Technorati

The basic idea is that Technorati is a tag based index of the blogosphere (blogs and blog media) that allows you to do tag based searches of topics you are looking for.Here's a really good link that tells you how Technorati can be intergrated into your blog/ workflow.
My ranking ( being the number of positions you are away from the number 1 ranking blog) on Technorati is currently at 2,102,322 and have an authority (being the number of blogs linking to my website) of 1.Here's a great interview with the founder and CEO of Technorati that explains what Technorati does

Cyanide and Happiness

Cyanide and Happiness website

Designing a good logo

It’s been said that art does not exist in a vacuum, and we are all influenced by what we have seen. Nowhere is this more true than on the web. So, before I talk about the actual process of designing Godbit, I need to give due credit for where I drew my branding inspiration. When I first started out, I knew I wanted this site to appeal to geeks, a demographic in which I include myself.

If you’re from my generation (or older), you’ll no doubt remember computers such as the Apple II. Cutting edge for their time, these dream machines had only a two-color monitor. Well, it was really more like one color: green, with the rest of the screen black. It was this type retro look I was considering, because I wanted the site to be about getting back to basics, past the snazzy designs and back to the foundations of good machine language: code.

This is also a reoccuring theme in the Matrix, which also drew its inspiration from the old console input of light text on black background. To the younger crowd, I knew the color scheme of Godbit would remind them more of this movie. I really liked the underlying theme of those films: Fighting the status quo. That is something that I also wanted to represent with Godbit, to raise the bar of coding standards beyond where the Church is at today. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood,” but against apathy, bureaucracy and mediocrity.

Read more at sonspring.com

Form + Content

The term aesthetics concerns our senses and our responses to an object. If something is aesthetically pleasing to you, it is pleasurable. Whatever the actual object in question, those studying aesthetics seek to understand why some things arouse positive reactions whereas others arouse negative ones. Why are we drawn to certain objects and repelled by others? The very question of how and why aesthetic experiences are created is itself also a subject of aesthetics
Form + Content mainly are to do with our visionary senses being; colour, shape, pattern, line, texture visual weight, balance, scale and a sense of movement.

A website that i feel has good aesthetics being a graphic designer is the designers republic. Mainly a typographical website that allows your to expolre the content and not merely read whats on the page. It has aspects of simplicity, minimalism (large forms), yet follows a simple structure and modern colour scheme. It's hard to grasp the simplicity so have a look at it.

On the other hand, changing minds is a blog/ website that i beleive to have bad aesthetics. As blog about bad website design, it has large areas of white space with text (a sensory overload) too much in my opinion. A website has the possibility to create unlimited number of pages, something changing minds fails to do. In it's defence though, it's an informative website and thats simply where it stops, but there is always the question of form vs. content?
With the aesthetics of my own blog, i have changed templates 5 or 6 times trying to find the balance between the elements i have added on page and the layout of the original templates. I settled with 'rounders' for it's legability between posts and sidebar (being a clear distinction). I decided to use subdued colours where no colour dominantes over another. For me they feel more fixed to the screen than white on black or brighter colours. In terms of typography, i have intentionally made limited differences between heading, post, date, sidebar, etc. There are subtle changes in the tone where dominent aspects are in a darker tone.
Websites i feel a good connection between aesthetics and content are taged under aesthetics in my flickr account with a description of why. My favourite being tree hugger. It shows a real connection between the content, layout and chosen colours.

RSS and XML

RSS (rich site summary) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, for example a blog. It allows you to stay easily informed on the latest content on the sites you are interested in, and in the process save time.
RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and is a markup language for documents containing structured information. It was designed to subscribe data. It was created to structure, store and send information.
Structured information contains both content (words, pictures, etc.) and some indication of what role that content plays (for example, content in a section heading has a different meaning from content in a footnote, which means something different than content in a figure caption or content in a database table, etc.). Almost all documents have some structure. XML was created so that richly structured documents could be used over the web. The only viable alternatives, HTML and SGML, are not practical for this purpose.
I decided to go with google reader on the recommedation by our lecturer, i also considered that we have a google gmail account where the reader is intergrated into your entire google account.

MPI104-2007 Assessment No.1 Post

Blogger

I have found the blogging process very interesting. I hated talking about myself so posting links to interesting websites was how I made it exciting. So far I have 15 posts. I tried to create a bold, minimal, eye catching blog, achieved through strong colours and by limiting the number of fonts used.

- I have multiple links in my sidebar
- I currently have 15 posts
- Most of my posts have links
- I have commented on some other people’s posts
- I have updated a profile
- I have tried many times to upload a picture to my profile unsuccessfully
- I have experimented with different templates
- I have experimented with fonts
- I have experimented a lot with colours ( high contrast)
- Some of my posts contain pictures
- All my posts have titles
- I have a description of my blog
- I have added a video bar, links bar
- I have posted a link to my Technorati
- Have tried to had a counter unsuccessfully

Del.icio.us

I tried to make my del.icio.us account interesting to me. For me to use the site it had to contain all the bookmarks I use on a regular basis, knowing I could access them anywhere. It’s also been a good way of networking websites between different users. Found this the most rewarding out of the three.

- I have saved around 70 bookmarks at this stage
- I have progressively saved more bookmarks
- Del.icio.us is an intergral part of my workflow
- Most bookmarks have descriptions
- Bookmarks have tags
- I have bundled tags
- I have subscribed to tags
-All appropriate bookmarks have MPI104-2007 tag
- I have joined a network
- I had problems trying to save links for others
- I have bookmarked my flickr home page
- I have bookmarked my blog homepage
- I have a del.icio.us post on my blog
- I have posted a working link to my del.icio.us post on the metablog
- Have currently do not know how to create a link roll on my blog



Flickr

I would not like to think I uploaded images onto flickr because I wanted to impress other users. I see it as a great way to store images online and meet other users with similar interests. I have used the tags: banksy, brody, design, family, golf, holiday, monogram, mpi1042007, party, photography, roaming, textures and tuncurry. I have been uploading pictures that properly reflect the state of mind I am in at the moment. Graphic Design is at the forefront, things that catch my eye (textures, monograms) and could be used at a later date. Also there are some more personal family and friend’s pictures. I have discovered an amazing Digital Manipulation Group, well worth a look.pixtricks

- I have uploaded about 80 photoes at this stage
- I have progressively uploaded more pictures
- All pictures have titles
- Some pictures have descriptions
- Some pictures have MIP104-2007 tag
- Pictures have tags other than MPI104-2007
- I have joined MPI104-2007 group
- I have pushed pictures to MPI104-2007 group
- I have contacts
- I have joined other groups
- I have nominated favourites
- I have commented on other user’s pictures
- I have a flickr profile
- I have flickr post on my blog
- I have posted working link to flickr post on metablog

Technorati

Here is a link to my Technorati page:
Technorati page