Link Survey

Several years ago, a design class I took in college convinced me underlining words for emphasis is a horrible idea. I turned off underlining of links in my web browser, and after a short adjustment period, found it made web pages more aesthetic and eye-pleasing.

I rarely use other people's computers, but when I do (and links are underlined) the difference is shocking. Link-heavy sites like The Washington Post are now almost unreadable.

So I have a few questions and a suggestion. Do you have your web browser set to underline links? If not, what prompted you to switch? If you do, try turning the feature off and go sans-undies for a day. Give yourself time to adjust and let me know if you like it better.

You can find the setting in most broswers by going to Tools->Options and then selecting "Fonts & Colors" (in Firefox, the best broswer out there) and Advanced->Browsing in IE.

You cannot enter unless you leave

That is the Zen of Design. And the design of Zen. Embodied by Oprah.com.



Only the crazy squirrel seeks the nut. Ommmmm...

The Modestly-Titled "Newsmap"

Newsmap is a media watcher's dream. Using Google News, the program tallies the number of news outlets reporting on one story, like Condoleeza Rice's decision to testify to the 9-11 commission. It then displays the headlines of the most popular stories in boxes whose sizes are determined by each story's relative popularity to other stories.

My explanation doesn't justify its elegance. It's a wonderful mix of content and design.

Web Page Mock-Up

I've been working on a mock-up of a web page as part of an application for a job. If the layout is skewed or messed-up on your computer, now would be a great time to tell me. Thanks.

What I Learned Today

You make a tint of a color by adding white to it.
You make a shade of a color by adding black.

Curse ye, HTML

As you can see, one of the entries in my list of referrers (a.k.a. "search engines + bordering-on-stalking Cyanotic Copy") is stretching the table column like the belly of a skinny man after a dinner at the 80s-themed restaurant Gut Busters ("Who ya gonna call...when your belly's past your balls?") Does anyone know a way to make text wrap in tables? Currently, I'm setting the table width as a percentage instead by a fixed amount, and I would like to keep it this way if possible.