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Frédéric Delorme  //  Java/J2EE Expert
Technical Manager
Web Standard evangelizer

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design

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Jul 11 / 4:18am

Gnome-Do and Docky, or the user oriented interface

Logo for Gnome-Do, a simple gear on a light star purple background.
Logo for Docky, an anchor on ligth star blue background.

You know how you have some automated behaviour when you are working on a computer: how to open a file, how to launch any tool, etc...  So you know how Microsoft Windows contribute to open Computer to people, but also how it contributes to format "User" usage about User interface and behaviour !

So, in the Linux world, during years, the goal was to bring to Linux user a User Interface oriented free Operating System. And during the few 2 or 3 last years, big evolution are drop in the pipe of Gnome evolution. First tries were gnome-shell and gnome-zeitgheist. But these tools are not matue for People.
Screenshots?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=Screenshot-gnome-shell-overview.png
Gnome Shell, The new Gnome Desktop approach
So , Gnome Do and Docky are some of these beautiful tools design for easy life ! Gnome Do will enable you to launch any tools, docs, contacts just with one key shortcut and keying the first letters of the action you want to do!  Docky is another MacOSX Dock Icon clone. But a well integrated one for the Gnome Desktop.
So launching an application or accessing one of the last docuemnt you've just write have never been so easy !
Gnome Do
Launching an application :
ubuntu-gnome-do-1.png
Mail to one of your contact:
ubuntu-gnome-do-2.png
And just retreiving one of your Google Docs:
ubuntu-gnome-do-3.png
Anyway, you are able to configure any interaction between Gnome-DO and your desktop enviroment, thanks to numerous plugins already existing which are able to connect to all the main applications you use everyday.
ubuntu-gnome-do-preferences.png 
Docky
More as usual in our desktop, the docked toolbar at bottom screen is one of the most popular way to start an application. Docky is one of the most integrated to Gnome with a lot of customization for geeks :)
Very easy to use and configure, just drag and drop icon of applications you want to be able to include in the dock bar. 
Multiple skin exists for the Dock bar appearance, so just choose the one that's feat better to your own desire. 
And start apps !
ubuntu-gnome-docky.png
Gnome Docky - The Gnome Desktop Dock Bar by excellence !
And a lot of docklets (greffons in french) are available to enhanced your user experience, adding Weather, GMail state icon, Time, Battery life, Processor performance, and so on ...
Also exists Plugins (greffons in french language), to connect Docky to other application like liferay, Gajim, Rythmbox, etc...
Docklets preferences tab :
ubuntu-gnome-docky-prefs-docklets.png
Plugins preferences tab :
ubuntu-gnome-docky-prefs-plugins.png
So now, just Start Apps and enjoy ;)
Filed under  //  design   do   docky   gnome   ubuntu   ui   usability  

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Jun 9 / 5:37am

CSS: how to reset default value in a multi browsers scope ?

Already have to produce web page to public target ?  And by public i mean out of intranet or extranet of the world of enterprise, targetting any public.

Yes ?

So the first thing to do before creating a CSS styles sheet is to start from the same point for all browser. And as all CSS specification version didn't tell a word about what are the default values, all browser developers go with there own randomly choosen values ;)

A first solution
So, it's mandatory to reset these values to be sure that your CSS will have chance to produce the same visual result on all web client of the world, any OS, any browser.

The first technic is to reset individualy all html tags to some common values:

html, body, div, form, fieldset, legend, label {
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
}

table {
   border-collapse: collapse;
   border-spacing: 0;
}

th, td {
  text-align: left;
  vertical-align: top;
}

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, th, td, caption { font-weight:normal; }

img { border: 0; }


Quick and dirty ?
The second technic is to reset with a one big line :

* {
 
  vertical-align: baseline;
  font-weight: inherit;
  font-family: inherit;
  font-style: inherit;
  font-size: 100%;
  border: 0;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;

}


Thanks to "Carrer Blog : CSS Mini Reset" for this very fast solution covering 80% rules.

References
Other solutions exists :

Filed under  //  css   design   reset   web  

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Jun 9 / 5:06am

What is HTML5 ?

Thanks to Focus, we can have a nice view of what you get out of the box with HTML5.

Filed under  //  css   design   graphics   html   html5   schema   specifications  

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Apr 26 / 6:00am

HTML5 full demo story

http://apirocks.com/html5/html5.html#slide1

nothing more, just read/see/contemplate :)

Flash would have only some months to survive, after the "go live" of HTML5 ...

Filed under  //  design   html5   interactivity   presentation   web  

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Apr 6 / 3:52pm

Simple design with simple color and simple tools !

Yes, working as Web developer prevent me to be a good web designer. And sometime, I need focus on state of my knowledge about simple web languages as HTML and CSS.

This is my "State Of the Art"  about web design.  A tentative of design ;)

Comments are welcome.

Note: please, notate that red part at bottom is only for debug purpose ;)

Filed under  //  css   demo   design   html   js   web  

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Nov 30 / 2:33pm

Typography and the Web

Here is the most interresting presentation I've ever red on this hot subject: how to integrate types into your own web site or into your customer's website, without falling into the standard Verdana, MS Trebuchet, Tahoma, Serif and other fonts already installed, ready to use on each desktop computers ?

Parts of the answer are in the following sharepoint :

 

Filed under  //  design   font-faces   fonts   types   web  

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