?
...btw, I actually did a bit of research into the background, and found major industry ties to one of the authors. That's info not to be found at your suggested link.
Uhm, I fixed that slashdot inspired database error earlier today...
Hey, was that my article at postpeakpublishing you're calling fine? If so, thanks! ;o)
With an arts school background (RISD, Pratt, & Parsons) I've been running a one man design studio for over 25 years, have had to continually educate myself to keep up with technology, and have picked up HTML, CSS, Javascript and Flash programming skills along the way. I understand what it's like reaching beyond one's basic discipline, and it can be done. Naturally a programmer is preferred when things get complicated. An eye for design can be innate or developed. The developing path can take a long time.
Someone who has naturally gravitated to the field of IT will most likely have a strong "left-brain", logical leaning that works counter to the development of visual design skills. It is not likely they will be doing the business any great favor by taking complete responsibility in this area. Going the cheapest route is usually one of the surest ways to keep the business small.
Design takes time and good design - which might actually appear very simple - takes longer. Way longer for the inexperienced. I suppose the IT department is a bit slow these days? If not your boss is paying for design whether you do it or not. Probably best to have you keep the machines up while a designer designs.
That said, I see web design as a two part process. First, distill all the various elements until you've found the simplest way to serve the required functionality. You've really only a few acceptable options in terms of location of navigational items etc. Google "Jacob Nielsen" and read up on usability.
For the second stage, collect (and discuss with your boss) screen shots of web sites you like, figure out what is appealing about them. Define a basic design theme, and incorporate some of those ideas gleaned off your screen shots. If your company already has a decent logo and/or professionally developed printed materials use some graphic elements from those. Build a simple palette with a few colors/shades that work well together. Keep everything simple and clean. You don't want a "shotgun blast" of design ideas. Apply styling consistently. Don't jump from round buttons here to rectangular ones there and something else somewhere else. Subtly adapt your theme into several templates so deeper levels are differentiated from your home page. Make some sketches of what you want to accomplish and then figure out how you can create this with CSS and a minimum of HTML.
Most image files are composited and optimized in PhotoShop, but may (in whole or part) have originated in Illustrator or elsewhere.
Final tip: keep your variety of fonts (styles, weights, colors and sizes) to a minimum unless you work for a circus!
After all your efforts, chances are your resulting site will not be "good design", but instead you might pull off a "fair to middling design" - and that should be considered pretty good! If good design was everyone's domain, I'd have been out of business long ago!