Entries from July 2007 ↓

Mac OS X has many great features, and the next release of the operating system has many more that look to be amazing. One great thing about the current version, Tiger, is something called Finder Smart Folders.

Smart Folders appear in many Mac applications, from Apple Aperture to iTunes. They typically represent an automatic grouping or search of content based on a certain criteria set by the user. In iTunes, this can mean a smart “album” of music from the 1960’s and 1990’s. In Aperture, a smart “album” can mean photos that span the year 2006, have particular keywords assigned, and are from a certain area of the world. They can be as simple or as complex as the user wishes.

Smart folders in Mac OS X Tiger’s Finder are similar to those described above - they search various sources for particular content and display it in a grouped fashion. Continue reading to see how you can use Finder’s Smart Folders to find files that are up to 1GB is size on your drive in a few simple steps. Continue reading →

Today’s links are all about what it takes to setup your own website. Although this is a pretty high-level overview, these links should be helpful to point you in the right direction when you set out to create that award-winning website. (Admittedly, most of the links point to Mac applications - if there is a demand I can compile a list of Windows applications that perform similar functions.)

• First, you need an idea for a site design. Use Smashing Magazine to get great ideas on what other people and companies have done, and what is possible these days. It’s worth checking the Design Showcase section, as well as the Best of the Month list.
• With a design in mind, you need some content. What’s your site’s primary focus? Who is the intended audience? Questions like these will help you write content that suits your site. At the most basic level, a personal website should have a primary page with an introduction (index page), a page that describes you to the world (about me page), and some kind of contact page providing email links and/or address information. Company sites are similar, except they describe the company! Provide a good mix of text and graphic content to keep the site interesting to the visitor. You can add pages as you see fit - for example, showcase some of your photos using a viewer like Airtight Interactive’s SimpleViewer.
• Content in hand (er..on disk), you need to be able to create it. You can go old-skool and use a plain-text editor like TextMate, SubEthaEdit or BBEdit, or you can try a more user-friendly (ie: don’t have to write any HTML code if you don’t want to) tool such as Adobe Dreamweaver, Coda or RapidWeaver.
• By now, you should have yourself a well-designed website, complete with useful content. But you need somewhere to put it so that people other than yourself can see it! That is where hosting comes into play. A web host will “host” your web pages (for a fee) and serve them up to people who visit your website. Most hosting companies offer a basic plan that includes a domain name, but if you already have one you can usually do some simple configuration to associate your domain name with your host’s servers. Hosting companies like Dreamhost, Webserve.ca and Servage.net all offer introductory hosting plans for those starting out.
• Now that your website is live, wouldn’t it be nice to know who is visiting? You can add detailed statistics about your visitors by using Google Analytics. It’s a free service that offers very detailed information about your visitors, including who visited, from what part of the world, what pages they viewed and how long they stayed on your site!

Do you have any good tips on website creation? Share them in the comments!

The news today of another six dead Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan spells a sad day for the Canadian military, and Canada in general.   According to the National Post, the total number of soldiers killed since troops were deployed in Afghanistan is 66 - any death is too many.

In a related vein, I recently came across a blog hosted by the National Post Blogs site.  The blog recounts artist Richard Johnson’s experiences and efforts while working as a news combat artist in Afghanistan.  Combat art as news is a First World War tradition, and it’s one that seems to affect me more than regular photographs do.  The sketches seem more real, more human.  They fit really well with the written account of the blog, and are done with an amount of detail that instantly creates that personal link between you and the subject.  Johnson also sketches the locals, which provides an interesting view of the Afghan people.

The unique insight into the activities of our troops in Afghanistan provided by Kandahar Journal makes it well worth a read.