One of my goals for 2009 was to become more proficient at web design on the whole. And I have made strides in the last few months, but I’m not in a position yet to be happy with my work. A few of you may have noticed that for the last couple of weeks, the design of the site did change.

In that case, it was my own design. However, I wasn’t satisfied with final version, so I pulled it. I learnt a lot about the design process and have taken a lot away from it. But the end result just wasn’t good enough. It was a mistake to put it up there, it didn’t make me feel proud of my content and nor did it really inspire me to create something new.

So for now, I’m going to be using a WordPress theme that I purchased off Theme Forest – a great resouce for various website templates. Derek Herman has created a beautiful theme that makes great use of large text. You may find it a little overwhelming and first. But trust me, you’ll soon warm up to it.

One thing to bear in mind, is that I’ve decided to step back from link list entries for now. I’d really like this place to be somewhere where people come to read articles rather than links specifically. And due to this, posts that were originally asides before the new design, will look just like regular posts.

Any anyways, it seems all the cool kids are using Tumblr, so maybe I’ll jump on the bandwagon at some point.

Furthermore, there are still comments. Although, I think it’s great that if you have something to say in response to something I’ve written, it’s most of the time a great idea to publish your thoughts on your own terms. I understand that the convenience of a comment is what a lot of people are looking for.

So, if you’re reading with an RSS reader, come on round, and take a look. I’ve rewritten my very uninteresting Colophon and just tidied up a few elements of the site. If you see a bug or two, please drop me a line.

I’m finally back from my trip to the British Virgin Islands, it’s kind of bitter sweet in many ways. I loved it there and would have easily stayed for longer if the opportunity was there. On the other hand, however, it’s good to be home. After all, the internet connections I managed to pick up were less than reliable.

One thing that I noticed when traveling around the islands is just how cut off one can be. There were islands that people seemed to have spent their entire lives on never venturing off, for instance, one island we came across had several abandoned houses and a shocking amount of graves on the island – a lot of them child size. These inhabitants most likely lived with no knowledge of what is going on outside their little world. A war could have been on and I bet they’d never have known.

Anyways, on a slightly lighter note:

Even though I managed to get some access to the internet, I managed to miss a lot. Here are a few things that caught my eye in the interim period.

MacWorld 2009 is Apple’s Last -
Now that they’ve done it, it makes a lot of sense to me. As Andy Inhatko said; “There’s absolutely nothing in it for Apple”. It seemed like a bit of a hard out though. I would presume that as time went on they would slowly decrease the amount they had to do with the show. Apple don’t like not being in control. From what I’ve heard there was a lot of times were Apple and IDG just didn’t see eye to eye.

As for Steve, don’t look into it any further than Apple’s efforts to separate him from the company a bit more.

WordPress 2.7 was released -
OK, maybe it happened slightly before I left, but still; I’ve had a little time to play around with it and so far it seems to be doing the job. The interface changes are welcome, and building in automatic upgrade and plug-in installation was a smart move. For the next version however, I think that if themes became installable from within WordPress, it would make a lot of people, including myself, happy.

iPlayer is now available for the Mac -
It’s been a long time coming. It should have been there from the start.

Google Chrome 1.0 -
I’m disappointed, of course, that the Mac version seems to have taken the back seat. That said, it shows how keen Google are to get Chrome a strong user base. I would expect that in the long run however, a lot more of the Chrome users will be on the Mac rather than the PC – they just need to get it out there.

MacHeist starts giving tree promotion –
I’ve only ever bought Mac promotions from MacHeist. Why? Because nearly all of the apps they ever release in a package are worth the money, unlike some which have a couple that stand out. This year for the festive season they’re giving away some applications, check out the site on the 25th for all of the apps.

Is there anything else I should have included in the list? Leave a comment, other than that, Merry Christmas.