andyhume.net

The new Artist Logssite quietly opened its doors to the public today. Not too much to say about it here right now, but plenty for me to put my back into over the next few weeks that’s for sure, plus a few exciting projects already in the pipeline (albeit a distant pipeline).

Just documenting this for posterity really.

Following in the great tradition of offering Gmail invites to publicise a new blog:

I have 28 26 to give away if anyone still wants one. Just comment below.

If you live in the UK you will constantly hear people moaning about public transport. It’s just something that the British do. We sit down to tea and scones, perhaps comment on the rain or the recent football results, but before long the topic of conversation will turn to the state of London Transport.

With that in mind: allow me to indulge my national weakness. I will spare you the details of exactly what I was up to this weekend and get down to the nitty gritty.

Saturday:

1. Hampton Court – London Waterloo: No trains from Hampton Court, required a 20 minutes ‘rail replacement bus’ (remember this term – it will be cropping up from time to time) to Tolworth followed by 25 minute wait for train to Waterloo. Add approx. 1 hour to journey time.
2. London Waterloo – Bond Street: A simple jaunt up the Jubilee line, rendered impossible as all Jubilee line trains are cancelled due to ‘planned engineering’ (another term to look out for). Requires re-routing on the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and a 10 minute walk to Bond Street. Add approx. 15 minutes to journey time.
3. Baker Street – Preston Road: Should be a simple 3 stop express(ish) tube to Preston Road. But… no Metropolitan line due to ‘planned engineering’ and no Jubilee line on the same route (see No.2.) Requires ‘rail replacement bus’ to Neasdon, and change to another ‘rail replacement bus’ to Wembley Park, and a 15 minute walk to Preston Road. Add approx. 1 hour 15 minutes to journey time.

Sunday

1. Preston Road – Baker Street: Bizarrely, things aren’t as obvious as a simple reverse of point No.3 above. This requires a ‘rail replacement bus’ to Wembley Park (which yes, I could have walked, but I was under the erroneous impression that it was taking me all the way to Baker Street) and then a second ‘rail replacement bus’ to Baker Street. Add approx. 45 minutes
2. Paddington – Ealing Broadway (and return): No problems here at all! What a joy.
3. Baker Street – Leicester Square: No Jubilee line to Piccadilly of course, so I thought “sod this”, and walked it. Add approx. 30 minutes to journey time.
4. Covent Garden – Waterloo: Northern Line – no problem.
5. Waterloo – Hampton Court: See Saturday point No. 1 – reverse it. Add approx. 30 minutes to journey time.

Now, I think that allows for a litte rant on your blog, right? Okay, I’m off to bloglinesto see what the heck is going on.

I recently decided for the first time to hide a layout style sheet from IE5 Mac. I don’t mean here, or at UsableType, where IE5 Mac visitors are less than 0.2% of the share (but are still delivered full styles). I mean on a commercial project (of which more in the next few days I hope).

I didn’t take the decision lightly, and it still bugs me a bit, because believe it or not, I actually use IE5 Mac myself regularly. Why’s that… I hear you ask? Because I’m running OS 9.0 on an old G3 and it’s the best bloody browser available.

And that is my problem with hiding CSS from it. People that haven’t upgraded to OS X are up a certain creek without a certain implement. My Mac handles Opera 6 about as deftly as Rogermight handle some large Wagnerian Meistersingers. It just doesn’t cope. So I’m stuck with IE 5 when using the Mac.

Of course, if I want to experience the full glory’s of CSS 2.1 I can hop over to Windows XP. But what about the people that can’t? It’s not like asking them to upgrade to a better browser; now we’re asking them to upgrade to a new machine!

Yes, I know I’m still delivering full accessible content; but it just doesn’t seem right that there’s no better way to experience the web on OS 9 than with a browser that only supports CSS 1. Even Mozilla stopped supportingit.

Poor old OS 9. I still love you.

A while back (in my younger, less carefree days) I installed the Google Tool Bar in Internet Explorer as a way of checking Page Rankfor various bits and pieces.

Today I was doing a bit of testing in IE and I noticed that The Dredge had a Page Rank (PR) of 5. Now forgive me if I’m massively under informed about how this works, but I have always been under the impression that PR was dished out on the basis of incoming links. Well my question is this… What the heck incoming links have I got on a weblog that is effectively 1 month old?

Okay, I’ve got a few from various blogs I’ve commented on, and Johnwas kind enough to link in his ‘elsewheres’, but that can’t be enough to propel me to PR 5. Can it?

I was further amused when I headed over to UsableTypeto see what lofty heights I might have aspired to there.

It had PR 4. Less than this place.

So, a site which pulled 80,000 visits in its first month, with links from the likes of Dave, Net Diver, Microsoft, Typographica… well, you get the idea. Weird.

Furthermore, noticing a large influx of googlers in the stats at UsableType, I was interested, and quite chuffed, to discover this. My sIFR article, with an awe inspiring PR of 0 (yes, zero), ranked above Dave’s articleon the same, with a PR of 6!

How the heck does Page Rank work, and is it still relevant to anything? My experience tells me not.

Anyone noticed any similar occurences, or did you all give up on it years ago?

Yes, I have a stats package, and I am aware that my current readership here is, well… quite low.

However, I hope to get at least a few replies. This is the question:

Can you see (if you have the Flash playerinstalled and Javascript enabled), three flash replacements at the top of this page? The first saying ‘Some Worries’, ‘Slight Concerns’, the second showing the date, and the third requesting ‘Can I ask a favour?’.

Yes or no? Please comment below with details of operating system and browser if possible.

I thought I had this pretty much sussed, and tested pretty much everywhere, but today I got a frustrating shock when I decided to show a friend the new design at his place. The top title was nowhere to be seen. Stupidly, in my anxiety I forgot to note the browser and OS exactly. I know it was Opera on Windows, but apart from that… nothing to go on.

Incidentally, I don’t want this to turn in to a comment farce about the pros and cons of sIFR and indeed Flash. I’m not actually interested in that – heard it all before. All I am interested in knowing is whether these replacements are working for you.

Cheers.

I popped into the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) last week, for a look at the ‘A Blueprint for Life’exhibition that is currently being featured.

Timed to coincide with the London Design Festival(which is long gone incidentally), the exhibition offers 21 photographs by Steve Speller, each one a portrait of a designer alongside their work. Designers selected were all deemed to have ‘changed the way we think about everyday design’.

Having spent a little while looking at some of the paintings in the NPG (Mo Mowlam in oils, Richard Branson in ticket stubs, etc), these photographs made quite an impact. In comparison with a painting, a large colour photograph has a vibrancy and life which you appreciate much more having recently looked at rather abstract, less detailed portraits.

Speller has been taking photos of designers and their work since 1986, for the cover of Blueprint Magazinewhich often featured a designer on its front cover. This exhibition has given him an opportunity to develop this idea and take it into 2004.

The photos have a very personal feeling about them: a designer and his creation re-united. But there is a humour to some of them too. Craig Johnston and his Predator football boot springs to mind, as well as Garrick Hamm and his loaf of Hovis.

There is a Blueprint for Life site, which gives a few nice examples of the style of this collection (although many from the NPG exhibition seem to be missing – notably Jonathan Ive and his iPod), but if you are going anywhere near Trafalgar Square before 23 March 2005 you might be interested in taking a look. There’s no cost to get in.