Technical design resources
Web sites and resources that specialise in the more technical aspects of design and management, such as network servers and studio management.
Sometimes being creative isn't enough. And whilst you may know your job inside out - whether that's pre-press, web design or whatever - it's always good to have some techie resources to fall back on.
This section is for professionals who need to network a design studio, troubleshoot pre-press problems, or even just locate some obscure printer driver software. The following sites have been useful for many people and we will be adding and reviewing more as time goes on. We hope you find them helpful.
It's good to talk!
Mac and Windows compatibility
Getting Macs and Windows PCs to talk to each other has not been a big issue for many years. Having said that, if you work in a mixed environment, then this site is invaluable. For the design professional sharing files with clients, working on mixed networks and Windows severs is part of every day life. This site is Design Talkboard's first point of call for any cross-platform compatibility issue.
Deadline approaching and your files won't print? Who you gonna call?
Postscript error troubleshooting
Make no mistake. If you have any involvement whatsoever in sending files off to be professionally printed, then you need this site. The Postscript error troubleshooting guide in itself is worth the visit. And if you've never had a Postscript error then you're either extremely lucky, or haven't pressed the print button enough. There are also useful sections on preparing PDF files for pre-press, dealing with fonts and information on graphic file formats. An invaluable site and highly recommended.
The safest computer operating system in the World is...
Server security survey
Although somewhat out of date now, a 12 month study undertaken by the mi2g Intelligence Unit revealed that the world's safest and most secure operating system is proving to be the open source platform of BSD (Berkley Software Distribution) - a type of Unix - and Apple's Mac OS X. The most breached 24/7 online computing environment in terms of manual hacker attacks overall, were computers running various types of Linux, with an increasing number of breeches. This was followed by Windows PCs, although the intrusion rate remained static. However, successful attacks against Mac OS X and BSD actually fell during the 12 month period.
The mi2g Intelligence Unit claim that, in 2004, the overall economic damage caused by hackers worldwide is estimated to have been between $103bn and $126bn. This does not include malware attacks through viruses, worms and trojans which account for an additional estimated damage of between $166bn and $202bn worldwide. Ouch!
Designing the web
Design principles for web development
The Web's founder, Tim Berners-Lee, presents some philosophical notes on the future direction of World Wide Web standards.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
The Register
The Register really is the first place of call for all things technical. Unusual in the technical world, in that it takes an approachable and irreverent look at IT news and issues. And anyone wanting to understand a bit more about why your system administrator is a bit grouchy for much of the time, could do worse than scan the archives of the Bastard Operator from Hell.
When in Rome..
... or anywhere else, for that matter
Google's directory of Cybercafes
For those of us that travel the world with our portable computer, this is an invaluable resource. This is Google's list of cybercafes in a number of countries around the world. Also worth checking out is, http://cybercaptive.com/, which is a massive resource for travellers who need to access the web and http://www.easyeverything.com, who list their European internet cafes.
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