Itch Away blog

Yup, the old style is back.  Here’s my problem: I tire of an old design, get stuck into a complete redesign, run out of time, and then get sick of that too.

Anyway, it seemed a bit ridiculous that my site has been down for so long, so I’ve re-uploaded it, and it’ll just have to do while I finish work for several clients and attempt to get my practice in gear.  Then, maybe then, I’ll fashion my electroacres into something more aesthetically pleasing.  In the meantime, I’m going for functionality…

Link to origin.

Help break the record for downloads in 24 hours.

Support open source software which is more secure and robust because several million people share the code instead of hoarding it to develop MS BS dogshit. Enjoy more standards compliant browsing than you’ll ever get with IE, the worst browser in the world imaginable.  It’s incredible that 35% of web users are still on IE6, which is like wearing an eyepatch to play baseball.

Do yourself a favour here.  Boycott the blue E and give web developers and yourselves a break.

A hot dog in the shower reads the first paragraph (abridged) of Michael Joyce’s Twelve Blue (the original of which can be found here).

Well well.  No sooner had I clicked PUBLISH on yesterday’s post about How2 participation, and the first Public Figures submission for months falls into my inbox.

So check out Jillian Yamasawa’s B(u)y A Handkerchief, on your way to checking out all of the submissions. And why not submit one yourself.  No statues in your area? I don’t believe you.

Even in the 3 years I’ve webmastered How2, I’ve noticed more and more in the way of potential for interaction with some of its features. As of the past few issues, this is not solely possible through writing postcards; Jena Osman’s Public Figures work featured in Volume 3, Issue 1 is accepting ongoing submissions of work, four of which are now up and linked from the current issue.

In this issue, a new piece of work in the new media section – GilbertandGrape’s Lone Ranging Romance 2004-2008 –invites readers to embark on an audio-visual interactive hike, before plotting his or her own route for G&G, through a rather nifty Flash-based freehand drawing interface. Draw it, save it, and your route is saved with everyone else’s.

These pieces, as well as the ongoing postcards, are daring ventures. They rely on the participation of the readership to help them succeed in growing and becoming something unpredictable to the author. But they need you in order to achieve this.

Lone Ranging Romance 2004-2008 can be seen here.

Public Figures can be seen here.

View postcards here.

And pass on the word that with a little momentum, How2 can evolve and expand between issues…!

From the, well, half-arsed translative efforts of expensive Italian company, Lelli Kelly, whose shoes evidently will cause some kind of grotesque vomiting in your children:

The foot with the green zone is still in the ideal condition after walking with the special insole containing the Lelli Kelly LATEX FOAM ®, which absorbs respiration and turns it into gel.

Buyers beware.

Pretty much what Photoshop was made for.

It’s taken a while to come through, but the new issue is up. You’ll notice there’s been a considerable redesign of the site, which, from this issue, I’ve rebuilt from scratch. The clutter has been removed, the code is clean, valid XHTML and CSS (so it’ll work better), I think it looks better, and it allows the quality of the content to speak for itself and come through to the fore.

It’s nice to no longer be working in terms of other people’s designs and code — not a criticism to those responsible for the old design or programming, but the constructivist nature of the building across designers meant that the site was inefficient, unwieldy and out-of-date. Hopefully no more.

And I just hope nothing’s broken.

Check it out at http://www.how2journal.com