Trillian is a brilliant example of a site that's taken the point I made into account. They invested in a good designer to build one hell of a website, and the default skin. And a good designer doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, especially with the market we've all just pulled through.
After that, let people go to town and skin it however they want. It's all in the first impression.
...that they went about getting someone in skin design (where they don't have to cater to a mass audience at all) to do the GUI rather than someone who actually specializes in GUI development for applications and sites intended for a mass audience.
Right now it looks rather amateur and sparse, with little in the way of attractive design sensibilities. The "As Seen on TV"-like presentation of the software in the main content window doesn't help any. When people see bad effort in a GUI -- that's their first impression from people about the underlying software. People (in a mass audience, with abundant worries about viruses and spyware) these days get skittish about downloading from sites that look bad, and doubly so if it's an application they want you to download. It's simple psychology.
Don't get me wrong -- I wouldn't mind having some software like this to get in contact with and find new business prospects. In fact, I welcome it and may very well see if it gets me anywhere. I'd just like to see them look to people whose living comes from real-world GUI experience and some semblance of understanding of the "why" of design.
...here comes the PARK command all over again
You know, it's that little program from, well, around 1987 that parked a laptop's hard drive?
Sounds like history's coming full circle.
...places like The Underdogs are so crucially important, at least on the gaming side of things. They're a truly indispensable repository of old games you can't find anywhere anymore, for Mac and PC alike.
This is irony at its finest, people.
So many artists don't want you to get MP3s for free, yet they have no qualms crying out for free samples.
Of course, this excludes those groups that don't much mind the MP3 "revolution". Keep on rockin' in the free world, yo.
But, for the others, that takes a brass set of cojones.
I'm curious to know how they pulled this off until 1997, since Atari officially went under with the JTS (crap hard drive manufacturer) merger in 1996, and effectively cut off ties with anything having to do with its systems at the time, most notably the Atari Jaguar.
I could just see it now, asking Atari to support your woodgrain 2600. HA!
Interesting fact is, the Jaguar was bound for higher success if the Tramiel family hadn't scared away every publisher that had been already been planning on porting some of their games over.
I do recall that one of these was to be Mortal Kombat III, as I've seen screens and it was actually shaping up to be a killer game for the system.
Also in the pipeline were a WebTV adapter (of which exactly 2 prototypes exist), the VR system (of which there are I think 3 prototypes, 1 fully functional with Missile Command 3D [to be the pack-in game]), and the 19.2k modem (of which there are I think 18 in circulation, all prototypes that work with the game Ultra Vortek via an in-game special code to access the dialer).
Games like Tempest 2000 and Alien vs. Predator were fairly groundbreaking for the system, and the DOOM port was something of "the best port ever" according to Carmack at the time. You really have to pass by the chaff to see the "wheat" in the system.
Battlesphere, which was released WAY after the Jaguar's demise, is one hell of a game, offering 16-Jaguar network capability, although it's incredibly expensive to obtain (check eBay). The GOLD version even adds a full development system to the mix. DOOM also enjoyed this networking capability, although buggy. Pretty far ahead in terms of networking consoles. Between this and the modem, it was the precursor to things like "XBox Live" you see today.
Which brings me to another point - continued development. The Jaguar enjoys probably one of the best game release rates for a "dead" system in video game history, other than perhaps the Atari 2600.
Telegames released I believe 4-5 games that had been finished but not released before the system was canned.
4Play (Battlesphere) released Battlesphere.
Songbird Productions released another 5 games (and continue to obtain rights and release them after tweaking code/completing them).
B&C Computervisions released several prototypes (both finished and unfinished) in the past year.
There's further development going on, given the advent of CD-encryption bypasses included on some newer releases and a reliable way to encrypt the cartridges. Quite an amazing feat, really.
ANd the fans are rabid as HELL.
Very correct. Testing is always integral to getting it all right, but just like I mentioned earlier, it never has to be as hard as taking 2-3x the amount you'd normally take.
You have a great point.
If you designed for standards rather than browsers, you wouldn't have to differentiate.
