Ever want to wear XRAY specs?

What would you see if you looked at your web page? Its skeleton? In this case, its CSS backbone.

If you edit or create your own style sheet, study other style sheets, or just wish you had started knowing what that was all about already, you must check this out.

XRAY

There's info about browser compatibility, but I can tell you it's seamless on today's Safari for the Mac.

See that XRAY button in the middle of the page? Drag it into your Bookmarks Bar. Yeah. Really. Then go to a page you want to XRAY. Pick any page, it really doesn't matter. Then click on that Bookmark Bar XRAY link.

A window appears. Follow the instructions. Suddenly you're in a world where code talks to you while showing you what it does.

Click the x in the upper right hand corner of the dialog box to come back to the world of the living.

Cal WebFiles: who knew this existed?

Say you have a client who for some [f... rustrating] reason can't access your department's FTP site (this has happened to me recently) — well, check this site out: webfiles.berkeley.edu.

Believe it or not, Cal WebFiles is hosted on campus, and is available to all students, faculty, and staff. Cal WebFiles provides web publishing, file storage, and file sharing.

To start using WebFiles, here's a quick tutorial:

(1) Create your own account.

(2) Upload a file you wish to share with your client.

• Click "Upload"


• Select "Number of files to upload" (at right)


• Choose file(s)


• Click "OK"

Note: There is no file size limit. (Well, within reason: Each user account receives 300MiB of secure online file storage space.)

(3) Send an email with link to file to your client.

• Check box next to file you want to send


• Click "Email Icon" in menu bar


• Select "Ticket"


• Click "Email"


• Address email and add any additional copy


• Send email to your client

See also:

• WebFiles FAQs


• WebFiles Tutorial

Google Office

via Macworld

No, I don't mean Google (verb) Office (direct object). I mean Google Office—like Google’s answer to Microsoft Office. Actually it’s called Google Docs & Spreadsheets BETA (catchy, right?) and you can read more about it at Macworld. I’ve played with this Google Documents & Spreadsheets BETA a little bit and it has some interesting features. If anyone wants to try editing a shared document remotely in real-time, give me a jingle at calixton@youknowwhere.edu.

Yes, it’s not really design-related but everyone’s just coming back from vacation so it might be a while before the “design” posts come back in full force.

(First July post!)

Google Maps sees all…

…in even greater detail.

This one’s probably old news by now, but in case you haven’t been checking the Interwebs lately, the latest cool/privacy-shatteringly-frightening tool to come from Google is Street View.

Street View is part of Google Maps, and before you can say “Oh yeah, I saw the satellite photo thing, like, a year ago” let me point out that Street View was just launched this week. And, before you can ask “Okay, smart guy, if Street View isn’t the satellite photo thing, then what is it?” let me provide you with two links:

• Goofy Google Tour of Street View
• Street View of Where I’m Blogging from

Reactions in the office have ranged from mildly amused to completely horrified to consumed with chafing and rage (though that may have nothing to do with Street View).

Last of the CS3 reviews?

Are these the last of the Macworld reviews of CS3 products? I’ve actually lost count. In any case, read up on Fireworks CS3 and Contribute CS3 for Mac OS X. (If you know of reviews on the Windows version, put ’em in the comments.)

Flash! CS3! Review!

Do you use Flash? Do you have an Intel Mac? Then maybe you’re interested in Macworld’s review of Flash CS3.

Actually, Flash CS3 is cross-platform… so there should be a review of the Windows version out there somewhere…

Ah, here’s one at CNET.

Okay, now we’re all fair and balanced.

You’ve heard of DreamWeaver…

…and there’s a review of Dreamweaver CS3 at Macworld. But are you familiar with Coda? I haven’t tried it out yet, but you can read up this “one-window Web development for Mac OS X” application at MacUser and Macworld.

Adobe InDesign CS3 Review

Just when you thought all I ever post is links to software reviews… here’s a link to Macworld’s InDesign CS3 software review. This goes along with my links to Macworld’s reviews of Photoshop CS3 and Bridge CS3.

Yup, blog-linking, that’s really what it’s all about.

Adobe CS3 Reviews

For those of you with the wherewithal to keep up with the pace of technology (in this case Adobe Creative Suite 3), Macworld has reviews on Photoshop CS3 and Bridge CS3. It’ll be a while before I personally get a hand on either one (I’m saving my pfennings for an Intel-based Mac) so reading about the new products’ ins-and-outs is as close as I’m going to get.

Use del.icio.us to save bookmarks

If you're not familiar with del.icio.us, browse to their site and check it out. It's a nifty way to save and access your bookmarks from any computer, anywhere. I find it to be incredibly useful. And if you're curious about what other pages are being stored you can view popular and recent bookmarks saved by everyone else.

Max out your Mac — Apple announces 8-core Mac Pros

If you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket and you’re in the market for a new Mac Pro then wait no more. You can now order an 8-core Mac Pro workstation. That’s two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running at 3.0GHz.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

You can still get measly quad-core Mac Pros, but why bother—you’ll have to suffer the jeers and taunts of those rich 8-core (oct-core?) bullies.

Read more from Apple, Macworld, and MacUser.