The Daily Sucker

Submitter comments: This site wants to create video for businesses. Flash, all Flash. From the useless Flash Splash screen to a pop-up that takes over my entire 24-inch monitor for no good reason. Combined this with very strange navigation. The web designer loves it. I am sure that Danny Foxx loves it. As a prospect, I hate it.

Vincent Flanders’ comments: This site was predestined to use Flash. The site is about film and Flash is film on the web. That still doesn’t excuse the FlashSplash page and the Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN), which is unlike any MMN I’ve ever seen. If you mouse over the picture of the hand at the bottom of the picture, the phrase “contact us” comes hurling out. If you mouse over the middle of the picture , the word “blog” shows up and if you mouse over the top of the picture, the phrase “press & buzz” are displayed. Yeah, I knew it would do that.

Every other example of MMN I’ve ever seen only shows one link. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something else comes along and throws you for a loop. If you must use Flash navigation, at least be logical about it and make it menu-based.

Foxx Film Production

For those of you who don’t have a WYSIWYG web editor, you can download a beta of Microsoft Expression Web 2 and use it until July 1. It’s better to have a 74-day demo of Expression Web than a 30 day demo of Dreamweaver CS 3. It’s especially good since at Adobe you have to register and set up an account before you can download.

This link takes you to the Expression Web 2 Beta download page. There are a couple of issues with Expression Web that suck. The big issue is PHP support. Microsoft says:

Open up your PHP websites to the visual world of standards-based design by using advanced code editing features and effortless browser previewing. Microsoft Expression Web 2 enables you to preview PHP pages in your web browser without installing a separate development server or having to upload your website to a server. Just click the Preview in Browser button and you’re done.

This sounds really, really cool and it’s something I really wanted. Unfortunately, it isn’t true. You have to go to PHP.net and download files and the instructions Microsoft provides aren’t that helpful to a TechDork like me.

The second problem is you have to install the .NET Framework 3.5. Make sure you go to the Microsoft Update page first to get all the necessary updates before you download Expression Web. Then, I had to go back and download a huge update to Office 2007 — even though I’m running Office 2003 — before I could run the Expression Web 2.0 beta.

On the other hand, Microsoft Expression Web is a very cool editor and it’s better than Dreamweaver 8 I own (and the CS 3 beta I used for a month).

I’ve been looking for a brain-dead online tool to schedule committee meetings. I don’t need a full-fledged scheduling program and I can’t use Outlook because the people I contact are on a proprietary system. Fortunately, I’ve found what I’m looking for and it’s called Doodle and there’s no sign-up required. For a better description here’s the link at downloadsquad where I first read about it.

Doodle

Submitter comments: Maybe it’s too easy to make fun of a company that specializes in PowerPoint

Vincent Flanders’ comments: In this particular case, I’d have to agree. Can the text and the menu buttons be any smaller? Could the contrast be worse? (Actually, it could but you get my point.)

There are PowerPoint sites that are designed much better than this Swiss monstrosity. One that comes to mind is Beyond Bullet Points (BBP), which is based on the really excellent book of the same name. Is it just me or does BBP guy look like he’s the brother of the lead actor on the TV series Burn Notice?

PowerPoint Presentations