Archive for February, 2010
Photoshop’s 20th Anniversary
Posted in Design, on February 25th, 2010 by Carlos.
I missed the boat on this post by about 8 days, but I still felt it necessary to give recognition to the one piece of software that is responsible for jump starting my hobby/job/career. Before Photoshop I dabbled with Paint Shop Pro, and other shareware programs (anyone remember Neopaint for DOS?). The moment I started using Photoshop though, I was hooked for good.
Photoshop turned 20 on February 19th. I turned 30 almost a month before. I started using Photoshop in 1996 (version 4.0). I’ve therefore been using it for nearly half of my life. And boy have I been using it. What started as a obsession creating random patterns using the clouds, distort and of course, the lens flare filters (see above), evolved into professional use for manipulating photos, or designing websites. I still find time to use it for comedic purposes, one of Photoshop’s many hidden talents (see below – in case you aren’t familiar, those two are Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae of the Canadian Liberal Party). It truly is a versatile product that allows you to create pretty much anything under the sun.
Although today’s iteration of Photoshop is far from perfect (CS4 can be easily called bloatware), I still find that it is unmatched in its versatility and power. Just the other day, I gave Pixelmator another shot. It’s a beautifully designed graphics program for the Mac that looks stunning. Regardless of the shiny exterior, I still found it lacking in several departments (drop shadows need to be created manually, no CMYK support, etc.). I do hope Pixelmator and other competitors do step up to the plate to give Photoshop a run for its money, but they do have a way to go before more graphics pros make the jump. Maybe I’m just use to Photoshop in my workflow, but I don’t really see me dropping it cold turkey any time soon.
Adobe has put together a commemorative site celebrating Photoshop’s 20 years. They have a nifty timeline that walks you through the many iterations of one of history’s most celebrated pieces of software. Go check it out!
If you’re a Photoshop user, what version did you first use?
Google Apps to drop IE6 Support
Posted in Web, on February 2nd, 2010 by Carlos.
I received an email yesterday from Google Apps stating that as of March 1 2010, Google will begin to drop support for IE6 “as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers” starting with Google Docs suite and Google Sites editor. Later in 2010, Google Mail and Google Calendar will also drop support for the antiquated browsers. Google claims that it will be employing “faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5″ rendering older browsers useless.
I think it’s about time a major corporation such as Google is putting their foot down with support for browsers like IE6. Long known as the bane of every web designer and developer, IE6 still seems to have a chokehold on the Internet, even though its usage numbers are dwindling, As such, it is slowing down progress for the new technologies that make the Internet truly interactive, and perhaps more importantly, easier to develop for. Guiltily, I must admit that I even still insist that sites I design be IE6 friendly as you never know what browser a client or potential client is using. This announcement from Google, however, has me thinking that I will officially be dr0pping IE6 support as well. Given that it was released August 27, 2001 (according to Wikipedia), I think we are good to move on.
Do you still support IE6 for web projects, and if so why? Is it safer for interactive sites such as Google Apps to drop support for these browsers than perhaps a general information site?
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