Posts from December 2005

• Doves vs. The Encore

  Dec 6 2005, 12:00 (+0000)

  I got to see Doves again in Manchester this evening, having missed them back in the spring. The show was very good as ever, but particularly great was their solution to the ever-mundane ‘encore problem’.

• The Legion of Ben

  Dec 8 2005, 23:14 (+0000)

  There’s a new group on Last.FM, it’s called The Legion of Ben and it’s for people whose name is also Ben.

• In advance of the best of 2005

  Dec 9 2005, 0:47 (+0000)

  2006 is just 23 days away, which means that all around the country thousands of people, big and small, are preparing for an onslaught of annual reviews.

• Christmas is here, then

  Dec 16 2005, 2:10 (+0000)

  Christmas has well and truly arrived at chateaux Ben. Being students, we’ll all be going home for Christmas-proper. To make the most of our time together then, the tree has been up for a few weeks, fairy lights surround the living room (all of which is actually quite pretty looking, if you ignore the wire tacks that’re holding them up). Unfortunately someone has stuck a godawful multi-coloured plastic ‘candle’ thing on the tele, but apparently it’s not really Christmas without some real tat. Also, the living room is covered in Roses chocolate wrappers, never have I seen £8 of chocolate devoured so fast.

• Are you searching for something?

  Dec 17 2005, 0:22 (+0000)

  I’ve been pillaging my red folder marked ‘redesign’ this evening. A portfolio which now documents at least a year of irregular, on-and-off sketching frenzies. I like the way the design has evolved on paper, and I’m reassured that on the whole I still like it (even if I can’t suss out how to balance the conflicting pulls of minimising my design, whilst cramming in all sorts of syndicated personal content).

• CSS3 Advanced Layout

  Dec 18 2005, 20:16 (+0000)

  Can you say “Grids”?

• Gaim 2.0

  Dec 19 2005, 2:13 (+0000)

  Good news for people still searching for an enjoyable IM experience on Windows and seething at all the Mac users with Adium. Gaim 2.0 is in beta 1 and it’s a grand improvement over the 1.x versions.

• Computers Suck

  Dec 28 2005, 23:17 (+0000)

  The internet is in the middle of a royal kick-up-the-arse as regards usability and accessibility. Bad sites are named and shamed, great design is celebrated. In all of this, we mustn’t forget the desktop; the desktop sucks too.

• Two Thousand & Five

  Dec 31 2005, 19:17 (+0000)

  It’s a review of the year, of course.