My computer is dying.

Patrick Kalyanapu just released introversion3.0, and if I time this right, I'll beat all the major design portals in breaking the news...thanks, Patrick! It was definitely a long wait, but it sure was worth it. Looks awesome.


Unfortunately, my computer is freezing whenever I use his site...in fact, it's been acting quite erratic for several months now. I've tried all sorts of fixes (even re-installing the OS), and nothing seems to fix it. So...I'm gonna reformat the hard drive entirely.


I think I've backed up everything important, but I'm still holding out for a copy of Paintshop Pro. The copy we had at work has mysteriously disappeared, along with some other software...my boss is not happy. My mom kinda needs Photoshop for work, so she's willing to put up the money to buy it (yay!), but I think I'll gradually pay her back for it. Wow...I'll be one of like 3 people with a legit copy of Photoshop. Plus, there's a special offer at the UCD Bookstore: Adobe Web Collection (which includes Photoshop, GoLive, LiveMotion, and Illustrator) for only $370. Granted, that's a tidy sum of money, but considering that the package normally retails for $999, that's quite a deal. I don't particularily need GoLive or LiveMotion, but Photoshop and Illustrator for $370 is still a significant discount, even off of the student prices.


The only other thing that worries me about the reformat is DSL...I've done significant tweaking to get the fastest speed possible out of PacBell, and I'm hoping I'll be able to remember everything I did.


Whole lotta links: Jennie, Angela, and Brian all redesigned their blogs, and they all look good. Wow. Brian's is a tableless design...entirely CSS. Double wow.


trev has the best diaryland site I've ever seen. Lovely Flash work.


mark has a good series about making blogs more accessible to people with disabilities, without sacrificing aesthetic appeal.


Toby McGuire of DC Talk has a website for his solo venture. Awesome Flash work from tan270, a pretty funky-looking web firm.


Muse.Net: still not entirely sure how this works, but it sure sounds cool.


glorious day: minimalistic site with (somewhat) daily visual vignettes. looks nice.


IAMICON: strangely-titled site described as a visual representation of the author's life. Interesting.


Jakob Nielsen, who believes Flash is "99% Bad", probably would not like bionic systems: it takes over your entire screen. It spawns pop-up windows. It features cryptic navigation and lots of "unnecessary extras": animation, video, and sound. But boy does it look cool. Hehe. By the time I posted this, massive exposure has forced the site to temporarily shut down due to excessive bandwidth. Check back later.


Minimalist Web Project: for a guy who savors minimalist design like myself, this site is like a candy store: a listing of websites with minimalist designs. Incidentally, TheThousand.net was added to the listing a few hours ago. Thanks, Jarrod!


Naveed Usman: trippy. but lovely (ok, I've used that word WAY too much in this entry).


in8design: like the Flash work on this site...kinda similar to a look I'm starting to experiment with.


Big thanks to Bryan for the link-back.


So, I'm thinking about a major redesign, which I'd like finished by August 9th...TheThousand.net has been nominated for a Dotty Award, so having something up before the Evaluation Cycle would be nice. There are still issues with the current design that bug me (mostly related to usability), so I'd like to resolve those. I also want to integrate more Flash, improve my graphics skills, and hand-code the entire site...I'm working on three other sites right now, all hand-coded, and it's surprised me how easy it is to code an XHTML 1.0 Strict-compliant site. So look for a redesign soon, if I can find the time in my busy schedule to get around to it.