Also, I fail to see how you're achieving 99% compatibility designing around IE. A quick check at the Global Stats at The Counter shows me you're only reaching 92%-93% using this methodology.
Following sound methods such as adherence to web standards set forth by the W3C is the only way you'll ever get to 100% of the browsers out there, and I see many designers doing it each and every day without having to take a significant amount of extra time to accomodate NS6 and Mozilla. Hell, I've done it several times on accelerated deadlines using XHTML/CSS/JS, just as quickly as if I were just coding the site purely for IE.
Granted, older technologies (i.e., IE3, NS4) are now by the wayside or are on their way, but if you aren't developing for a "Mozilla, NS6+, IE5+" baseline, your audience is getting the shaft and your employer isn't getting exactly what you're claiming to give them.
Just in case I get a few people complaining "What about Netscape 4.x?!" Get a new browser that actually includes standards compliance. I'll develop for it if I need to, but 4.x is so old hat that it's merely a relic from the dot-com boom nowadays and needs desperately to be put down like the dying horse it is.
Sounds to me like a third-party filter could remove any distortion involved, under the guise of 'better quality picture'.
This sounds about as half-brained a plan as the original DIVX.
How about jamming the people who talk all the damned time during the movie?
The guy just had a kid and still manages to kep programming like mad. In the past year I've been running a Synchronet BBS (with FIDONet), he's had at least 6 releases! Not bad for the only BBS system developer left, it seems.:)
And, as a graphic designer, who are they to know I didn't purchase the graphic and download it directly from one of the image bank sites?
I mean, c'mon, you'd have to run the entire database of each image bank's purchasers against an alleged site owner's name just to even have an inkling of an idea if that person stole the work or not. And what if it's a contributed or collaborative work with another designer? How the hell are they going to know, anyhow, given that many of the Internet's premier designers are known more by pseudonym than by real name?
Slashdot Mirror
Sprint PCS? Damn, I had no idea. I tmiht be a good idea to make a larger light of this.
Trillian is a brilliant example of a site that's taken the point I made into account. They invested in a good designer to build one hell of a website, and the default skin. And a good designer doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, especially with the market we've all just pulled through.
After that, let people go to town and skin it however they want. It's all in the first impression.
...that they went about getting someone in skin design (where they don't have to cater to a mass audience at all) to do the GUI rather than someone who actually specializes in GUI development for applications and sites intended for a mass audience.
Right now it looks rather amateur and sparse, with little in the way of attractive design sensibilities. The "As Seen on TV"-like presentation of the software in the main content window doesn't help any. When people see bad effort in a GUI -- that's their first impression from people about the underlying software. People (in a mass audience, with abundant worries about viruses and spyware) these days get skittish about downloading from sites that look bad, and doubly so if it's an application they want you to download. It's simple psychology.
Don't get me wrong -- I wouldn't mind having some software like this to get in contact with and find new business prospects. In fact, I welcome it and may very well see if it gets me anywhere. I'd just like to see them look to people whose living comes from real-world GUI experience and some semblance of understanding of the "why" of design.
Just some advice from a peer in the trenches.
...here comes the PARK command all over again You know, it's that little program from, well, around 1987 that parked a laptop's hard drive? Sounds like history's coming full circle.
...places like The Underdogs are so crucially important, at least on the gaming side of things. They're a truly indispensable repository of old games you can't find anywhere anymore, for Mac and PC alike.
Why yes, it is... If you look through more you'll find Scorpion also.
This is irony at its finest, people. So many artists don't want you to get MP3s for free, yet they have no qualms crying out for free samples. Of course, this excludes those groups that don't much mind the MP3 "revolution". Keep on rockin' in the free world, yo. But, for the others, that takes a brass set of cojones.
But this has been available for 6 months. The first track is probably the best of the lot.
...you work for an online porn monolith? Do they block CNN? How exactly would your productivity fall if you're already too busy with an 8-hour boner?
I'm curious to know how they pulled this off until 1997, since Atari officially went under with the JTS (crap hard drive manufacturer) merger in 1996, and effectively cut off ties with anything having to do with its systems at the time, most notably the Atari Jaguar. I could just see it now, asking Atari to support your woodgrain 2600. HA!
