June 26, 2006

[GUI] Accessible Forms

An other great article from "A list Apart" about how to make pretty accessible forms.

What I like in this Article is the separation between XHTML and CSS. It's very difficult to make pretty forms, accessible without tables.

There's a good introduction about accessible forms from particletree: "10 Tips To A Better Form" This article make me also thinks about experiments of LukeW "Web Application Form Design"

[Management] Web Team Manpower

Here is a really interesting article made by "A List Apart" about "How to Plan Manpower on a Web Team". The goal is to calculate scales of a given website in three dimension: size, complexity and level of activity.

Staffing depends on management buy-in
Many managers simply don’t understand why some website require a substantial maintenance staff—and this can lead to chronic understaffing. Overcoming this attitude is among the greatest challenges to be faced by a web team; with luck, the principles outlined in this article will help.

June 25, 2006

[Marketing] Strategies that work best ?

This is an interesting article from SitePoint about the way to determine the best marketing strategies.



Take a look at the professionals you’ve hired recently, and figure out how you ended up hiring them.

I agree with this article. I'm not marketer but I think that you must be in the mind of your target to find the best marketing solution. A web developer will not watch the same source of information than a designer. So to hire him you must target what he watch.

[GUI] 3D Desktop

Thanks to Fred Cavazaa talking about a great 3D Desktop experiment from Toronto University. I think one things is missing: the concept of folders to manage stacks.

When would it be available for Windows ?

June 23, 2006

[Software] My favorite Windows XP SP2 Install

Even if I have a license of Windows XP, when I install my computer I don't use it. There is too much things, I don't need, that consume too much memory of my computer. The default setup of XP isn't very usefull for geek.

The best version I found is "Windows XP SP2 Strip to the Bone Edition". This version can found on the net. It is very small and light weight. It consume very few memory and is really stable.

There's only a little issue: The default keyboard language is english. To correct this you will have to copy the .dll language file (French is kbdfr.dll) and update windows registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layouts\0000040C] "Layout File"="KBDFR.DLL" "Layout Text"="Français" "Layout Display Name"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\input.dll,-5010"

June 22, 2006

[WebTools] Too many online services !

Online services are one the most powerfull invention of the Web. All datas are now stored and backup online. But sometimes it's difficult to track and remember all subscribed services. There is too many !

Here is a list of all online services I'm using:

Online Office

Name Description
GMail Manage mails and contacts
Google Calendar Manage and share Calendar
Google Spreadsheet Manage and share Spreadsheet
Flickr Manage and share photos.
Google Web Albums New service to replace Flickr.
Google Writely Manage and share Word doc

Online Website

Name Description
Blogger Simple but effective blog manager
Google Page Creator Create really simple webpage
Google Analytics Website statistics analyser
Google Sitemap Optimise and monitor website
Google AdSense Manage Ads and Banner to earn money

Online WebTools

Name Description
Meteo French meteo channel
TV Guide French TV Guide
Google Translate Translation French/English
Google Maps Mapping and Navigation
Pandora Smart radio player
AlloCine French theater guide
ColliPoste French poste (like Fedex)
Froogle Whish List

Online Software

Name Description
Google Talk Jabber Messenger
Google Desktop Search and links between desktop and web

[Software] My favorite Firefox Extensions

When I setup a new computer I always install Firefox with my favorite Extensions. Here is a list of usefull ones.


Bookmarking

My bookmarks are stored in del.icio.us, organised by tags and bundles. Foxilicious is a very cool extension to update local bookmarks. The others helps presentation and management.

Name Description
Foxylicious Synchronize bookmarks with del.icio.us
2 Pane Bookmarks Split bookmark pane
Del.icio.us Quick del.icio.us bookmark
Google Browser Sync Synchronize all Firefox settings
AutoMarks Autocomplete search with bookmarks

No adds and banners

Extensions to remove Adds and Banners.

Name Description
Adblock Plus Get rid of ads and banners
AdBlock Filterset.G Automatic AdBlock blacklist update

Developers

Usefull web developers extension.

Name Description
Web Developer Usefull DOM introspection toolbar
FireBug CSS and JavaScript debugger

Misc

Miscelanous very cool extensions.

Name Description
Fission Combines address and progress bar
Gmail File Space Store files on GMail account
DragDropUpload Directly drop files into attachment boxes
IE View View current page in IE
Bug Me Not Bypass compulsory web registration
GooglePreview Thumbnail of google results
FireFTP FTP Client