These are in no specific order!

TUAW.com: TUAW, or The Unofficial Apple Weblog is one of my favorite Apple-related blogs out there. Not only did they update the layout but they also updated the logo a lot.

TechCrunch.com: Most of you should know TechCrunch, a blog specifically aiming to bringing you the latest news about new Internet Companies and Products. Their design is very simplistic and gives more room for the content to be more important, the only design I do not like is the sidebar which at times seems overcrowded.

Twitter.com: Although I don’t visit the site itself too often, since I use Twitterrific to update my status, I still do use the site to follow certain people or when I get an email of a new follower. The guys behind twitter kept the same simplicity but refined and tweaked it to allow further expansion (tabs) and more customization in the future? It’s great.

Scribd.com: A very useful tool for embedding documents into your site, Scribd has come along way for a free and easy to use product. It’s only natural for the site to progress as well, their recent redesign shows a good progression.

DeviantArt.com: Granted I’m not the biggest fan of DeviantArt in the world, it did undergo a great redesign. Their new message center and customizable top-navigation sports ease of use combined with appealing visual aesthetics.

So there you have it, my top 5 (in no order) redesigns of 2008.

The colors are taken from my previous theme because they do go very well together. The structure and layout somewhat remained the same, though few unneeded items were removed for now, such as advertisements and recent posts/comments.

With the new design I have incorporated some of my social network accounts, such as Flickr and my Twitter account. The Twitter can be found at the very top with the text linkable to my twitter account, which I might change soon.

There are still a few things I need to work on, feedback would be appreciated.

Update: I will be updating WordPress today, so things might be buggy for a little while.

Update 2: Updated to WordPress, everything seems to be fine.

For my Senior Project Development I am working on Vine and restructuring it from the ground up. It’s being powered by a MySQL Database and uses extensive caching to provide the information in a more efficient way. It’s taking up most of my current time apart from work but so far it’s definitely looking good, and not only will it get a framework update (my code-word for back-end stuff), but it will also get a refresh in the design which will also support wide-screen monitors.

I have been toying with an idea for a new project but I’m not sure whether or not it will be successful, isn’t that the story for everything? Hopefully over the next few weeks I can flush out the idea into something substantial.

What are you working on?

The most recent update to Vine was the updated vine theatre for YouTube (obviously beta), where you can watch videos directly on Vine without having to navigate to YouTube.com. The only problem with some of the updates, visual or technical, is that I’ve been neglecting adding more topics, which is essential to the growth of Vine.

And this is where I come across a crossroad, how do I split up topics? Do I go into the niche and drill down, or do I keep to the surface? How many levels of categories should I support? These are some questions that I’ve been mulling over the past few days and have come to a conclusion: Add as many as I possibly can!

To do this, I will have to rework some of the back-end to support larger quantities of information, improvements such as caching data, fluid layout to support larger monitors and a way for me to add topics in a fast and easy way.

During these updates, Vine will be getting a refresh in design but still keep it’s simplicity! If you have suggestions for topics, let me know.

It was set to have a beta release early June but with some things not working on the production server (online), it has been delayed until all the bugs are ironed out for a beta release. Thankfully, I have a good friend from MeltingIce.net helping me out on some of the issues and optimizing the entire application.

Hopefully I will be able to have a release date soon. Keep your fingers crossed!

Apricot is aimed at people who want an easy way to setup a quick chat room that they can share with friends, family of work colleagues. Upon registration, Apricot will automatically setup the room for you with the correct name and from day one start a complete history of your chat room.

Everything can be found on the Apricot Home page. Account settings, chat room settings and even your room history. With an AJAX powered home page, your content is presented in fast, intuitive and easy to use interface.

I will give a more in-depth look into the workings of Apricot as launch date gets closer (June 12th), so be sure to check back regularly.

These .txt files are in no way available to the public unless they know the file name, which is randomly generated based on a few calculated numbers. The random folders they sit in is also protected from outside use, and the files are also not linked anywhere other than the current session.

Why am I talking about this? I just wanted to point out that privacy is a big issue surrounding personal data, such as task lists, notes and other information. Sure Orange doesn’t sit on a secure connection, but no information is sent to the server unless the export feature is being used.

Backups of all the list files do happen, this way if you remember the file number and need the list, it can be recovered. I haven’t created a tool for this so if you need a list, just contact me.

I also attended Google I/O this week and all I can say is that Google is definitely a company that’s doing things right. Their passion for the community is just awesome and really helps developers get their ideas into the real world.

I was fortunate to sit in on a few great sessions, the favorite being “The State of AJAX” hosted by Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, talking about how AJAX is being used and how JS libraries are becoming a great part of the JS community. (go jQuery). If you were unable to attend Google I/O, the opening Keynote, hosted by Vic Gundotra, is available on YouTube.

Have a good weekend.

Orgoo’s mail services supports IMAP and POP, so you’ll definitely be able to connect your email. It also allows importing of contacts from Yahoo Mail, GMail and AOL Mail. Though I don’t yet trust them enough to upload all my contacts to their server.

A few problems I have with Orgoo though, is that it’s not an encrypted connection. So the information you’re entering can be accessed by a malicious 3rd party (damn ‘em), so it’s up to you to trust the site or not. My other problem is the somewhat clunky interface, at times I need to click at least three times until I hit the correct spot (you’ll see in the video.) And just the general interface needs to be cleaned up a little and tightened.

I’ve recorded a short video of me going through Orgoo a little. If you want an invite, just comment on this page.

[ Watch Orgoo Beta Preview (.mov)]

So if you’re in San Francisco and will be attending Google I/O, let me know!

Everything seems to be normal so far, if you find any bugs please let me know.