...every possible game and app demo you can. Then you'll most definitely have your 150GB.
Interesting fact is, the Jaguar was bound for higher success if the Tramiel family hadn't scared away every publisher that had been already been planning on porting some of their games over. I do recall that one of these was to be Mortal Kombat III, as I've seen screens and it was actually shaping up to be a killer game for the system. Also in the pipeline were a WebTV adapter (of which exactly 2 prototypes exist), the VR system (of which there are I think 3 prototypes, 1 fully functional with Missile Command 3D [to be the pack-in game]), and the 19.2k modem (of which there are I think 18 in circulation, all prototypes that work with the game Ultra Vortek via an in-game special code to access the dialer). Games like Tempest 2000 and Alien vs. Predator were fairly groundbreaking for the system, and the DOOM port was something of "the best port ever" according to Carmack at the time. You really have to pass by the chaff to see the "wheat" in the system. Battlesphere, which was released WAY after the Jaguar's demise, is one hell of a game, offering 16-Jaguar network capability, although it's incredibly expensive to obtain (check eBay). The GOLD version even adds a full development system to the mix. DOOM also enjoyed this networking capability, although buggy. Pretty far ahead in terms of networking consoles. Between this and the modem, it was the precursor to things like "XBox Live" you see today. Which brings me to another point - continued development. The Jaguar enjoys probably one of the best game release rates for a "dead" system in video game history, other than perhaps the Atari 2600. Telegames released I believe 4-5 games that had been finished but not released before the system was canned. 4Play (Battlesphere) released Battlesphere. Songbird Productions released another 5 games (and continue to obtain rights and release them after tweaking code/completing them). B&C Computervisions released several prototypes (both finished and unfinished) in the past year. There's further development going on, given the advent of CD-encryption bypasses included on some newer releases and a reliable way to encrypt the cartridges. Quite an amazing feat, really. ANd the fans are rabid as HELL.
Very correct. Testing is always integral to getting it all right, but just like I mentioned earlier, it never has to be as hard as taking 2-3x the amount you'd normally take. You have a great point.
If you designed for standards rather than browsers, you wouldn't have to differentiate. Also, I fail to see how you're achieving 99% compatibility designing around IE. A quick check at the Global Stats at The Counter shows me you're only reaching 92%-93% using this methodology. Following sound methods such as adherence to web standards set forth by the W3C is the only way you'll ever get to 100% of the browsers out there, and I see many designers doing it each and every day without having to take a significant amount of extra time to accomodate NS6 and Mozilla. Hell, I've done it several times on accelerated deadlines using XHTML/CSS/JS, just as quickly as if I were just coding the site purely for IE. Granted, older technologies (i.e., IE3, NS4) are now by the wayside or are on their way, but if you aren't developing for a "Mozilla, NS6+, IE5+" baseline, your audience is getting the shaft and your employer isn't getting exactly what you're claiming to give them. Just in case I get a few people complaining "What about Netscape 4.x?!" Get a new browser that actually includes standards compliance. I'll develop for it if I need to, but 4.x is so old hat that it's merely a relic from the dot-com boom nowadays and needs desperately to be put down like the dying horse it is.
Sounds to me like a third-party filter could remove any distortion involved, under the guise of 'better quality picture'. This sounds about as half-brained a plan as the original DIVX. How about jamming the people who talk all the damned time during the movie?
I guess this means you and I have to deal with these damned Gen-Xers, right? :)
...a rip-off of Yahoo's, I find this slightly ironic.
The guy just had a kid and still manages to kep programming like mad. In the past year I've been running a Synchronet BBS (with FIDONet), he's had at least 6 releases! Not bad for the only BBS system developer left, it seems. :)
And, as a graphic designer, who are they to know I didn't purchase the graphic and download it directly from one of the image bank sites?
I mean, c'mon, you'd have to run the entire database of each image bank's purchasers against an alleged site owner's name just to even have an inkling of an idea if that person stole the work or not. And what if it's a contributed or collaborative work with another designer? How the hell are they going to know, anyhow, given that many of the Internet's premier designers are known more by pseudonym than by real name?