Although my graphic illustration skills range from crappy to mediocre, on occasion, I will surprise myself by creating something that looks cool. For the longest time, I used a program called Xara. I then switched to Illustrator when I got a discounted license. I have never really liked Illustrator, because although it is very powerful, the tools are not intuitive. Once you RTFM and figure it out, it seems obvious, but I have had to do it often enough now that I am fed-up and have decided to switch back to Xara.

Since I last used it (about two years ago), Xara has evolved signficantly and there are now a number of features that make web graphics amazingly easy to create. I am switching back. So long Illustrator.

Although I don't rent from BlockBuster, a news story on the D.C. NBC affiliate caught my eye. To stem the steady flow of customers to NetFlix, BlockBuster recently changed its late fee policy. Heavily publicized in a TV campaign, the ad clearly communicated the message that BlockBuster no longer charges late fees. Turns out that's only half the story.

If you don't return the movie within seven days, on the eighth day you own the movie. Your credit card is charged at the time. You can supposedly come into the store within 30 days and get back the money less a re-stocking fee.

What a scam!

 

Well, it's official. I am writing a book for Packt Publishing on DotNetNuke Module Development Techniques.

So what's up with Yahoo and MSN? Are their designers collaborating behind the scenes or are they just oblivious to the competition. Check-out the home pages (the category area). It is hard to believe that's coincidence, and if it is, someone is not doing their homework...

Fooling around with the Technorati API, I chanced upon Touchgraph. I know hyperbolic visualizations have been around for a while since PARC first published the concept, but Touchgraph is something else. I am amazed at the fluidity of the nodes. The TG GoogleBrowser gave me more information about my site than pages of standard Google results.

I have always been an avid follower of social networks and after reading Linked I became much more interested in scale free and social networks. Touchgraph makes me wonder if existing dating sites have it all wrong. I think the efficiency and accuracy of matchmaking can be greatly increased by combining social networks and visualization technology like Touchgraph. I may have to start a project to explore this.