Mac or PC? That seems to be the question people ask, when looking to buy a new computer. But does it really matter? Most Mac owners are loyal to a fault. Even suggesting to buy a Windows machine to them and they laugh at you! So I ask, what makes Mac so great? Now this is not a bash Apple article, I will also point out flaws of PCs.

The first thing that comes to mind when mentioning Apple is trendy. When you buy a Mac you are considered cool or stylish. It is hard to deny the look and feel of Macs, they just come off wih a very cool reputation. The all in one Macs are a really great machines. They can handle just about any graphics intense programs. The artistic community has fully embraced the Apple, most design companies primarily use Macs. Also the Apples have great music editing programs.

Some negatives about Apples are the fact that they don’t play nearly as many gmaes as a PC does. Sure your major titles are available for Mac, like WOW and Spore, but most are not. Also if you have programs that you use with your current PC, you will need to purchase new Apple versions of the programs, with programs like Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Office that can get expensive. Which leads me to the number one deterant from buying a Mac, price. For what you get for the price, you can usually buy a lesser known PC for hundreds less than the Mac.

Now PC’s have some great things as well. Now PC’s are usually not as stylish and trendy as the Mac, but what you like in style yo will make up in savings. On average most PC’s with compatable features of a Mac will be cheaper on average. Also PC’s are great gaming machines.

Most new PC’s come with Window’s Vista installed. Love or hate it, it is the newest operating system and it is what you are stuck with, and is much more secure than Window’s XP. But Macs are by far way more secure than any PCs. With a Mac you would not even really need to buy security software, PC’s on the other hand, you would be well advised to invest in one.

In the end, it really does not matter which one you purchase, as long as you get your money’s worth out of it, that is all that matters! Oh, and thankfully Microsoft pulled alll those Bill Gates and Seinfeld commercials!     

Recently we have started using Joomla for new sites. Joomla is a free CMS (Content Management System) that allows clients to control their own content. The days of clients calling and asking you to update certain pages to their sites are gone.

Joomla has many benefits to using this system. You can customize the look and create your own template. If you choose not to create your own template, you could always use one of the multiple templates available over the internet. Which is another great benefit of Joomla, the open source Joomla has a large user base with thousands of helpful sites to help you.

Compared to Drupal, which is another CMS, Joomla is much more customizable and user friendly.  The only down side is the learning curve for you and your clients. Once it is set up, you will have to take time to show the client how to use the system. What are your thoughts on Joomla?

Hello all! We were very busy this week trying to get the all new Joes Produce website up and running. Very nice site, with a lot of embedded Flash. The opening page also has videos to watch, with a drop down menu to select which video you would like. This is some newer coding I just recently learned.

All the videos are in WMV format, also been learning a lot of video stuff. As far as Joes Produce goes, it is basically two sites in one. When you click the catering button, it takes you to a separate site which is part of Joes Produce but different url, http://www.joesgourmetcatering.com.  

Every header you see was made separately. That’s right all 23 of them! UGH! But I feel the final result is nice. One thing I am really starting to learn is how to load images dynamically through XML, to lower the file sizes down. If anyone out there knows of great tutorials on this, let me know. Well that’s all for now, hopefully we will be launching another site this week Spas-Direct. Until then, see ya! 

Today I thought I would take time out and share with fellow designers and beginners on some of the great sites I use for tutorials and inspiration. One of the best things about being a web designer is all the resources and help that is readily available throughout the web, be it a forum or an online tutorial, you can find information on any subject you desire.

One of the best places for tutorials on just about anything from Photoshop to Flash is Tutorialized.com.  They also have great programming tutorials.

A more detailed site of just Flash tutorials is http://www.gotoandlearn.com. They have great up to date Flash tutorials and forums to help develop your Flash skills.

Another great site for everything Adobe is http://www.layersmagazine.com/. They offer great tutorials and a great podcast is also available.

Now every graphic designer needs fonts to choose from and sometimes they can get a little on the expensive side. http://www.1001freefonts.com/ is a great resource for free fonts.

These are just a few resources that are available, I will try to post more at a later date, but if there is other great sites you use, please feel free to share them us!