Even today IE6 is still in use by many computers. Help spread the word that IE6 is terrible and point ignorant users in the right direction. This isn’t a “spread firefox” campaign, at this point the web would prefer that users pick any new browser over the outdated IE6.

http://www.ie6nomore.com

Visit the website for copy and paste code that you can use to alert users of IE6 that its time for them to join the rest of the web and upgrade their browsing experience.

I felt the coupon cover should get your attention and make it very clear what is inside. A good amount of time was spent creating the Freebees mascot / logo. The intent was to create a jovial looking little bee. Ultimately, I like the resulting bee character - even if he does look overly enthusiastic about some coupons.

This bimonthly publication distributes 10,000 issues by collaborating with Papa John’s to include the magazine on the tops of pizza boxes and other traditional distribution methods. Its a tiny little thing too - about the size of an Iphone. See it for yourself.

Naturally, the skeptic in me needed to see proof. Sure enough, there was a photo of him sitting smugly behind his newly unwrapped Xbox.

“He probably bought it and took a photo of it to scam us.” I thought to myself.

After reading more, I discovered links to youtube videos of CNN, MSNBC, Fox, Wired and G4 reports about these “freebie” websites and how they work. More reading revealed that the process was quite simple.

1. Create an account
2. Sign up for one of their free trial offers from various big-name companies like Netflix, Blockbuster, Gamefly etc.
3. Keep or cancel your free subscription at the end of the trial period.
4. Get 9 others to sign up for a free trial too.

Well, hell. I’m convinced. So off I went, created an account - and signed up for the free stamps.com offer. What a great trial offer, you just download their software and enjoy the free postage printing service for a few weeks. A free xbox and stamps? What has this world come to?

Try it out yourself and send me a photo of you and your new Xbox.

Click to enlarge

I am rather unimpressed with it, he lacks emotion. Maybe I’m my own worst critic - but this illustration is far from finished. It definately does not have the polish that my previous Yoshi illustrations carried.

Click to enlarge

Is it the eyes? The shading? The lack of shading? Highlights? Shape? Back to the drawing board…

Upon the features not currently supported is MP3 support, and it only supports Actionscript up to version 7. So for now, you’ll have to make due with timeline based animations that aren’t so interactive. Thats fine by me, one step at a time.

click to enlarge

Love,
Yoshi, Dita, Chica

MPH Firmware Launcher is a great homebrew application that emulates the various firmware versions available for the PSP. The premise is simple. You download the update for the version you wish to use. In our case, its 2.0 - the one with the new browser and the fancy AVC video codec. You perform a “fake” update that basically decrypts the update and installs the files extracted from the volume onto your memory stick. Now you effectively have a 2.0 installation of Sony’s proprietary OS named XMB (Cross Media Bars) The MPH Firmware Launcher then lets you load that installed version from your memory stick - not your flash memory. Getting too technical? Ok, follow this tutorial and you will have no problem installing the firmware launcher.

For those worried about damaging their PSP, fear not. The process never touches your flash memory - the stuff that runs your PSP. The process does not upgrade your PSP to 2.0, so you don’t loose the ability to run other games and applications. Best of all, now we can use all the browsers available to PSP users to develop and debug websites and portals. I personally advocate developing for the much more competant NetFrontâ„¢ browser found on 2.0 PSP’s. Its CSS support is outstanding for a mobile device, allowing for CSS layouts. Comparitively, the other browsers cannot match up. CSS support is slim to none, with only basic support for html tags.

If you have a version 1.5 PSP and want a nice browser and the new AVC codec, give this a shot - its a great way to keep from upgrading your PSP and getting all the new functionality Sony is releasing with the newer firmwares.

*v2.0 is now able to run certain homebrew applications and games see http://www.fanjita.org for more details

http://hopperpress.com is project I have had the honor of working on in collaboration with All-Star Printing and Longbow Strategic Group. The Hopper Press project will hopefully serve as resource for printeries looking to green their processes, and for designers looking for green presses to run their jobs on. But why?

Printing green means a lot more than using recycled paper. Its about sustainability, its about the health and well-being of press operators, its about the whole circle. Many green printer practices both foster a better work place environment, and end up saving the printery money!

Do you have a favorite printery? Are they green? Are their employees happy and safe, or exposed to toxic ink fumes? Do they offer recycled paper alternatives? Do they offer environmentally-friendly inks? How energy-efficient are their machines? Have they set up a solvent recycling program?

If so, good for you! You are not only helping the environment, but creating safer, better workplaces for press operators and related staff. If not, inform yourself and start a working relationship with a printery that does!

The PSP User Agent

A user agent is simple how a browser identifies itself and the operating system running it. If you check your website statistics, you will probably see lines like:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)

Which simply tells us that this particular user was on a computer running Windows NT 5.1 (which we all know is Windows XP), running Internet Explorer 6.0. This information allows you to track and manage what user agents are visiting your website. Similarly, the PSP also identifies itself as:

Mozilla/4.0 (PSP (PlayStation Portable); 2.00)

Now that we know how to target anyone using the Playstation Portable web browser, what do we do with it?

Deployment

There are two methods for identifying a specific user agent, and subsequently feeding that agent content. Client-side methods typically change the content after the page has been parsed by the browser. Experience has found that the Netfrontâ„¢ does not handle modifying the DOM well, and you may have limited success with a client-side implementation. We already know the user agent, so we will use this as a condition for writing specific content to the page:

if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf('PlayStation Portable') != -1)
{
document.write('This content is only seen on a Sony PSP using the NetFrontâ„¢ browser');
}

The server-side method of deployment revoloves around the unique headers that the PSP sends when it requests documents. Both “http_x_psp_productcode” and “http_x_psp_browser” can be used to target the PSP only.

if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_PSP_BROWSER']))
{
echo('This content is only seen on a Sony PSP using the NetFrontâ„¢ browser');
}


These PHP snippets output some simple text only to a PlayStation Portable. You may have to add and modify as you see fit.