Journal
March 20, 2007 | Links
Google recently released the new customisable themes for Google Personalized Homepage. To use a new theme just click the little “select theme” link on the right of the screen.
The themes also update based upon your location (weather, time, and season all change) which is a very nice feature. I’ve never wanted a weather widget before, but I’ve got the bus stop theme running it looks great.
That’s another thing - the themes are lovely, they’re all very pastel and soothing but they also work very nicely and fit the Google style really well. I have noticed other google products being tweaked so that they look nicer/ more consistent recently and I really hope this trend continues.
This new skinning feature has actually gotten me interested in using the Personalized Homepage for something other than creating widgets for work (as seen in the screenshot 
). I have tried using it before …
March 15, 2007 | Links
I know I only mentioned it yesterday but I found some more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie footage last night and I had to share it as it’s making me more excited than ever! I think I will have to convince the girlfriend to go and see this one with me (which will no doubt require watching a costume drama in return).
You can see the original, higher quality, footage on the Comicbook Resources website (click on the manhole image) - or you can go for the grainy youtube version below.
Cowabunga dude (that one’s for Nic)
March 14, 2007 | Movies
I was recently contacted by a very nice lady at Warner Bros. asking whether I would like to run a competition to promote a film. Normally I just ignore this sort of thing but (not that it happens very often!) but being that it’s for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, I just had to say yes.
Like 300 (also from Warner Brothers) I have been excited about this film for some time now. I have loved the Ninja Turtles cartoon and toys, and now the new film is announced and it looks like it will be great fun. There is also a game to accompany the film which, based upon the limited time I’ve played it, is equally cool.
Unlike the first movie (technically there were 3, but the sequels don’t really count) the latest Ninja Turtles film is entirely computer generated which has given the producers …
Like Sin City before it, 300 is a movie based on a Frank Miller comic (which itself is based on a historical battle between Greek and Persian armies). And, like Sin City before it, the film makers spent a lot of time making sure the movie captured the essence of the comic - even making bits of the film emulate actual panels from the printed version.
300 is a film I have been looking forward to for some time now - in fact ever since the first trailer - and it’s released soon. Hoorah! You can see more comparisons between comic and film on Flickr.
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March 13, 2007 | Links
Jakob Neilsen is well known (amongst web designers) for his usability studies, and website - and he’s recently compiled a list of usability bloopers often made in movies.
Break into a company — possibly in a foreign country or on an alien planet — and step up to the computer. How long does it take you to figure out the UI and use the new applications for the first time? Less than a minute if you’re a movie star.
Naturally Jakob, being a formal writer, makes what could have been an amusing post quite formal, but it’s still an interesting read.
I posted the applications I install when I get a new computer the other day, and it got some interesting comments so I thought I would post the Firefox extensions I use as well. Many blogs have this type of list but I’ve never felt the need to write one before. I’m hoping that the comments will help me find other useful extensions.
A lot of the extensions I use have become second nature now and if I install Firefox on a new computer they all get installed as standard. Some of them are well known but there are a few there that you may not have heard of/ used. I also have slightly different extensions at home and at work aswell, but the ones below are on all my computers.
Binary Moon
Seths Puzzle Boxes
Bubble Bomb
Gun Wing
Rocket Boards