Internet Explorer 6, one of the most hated browsers on the planet, has been mucking up the interubes and forcing programmers to bloat their code with unnecessary hacks for too long. Finally someone has declared open war, and is vowing to put an end to it’s reign of evil. Norwegian website Finn Labs is leading the charge and is asking others to join them in encouraging users to upgrade to IE7 or even better a compliance-friendly browser like Firefox. Will you join the ranks of code-soldiers who will stand up to this most evil web browser?
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After years of having to live with the very monochromatic website that I created for a class project The Bride’s Store finally got a bit of a refresh over the weekend. While this isn’t the complete overhaul that I have been working on (off and on) for over a year, it does encompass two very important features for the store. First is the Events list—this is what was the driving motivation behind the hasty update—the store hosts various events, sales, and promotions throughout the year and their original site didn’t have a good way to display this information. So, when considering a new design, I decided to bring this information front and center. Secondly is the obligatory Hours & Location section, with this came the addition of the Google Map. The map is vital simply because the store gets customers from all over the state, and sadly not everyone is familiar with the Columbus area.

Snarky venom-filled bloggers around the world have been waiting patiently for the W3C to approve the <sarcasm> tag for a long time. Since it has yet to—and likely will never—happen, it’s up to us to do it ourselves. So, today I took two minutes and created my very own sarcasm CSS rule that I can slap onto any bit of text that needs to seethe. Since I’m such a generous guy I thought I’d share this bit of code with you.


.sarcasm{
font-family: "Comic Sans MS", "Comic Sans", fantasy;
font-style: italic;
}


As you can see it’s just a class rule that you can drop into pretty much any text element. While checking this out you might ask, “Why Comic Sans?” Well, that is a two-point answer.

1. I was inspired by Andrew Faulkner’s post on Fadtastic from last May.
2. Comic Sans is the most bastardly font ever created, hacks love it, (most) pros loathe it. What better way to invoke a gut churning reaction than to use the Boy Wonder of typography, Comic Sans.

The wait is finally over, Photoshop Express is here. Photoshop Express is the new online Photo editing app from the kind folks over at Adobe. This web app is perfect for all of those people who don’t need the full featured version of Photoshop, but still want to play around with their photos. Here are a few of the features (via

• Includes tools for applying spot healing, distortions, sharpening/softening, color tweaks, image filters, and more
• Offers 2GB of storage space for storing images
• Supports tie-ins to Facebook, MySpace, and Picasa
• Runs in any browser on Mac, Windows, or Linux using the Flash Player (v9)
• Will include an AIR-based desktop version (useful for editing images offline) and printing services
• Will remain free, with paid service adding more functionality

A word of advice, if you sign up for an account give them a few minutes to get your confirmation email sent off, I’m sure they are mighty busy right now. Eventually, you’ll be able to check out some of my stuff at http://proj.photoshop.com.

I added a couple of pieces to the Gallery. First off in the Web Design section is Cascades Humane Society. These folk were great to work with, they had clear ideas of what they wanted, while still allowing me some creative freedom. Notice that sweet little puppy at the top of the page, who could that be other than Mister P.T. himself. Check out www.cascadeshumanesociety.org and learn what they are doing to help the animals in Jackson Michigan.

Next up, I’ve added two pieces to the Music Promotion section of the Gallery. The first is a graphic for the Lil’ Boosie & Webbie show coming up on June 30th. I took this as an opportunity to try out some fading and wear techniques. Then there is the graphic for the Marilyn Manson & Slayer show on August 16th. With this piece I wanted to play off of the dirty look of Slayers new album, plus I wanted to try something like Eduardo Recife over at Misprinted Type. Be on the look out for a quick tutorial on how I achieved the grunge effects on these two pieces, I’ve incorporated a couple different methods to get these done.

After much grumbling, begging, pleading and rolling around on the floor we finally got an upgrade! WOOTS!
Yesterday the creative department at work was all a flutter as IT came in and installed the latest version of the Adobe Creative Suite. I for one am super-stoked, I haven’t had much chance to break it in, but I will.
Shoot, enough writing, I’m gonna dive into all of Adobe’s spectacularness!