The Stairwell

This posting is from Hicksdesign, where Jon and Leigh Hicks have conveniently collected plugins to make Safari all the development tool that Firefox has become. You'll need to download a fresh beta of Safari (aka WebKit.app), but otherwise it's worth it, especially if you like Safari.

-- Update --
I'm no longer fond of Apple Spaces. It's a great idea, but until the bugs are worked out I've turned it off. It was switching when I didn't expect it too, despite my concerted efforts to assign specific apps in different combos, etc. Maybe they'll update it soon.
-Ted

Old Entry:
I've been using Apple Spaces for the past couple of weeks now, and it's really been a positive experience. Spaces allows you to create multiple desktops to group applications and their windows. It essentially emulates multiple monitors, allocating more desktop space to keep things in smaller piles. OS Shortcuts can also be assigned at the same time, but I tend to avoid those beyond the norms (i.e. save, open, close, cut, copy, paste, search, etc.) since I use so many inside the apps. Thank you Apple for this subtle yet powerful tool.

We love this tour poster! Its rich colors and strong outlines are reminiscent of Toulouse Letrec, but its typeface is undoubtedly modern and oh so smooth. It also helps that one of our team members is in the band - The Rempis Percussion Quartet' - featured herein. Described by Downbeat as "one talent deserving wider recognition," and also featured in All About Jazz they are now making the rounds in Europe and all of us here at Billups Design wish them well. If you don't have tickets to a Cubs or Sox game next week, you can catch them in Utrecht, Amsterdam, Krackow, Wroclaw, Gent, and Dresden. Knock 'em dead, travel safely and don't forget to bring us all back a tour t-shirt, guys.

Congratulations to everyone at Hyatt Corporation who contributed to the successful completion and launch of an all new Catering and Events web site system for properties all over the United States. The site is an easily updatable Flash-based application that can be customized for any property's offerings and venues. It features original music scores, FlashPaper menu viewers, Chef bios, and a multitude of fine photography. Thanks to KC, RN, TB, CS, PT and SM. A number of these sites will be going live in the coming weeks.

Here's a very interesting article from Matthew Inmann in SEOmoz.com. He sums up well what experienced web agencies have known for some time (see our White Papers), but we like how he interprets it and we agree with his conclusions.

How to Ruin a Web Design

Like many other major mail inbox providers are already doing, Yahoo! announced in February that their beta version of the Yahoo! Mail will block email images by default. This is important news to email marketers who rely on wide email broadcasts that contain imagery.

Of course, subscribers can still change the default to allow for images in emails, but most users don't change their settings unless they know something is wrong. This means that the most important thing email marketers must do is ensure their message and from information contains what they want their customers to understatnd. Relying only on an image to convey a sale, special or service could result in much poorer response rates.

For more on this important development, read the latest article by Ken Magill in Direct Magazine online.

I was thinking about how technology has removed a lot of the inefficiencies in life and how that applies to our plight as humans. The world markets, for example, are increasingly computerized and therefore less error exists for traders, bankers and analysts to take advantage of. So, in pursuit of efficiency, we create machines that increasingly remove the 'human' aspect in economics.

If you apply this approach to other sectors of society the results are somewhat mixed, but one universal truth emerges. We will never be satisfied with our human inability to match the efficiency of machines. So why do we try? Probably because the pursuit of perfection is exhilarating and can be quite lucrative.

So, what is the answer to the question of how will technology affect us in the future? The shortsighted answer might be that we'll extinct ourselves from this earth. I think we'll first arrive at another level of enlightenment where technology unobtrusively finds its place in our lives while we place more value on the human aspects of life, such as daydreaming. In fact, I think that's what lead to this blog entry ;-)

Congratulations to Hyatt Mumbai Rental Residences in Mumbai, India who recently have taken delivery of their new web site! Though they considered choosing an agency based in Mumbai, they instead chose to go 'offshore' to the U.S., Chicago and Billups Design. Now Hyatt Mumbai boasts a dynamic, usable, Hyatt-branded web site that allows them to market their properties and services to target audiences around the world. The new site features floor plan blueprints, an extensive interactive photography gallery, complete virtual tours of all rooms and facilities, and more. Thank you to everyone who helped complete this project successfully - UD, LB, CS, RN, SB, TB, VRX Studios and the entire team in India!

Hyatt Mumbai Rental Reesidences