A Website Business Game

On a gloomy day, seated behind the computer we see four-eyed Danny staring into a monitor. On the table is his rolled up degree that he just got but haven’t even had the time to frame it, let hang it somewhere in his room.

Poor spectacled Danny is hard at work finishing one of his latest freelance works that he knows after it’s done he’d have enough to start his own website design and development firm.

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WordPress Widgets Makes Blogging Easy

The news is a day old but for those left in the dark, the team that broght you WordPress and some other plugins; Automattic has released something new to the WordPress foray. WordPress users are now armed with widget capabilities. If you need a hand explaining what are widgets, it’s all there in good ol … Read more

Digitalmash Website Review

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these so time to get the old gears a cranking. Digitalmash is the portfolio of a fine Australian based designer; Rob. The website complies to website standards and  though it uses Flash, you know I’ve no complaints to the ones that entertain and at least take advantage of Flash.

The website follows a very monochromatic tone with strong black and grey hues. So if you’re looking for something cheerful to brighten you up, I suggest jumping right to Rob’s portfolio.

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Basics of Creating a Blog Theme

Darren of Problogger just posted an entry of How to Create a Blog Theme from Scratch so I thought why not take this small opportunity in sharing my process.
To be honest upfront, I just migrated over to WordPress. But since I’ve been designing some blogs for friends and for a Motorola client before, I thought why not discuss some of the basics in creating a blog theme. Whether or not it uses MovableType, WordPress or any other publishing engine.

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Unitless CSS line-height Property

The CSS line-height property helps you control the leading of your content. In plain English, it controls the spacing between each new line of your content. That also means that it affects your Paragraph spaces so do take note of that if you’ve assigned an individual margin value to them.

I’ve been always ranting at Low Yat forums members in Arts & Designs who’d like feedback or comment of their newly inspired website design because they don’t take into consideration the line-height of their content. Most of them leave it at default and I’d go, “I think you need to increase your line-height to improve readability.”

But discovering about uniltess values in line-height is cool!

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Is Sketching and Drawing Important to A Designer?

That’s what one of the members at Low Yat forums started asking. It might be a ridiculous question to ask designers but there are the exceptional few. The reason this members was asking his fellow companions is because he noticed in his course there isn’t a module for it.

There have been few replies in the thread and some commented yes, some said no, some said it depends on the field you’re doing and some say other things like;

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Websites Made Simple Official Website?

Mmmmppphhh phhhmmm mmm pbhhhtttt *removes gag*

What I meant to say is that we’ve finally released an official website for Websites Made Simple. *kicks Hawk’s nuts* I would’ve done it quicker if Hawk wasn’t busy pecking away troopers in his newly acquired Star Wars Empire at War. As you can see, me and Hawk are about a bird of a feather and we’re the ones working most of the projects.

If you’ve not yet seen the homepage or the official website (Is that what we’re calling it Hawk?) here’s the screenshot.

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XHTML : The Semantics Strikes Back

Hello everyone! I’m Hawk, some of you may have seen me commenting on Danny’s posts before. What? What happened to Danny? Well… urm… he’s tied and gagged in the basement at the moment and I’m taking over his blog >:D. I will also be auctioning him off to the highest bidder. Anyone want a new web designer slave? :D

On a more serious note, we have a problem when people start advocating xHTML/CSS implementations but fail to understand the idea behind it. Read on to find out what people are doing wrong.

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No, I do NOT wish to Unsubscribe

I was browsing 37signals blog; Signal vs Noise and I came across this in their latest entry Screens Around Town. It was a good laugh and smile placed on my face when seeing some of the funny screens with their accompanied comment. Have a look at “No, I do NOT wish to Unsubscribe” in their … Read more

Malaysia Website Industry Quick Tips

Once upon a forum thread over at Low Yat forums, we were discussing all about the business of websites in Malaysia. There were very informative points which I had tried to summarize into a mini Q & A here.

It might not be much but I hope it helps give an idea of what the industry is like here and probably help explain to others why some things are important or should be done.

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