The last couple of weeks I have been going back and forth between Firefox and Safari as my default web browser, trying to appreciate their full-featured nature over the fact that they are both so sluggish in comparison to the lovely Chrome Beta. Thankfully, Google announced support for two of the things that have really kept me from making it my preferred choice ... Extensions and Bookmark Management.

Even though I have no plans of releasing these to the public, I thought you might enjoy seeing this fun little cross-platform project I have been working on. It is really just a fancy list for me to keep handy and remind me of what to work on most days. Not only does it come with a spiffy iPhone version (including a custom iPhone icon, of course), it now has an Adobe AIR version that ...

I don't know about you, but I've had a Google Wave account for more than a few weeks now and I still have yet to figure out what to do with it. I mean, I saw the amazing Developer Preview from the Google I/O event, but without any immediate collaborative needs or really any contacts already using Wave, this fantastic communication tool is just another inbox for me to check on every now and then.

What ...

Since my beloved Mighty Mouse has not been functioning as preferred (specifically, the top and side buttons were not being recognized) I have been eagerly anticipating Apple's Fall product update so that I could look into getting whatever the new iteration of the mouse might be. Today Apple announced the new Magic Mouse and while I am very excited to try one out in person, I was less excited about the fact that it is ...

All the unnecessary hatin' that has been happening lately toward the Flash platform has been getting out of hand and definitely on my nerves ... so I have decided to start animating small little nuggets of fun into some of my drawings here on the blog. If you are not among the misinformed and propaganda-gobbling masses, please enjoy! Of course, I am also adding a nice bit of accessibility for all the iPhone users, ...

One of my favorite Action Script-ers to follow, Felix Turner of AirTight Interactive, recently posted about all of the applications, plugins and resources he uses for Flash development. It is definitely a list worth checking out (as are many of the lists compiled by the great Smashing Magazine) and if nothing else, it gave me a reason to draw this nerdy guy, marking out all of the languages and frameworks I am either working with ...

I really think Adobe is heading down the wrong path with their no coding push of Catalyst. Didn't they learn anything from the WYSIWYG garbage that can be produced by Dreamweaver? I guess not. While there may be a small percentage of legitimate UX development planned for this app, I can already see it becoming another eyesore in the Adobe periodic table.

I have been get a crazy ton of things done at work today. Managed to resolve the "double contacts" issue I was seeing on my iPhone after the 3.0 upgrade, thanks in great part to this helpful article. I also used Terminal to enable the old skool but nifty "hot corner" indicators for a machine at work ... making it plenty easier to remember which corner of the display will start the screen saver.

Then I ...

Apple just released the newest installment of iPhone software sweetness ... Three dot O! If you haven't already, head over the iPhone website or open up iTunes and get it. During the install my phone needed a quick restore, so I had to learn how to put it in recovery mode ... good to know, for sure.

Also, since I always forget, here is a link on how remove the photo-blue lines from a digital scan. ...

If you haven't already, definitely check out AppleInsider's or TechCrunch's coverage of the sweet App Wall that developers at Apple made for the recent WWDC event.

Here are all the deets:

"What you're looking at:
Over 3,000 apps - and growing - are downloaded every minute from the App Store. This is a live feed showing the activity of 20,000 popular apps currently on the store. Every time a customer downloads an app, its icon lights up (5 ...

... well not really, but close enough. Thanks the non-exporting and defunct joy that is SimpleLog, I have been staring my eyes out at MySQL tables and gui blog entries. I am only 1/4 of the way thru, but no worries ... I will continue to digitally dilate my eyes until you can enjoy the wholeness that is the next release of this blog. Soon ... soon indeed.

… err, mouse.My trusty Apple Mighty Mouse hasn’t been connecting immediately/reliably the last few days, despite re-doing the Bluetooth settings several times. Turns out fresh batteries are key … one of my wonderfully green USB Cell batteries has been wonderfully lying to me about its charge and still needed more rest. A couple of new coppertops later and I am back in business … but, of course, not before I made fun of the mighty ...

