So whats the hold up?

Yes I know, things have been quiet around here lately, but to be honest, I've been really busy. I haven't forgotten about my blog don't worry. I will be starting a new job soon, which I am extremely chuffed about, so once I get settled down there, the blog posts and other cool shizzle will continue!

SOAP: A great blogging initiative you should know about

So if you don't know what SOAP is (Scratch One Another Program), it's an initiative thought up by Easton Ellsworth from Know More Media. You sign up, and Easton will provide you with a blog to review. In return, your blog will go to someone else to review (and by Easton himself). That, in a nut-shell, is the general process.

Personally I think it's great. It's a sublime way to get some tips from fellow bloggers on your own blog, and to offer some constructive critique or helpful tips to a lucky blogger out there in the blogosphere. I reviewed Lisa Gate's site and provided her with quite an in-depth review of her blog. She was thrilled with my tips. Hopefully I will post my review here, on my blog shortly, if Lisa doesn't mind of course.

So if you've got some spare time, go check out the project and fill out the questionnaire. It won't take you long, and it will definitely be worth your while.

Google Reader crashing Firefox?

So it seems like I'm not the only one who has this problem. I have Google Reader open all day in one of my firefox tabs, but it's causing firefox to crash all day long, with the very informative "illegal operation" error. Thank goodness for firefox's little "restore your previous open tabs" feature, otherwise I would of moved to another browser by now.

Firefox is on thin ice actually. Apart from the random crashing (which I can deal with), it also seems to eat up system memory like crazy and the newer versions of firefox haven't really resolved this problem, which tons of people seem to be having.

Currently, I have 6 tabs open, Gmail, Blogger CP, Design-feed, Google Reader, a page with google search results and a random html website. Firefox is using 84mb of my precious ram. If I add another site to the list, this time a full on flash site, it jumps to 110mb. Crazy really, but it seems there isn't much you can do about it.

Yes I have tried Opera, but that too has its own flaws, like randomly refreshing the page before its fully loaded and seemingly limiting you to the amount of flash sites open in tabs you can run simultaneously.

I'm hoping the guys at GReader will sort out this crashing issue, they seem to be working on the site all the time which is refreshing to see. If anyone has any temporary fix's for the crashing problem (or the firefox memory leak) I'd love to hear them!

Andy Rutledge on web standards

I must say Andy sums it up really well in this article about web standards and quality. Here's an excerpt:

In spite of the widespread acceptance of Web standards by a specific segment of the design and development community, hosts of professionals – those out there right now creating the Web – are working in direct opposition to these standards. A significant reason for why this is happening and how those not working with Web standards justify their activity boils down, I believe, to something regrettably simple: nomenclature.

Read the rest of this well-written article here

3 top-notch online magazines you should be reading

MAGWERK has 4 superb online magazine's to choose from. In my opinion, Encore and Play Music Magazine are the ones worth reading. Here is some more info on each mag:

Encore:


Inside spread of one of the designers featured in Encore #30

Having just published its 30th issue, Encore magazine is jam packed with various creative related articles and designer showcases. Their main sections are Design, Film, Art and Photography - which basically covers the whole spectrum. All thrown together in a nifty flash interface which includes interactive ads.

I believe this interface will become extremely popular in the coming years as an effective publishing medium. It brings a fresh approach and experience to actually reading the magazine and makes it interesting.

PlayMusicMagazine


Index page - playmusicmagazine

Another magazine by MAGWERK. Covering most music genre's, playmusicmagazine is well written and well designed, providing loads of interactivity. Plenty of music snippets for you to listen to and I've actually found some good bands from reading this magazine. So it's definitely worth a visit.

ROYAL magazine


ROYAL's homepage

The Royal Magazine focuses on design, culture and capitalism. KDU (Keystone Design Union) are the guys behind the publication. KDU, for those out the loop, are a "Global Fraternal Creative Collective dedicated to creating and managing innovative design centric objects, brands and experiences." The publication features an array of creative elements and is an insanely tight product. Available in their online flash viewer or to download as a PDF.