In my ongoing attempt to fall more and more in love with the “One-Window Web Development” amazingness that is Panic’s Coda app, I have reached another yet milestone. I present to you the following Syntax Modes, re-colored to match the ever-popular Textmate “Twilight” theme:ActionScriptCSSHTMLJavascriptJSP-HTMLPHP-HTMLXMLCoda Coloring Theme - "Twlight"In case you are wondering, the font I am using is the delicious Inconsolata by Raph Levien.P.S. If anyone wants to send me a few example files of ...

For some reason or another, I ended up taking so much stuff with me to work today. I mean … I think I needed it all. Camera, lens, batteries, scanner, USB cables, sketchbook(s), art box, two books and on top of all that, my normal MacBook Pro backpack.Yeah … that seems about right. Let’s call it “being prepared” and leave all those “NERD!” comments at home, ‘kay? Thanks a bunch.

After Sitepoint showed us all how easy it is to add custom references to the "Books" section of Coda (using their excellent HTML and CSS references as examples), I began my search for even more handy code guides with which to fill out that big empty gray space at Command+6.

Jon Hicks had some good stuff to say, as did the Coda Google Group, but what really got me moving was when I found Ray Brown's ...

The last 48 hours or so, I have been chucking a whole pile of new web, logo, illustration and t-shirt projects at the Illustrative Portfolio section. Even took some time to rewrite the CodeIgniter PHP files to optimize their indexing and output. Now, instead of having to manually add each thumbnail and larger image reference by hand, I can simply upload new examples to specified folders and magically, new samples show up on the Portfolio ...

Secret Friend Society by DraStudio on ZooomrIn light of the recent Dra Studio re-design, I thought it might be fun to share some of my ruminations and recent thoughts about back-end content management systems and such that I saw as possible solutions for both the this site and the Illustrative. site, but for some reason or another, abandoned. I also wanted to share some of the more influential sites that I found inspiring me ...

Mac Help (uploaded by DRA Studio)I just realized today that I frequently forget the specific details and diagnosis steps I take when helping others with their Apple hardware and software woes. I guess after the issue is resolved, I just sub-consciously push all the particulars aside and move forward with life. This especially happens when the repair ends up being a typical simple solution. But today I also realized that I have, in the past, ...

Note: This is the second version of this post. Why, you might ask? Let's just say that staying up late, typing in a comfy cozy bed and feeling drowsy while waiting to talk to a friend on iChat aren't the best combination for blogging. At some point while typing in my sleep, I managed to lose the first version. Oh well.

So Christmas morning was most wonderful this year. Not only did we get to enjoy ...

Wanna know what your internet conneciton speed is? Give this nifty little guy a try. Nice interface and just plain fun. (http://www.speedtest.net)

Blogged with Flock

So in past couple of days I have found my way into a few nice Mac tips/improvements ... and now you can reap the benefits.

Wondering what all those arbitrarily-named processes showing up in Actvity Viewer are? No problem. Just do a Google search for "Activity Viewer [blank]" ... replacing the [blank] with the name of the process. Gets it every time.
Need a cheap replacement for Roxio's Toast Titanium? Check out the freeware, Burn. Simple ...

So, pretty sweet ... my big sis, Jessica, was named Agent of the Month with Geek Squad ... for the WHOLE company. Not too shabby. Below the fold I am posting part of her interview, since she's got some good words to say about client/customer interaction.

... let's make out!

Well, it looks like all of us MacBook-toting designer illustrators finally know the price of our new-found Intel speed goodness. Today on Terry White's excellent podcast, he previewed the new Acrobat 8 Professional and dropped the news that the big A is TODAY announcing the new Adobe Creative Suite 2.3, complete with Universal versions of all our favorite design apps. Is the .3 upgrade going to cost us? You betcha!

Wow! It's been awhile since I put anything here. Don't blame me ... the fault lies with that dang Illustrative. and all the bass-playing I have been doing. Despite my best efforts, I can only either stay productive and complete projects on time (which makes my clients love me) or blog, rss, draw, and socialize. Even if it is my dream to be a bass-playing, artist, designer, etc., etc., etc. ... I only have so ...

Looking for ways to get the most use out of Mac OS X Spotlight technology? Here is one of my favorites:

Backing up Files

Whenever I make a new backup CD, I use a great little application called Print Window to create a PDF folder list of the files on that CD. I do this with all of my backup CDs and in my Documents folder, I have a place for all those PDFs.

When it comes time ...